055 Client Stories: Richard’s Fender Bender Injury

VERONICA: Hey, hey, welcome to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters. Happy to have you back in the house with us for another special episode. I think you’re really going to love this one.

MARGARET: Certainly.

VERONICA: Happy to have you here. Now, Montlick was able to welcome Margaret into the family in 2011. But before that, she had an entire first career as a licensed professional counselor. Yes?

VERONICA: Went to Kennesaw State for a bachelor’s, got a master’s degree in counseling from the Georgia School of Professional Psychology, and then decided to, after that career, become an attorney, got a juris doctor from John Marshall Law School. What launched you on that path, Margaret?

MARGARET: I wanted to assist people in different ways than I was assisting people as a counselor. And I felt like becoming an attorney would fill that need in my life, I guess.

MARGARET: Yeah, I’m definitely someone who wants to solve problems.

VERONICA: Yeah. Now, what I heard about you from a little legal eagle birdie is that you probably work on more cases in the firm than anybody else.

MARGARET: Possibly, yes.

VERONICA: Why is that?

MARGARET: I just take a lot of different cases from different places and work them until we can get them resolved. Or if they need to go to litigation, then we review that as well.

MARGARET: Well, I love helping people and problem solving. And I like challenges. So that’s what drives me is the challenges.

VERONICA: Yes. I remember you telling me that before. Like you really relish when there seems to be an obstacle or something that you can actually, like, sort of undo and fix and make right like a puzzle.

MARGARET: That’s correct. I love puzzles.

VERONICA: I love it. Thank you so much, Margaret Grenleski.

MARGARET: After.

VERONICA: Yeah. All right. So let’s meet Richard Blankenship, who actually met Margaret in her life as a licensed professional counselor. How’d that happen, Richard?

RICHARD: Well, I was starting a counseling center 20 some odd years ago, and Margaret was one of the first people to come call on me in her role.

VERONICA: Wow, that is fantastic. And so, that might give you a little sneak peek into how Richard and Margaret ended up connected again in Margaret’s role at Montlick Injury Attorneys because he kind of knew exactly whom to call. Welcome to the House. Richard and Margaret.

RICHARD: Thank you.

VERONICA: This is Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. We are talking about a testimonial, I think. Would you say a client testimonial? And what’s interesting is, like Tom Hanks’s character, Richard’s injury came to him through something that seemed a little bit minor you told me, right, Richard? Tell us your story.

RICHARD: Well, it happened one evening. I was leaving my office, and the only two vehicles in that parking lot at that time of day were me and the one that hit me.

RICHARD: And I was driving actually slowly across the parking lot, and I didn’t even see it coming, but this big Ford pickup just backed out of a parking place and broadsided me. And it was almost like being T-boned. And during that accident, I know my head went sideways into the driver’s door glass.

VERONICA: So just like, boom, just like that.

RICHARD: But yeah, the vehicle was drivable.

VERONICA: Did you call the cops?

RICHARD: I did not on that one. I knew they couldn’t cite on private property. And so since I had full access to the individual who hit me and had all of her information and knew where she worked and actually saw her almost daily. But from there, you know, I thought, you know, this one will be OK.

RICHARD: Oh, yes.

VERONICA: Yeah, it was evident.

RICHARD: Yes, it was very clear.

VERONICA: But still you could get in and drive home. No problem. OK, you exchange information, you go home, and what? You feel fine?

RICHARD: I feel OK that night.

VERONICA: Okay. And then?

RICHARD: And then the next day I go into work and I am meeting with people. And all of a sudden, I notice that I am not remembering what they just said.

VERONICA: Just to be clear, you’re not talking about what this client or coworker said to you last week or the month before. You’re talking about right there in conversation with them.

RICHARD: Yeah. And I found myself going, “Okay, you just said… did you just say this?” And I found myself just repeating a couple of questions. And then I realized something wasn’t quite right.

VERONICA: Did you connect it with the car crash at that time?

RICHARD: At the moment, I did not.

RICHARD: I wish I had. And what I ended up doing was I learned to cope with it. I just started taking notes and made sure I could stay engaged. But I thought, this is going to be temporary. And then it wasn’t. And it kept going on and on.

VERONICA:  You mean a couple days? A week?

RICHARD: Yeah, it was going on more than a couple of weeks.

VERONICA: What?

RICHARD: They said we don’t see people from auto accidents because we don’t want to end up going to court.

VERONICA: Oh my gosh, Margaret, I’m going to have to ask you about that.

RICHARD: And then-

VERONICA: What a shock, Richard.

RICHARD: Yeah, they said, go to a neurologist.

VERONICA: No way. I didn’t even know this was a thing. Oh, gosh.

RICHARD: And so that delayed me, you know, another probably three or four weeks trying to get any kind of medical help for this.

VERONICA: And the problem is still continuing. You’re still having to write down every-

RICHARD: I’m still noticing it. I mean, I’m making it work and it’s going. It’s a little more tiring. And so finally, what I did, I just called a neurologist and said, “I need to come because of headaches.”

RICHARD: Not really.

VERONICA: Did you have any other symptoms? No, it was mainly the cognitive issue and, yeah, maybe some discomfort. But that was the main thing… was I could not seem to get over that hump with that short-term memory.

VERONICA: So when you went to the neurologist, what happened?

RICHARD: I went in. I told him the symptoms and what was happening.

VERONICA: Mild. Oh my gosh, it sounds so major.

RICHARD: Yeah, it sounds very- it was a major impact on me.

RICHARD: Yeah. It was just that short-term memory that just was not working right.

VERONICA: So what was the next thing? Is this when Margaret… when you decided to give Margaret a call? Or what’s going on in your life at this time? You’re kind of handling this…

RICHARD: I’m handling it by myself.

VERONICA: Everything by yourself.

RICHARD: I had tried because… and I had settled accidents in years past alone.

VERONICA: You knew Margaret was an attorney by that point, right? She had…

RICHARD: I had known that.

VERONICA: Did y’all have a cake for her? Were y’all in the same facility when you left counseling and went to law school? Did they have like a party for you? OK. But you knew that she had become an attorney.

RICHARD: I knew she’d become an attorney, and I knew she was working for Montlick. And so I called her and said, “Here’s the situation.” And she agreed to take the case and handle it from there.

VERONICA: We are going to talk about that journey here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I am curious, though, to know, Richard, before we break in just a moment, what was the breaking point for you when you said, I got to call Margaret? And did you not actually realize that you yourself were a personal injury client, potentially? Did you not put those…?

RICHARD: I think I realized I was becoming one, especially when I got that MRI result.

VERONICA: Textbook.

RICHARD: And at that point, I knew things just were not going well, and this was just going to have to be done differently.

You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday if you want to listen live on 95.5 WSB.

VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB.

MARGARET: So I received a call from Richard and he started describing to me the situation, what had happened, and some of the things that the insurance company was responding back to him with, when he had attempted to speak with them about his situation. And I basically knew right away what was happening. I could figure it out very quickly.

VERONICA: Seemed like pretty typical stuff from the insurance company side?

VERONICA: Wait a minute. That sounds, from what I understand, medical payments… Med pay is supposed to kick in no matter what.

MARGARET: Correct.

VERONICA: No matter who’s at fault, if anyone’s at fault. Right?

MARGARET: That’s right. Yes, that’s right.

VERONICA: And they were not paying him his own medical payments coverage.

VERONICA: And how long after the accident had this been?

MARGARET: Maybe five or six months.

VERONICA: Five or six months? Richard, it took you five or six months to call Margaret.

RICHARD: No, I think I called you about two to three months in.

MARGARET: You think it was two to three months that…

RICHARD: It was about five months that the symptoms continued.

VERONICA: That they continued.

RICHARD: But I called you right there… right after I’d been to that neurologist.

MARGARET: Okay. Okay.

RICHARD: I have not had any problems in a number of years with that because I was able to get the medical treatment I needed and recovered from it. The thing that was unusual about mine is normally the doctors told me this clears up in a couple of months and mine didn’t. It went on for about five.

VERONICA: All right, more about Richard’s story and his journey to wellness and being made whole again with Montlick Injury Attorney Margaret Grenleski.

You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday on 95. 5 WSB.

VERONICA: Hey, welcome back to the house, Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m your girl, Veronica Waters, here with Montlick Injury Attorney Margaret Grenleski and her client and now friend, Richard Blankenship.

MARGARET: That’s correct. Yes.

VERONICA: How did you feel? Because what has always struck me is from doing this show, I keep hearing it is… you’ve got to get somebody on your side from the start. That somebody has to be an attorney and it needs to be the right attorney.

MARGARET: Well, Richard’s my friend and I felt great that he called to begin with.

VERONICA: Wasn’t too late?

MARGARET: No, not at all. No.

VERONICA: Tell me about the challenges, though, that you faced. I mean, this could not have been a completely easy road because he was getting so many roadblocks thrown into his path. So tell me about the fight.

MARGARET: Well, they had made their mind up that Richard had not suffered the serious concussion that he had received from the impact.

VERONICA: Is this what… okay, someone has mentioned to me something about eggshell clients, eggshell plaintiffs. Is this what the… because he did mention that he had had some other accidents previously, right? So is this what they’re sort of… tell me about that.

VERONICA: Okay. And so this is part of why you need an attorney to fight for you, because they were looking at your previous history and saying, oh, well, you can’t be this badly hurt. You’ve been hurt before. None of this is new.

RICHARD: No, it was nothing like anything I had ever had before.

VERONICA: Yeah, but they weren’t listening.

RICHARD: They weren’t listening.

VERONICA: Yeah.

RICHARD: Not at all.

VERONICA: Margaret, tell me a little bit about… can you tell me how do you meet those challenges? You said you love the challenges, but it’s got to be… you know, at some point, are you beating your head against the wall?

RICHARD: If I had said I was beating my head against the wall, the insurance company probably would have blamed that.

VERONICA: They’re like, “See, I told you it’s you, man. It’s not us.” Okay. So tell me you had to… what? Figure out these challenges, beat these… I mean, would you call it typical, Margaret?

MARGARET: It’s typical of the insurance company to challenge or dismiss or diminish the injuries and try to say there’s no causation for the injury, things like that. So in Richard’s case, he was in a parking lot. They tried to say, you know, the impact could not have been serious enough to cause this incident, you know, his injury.

VERONICA: Yeah, so despite the fact that you had the diagnosis, you had visible damage on your car, and you had what I’m sure people could testify to as the way you were interacting with them, which was different from how you were before the accident. None of that seemed enough until you got Margaret from Montlick Injury Attorneys sort of fighting for you?

RICHARD: Well, I wish I’d learned my lesson right away.

VERONICA: What? Richard, come on.

RICHARD: A couple of years later, I guess it was, my daughter was in an accident, and I did what I insisted as always. I’d had an uncle who was big in the insurance industry for decades. He had always said, “Go to the emergency room, get an X-ray. It’ll help the insurance companies act quicker.”

VERONICA: Yes. So lesson finally learned.

RICHARD: Lesson finally learned. Insurance companies today are not what they were 10, 15, 20 years ago.

MARGARET: Well, it was very much similar to… his daughter’s case was very similar to Richard’s case in that they were dismissing a lot of her wage loss and other, you know, medical bills saying it wasn’t related and they weren’t going to cover… that the accident impact was not serious enough to justify the treatment that she had received.

VERONICA: Was there anything about either Richard’s or his daughter’s case that gave you an extra challenge? And if not, doesn’t that still sort of display, at least to me, it sort of shows that somebody with the training and the know-how is still needed, whether the damage is great or not, whether the injury is big or small, like there’s just stuff that we can’t do? Or was it extra challenging?

MARGARET: So when you communicate with the insurance company, they record everything that you say, they take note. I mean, you could just say something friendly off the cuff and later that could be, you know, used against you, so to speak. And they’re… you know, like if they ask you, “Well, how are you doing today?” And you respond, “Oh, I’m doing fine. ” Yeah. That’s going to turn into, oh, well, you were fine when we first spoke with you.

VERONICA: She couldn’t work… meaning she couldn’t work because of her injuries.

MARGARET: She missed, you know, some days. It wasn’t a lot, you know, it wasn’t like a long period of time or anything like that.

VERONICA: Wow. Same insurance company, Richard?

RICHARD: Same company. Okay.

VERONICA: What’s going through your head, Richard, as you listen to this story now as if it wasn’t yours?

RICHARD: Yeah, first of all, it’s very disheartening because there’s times I honestly think insurance companies are out to destroy us. And it feels that way in so many areas that I hear about, see, and have experienced.

RICHARD: That’s correct.

VERONICA: Not all heroes wear capes, Margaret.

MARGARET: Yeah, I would agree.

VERONICA: Yeah, you think so. Did you feel fairly compensated? Did you feel like you were made whole at the end of all of this?

RICHARD: I felt like what Margaret negotiated was a fair settlement. I felt like it was reasonable. It was not… I wasn’t out to get rich on it or anything or try to shake down an insurance company.

VERONICA: Wow. It’s incredible. We do pay our insurance with the belief that we… first of all, with the hope that we might never need it. We hope we never need our insurance, but we do expect it to come through for us if we do.

VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB.

MARGARET: All right. Well, I just want to remind everyone that having your own insurance, your uninsured motorist coverage is very important. Luckily for Richard in both of his incidents, the at-fault party did have coverage. They had liability coverage. However, had they not, Richard would have needed to claim… make a claim on his own uninsured motorist coverage, which Richard does have.

MARGARET: It can be. Yeah.

VERONICA: I remember learning it wasn’t until doing the show that I realized uninsured motorist coverage doesn’t have to do with insuring the other guy. It has to do with insuring me if the other guy doesn’t have insurance. I didn’t even know that. It’s very eye-opening and makes you think twice about the people who are saying, let me just sign up for the bare minimum Georgia has- $25,000. Maybe that’s something that you want to rethink when it’s time to write your next insurance policy.

VERONICA: I’m curious to know if you’re still with that same insurance company, Richard.

RICHARD: I am. They have done very well otherwise. They had the one medical payment issue, but that was the only issue we’ve ever had with them.

VERONICA: Okay. Margaret, I would always ask Montlick Injury Attorneys next to me if there was a moment where they ever said, oh, I wish this client had called me before.

VERONICA: Happens a lot.

MARGARET: Happens a lot. So initially when the incident occurs and you speak with the insurance company, they will, of course, collect all this information that…

VERONICA: Record your statement.

MARGARET: Yeah, they’ll do a recorded statement. They’ll collect a lot of information from you that they may not necessarily need, but they can use later.

VERONICA: All right. So it’s about having the right lawyer on your side from the start, having the right insurance, having enough insurance.

You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Catch us live every Sunday, 8:00 a.m. on 95.5 WSB.