018 Long-Shot Cases

VERONICA: Welcome on into the house. Make yourselves comfortable. I’m Veronica Waters.

NIVES: Thank you for having us.

MIKE: It’s great to be back.

VERONICA: We’re talking about long shot cases today, folks, and one of the things I’ve learned about Mike and Nives is that they are so persistent and so passionate and as I said, don’t run from a fight even when things look tough. But I want to know what’s a long shot case look like in the first place? How does it even come to you?

MIKE: Well, there’s all kinds of classifications, and it’s great to see you again. Thanks for having us back. A long shot case can be a low property damage case. It can be a case that happened on private property. It can be a case with disputed liability. But essentially, at its core, it’s an insurance company denying a case for a client. And at the other side of that denial is somebody who has been horribly hurt.

MIKE: Absolutely, because they are… They’re sitting in their pain. They’re sitting and being told their pain has no value. They’re facing financial ruin, bills, cars, you name it. And they’re desperate, and all they’ve heard is no. And they may have heard no from other law firms as well.

VERONICA: Nives, what do these cases have in common from your point of view?

NIVES: Similarly to what Mike just said, we are dealing with cases that sometimes have very low property damage.

VERONICA: You also like to get into these cases, and you all are so creative in the ways that you sort of solve these problems.

MIKE: Yeah. I had a client who called me, and it was the perfect storm.

MIEK: How must that feel? Not just for you, the attorney who helps guide this victory, but for the person who has already been told, no, no, no. I said no.

MIKE: They don’t understand.

NIVES: Once we win for these clients, it is so gratifying to know that people who felt helpless and hopeless, whose families sometimes met with us and told us how their life has been turned upside down… People are losing jobs. They have to have surgeries. They have families to support… the pain in their voices…

VERONICA: Quickly, why would another attorney turn something down? Is it just because it doesn’t look like an easy win?

NIVES: It could be for a myriad of reasons. Sometimes, not every attorney has the same experience in fighting the good fight, interpretation of the law, facts, being creative, doing the hard work to investigate and find the evidence that helps overturn liability.

VERONICA: You’ve got to have the resources, too, and you’ve got to be able to put in the work. As we go through the show, I would love to hear some more of your stories about some of these incredible things that you’ve turned around. Nives, there was one case, I think, in particular where you had some folks who hadn’t even gotten to a doctor.

VERONICA: Already with another firm?

NIVES: Yes, they were already with another firm. They asked for help. And once I took their case, I realized that they were very hurt without any medical care. Neither was employed at the time, and it was a really tough situation to be in.

VERONICA: Are you talking about a really healthy judgment for these folks that you were able to recover?

NIVES: We were able to get the limits on the case. In those two instances, we got the maximum value that we could.

MIKE: Yeah. These incidents very rarely happen in front of the officers, right? So when they’re called to the scene, they, of course, bring their experience to bear, but they may not have all the evidence point blank. They make a snap decision about fault based off of what they see at that scene. But then it’s when you get into the investigation, you start getting maybe ring doorbells from neighbors that are around and like you had said, shoe leather knocking on doors.

VERONICA: My mom always taught me, never take a no from somebody who’s not qualified to give you a yes in the first place.

MIKE: Great advice.

VERONICA: I would just keep calling and calling. Nives, what do you think about the folks who might be listening to you in this moment who say, I just don’t think I have a case?

NIVES: When in doubt, like Mike said, give our firm a call. We have attorneys who are willing, ready, and able to put in the hard work to investigate the matter if they believe there are merits to the case. We will not just turn somebody away. If, after investigating, we’re not able to help these people, we will tell them honestly and frankly why we can’t. Not every case can be won, but we do not shy away from the difficult ones.

VERONICA: Nives Juric and Mike Moran will be back with what kind of lawyer takes these cases anyway? This is Lawyers in the House. Stay with us.

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

MIKE: Willing to listen? Right.

VERONICA: Mike, you were telling me about this case where somebody was like, she’s a fraud. She’s faking it. She’s lying.

MIKE: Yeah, it was a really horrific case. I had an older client. She’ll probably kill me if she heard me say that. But she was walking home, and she walked with the assistance of a cane. She was walking across the street with a cane and in a crosswalk, and she got hit.

VERONICA: Oh, my gosh. They’re dragging her name through the mud, too.

MIKE: Yeah. She was physically hurt, and then her pride took a big beating, too. And so I met with her in person, listened to her. I wanted to hear this and it seemed so improbable. And she did go to the hospital and they found physical injuries, evidence that she was hit, evidence she hit the ground hard, she didn’t lay down. And I took that case and we ended up denials, of course, right.

MIKE: Well, yeah, one of the things that happens a lot that I see is Georgia has files, comparative liability. And what that means is a lot of times insurance companies will say, okay, our insured is at fault, but we’re only going to accept 70% of fault and we’re going to assign 30% of fault to you.

VERONICA: So saying I’m 30% responsible for what happened to me?

MIKE: Correct. And it could be anything. It could be 60/40, it can be 80/20. And they’re picking numbers out of their hat with their arguments. And so I would just encourage people not to accept that. If you haven’t called already, if you hear that, call us right away at 1800 Law-Need.

VERONICA: Wow, I never even thought about that. That is incredible.

NIVES: In these disputed cases, we have to find evidence to help overturn that liability decision. So how do we do it?

VERONICA: I see the fire in your eyes. Right? So you’ve got something in mind? Tell me.

NIVES: There was a case that I handled for a young man who was a father of three.

VERONICA: But what was it about the video? Because there was no argument that your client got hit by the truck.

NIVES: Sure, yeah. The footage revealed that the tractor trailer was driving pretty fast, took a very wide turn, was in the lane of passage that he wasn’t supposed to be in, and that at the time of striking my client, his vehicle was straight.

VERONICA: That is so frightening.

MIKE: Unfairness and a search for the truth, I mean, to really peel it back.

VERONICA: Can you tell me about that case that you too?

MIKE: Sure. It was a pedestrian case walking in the roadway. So not a lot of legal protections- struck and killed, unfortunately. And a grieving family in a different state. It was a really horrific, horrific case.

VERONICA: They called you? The family from out of state called?

MIKE: Yes, the family did. And we hit the ground running, literally, and were there. And then, you know, I think the other thing our lawyers do is we share this information with our clients because I think clarity for somebody is equally as important as taking the case.

NIVES: Yeah, and I’m glad you said that. Sometimes we have to go back to the reporting agency 2, 3, 4, 5 times.

NIVES: Sure. Yes. Recently I had a case where two parties, including my client, were both faulted equally by the reporting agency that came to the scene.

VERONICA: So is this like a merge or something?

NIVES: One party is going straight, the other one is trying to take a left in front of them, and typically it results in a T bone collision, so they’re usually demolished vehicles. In my situation, my client had a head injury. He also sustained a very serious injury of the leg that necessitated emergency surgery. He had lost his job.

VERONICA: So neither one of them could really say what happened?

NIVES: Exactly. So the officer said, we’ll let the insurance company decide.

VERONICA: The smoking gun. Dedication and perseverance is the name of the game. Nives Juric and Mike Moran. I’m Veronica Waters. Just ahead, Montlick’s closing argument. Don’t miss it.

NIVES: The four reasons why you should call Montlick. In case another firm has already denied your claim, or an insurance company has already denied liability on your claim:

MIKE: Number one, you will talk with an attorney. You will speak with a lawyer, and you will get a full consult from them for free, and they will listen. And as we’ve talked earlier about hearing the fact pattern, let them hear what you have to say and bring forward what your thoughts are.

NIVES: Number three, there could be additional avenues of recovery that the other firm never gave you as an option. And lastly, like Mike said, we will listen to your story. We will try to help you, but if for some reason we cannot, we will do our very best to be as frank and honest and walk you through the reasons why we cannot help. We might even be able to give you some options on how to proceed on your own.

VERONICA: And what’s it like when you have those conversations with somebody that you did have to tell no?

NIVES: You know, sometimes people actually have thanked me. They have told me that because I took the time and care to explain why we couldn’t take on a matter…

VERONICA; I’ve talked to several Montlick injury attorneys by now who tell me that they spend a lot of time on the phone with folks, even when they don’t take the cases, because it’s important to let them know the why behind the we can’t and how gratifying must it be to just finally feel heard.