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061 Medical Bills, Settlements, and How Much Your Case Is Worth

061 Medical Bills, Settlements, and How Much Your Case Is Worth

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Scott Patterson, Esq.

Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson is in the house to discuss the most common question from clients – “How much is my case worth?” On this episode Attorney Scott explains how the value of a case is assessed and evaluated.

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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.

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00:04	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. All rise. Nah, just kidding. Make yourselves comfortable, kick up your feet, relax and come on into the house. Welcome to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m your host, Veronica Waters.
00:30	Thanks for coming in and dropping in for a visit with us for another fabulous show. Lawyers know so many words from arraignment to allegation, from deposition to docket, from counterclaim to cross examination, from hearsay to pro say, right? Yeah, nice. From sequester to sua sponte. The legal glossary is expansive, as we know, and it’s all contained in a dictionary, which is about as thick as a dollar bill is long.
01:03	But one word you won’t find in Black’s Law Dictionary is abracadabra. And I’m telling you that because that might be the word attorneys actually would have to use to be able to magically pull out of a hat the answer to what’s perhaps the most common question that just about every personal injury hears every single day. That question and the real answer are coming up.
01:31	But first, let’s meet our lawyer in the House today. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary and of Mercer University School of Law. Yes? Yes. Husband and father named one of the National Trial Lawyers Top 100, also a member of the multimillion dollar advocates forum, among the many honors that he has received. He’s been an attorney for more than two decades now.
01:56	And everybody who knows him, having seen him practice seeing in several different fields, would describe him as cool, calm, and competitive. And now he’s advocating for folks who have been hurt through no fault of their own. Please welcome to the House Attorney Scott Patterson. Hey, Scott. Hey, how are you doing? I’m doing OK. Tell me a little bit about what led you to the law. This is our first time actually getting a chance to meet. And I’m curious about your backstory.
02:26	Well, it’s kind of cheesy. When I was in high school, there was a show called LA Law, which a lot of young people are going to be what in the world was that show. But I was fascinated by it. And it really inspired an interest in looking into the law. You know I don’t know what it was specifically about that show, but you know a lot of it is I played sports growing up and I saw kind of an opportunity to one, the law is so expansive and broad and can encompass so many interests. And I had a ton of interest in environment, sports.
02:55	And you know particularly in litigation, I saw that opportunity to kind of take that competitive drive I had and that I applied to sports to apply it into a career. And have you found that it allows you to get that competitive sort of urge out? It does. It does. And you know I think you know early on, it takes a while to get used to sort of what that might look like in practice. I think there’s often a drive and an inclination that you have to be hyper aggressive to be a good litigator and to be a good attorney.
03:26	And you know I found that not to be the case, at least in the way that I’ve approached it. But it is a you know leave it on the field, you compete, and then you walk off and you shake hands and you move on. So it has a lot of those same aspects that you know playing a sport has. And you know I’ve really enjoyed that aspect of it. That’s so funny that you say that I’ve covered so many court cases myself. And I think that one of the most marked differences that I see is like in the movies and on TV, it looks like the attorneys on either side of the courtroom are such adversaries.
03:57	Like they just hate each other. They can’t stand each other. But I never see that in real life. You know I’m covering almost exclusively criminal cases, and the prosecutors and the defense attorneys are very kind and chummy. You know, they’re friends, even. It is. I think, you know, and I did some criminal defense work, so I have some experience in that. My wife was a prosecutor as well. I think the stakes are so high for the folks that you’re representing that I don’t know. It makes there is a little bit of a camaraderie, oddly enough, between prosecutor and defense counsel.
04:28	And that’s not always the case. And you see it on the civil side, too, where, you know, I have friends that are defense attorneys. And that’s, you know, but you will. You’ll go into court, and you’ll go at it, just like you would against an opposing team. But then you walk out of there and it’s, you know, you leave it in the courtroom. You do, you leave it in the courtroom. Let me ask you, Scott, what you’ve learned about yourself as an attorney. Really to find your own voice and to find your own style and to be comfortable with that, because that ultimately is going to be the best way you can possibly represent your client as being true to yourself.
05:04	If you’re going into court or you’re going to any situation that you have to deal with opposing counsel or you have to advocate for your client, if you’re not confident and unsure of who you are and what your style is, you know I don’t think you’re kind of doing yourself or the client a real service. And you know it took me a while to adjust to that. Again, you know I referred to as I think there’s an inclination with young attorneys to feel that to be a litigator, you have to be aggressive, you have to be difficult. You kind of have to fight at every turn and around every corner.
05:35	And that’s not the case. And certainly, wasn’t for me because that’s not my natural personality to come out aggressive when it’s not required for the particular situation. And to be able to kind of slowly understand that, hey, you can be kind, but you can also be competitive. You can advocate for your client, but you don’t have to be a jerk to do it. And to really come into and own that, it becomes very powerful.
06:03	But as a young attorney, you think, oh my goodness, you know I can’t be nice and be a litigator. You know they don’t go well together. Maybe I should go do wheels in the States. But you learn it. And you know a case in point is that you know as a young attorney, I was taking a deposition of a corporate individual and representative. And his attorney was known to be hyper aggressive, to be very difficult to deal with. And on a break, I was just chatting with the deponent, and we were just kind of yucking it up and his attorney had gone out of the room.
06:34	When he came back in, he cautioned his client. He’s like, be careful. You know Mr. Patterson may seem to be very nice, but he’s a very good attorney. And it was kind of like he’ll trick you. And that’s the first time I was like, oh, like being like a normal, what I consider a normal human being actually disarms people that tend to be overly aggressive. And that was, I think, that it kind of clicked that day. And I was like, okay, this is actually something that throws people off. And you know I don’t, it’s just naturally who I am. Not being phony at all.
07:03	No, but then to understand like that has its own power was for me, you know, very motivating and understanding like, hey, OK, I can do this and be true to myself. I love it. You’re not playing at being a lawyer like the folks on LA law. You were just being yourself. Yeah, absolutely. Montlick injury attorney Scott Patterson. Thanks so much for being in the house. This is Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. And we were talking about whether or not there is a magic word for this question that a lot of personal injury I’m saying a lot, but I’m going to say maybe every personal injury client has right off the bat.
07:38	Tell us, what’s that common question, Scott? They want to know what their case is worth. And a lot of times, you know, they want to know early on, you know, and that’s not surprising. You know, you know, I tell a lot of clients and it’s, you know, I tell them like, hey, this might sound cold. This might sound sort of, you know, indifferent. But ultimately, the only thing we can ask for in these types of cases is money, is compensation. And some people take that as, you know, kind of off-putting.
08:07	But, you know, clients want to know on the front end and the ones that understand that, like, hey, I’m now put into a potentially very devastating financial situation because of this accident, either through medical bills that I might not be able to pay because I don’t have health insurance. You know, I’m out of a car and what they’re offering me to replace it isn’t going to actually allow me to replace it. So, you know, that it’s not surprising that’s the question, you know, that folks ask on the front end because they’re sitting there with this big question now.
08:36	I was like, “What is this going to how is this going to affect my life?” And I think that’s it is worth reminding people, these are people who got hurt through no fault of their own. They were in some sort of accident or incident, which left them with injuries, which are sometimes devastating. And how else can you help them other than giving them some compensation to help pay the medical bills and get their lives back on track? I understand what you’re saying. What’s the magic word that you say to answer that question?
09:06	Is it Abracadabra? Is it Hocus Pocus? No, I don’t. Here’s your number. My magic wand and wave it and then come up with a magical answer. You know, it’s the annoying answer that people expect from lawyers, I guess. It depends. It depends. How many times have we heard that on lawyers in the house? It depends. Yeah, it really does. Because you don’t on the very front end, you don’t know a lot of things.
09:29	And so to answer that question, you know if you’re talking to a lawyer that early in your case and they actually give you an answer, that’s a really clear indication that you should probably not be working with that attorney because it’s nearly impossible to answer at an early stage of the case. But they have these settlement calculators on the internet where you can just like go out there and type in a couple of things, pull some things down on the dropdown menu. Next thing you know, there’s a number in front of you, I guess. I don’t know. I’ve never used one.
09:57	But I see the ads for the settlement calculators all the time. You’re telling me we can’t trust those? No, no. There’s so many unknowns. So, you know, first of all, you have to understand, in some ways, your case is very much limited by what is the available insurance coverage. So you typically don’t know that until you get down the road a little bit in the case until we send out requests to the at-fault party’s insurance company until we get some of that information back. But then that’s just a number that we know, okay, that might be a limiter on that one side of the case.
10:29	That might be the max you could achieve from that at fault party. May or may not be. Again, there’s a lot of other factors that go into that, that even that limit that might appear to be the minimum limit, you write a demand in the correct way. The insurance company doesn’t respond in the correct way. That number then becomes something very different. Wow. Something a lot bigger is what you’re saying. It could be, yeah. It’s called bad faith. And, you know, if you write the demand in the correct way and set things up the correct way, and the insurance company doesn’t comply, then you’re in a situation where you can get far more than the limits if your case has that type of value.
11:02	The other thing is on the front end, you don’t really know what your injuries are. Some are obvious. I mean, if someone comes in and they were in a very, very serious accident and they’re already in the hospital and the injuries have already been made relatively apparent, you know at least a little bit. But in a lot of the cases we do, there are soft tissue injuries that take a while to materialize, and it take a while to develop. And so we don’t really know what your case is worth until we know, you know, what is this or what effect has this had on your life?
11:33	You know, what are your medical bills? What are your expenses? Are you going to lose wages? All those things factor into ultimately what your case may be worth. Right. And let’s not be shy about saying that can take a while to gather all that information, Scott. It can. It can. And it can take a while to heal. And until you’re fully healed and we know what ultimately your full medical bills were, we don’t know what your case is worth. All right. So we’re talking about what’s my case worth.
12:00	And we’re talking to Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson about exactly what goes into that calculation and how long it can take. And what we’ve already found out is there are so many factors that go into this answer. There is no magic wand you can wave. It kind of just depends on you sitting back, getting your medical treatment, getting well and letting your lawyer take the case forward. Coming up, how this lawyer will take the case forward for you and the things that you need to know about picking the right attorney for you. That’s coming up next.
12:36	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. Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorney Scott Patterson. We’re talking about the most common question from personal injury clients the world over, how much is my case worth?
13:01	And we’ve learned from Scott that there are so many factors that go into answering that question. But Scott, a lot of times in advertising, we see that attorneys lead with dollar signs, it’s cash, it’s money falling from the sky. Some firms are promising me a really quick settlement. And people are like, what’s wrong with you know looking for money? What’s wrong with a quick settlement? I think it’s important for me to sort of ask you that because what sets apart an attorney, maybe from a great attorney?
13:34	It’s really knowing the questions to ask and knowing where to look and understanding the system well enough to pursue all the possible avenues. Yeah, you can get a quick settlement, but you could leave a lot of money on the table because you don’t understand all the other buckets of money that might be available to you. When I was a young lawyer starting out on my own, there’s no book that’s written like, here’s how to handle a personal injury case. And here’s all the things you can look at. And here’s all the ways to handle it on the back end when you settle it finally. So you don’t know.
14:03	I didn’t know about medical payments coverage. I didn’t know to go look there necessarily. I talked to a friend of mine. He’s like, yeah, the medical payments coverage. Like I didn’t really even realize my client’s own insurance policy might provide additional coverage. And if so, yeah, you can get you might be able to get a quick settlement. But again, you know, the thing that particularly sets Montlick apart is you’re talking to an attorney from the get-go. You make a call, there’s an intake person that gets a couple of basic questions and you’re immediately transferred to an attorney. So you already have attorney eyes on a case very, very early on in the case.
14:35	And you have a very educated and very knowledgeable attorney that can walk you through all of that, can talk to you about all the various items that need to be collected, all the various bits of information that you might need to ultimately, again, answer that question. What’s my case ultimately worth? So you have talked about your past experience. And I know you had your own firm for a while, way back when, but now you’re in the hallways of Montlick injury attorneys with dozens of lawyers at your back. What’s the difference? How do you see the difference play out? It’s having that support.
15:04	I mean, you’ve got 40 lawyers to bounce ideas off of, to run things by and to have that support. And then, you know, the legal assistant support staff is absolutely amazing at Montlake. So you have a team and you’re empowered by that in a lot of different ways. And you have a reputation 40 years in the making behind you as well. And it makes a big difference. Have you seen it play out in real life? Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, as a solo attorney, you don’t always get the benefit of the doubt.
15:34	You don’t have the, you know, I think the power behind you that you would have with working at a Montlick that has, you know, a stellar reputation that, you know, I think it drives better settlements for clients and drives better results. All right, we are talking in the house with Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson. What’s my case worth? Coming up some of the things that can subtract from the money that’s added in to your settlement. Don’t miss that.
16:03	You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB. And welcome back into the house. Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson. You missed. Listen, an amazing first half of the show. If you are just now tuning in, you have got to go subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform.
16:31	Wait for the new episode to drop because Scott Patterson was dropping some wisdom in the first half of this show. You know what? Just keep that subscription coming. Let us know what you think about the show any time of the day or night. Visit us at lawyersinthehouse.com and keep up with us between shows on all platforms, social at Montlick Law. We would love to hear from you. So holla at your girl. All right. So we’re talking about what’s my case worth? The most common question from every personal injury client around the world.
17:01	And Scott has been talking to us about what sort of things go into making those numbers add up. It’s how badly you’re hurt, what your diagnosis is, what your prognosis is, what your medical bills are going to be, what they have been. What does it take to make your life right? How does it make you whole again? The insurance coverage that’s out there. There are so many factors. Not to mention, you also talked about bad faith, the liability of the other party, the behavior of the person who caused your injuries or even of the insurance company themselves.
17:34	There’s a lot that goes into adding up what can help make a person whole at the end of their case. Scott, what are some of the things that can sort of subtract from that settlement or that offer or that verdict at trial? So I mean, what it boils down to in a lot of instances is, OK, how was that medical treatment rendered in terms of did you have health insurance? If you had health insurance, is it a plan that should be reimbursed? Some are, some aren’t.
18:03	All claim they should be reimbursed. Not all actually are legally entitled to reimbursement. It’s, you know, part of it is there’s this issue with with pre-settlement loans. A lot of people need the cash. They’re strapped. This has put a big financial burden on them. So, you know, they reach out and want to try to get a loan to kind of help them through. We encourage them to hold on the best they can and not do that because of the exorbitant interest interest rates. But that can subtract.
18:32	You know, a $500 loan can turn into an $800 payback within a very short period of time. And so that can take away from the value of your case. Oh my gosh. Can we just pause and talk about that for a second? I’ve heard of these loans. So it’s that you someone is putting like sort of buying out your case in advance in a way to advance you some money. Yeah, they basically, I mean, they take a risk that your case will settle. It’ll settle for potentially a certain value.
19:01	And they’re willing to take that risk and loan you money. But it’s at very unfriendly interest rates. And it can really make it difficult at times to truly give you the actual real value of what your case is worth because that interest rate just eats away at what should be money going into your pocket. I’ve seen some interest rates because looking into it as like upwards of 25%, 28%, something like that. It’s ridiculously high. It is. And so we encourage our clients, if they can, just hold on.
19:30	Let us do what we do. Let us work the way we work and get you that settlement. And so we can maximize it without, you know, something eating away with it that maybe isn’t necessary. You know, and again, it’s tough when you tell a client that, you know, hey, maybe just hold on because, you know, they’re in a tough situation. They wouldn’t be asking for the money if they didn’t need it. But we just, again, our goal is to make them as whole as possible and to try to give them the best settlement that we can through all the various things that we do, through the negotiations with the health insurance, knowing what needs to be paid back and what doesn’t.
20:04	And so, you know, if you can avoid one, avoid one. Well, can I ask you for a loan? If you’re my lawyer, do y’all give out loans? Absolutely not. It’s unethical and illegal for an attorney to lend a client money. And we get asked that. And it’s a fair question because, you know, most folks don’t know. It’s the first time they’ve ever been in this situation. And they think, OK, if you’re going to get me a settlement, maybe you can advance me the money, but we absolutely cannot. It’s unethical. It’s illegal, you said. Yes. Okay. Yes.
20:32	It’s a big conflict of interest. So I guess it implies that the lawyer might have some sort of personal interest in the case. Is that I mean, I’m not. Yeah, I mean, obviously could jeopardize. Yeah. I mean, I would think, you know, it could and I’m just guessing here. Maybe it encourages a lawyer who would do such an illegal thing to settle really fast just so they can get their cash back. Or to drag it out because they’re going to get more interest if they do. So it just creates the wrong types of potential incentives. And that’s why, you know, the state bar has said, you know, no.
21:04	Do not do it. And obviously, we don’t under any circumstance ever. Yeah, we’ve talked about some other things that not so great lawyers have done in the past. We talked about lawyers running cases, you know, actively going out themselves or hiring somebody to solicit someone who’s been in an accident. You know, they’re the folks who give the industry the phrase ambulance chasers, which people hate so much. Somebody might show up at your hospital room, I’ve learned. People show up at the scene of an accident.
21:33	Like they really come after you hard. But I always think if somebody is willing to break the law to get your case, what would they do once they have it in the door? Once they’ve got you in the door, can you trust them? No. No. I mean, you know, that’s the beauty of, you know, the way Montlick operates in a lot of ways is, you know, again, what I mentioned before is you’re going to get an attorney from the get-go. If you haven’t spoken to an attorney in your case is a number of months old, you’ve signed a contract months ago and you still haven’t spoken to an attorney.
22:05	You’ve only been speaking with legal assistants or, you know, may not even be a legal assistant. It may just be someone that answers the phone at the firm that you decided to hire. That’s a big, big warning to run the other way because you’re not you’re not getting the representation your case needs. And you’re ultimately, it’s my opinion, you’re not going to get the value your case is worth and what it deserves because you just can’t go with an unexperienced person and a non-lawyer and hope that it works out.
22:35	You know, your case in point, a lot of cases can look like one thing and be a totally different thing. You can have a car accident case with a very serious injury. And you just think, okay, this is a rear-end collision. But what if your airbags didn’t go up? What if there was some other defect with your vehicle and you didn’t understand that, okay, I might have a products liability case here that I wasn’t aware of. You know A non-attorney or even an inexperienced attorney that takes that case and just thinks, oh, I’m just going to settle quickly with the insurance company. Big wreck insurance limits.
23:05	Let’s go. And then misses that other potentially massive piece of evidence that could expand the value of your case, you know, exponentially. You’ve learned some stuff over the years from when you were a baby attorney to now. Yes, yes. A lot. You know, like I said, when I was out on my own, it was just trial by fire and figure out things. And you learn things after the fact. And, you know, you learn who you had to pay back after the fact. And sometimes, you know, that, you know, that was kind of scary.
23:34	You know, none of it came back. You know, it wasn’t big issues. Fortunately, it was, you know, small matters. But again, the what you don’t know. Tell me. Tell me. Give me some deets. Well, OK. So when I was a young lawyer, I settled a case and there was a hospital lien. Hospital liens typically have to be paid back. You almost always have to be paid back. And you know the hospital lien attorney called me and was like, hey, I see your client has Medicare. Do you want us just to bill that and we can remove the lien? I’m like, fantastic. Absolutely. Let’s do that.
24:04	That’s going to put more money in my client’s pocket. And we did that and we settled the case. And I was talking to a buddy of mine after the fact and they’re like, well, did you check with Medicare and see what they need to be reimbursed? I’m like, what are you talking about? They’re like, you know, Medicare has to be reimbursed. I’m like, oops. No, I didn’t. Now, again, this was a small case and like Medicare, it never came back and it was fine. But on a much larger case, if your attorney doesn’t know that, Medicare is going to come after you and they’re going to potentially come after the attorney too.
24:30	And not knowing that, again, you might have thought, OK, I got great value for my case because my attorney settled it. But then months later, somebody’s coming and taking all that money from you, potentially, or a big portion of it. So again, that question of what’s my case worth, it’s far more complex than it appears on the front end of a case. You could close your case and then here come a bunch more bills around the corner. Yeah, it can happen with health insurance reimbursement issues.
24:58	If it was one that was supposed to be reimbursed, that can come back on you. So, you know, again, you know, not knowing can get you into all kinds of trouble. And if your attorney doesn’t know, and if your attorney doesn’t have the experience and the training and the background to understand all the various moving parts, you know, you’re with the wrong lawyer. When you came on with Montlick Injury Attorneys, how long had you been practicing? Over 20 years. Over 20 years. And it’s been you haven’t reached 30 years as an attorney yet, right? Almost.
25:29	Almost 30? OK. Not quite. So you’ve had all this experience. You’ve worked with different firms. You’ve been in real estate. I think you did some contract work, right? Yes. You’ve been a litigator. You’ve been awarded for being a litigator. What do you see happening now that you’re a Montlick Injury Attorney that you think you wouldn’t have seen when you were out there on your own? Again, I think it’s just having that reputation behind you, having the 40 years of experience that came before you.
25:57	You know Case in point, so I had a couple of months ago, I had a case and it was a pretty serious injury. My client was a passenger in a vehicle. The driver of her vehicle was charged with a DUI. But there wasn’t someone else caused the accident. So it was kind of this had a lot of moving parts to it. Wow. And, you know, ultimately, it was our position. The other vehicle was at fault. And we were able to get their insurance and the maximum amount available under their insurance.
26:24	And then normally, as a passenger in a vehicle that’s not at fault, you would potentially be entitled to their uninsured, underinsured. So we made a claim against that and we got that full limit. Well, they offer then also turned around and gave us the full liability limit, which is not their contract doesn’t read that way. That’s not typically the way the law works. You don’t get both. You don’t get liability out of the car you’re in and uninsured motorists out of the car you’re in.
26:52	But I fully believe that it was based on the fact that, you know, I work with Montlick and Associates now. We have a reputation that, you know, we’re going to pursue to the end and whatever that takes. And I think they saw the injury. They saw the facts. They saw the fact that, you know, we are who we are. And I think that’s really what spurred it. They basically told me it was a business decision. Which again, I think it’s like they knew who they were doing business with.
27:19	You know, as a solo attorney out on my own, I don’t know that I would have gotten that same result. Yeah, it’s interesting that you say that because it’s almost like the magic of Montlick. You know, we were talking about magic words. Maybe Montlick is the magic is the magic word sometimes. It might have been. There might have been some abracadabra there. I don’t know. But you know it worked out well. My client’s obviously ecstatic. I do wonder if it feels like you’re taking some of this stuff personally as an attorney.
27:48	You get these clients and these cases, as you mentioned earlier, do go on for a really long time. And it’s got to like I mean, do you take it home with you? Are you thinking about it all the time? Yeah, you do. How do I maximize the value of this case? How do I help this client get well? What am I doing wrong to make sure that they’re right, to make sure that they’re on their way to wellness? You do. I mean, you do take these things personally. And with the experience I’ve had over the years, I know what it looks like when it’s all resolved.
28:17	You can actually watch, physically watch the relief come over your client when it’s settled and you’re giving them that settlement check. And I’ve seen it numerous times, and it’s absolutely fantastic. And so I know, like, hey, let’s hold on. I know that’s coming, and I can’t wait to get to that point. And a client will tell you, they’re like, I had no idea this was weighing on me as much as it was until it was done. And I’m like, that’s been my experience. And again, to see that, know that’s coming, you’re invested.
28:47	You’re like, come on, we can get there. Let’s get there. And in that same case I told you about where we were able to get, you know, kind of a double dip out of the policy that maybe we shouldn’t have. She’s in a bad way. And our client, you know, is having a difficult time and, you know, is in a situation that she needs to be out of. And so knowing, like, not only, you know, are you resolving her case and you’re resolving it for maximum value, but her specific instance is going to propel her into a better life. That’s that’s fantastic.
29:17	You know, and that’s, you know, that’s what drives you to do what you do. And again, knowing that’s coming and knowing you’re going to see that relief on their face, you know, that that’s worth everything. Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson here on Lawyers in the House with Motley on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters, and coming up, we’re bringing you the Montlick closing argument. Don’t miss it. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. If you want to listen to our radio show live, you can hear it every Sunday, 8:00 a.m.
29:49	on 95.5 WSB. Welcome back to the House. Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters, here with Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson. You have been waiting for it all hour long and I am not going to keep you in suspense any longer. The MCA is here. The Montlick closing argument. Scott Patterson, the floor is yours. All right. So six things you really need to do to maximize the value of your case and to help develop your case.
30:20	First, get medical treatment. No medical treatment. You have no bills. It’s very hard to prove damages. So get the treatment that you need. First and foremost for yourself and for your health. And then it’s going to be what ultimately establishes the value of your case is the type of medical care and the amount you need. Choose the right attorney. So get to the hospital if you’re hurt at the scene, then choose the right attorney. And we’ve been through a lot of that. Obviously, we think Montlick’s the right attorney for you in every situation.
30:51	Look for warning signs. A couple of them we talked about. If you’re not talking to an attorney on the front end of a case, that’s a warning sign. If someone is approaching you and asking you or telling you to hire a specific attorney, you don’t know who that person is, big warning sign, big red flag. Develop a strategic plan. That’s going to be, again, hiring the right attorney is going to help you develop the right strategic plan.
31:15	The primary thing that you need to do as a client is treat, continue to treat, follow up, do what’s recommended from your doctors, and then work with your attorney. Keep them informed. Help them understand how you’re treating the nature of your injury so that they can then continue to work your case, can understand your case, the nature of your case, the magnitude of it, and can move forward from there. Be part of a winning team. Again, that boils down to hiring that right attorney.
31:43	And again, you know, Montlick is going to be the right team for your personal injury case in 100% of the time. And then don’t let things whittle away your settlement unnecessarily. Again, if you can avoid taking a loan, avoid taking a loan. That’s just going to take away from your settlement unnecessarily. Make sure you understand all of your options. Work with your attorney. Give them information that they need.
32:11	Again, the things we talked about on the back end with knowing about insurance on the client side. Inform your attorney. Let them know what you have, all the various things. And again, a good attorney is going to ask you the right questions to get to the right answers. And again, that all falls back to choose the right attorney on the front end and make sure it’s an actual attorney. That question that people ask is obviously top of mind. And it’s never going to stop coming, Scott.
32:40	But you do have a chance to explain to them, here’s how we’re going to maximize the value of your case. Yeah, absolutely. And again, it’s not a question that’s asked only on the front end. You know, I get it throughout. And because it is, it’s top of mind for the client. What ultimately is this going to and how ultimately is this going to affect my life? So yeah, we get it. But, you know, as we go and through your case, we get closer and closer to that answer, and we get more informed.
33:07	And we can begin to sort of craft kind of what the end picture might look like. And, you know, that’s ultimately what the client wants to know. And ultimately, we give them that answer. Thank you so much to Montlick Injury Attorney Scott Patterson. I’m Veronica Waters. This is Lawyers in the House with Montlick. You know, just one final note. Magicians say it’s still magic, even if you don’t know how it’s done. A lot of us don’t know the ins and the outs of the law. So you’ve got to get an attorney who knows exactly what the tricks of the trade are and how to get you on your way to wellness and make you whole again.
33:40	Thanks for joining us here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. See you next time. 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.

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