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Lawyers in the House with Montlick - Your Legal Podcast
049 Beware of Case Runners

049 Beware of Case Runners

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Ellis Liu, Esq.

This might be the most important episode we’ve done yet.

Have you been injured in an accident and suddenly your phone is buzzing constantly with texts and calls from unknown numbers, promising you money or legal representation?

This is called case running, and it’s both ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL. And unfortunately, it happens ALL. THE. TIME. (It even happened to our host Veronica!)

Don’t be victimized again after your accident — make sure you know the signs of a law firm using runners to get your business.

Montlick attorney Ellis Liu walks you through the signs that you’re being swindled by a crooked lawyer, and what you can do to ensure that you’re using a trusted firm to get you the money you deserve.

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The purpose of this show is to provide general information about the law. Our guests will not provide any individualized legal advice. If you have a personal situation and need legal advice, contact us for your free legal consultation with a Montlick attorney.

Topics Discussed on the Podcast

Read the Episode Transcript

00:05	ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Lawyers in the House. With Montlick. Wish you had a lawyer in the family? Now you do. Here’s your host. Veronica Waters. VERONICA: Welcome to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters. So glad to have you back here with us for another special episode this week. And make sure that you tell your friends, yes, it’s time.
00:30	VERONICA: Lawyers in the House with Montlick is on, turn on WSB right now. We’ve got another fantastic episode for you. Sort of going behind the scenes and really breaking down something that is much ballyhooed and often much times false about what personal injury law is all about. All right, let’s start off with a story. I want you to imagine yourself at home one evening. You’re done with work. You are maybe fixing something to eat or you’re relaxing in front of the TV, maybe sipping on your favorite beverage.
01:03	VERONICA: Chit chatting with somebody on the phone. Pretty chill evening, right? And then you get a phone call. And someone on the other end is telling you, your loved one has been in a car crash. And it’s bad. The voice on the other end of that phone is not your loved one. It’s someone telling you that your loved one is now going to the hospital and is going to be fighting for their life. Imagine the feelings that go through you.
01:34	VERONICA: Imagine the grief if your loved one doesn’t make it. Word gets out. Friends, family, the calls come through. The visits come through. Everyone wants to be there for you because they know and like and love and respect you and your family. And they understand what this loss is all about. This vigil stretches long into the night. And maybe around one, 1:30 in the morning, you’re thinking, here’s another doorbell ring with someone offering me comfort.
02:02	VERONICA: Flowers or food, so many people have come by to help me. And instead at the door, is a private investigator. Who’s coming to say, hey, I heard somebody you know was in a car accident. How about if I sign you up with a lawyer? If you can believe that, that actually happened in South Georgia several years ago, and police in that county cracked down on them because that is the process of what is called running cases.
02:33	VERONICA: Those are the people that you hear about called ambulance chasers. And we’re going to talk today on Lawyers in the House with Montlick about what ambulance chasing is, what running cases is, why it’s against the law here in Georgia, and what you should do if you ever encounter it. To talk about this today, we have another fabulous Montlick injury attorney in the House with us today. And he is one of our favorite repeat guests. His name is Ellis Liu and he hails from Cobb County, graduated from Emory Law School after getting his degree… undergrad at the University of Georgia.
03:08	VERONICA: Now, if you look up Ellis’ bio, he will be smiling on the page and it will say that he distinguished himself early in his law career by being named young lawyer of the year by the Atlanta bar association, an Atlanta’s who’s who, 30 under 30 by the Atlanta business chronicle, and a rising star by super lawyers for several years in a row. But what you may not know about Ellis is that he was also someone who worked on every level of government.
03:38	VERONICA: And I’ve got to find out more about that. Tell me about that, Ellis. ELLIS: Sure, Veronica, and thanks for having me back again. VERONICA: Absolutely. ELLIS: You know, in Georgia, I’ve worked as a law student and after law school in every branch of the government: the executive branch, the legislature, the judiciary. So, I’ve got a pretty well-rounded understanding of how our government works, how the sausage is made. VERONICA: How the sausage is made. And in fact, I believe that you were instrumental in actually getting some laws passed, or at least one law passed here in Georgia?
04:06	ELLIS: Yeah, in law school, we did the Barton Child… center for children. And we drafted and lobbied for a law that protected kids from childhood obscenity laws. VERONICA: Wow, what was that process like and what did you learn about yourself in that time? ELLIS: The process was enlightening. We went down the first we had to draft the law, put it on paper, and then we got it in the Congress people’s hands. We went down to Congress to lobby with individual congressmen and also to testify before Committee.
04:39	ELLIS: Very rewarding process. VERONICA: Very rewarding? Did you find yourself proud of the work that you had done? Did you learn anything about yourself in that time? ELLIS: Oh yeah, it was great. The team that we worked with was very professional, very smart people. So, I really enjoyed it. VERONICA: Awesome. Now, you have also been hailed… on the show once before… as when I think I told people that you were Mr. Pope High School.
05:11	VERONICA: So, you’ve been high achieving since you were a teenager. ELLIS: You know what, I peaked early. VERONICA: I disagree. I think you’ve just been getting better with time. ELLIS: Well, thanks. VERONICA: And little-known fact about Ellis, he was also the mascot at Pope High. Is that right? ELLIS: Yep. VERONICA: Am I telling all the secrets? ELLIS: Yeah, here they come. VERONICA: Okay, what is the Pope High mascot, actually? ELLIS: It is the Greyhound. VERONICA: The Greyhound. Okay, so did you dress up in a Greyhound costume? ELLIS: I sure did. It’s the best I’ve ever looked. My best outfit.
05:38	VERONICA: My favorite team, AFC Richmond soccer team… Fictional, of course. They have greyhound as the mascot. So, go greyhounds. All right. Thank you so much for being in the House with us, Ellis Liu, Montlick injury attorney. This is Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. We’re talking about running cases today. Ellis, this is something that we talked about in the very first episode of our show.
06:07	VERONICA: What in the heck is running cases? Let’s remind everybody. ELLIS: You know, the term runner, chaser, capper – it essentially refers to anybody who solicits a potential client illegally. There are laws that protect people from these predatory practices, just like any other type of consumer protection law.
06:32	ELLIS: This is designed to protect people, just like your anecdote at the beginning about somebody who has gone through a tragedy, who is vulnerable, who is overwhelmed, and then they are contacted randomly by somebody they don’t know who may be offering legal services. That is not only unethical, but also it’s illegal. You can go to jail for up to ten years for it. It is bad. VERONICA: Now, who are these people who are doing this?
07:03	VERONICA: The story that I told, which happened in South Georgia, these were some private investigators who were working for a law firm. But who else might we see actually doing this? ELLIS: Sure. Sometimes it can be employees of a law firm, but often the runner isn’t actually somebody directly employed by the law firm. The law firm pays them, but the runner could be just a… it could be anybody who’s involved in any sort of… any sort of injury incident, for example, let’s start at the top.
07:35	ELLIS: When you get in a car crash, who do you call first? 9-1-1. And you talk to a 9-1-1 operator. That 9-1-1 operator dispatches it over the public radio to their officers, now we have… there’s technology that allows lay citizens to tap into that radio. And they’re able to listen in to car crashes. These people might just immediately get in their cars and drive out to the scene because they know if they can sign up a case, they can make money.
08:06	ELLIS: Who shows up to the scene immediately? Police show up to the scene, firefighters, EMS. Tow truck drivers show up to the scene, and then once you get in the ambulance and you get to the hospital, there are employees at the hospital. So, and I’m not saying… look, to be clear, I’m not saying that every 9-1-1 operator down to hospital employee is a runner. VERONICA: Yeah. Or even most of them. ELLIS: Right, not at all. Not at all.
08:30	ELLIS: I’m just trying to point out where you may be intercepted by somebody who could be working a side hustle for a law firm. VERONICA: I will say that, though, you’re not off the mark, because in New York; they’ve had a couple of huge federal cases out of the southern district in which they found that some of those very people that you were naming: 9-1-1 operators, police officers, people who were otherwise in public safety, people who got a hold of accident reports, and even went beyond that to people who were in insurance and who were in the medical field.
09:02	VERONICA: A huge conspiracy with a whole bunch… with dozens of indicted people for doing exactly that. Selling accident reports to attorneys and getting kickbacks for it. It was huge. And the numbers were in the millions. This is, I mean, this is not chump change that we’re talking about here.
09:31	ELLIS: And in Georgia, the law is very clear. For repeat offenses, you could go to jail for up to ten years with a fine of up to $100,000. It’s serious here. VERONICA: It is serious. We have seen some examples of people who have been in the thick of things when you think they’re there to help you and maybe they’re not. Now, let’s talk about who a runner is not. I know a lot of attorneys. Am I considered a runner if a friend of mine gets hurt, and I say, “Hey, I got this great guy I know named Ellis.
10:04	VERONICA: “I want you to give him a call over at Montlick.” Is that… am I being a runner then? ELLIS: Of course not. If you’re just making a recommendation to a friend, that’s not running. Running… more specifically, what you’re looking for is the key term random. Random person that you don’t know coming up to you asking if you need a lawyer. Somebody that you haven’t contacted yourself, you haven’t reached out to them, but they’re coming to you unsolicited.
10:36	ELLIS: And, you know, this practice is so pervasive. We talked about maybe some sort of involved actor, like a 9-1-1 operator, or a responder to the police. VERONICA: Tow truck driver, maybe. ELLIS: But also, there could be completely random people who are not involved. So, for example, you get in a car crash, you’re on the side of the road. You see the police man, you see the EMS, you see fire trucks.
11:07	ELLIS: And then you just see some random plain clothes person approach you. This person’s not involved in the emergency response. They’re not working the scene. They’re just some random person who’s come off the street and they’re pushing… they’re pushing a business card in your hand. They’re encouraging you to call this specific lawyer. Or you’re in the hospital. You’re in the waiting room. And again, some random person. They park in waiting rooms. That is where they hang out.
11:36	ELLIS: And there could be multiple in a hospital waiting room, randomly approaching you. It may not be an employee of the hospital. Just some random person that says, hey, I got somebody for you to call. VERONICA: Yeah. Coming up on Lawyers in the House with Montlick, my own personal brush with a runner after an accident that I had. And what this runner told me was in store for me. We’re going to talk about that. Also, what do lawyers get out of this? Why do this?
12:04	VERONICA: Especially when it’s against the law. That’s coming up on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday if you want to listen live on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick, I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorney Ellis Liu, we’re talking about running cases – those ambulance chasers who give personal injury law a bad name.
12:37	VERONICA: What do you say, Ellis? ELLIS: It’s a huge problem in Georgia, Veronica. VERONICA: Yeah. I understand that we are talking about something that might feel a little prickly for a lawyer, such as yourself, to even hear about that this goes on. Why do attorneys even do this? ELLIS: Why do bad attorneys do this? You know, maybe they’re desperate. Probably they’re greedy. Definitely, they’re shady and criminal.
13:08	ELLIS: I mean, it’s against the law. They do it probably because they’re not good enough to get their own cases without breaking the law. They’re not successful enough to get cases by word of mouth based on their success. You know, it’s a huge problem in Georgia, not just for the good lawyers, but also for the people.
13:33	ELLIS: As a citizen of Georgia or any person who’s experiencing tragedy or feeling vulnerable and overwhelmed with a bad accident, it’s hurtful for them. VERONICA: Yeah, and the thing is, when lawyers or their associates do this, you have got to report it when it happens. Because nothing can happen to them if the authorities, if the bar association, or the police or whomever don’t know that it’s happening.
14:03	VERONICA: I will tell you that when I had an accident, I was… someone ran into my car earlier this year. And this is the text that I got. And I’m going to read it to you. It says, “Hello. My name is Christina, and I’m calling about your recent auto accident.” That’s in all caps. “Please give me a call back at your earliest convenience. Thanks. If you were not at fault in an accident, you’re entitled to three different checks up to $25,000.” This is the text that I got. What goes through your mind when you hear that?
14:31	ELLIS: You know, and I think it’s important to understand the context of this text, Veronica. So, walk us through the timeline of how quickly you got that text message. VERONICA: Oh yeah, so this was probably… This was a little more than 48 hours after my accident. ELLIS: Okay. And in that time, who had you communicated with that could have possibly gotten this information? 9-1-1, called 9-1-1, we waited on the police to come, the police came and took a report. ELLIS: Did your car get towed? VERONICA: No. ELLIS: Was there a tow truck driver involved? VERONICA: Nope. Car was drivable. ELLIS: Did you go to the hospital? VERONICA: Did not go to the hospital.
15:02	ELLIS: So, we’re talking about just two interactions, right? 9-1-1, and the police officer. VERONICA: How did this person get my information? Coming up on Lawyers in the House, we’re going to delve into how this happens. And the real stories behind running cases. Stay with us. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB.
15:31	VERONICA: And welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with one of your favorite Montlick injury attorneys and mine, Ellis Liu, talking about running cases. Those ambulance chasers who give personal injury law a bad name. Ellis, I know this kind of sticks in your craw a little bit. We were talking about how somebody could have even gotten my information barely 48 hours after somebody ran into my car earlier this year.
16:00	ELLIS: Right, and just to show how prolific this is… I mean, this is not just a coincidence that you haven’t been on this show and you happen to get this text message. It happens every day, many, many times a day. They’re not just targeting specific people. And I want to go back to the timeline of your car crash and when this person contacted you, right? 48 hours after the car crash.
16:29	ELLIS: You didn’t interact with any tow truck drivers. You didn’t need your car towed or any tow lot owners. VERONICA: Didn’t go to the hospital. ELLIS: Didn’t go to the hospital, no employees there. Really, just two interactions, the 9-1-1 operator, and the police officer. So how could they have intercepted you? You know, maybe it’s the 9-1-1 operator, maybe it’s the police officer, but oftentimes, it’s people who sit on their apps.
16:57	VERONICA: Just like you were talking about earlier, the tech that allows everybody to listen. ELLIS: Exactly, the technology these days makes it much easier for runners to access you. They can listen in on police dispatch. VERONICA: Wow. ELLIS: On the police radio and they’re literally there ready to go. They are waiting for a car crash so they can, if they hear, it’s a really bad crash. If they hear a lot of chatter on the police radio about significant injuries, they are jumping in their car and they are going.
17:24	VERONICA: Yeah, because they could literally have gotten this information my phone number right from when I was on the 9-1-1 call. ELLIS: That could have happened. VERONICA: Wow. Incredible. And they probably didn’t have my police report at the time because they didn’t use my name. What do you think? ELLIS: Ah, right. Yeah, the police report often is not even available 48 hours after. VERONICA: Yeah, I had to wait a week to get mine. ELLIS: Right. VERONICA: Yeah. So, it’s… what should I have done? I just realized, as we sit here, I did not take my own advice which I just finished telling everyone, which is to tell somebody.
17:53	VERONICA: Tell the police, tell the bar association, give this information to somebody. I didn’t report it, Ellis. ELLIS: That’s exactly what you should do if that ever happens again, heaven forbid. Hopefully it doesn’t. But the first thing you should do is when you’re contacted by a runner is run the other way as fast as you can. All right. Do not contact them back. Do not speak with them. Just do not use them as a lawyer.
18:21	ELLIS: You don’t want that type of lawyer handling your case. You know, if they’re going to be unethical in contacting you, how much can you trust them to do the right thing for you to have your best interests in mind? I mean, they’re literally criminals. This is against the law. They are breaking the law. How else might they break the law when it comes to handling your case and doing what’s best for you?
18:43	VERONICA: And we’ve also often talked about how having the right lawyer is so important to the difference between a minimum settlement or something far below policy limits and making the difference to know how to handle that case from the beginning and navigate the law… and sometimes these things are so multi layered. And if you don’t have a lawyer with the right experience, what are you signing yourself up for? ELLIS: Right, absolutely. There are good lawyers and there are bad lawyers.
19:11	ELLIS: And the law is very complex. If I needed heart surgery, I wouldn’t be going to the cheapest cardiologist in town. The law is very difficult. You want a powerhouse law firm behind you. Our law firm, we’ve got over 40 attorneys. We’ve been doing this over 40 years. We’re one of the oldest and largest law firms in the entire country. You know we’ve got, combined, centuries of experience behind me.
19:38	ELLIS: If I can’t figure out an issue, I’ve got several lawyers with, combined, again, hundreds of years of experience behind me to figure it out. ELLIS: So, make sure you find a good lawyer. Not somebody who is breaking the law and being unethical. You know, they could lose their license for this. This is serious. VERONICA: Oh, yeah, absolutely. And as a matter of fact, not that long ago, right here in metro Atlanta, Georgia, there were two attorneys who were disbarred. The state bar association found that they had… let me just put it this way.
20:06	VERONICA: The state bar association accused this pair of law partners of having 54 runners and paying out nearly $400,000 to those runners for bringing them cases. What was admitted to by these two attorneys was that they paid 46 runners somewhere over a quarter of a million dollars to bring them cases. VERONICA: The state Supreme Court backed up the state bar association and found that this conduct was egregious.
20:36	VERONICA: It involved almost 1400 cases over several years, tons of money was at stake, and these two attorneys lost their licenses. They are now disbarred in the state of Georgia, and that wasn’t that many years ago. ELLIS: That’s right. If I recall, that was just 2011, and one particular aspect of the court’s ruling that I recall is that the court called them out for not even being remorseful about it, right? Because think about it.
21:03	ELLIS: If you’re spending $400,000 on just bringing the case in alone, think about how much money you are bringing in for your actual profit and revenue. It’s a big deal. VERONICA: It is a big deal. And again, what kind of lawyering might you be getting? I just can’t imagine how much care you think an attorney is going to give your case if they’re willing to break the law just to bring you in the door.
21:32	ELLIS: Right, and as lawyers, most lawyers practice ethically. All right, we want to do the right thing. Okay? VERONICA: Yeah, if you ask lawyers about this, they get pretty upset about it. ELLIS: It is, right? You know, lawyer jokes aside, we try really hard to do the best thing we can for our clients. Okay? So, when you’re looking for a lawyer, you want… trust word of mouth. Go with the reviews.
22:01	ELLIS: Look at the look at the lawyer’s experience. Not what some random stranger is trying to push on you while you’re overwhelmed, while you’re vulnerable, while you’re stressed. VERONICA: And let’s make clear. It’s not a crime if I am the one who signed up with a lawyer that I met through a runner. It’s not a crime for the client to sign up with somebody. It’s a crime for the solicitation to happen in the first place. And I want people to understand that.
22:30	VERONICA: If you ended up with an attorney on your PI case and it’s somebody that you got because they approached you in the hospital or called you on the phone or sent you a text the way that they did me, you’re not in trouble. You’re not in trouble. But I think Ellis is saying maybe be careful and pay close attention to what kind of care your case is getting. Because the attorney that you’re now with, if that’s how you found them, broke the law. Speaking of word of mouth, when is it okay for somebody like my doctor to give me advice?
23:00	VERONICA: Because let me just ask… tell you why I’m asking. In this case of these two Atlanta disbarred lawyers, one of the aspects of their case was that someone else, there was a layer between the lawyers and the person handling the runners, paying them, and working with a chiropractor to actually secure clients too. So, when is it okay for somebody like a chiropractor or a doctor to recommend a lawyer to me? ELLIS: I’m pretty sure doctors in the medical profession also have their own ethical rules against this.
23:30	ELLIS: I’m not a doctor. Sorry, dad. But you know, it’s absolutely not okay for them to be recommending it unsolicited. VERONICA: So, if I ask, it’s okay. ELLIS: Right. If they’re just, if they’re saying… if you bring it up and they want to recommend somebody that they think do a good… does a good job, I don’t think that’s illegal. But it’s when they’re receiving kickbacks. When they’re receiving referral fees, that’s when that’s a big problem.
23:58	VERONICA: Or when the rep from the law firm shows up in the doctor’s office, all of a sudden, and says, hey, here I am, sign up with us. ELLIS: Oh, absolutely. Big red flag. Yeah, I mean, if you’ve got a lawyer in the doctor’s office, that is… that smells pretty bad. That’s pretty fishy. VERONICA: Yeah, this case of these two attorneys who were in Atlanta, when you look around, lawyers… other lawyers in the profession, just found it so distasteful.
24:32	VERONICA: And really, if you listen to some of the conversations and they do use phrases like bottom of the barrel or bottom feeders, this is again something that I think a lot of attorneys take to heart because they know that this is not the way that their profession should be represented. And at Montlick, not only do you all do so much to try to prevent injuries in the first place, but you make a point of ethical representation at all times.
25:07	ELLIS: That’s right. And look, yeah, lawyers, we don’t like it. It’s bad for our reputation. It’s bad for the industry as a whole. But that’s not the main issue. The main issue is it’s hurting people. There are people who are being targeted. They’re being preyed on by these predatory law firms, and they’re not doing a good job for these people who are hurt, who need good help. That’s the biggest problem here.
25:36	VERONICA: I’ve also heard that there are agencies which come up with long lists of folks like me who were hurt. Here’s a list of people who went to the ER or had 9-1-1 calls or whatever. And they actually sort of farmed that out to law firms and say, hey, I’ve got a whole list of potential clients here for you. If you give me a bunch of cash… I mean, is that going to be tempting for maybe a small firm just getting off the ground?
26:07	ELLIS: I’ve heard about this. I’ve been contacted by these people personally. They just find my email address and email me and ask me if I’m interested in this. I completely ignore it. Don’t even bother responding because, again, it puts the lawyer in a criminal position to accept these kinds of cases, to pay for these types of cases. VERONICA: If you saw somebody at a bar and they were bragging about having done this, another attorney whom you didn’t know, would you tell?
26:35	ELLIS: We are responsible for telling, yes, absolutely. Absolutely. We are responsible to the bar to report unethical activity. So of course. VERONICA: Wow. Tell me again whether or not you think it’s possible for a lawyer who would do this to give you good representation. ELLIS: I don’t think so. No, again. VERONICA: And why not, Ellis? ELLIS: A lawyer who’s gonna do shady things even before they begin your case… Think about what they’re doing throughout your case.
27:05	ELLIS: And what they’re… what they’re telling you, can you trust what they’re telling you? Do they have a reputation with the insurance company, with the courts, with the judges? With opposing counsel, the other lawyer on the other side. Do they have a strong enough reputation? If they’re doing shady things to begin with, do they have the reputation to successfully represent you? VERONICA: The insurance companies get wise to them? ELLIS: Absolutely.
27:34	VERONICA: Do they? Yeah? ELLIS: Oh yeah, the insurance companies, I used to be a lawyer for insurance companies. VERONICA: You were a lawyer for insurance company. ELLIS: Yep. And I’ve come to the to the light. But these insurance companies, they are like the CIA, okay? They have more information about you than the government does. Every time you apply for a health insurance coverage, every time you apply for auto insurance coverage, you’re signing away a lot of your privacy rights and your personal information that not even the government knows.
28:05	ELLIS: And of course, they are adding this all to a global database that they all share with each other. And they have information, not only about you, but about the lawyers that you use. VERONICA: Oh. ELLIS: How successful is this lawyer? Is this lawyer reputable? Is this lawyer…? VERONICA: Honest. ELLIS: Right. Absolutely. Has his lawyer had bar violations against them? VERONICA: And so, if they see that on your case… ELLIS: They’re not going to take you seriously.
28:35	VERONICA: Wow. ELLIS: Yeah, they’re going to give you worse offers. They’re going to challenge you. They’re going to push harder because they don’t think that you have the success behind you to do a good job, to really take them to the mat. VERONICA: Talking about going to the mat for your clients. Coming up on Lawyers in the House with Montlick, the MCA is on the way, the Montlick closing argument. Don’t miss it. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick.
29:05	If you want to listen to our radio show live, you can hear it every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: And welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Ellis Liu, Montlick injury attorney, talking about running cases. And as we get ready for the Montlick closing argument, Ellis, you talked earlier about how running cases really hurts people. How? ELLIS: I’m happy to share a couple of stories.
29:34	ELLIS: People calling our law firm, telling us that they got in a car crash months ago. For example, we had a call from someone who went to a chiropractor. After going to that chiropractor, he got a random phone call from somebody he didn’t know. A number he didn’t recognize, telling him that they were a law firm and that they worked with his chiropractor. So, he didn’t know any better, which you’re not expected to, okay? He didn’t know any better.
30:02	ELLIS: He signed up with that lawyer. The lawyer who was doing shady things to get the case to begin with was also doing shady things with his lawsuit and with his settlement money. He settled the case. He realized something wasn’t 100% up to snuff. He called our law firm, but unfortunately by this time the case was settled, we couldn’t do anything about it. We couldn’t help. So, you got to be really careful, you know. There was another story. A mother, she called us, her son had just been in a car crash.
30:34	ELLIS: He was literally at the moment in critical surgery at the emergency room. And she had his phone. And his phone was being blown up by text messages and phone calls from law firms. VERONICA: Wow. ELLIS: Right. VERONICA: Wow. ELLIS: Yeah. Very dangerous, you know. VERONICA: Talk about preying on somebody’s vulnerability. ELLIS: Yeah. Happens all the time. All the time. So, if you’re contacted by one of these law firms or a runner or anybody trying to set you up with a law firm, number one, run the other way. VERONICA: Yeah, and it can come in so many different ways. Just like you said, it could be a text or a call from somebody you don’t know, a stranger walking up to you, somebody who says, “I work with your doctor,” or “I work with your chiropractor.” Sometimes it’s a first responder or somebody handing out a business card. The way that these things could happen… sometimes even, I know lawyers have said folks have come to their hospital rooms while they are still groggy from anesthesia. Montlick injury attorney Margaret had an incredible story about the kind of information that somebody got from a woman who was groggy at the hospital after her husband had been killed in an accident. It is incredible that someone would look at you in your most vulnerable moment and only see dollar signs. ELLIS: If you’re contacted by a random person you don’t know, a random phone number that you don’t recognize, chiropractor or other medical professional telling you that they work with a specific lawyer, first responders or tow truck drivers, or, again, just random plainclothes people walking up to you at a car crash scene that aren’t involved at all, don’t hire that lawyer. Run the other way.
30:59	VERONICA: Yeah, and they can even come up to you in your hospital room and try to solicit… handing out business cards, saying, hey, got somebody for you. ELLIS: Oh yeah. VERONICA: And you think maybe this is something not so bad.
31:29	VERONICA: Somebody’s trying to help me in a time of need. But again, to your point, maybe not, if they’re breaking the law. Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters, thank you so much to Ellis Liu for being in the House with us today talking about running cases and its illegality. Remember that your personal injury lawyer is not a door-to-door salesman. So, if somebody comes knocking on your door like that, trying to chase that ambulance, make sure you shut the door on that. I’m Veronica Waters. We’ll see you next time.
31:59	You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Catch us live every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB.

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