026 Lawyers Answer the Most Common Questions Clients Ask

VERONICA: Kick off your shoes and relax your feet. You are in the house with me, Veronica Waters. Welcome to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. So glad to have you back with us for another episode.

VERONICA: Alyssa, you remember, is the person who’s got this reputation for being so hard working for her clients. She’s also known for being kind. They always talk about how compassionate she is, how she’s always calling to check on them and how persistent and driven she is, never giving up on trying to get them the best results. Alyssa also knows what it’s like to be on the other side of personal injury because she was her own lawyer when she had her own accident a few years ago.

ALYSSA:  Well, we talk to a lot of people, and I have a lot of clients who call with kids in the car when they were involved in an accident. And when I hear that, my heart just hurts. Because as a mom of two little ones, I know exactly the way the scream would sound. And all of the things that your child is going to be going through while you’re going through it, too.

VERONICA: Yeah, it’s like real empathy from a first-person perspective. All right. Richard Warner is new to the show, but he is no rookie lawyer in this house.

RICHARD: Yes, good morning.

VERONICA: That’s if the United Kingdom moved to New York City. Richard has been with Montlick for about 22 years now and has a little numbers experience behind him.

RICHARD: No, I was a business major in college because in high school, I was in a law program, and the teacher suggested to all of us that we major in something other than a traditional pre-law discipline in college… so you have something else to fall back on and to have some diversified experience. So, I was a business major and accountant-covers every aspect of business. So, I became a CPA, but my ultimate dream was to be an attorney.

VERONICA: And you’re an award-winning CPA, I read.

RICHARD: Yes, I have two awards from the New York State Society of CPAs.

VERONICA:  What was it like coming from one field like that into personal injury law?

RICHARD: Well, they’re similar in that you have to pay attention to detail, and we have to stay very focused as attorneys and also as accountants. The big difference is the bottom line that I’m fighting for now is the bottom line for my clients as opposed to a corporation.

RICHARD: It doesn’t cost you anything to hire us upfront. We work on what’s called a contingency fee basis. The contingency is we have to win your case and get money for you, and our fee comes from the settlement.

VERONICA: All right? So, it’s contingent upon we win the case. And that’s when we pay?

VERONICA: Okay. What if I don’t win?

RICHARD: If you don’t win, you don’t owe us one penny.

VERONICA: What?

RICHARD: Nothing whatsoever. I’ve been doing this for over 20 years. For the clients who have unfortunately not been able to send them a settlement check, I have not sent them a bill to ask for them to reimburse any of the expenses that we laid out on their behalf.

RICHARD: Well, the first step is to give us a call. And once we can help you, we jump into action right away. There are doctors who are independent from us who we can suggest to help you, but any decisions regarding your medical care is up to you.

VERONICA: When I call you. No cost for that either?

RICHARD: No cost. It’s a free consultation and you speak to a lawyer.

VERONICA: Alyssa. What if I’m worried? That, okay, I know this lawyer works on a contingency basis. Maybe they just want to hurry up and rush my case, take the first offer that the insurance company or whoever offers to me. So then quick payday for them, and now we’re going on separate ways.

VERONICA: All right, well, let me take a step back then, and let’s go to question number two. We’re talking about investigating a case, but how do I know if I even have a case to begin with? Let’s call that question number two. How do I even know if I have a case?

VERONICA: All right, well, sometimes, so if I’m one of those people where maybe I got a ticket in an accident or something, does that mean I don’t have a case?

RICHARD: Well, a ticket does not mean that you do not have a case. The police officer could not testify in court as to who is actually at fault.

ALYSSA:  And to kind of go with what Richard is saying, having the resources and the knowledge of how to get information and to actually get it and review it and take the time to look into these situations.

VERONICA: Of course.

ALYSSA: …the traffic lights are not green flowing towards the train. And I said it over and over again to the insurance company. And we were making this argument, and it took several months because we requested the body cam footage.

VERONICA: And that made the difference in the case.

ALYSSA:  It did.

RICHARD: And also, there are times when we get the 911 tapes and people will call in who are not listed on the police report. So, we’re able to contact them, get their statements, and turn the case around.

VERONICA: Wow, talk about putting in the time and the effort to investigate these cases. When folks are calling you for this free consultation, you’re not always the first call, right?

VERONICA: Can you think of a time when you had to tell somebody on the phone, I’m so sorry, but we can’t help you?

VERONICA: So, what I’m hearing from you, too, is that the wrong law firm can jack up my case.

RICHARD: Absolutely. Unfortunately,

VERONICA: Yeah. Can I fire my lawyer?

RICHARD: You have a right to fire your attorney at any time for any reason, but sooner is better.

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RICHARD: Absolutely. There’s a number of factors that will ultimately determine the value of any personal injury case. But most importantly, ultimately, you cannot put a price tag on your health. So, our initial focus is to get you better, and it’s the treatment and documentation of your injuries that lead to good results.

RICHARD: Well, that’s a red flag. None of us have a crystal ball. So, it’s really unfair to any person who calls up for a consultation for us to start tossing around dollar figures. We don’t know what the policy limits are for the insurance policy.

VERONICA: Okay, so the person throwing out numbers at me first time I talked to him is like, run as fast as you can.

RICHARD: Absolutely, the opposite way.

VERONICA: So how do you go through that process, though, to figure it out? How much a case is worth?

VERONICA: Is the award taxable?

RICHARD: Generally speaking, money for pain and suffering is exempt from both federal taxation and state taxation.

VERONICA: Could it vary from state to state?

RICHARD: It can vary from state to state, but federal law is consistent from state to state, but the individual laws in those states could vary.

VERONICA: Top five common questions to Montlick Injury Attorneys here on Lawyers in the House. If you’ve got a question you want us to answer, drop us a message online at lawyersinthehouse.com. I’m Veronica Waters with Alyssa White and Richard Warner. We’ll be right back.

You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick.

VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House. With me, your host Veronica Waters and Montlick injury attorneys Richard Warner and Alyssa White, running you through point by point, the top five most common questions Montlick Injury Attorneys receive. So far, we have learned how expensive is this going to be for me? How hard are you going to hit my pockets? How much is my case going to be worth?

RICHARD: Well, your case is typically driven by your medical treatment. We normally don’t start to resolve a case until you have been released from all treatment. Sometimes a client will respond well to what’s called conservative treatment, and that’s treatment with a therapist or a chiropractor.

VERONICA: Yeah. It seems like some of these cases, though, go on for years.

ALYSSA:  And just about how long a case takes… You’d be really upset with us if we hurried up to get you a settlement, let’s say six weeks or three weeks or a couple of months in and you were still having some residual pain.

RICHARD: Yes, it’s important for our listeners to understand that once their case is closed, it cannot be reopened.

VERONICA: So, if this is a question that’s top of mind for me, how long is this going to take…

ALYSSA:  It depends. I say it depends on you and when you are well. So, let’s say you go to therapy for three months, for example, and you’re good. You say, Alyssa, I’m back to normal. I’m back to the gym. I’m doing all my normal activities, I’m sleeping well through the night, things like that. Those are signs that you’re okay, you’re well. And at that point, we would move forward with the insurance demand to the insurance company.

VERONICA: And I know that sometimes, maybe if you have to go to mediation, you have to go to trial. That’s going to stretch out the timeline too.

ALYSSA:  Yes. Yes, exactly.

VERONICA: What are clients thinking and feeling in those moments, though, when they’re just sort of waiting?

ALYSSA:  Well, and the communication is a big factor in that. Let’s say we are not able to get the case resolved and we are moving forward with a lawsuit. And we do have a mediation on the calendar. Typically, it takes a couple of months to get everybody in the same room for a mediation, for example. And so just having the communication with your lawyer and being able to say, okay, my lawyer told me our mediation is December 15.

VERONICA: Yeah, it’s just like it’s putting you at ease psychologically. Right?

VERONICA: I can text you, I can call you, I can email you. And again, no bill for the email. Right? I spent 12 seconds thinking about this. So, let me bill…

RICHARD: You come into the office, have a face to face meeting. There’s no bill.

ALYSSA:  Yeah, it’s the time and the effort, and ultimately, it comes down to the compassion we have for our clients and wanting to do a very good representation for them and listening to their needs and executing the case well.

VERONICA: All right, so basically, again, it depends. We don’t know how long this is going to take, but as you said, the focus is on me getting well if I’ve been injured, right? What am I supposed to do in the meantime, though? Guys, let’s be honest.

RICHARD: When you get into a wreck, in most jurisdictions, particularly in Georgia, there’s two separate claims. One claim for property damage and one claim for your bodily injuries. So typically, you can resolve your property damage claim first and then keep your bodily injury claim open to receive ongoing injuries.

RICHARD: Okay, so we know. So, my client had an older SUV, was in good condition, as evidenced by the fact that it was repairable. It was repaired. The insurance company did not want to pay him for diminished value.

VERONICA: Love it. So, again, resources, time, effort, this is what it takes. Can we go back to the doctor’s bills, though, Alyssa? If I’m getting better, I’m focusing on getting better. This is what you want me to do whether I have insurance or not. It’s going to be expensive.

RICHARD: Yes, and that’s important, because when you have health insurance, if you look at your bill, your EOB or explanation of benefits, more often than not, your health insurance company does not pay the full bill. They get a discount. So, as Alyssa mentioned, we take the same approach on behalf of our clients.

VERONICA: I think that would be helpful for me, because I might be a little shy on the phone when it comes to exactly what you were just talking about, talking to someone and saying, Look. I do want to pay you. Listen, how often do bill collectors hear, I want to pay you? But it’s different than saying, I’m not going to pay you.

RICHARD: Yes. There’s something called treating on a lien basis. Lien. L. I. E. N. And under those arrangements, the doctors agreed to wait until the case is over before they expect payment. And even though they wait, we still negotiate the bills down. So, they take less than they initially billed.

VERONICA: I had no idea that you could do that.

ALYSSA:  We get a lot of clients who have no health insurance, and. You’re thinking, I was in Iraq. It’s not my fault. I’m hurt. What do I do? And just like the client I was speaking about earlier, she was waiting for her prior lawyer to call her with some options for medical care.

VERONICA: Yes. This isn’t the case. Can I ask you something, too, about that lady, though? How did she find out that her case was so messed up?

ALYSSA:  She found out that her lawyer was dropping her case when she went in to see her chiropractor.

VERONICA: What?

ALYSSA: Yes. So huge red flags there. Obviously, if your chiropractor is talking to you about your lawyer, that’s a problem.

RICHARD: Yes. I always tell my clients I can make suggestions, but ultimately, you make the decisions. You can treat with the doctors that you want to and you’re comfortable with, and I will provide them with whatever they need from me to help them treat you.

RICHARD: That’s a red flag.

VERONICA: I don’t know. That may not even actually happen.

ALYSSA:  Well, I just was speaking to someone yesterday who the lawyer showed up at the chiropractor’s office. So, you can only imagine what’s really going on out there if that’s just the little snippets of things that we hear about. But huge red flag if your lawyer shows up at your chiropractor.

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RICHARD: At Montlick, we are a personal injury law firm, and the key word there is personal. Your injury is personal to you, and it’s personal to us. Helping injured people is all that we do.

VERONICA: I’ve never had an attorney do that before. Thank you so much for doing that because normally I’m, like… didn’t mean to interrupt the Montlick closing argument. Go ahead, Alyssa.

ALYSSA:  I was just going to say, like we said earlier, if your doctor is talking to you about your lawyer or your case, big red flag.

VERONICA: Give me an example of when I know that that’s trouble.

RICHARD: Well, personal injury is hiding in plain sight all around us. More often than not, when we’re going to work and coming home from work, we see a wreck. Oftentimes in those wrecks, someone is injured. If you’re injured, we want to help you, but we can only help you if you call us first.

VERONICA: No running cases, folks.

RICHARD: No, that’s illegal.

VERONICA: Not even when it comes from the person that you think is helping you, the person who’s got you in their medical office.

ALYSSA:  Yeah, it’s a huge red flag if a lawyer is showing up while you’re having physical therapy. Big red flag.

VERONICA: That happens.

ALYSSA:  It does. It really does.

ALYSSA:  I’ll be your lawyer no matter where you choose to go to the doctor. And if any lawyer is conditioning their representation on you going to a specific doctor. Again, like we always say, big red flag. I’ll be your lawyer. We want what’s best for you and your medical treatment. And as long as you’re getting medical treatment, that’s the best thing you can be doing for yourself and for your case.

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