Delay is pernicious. For many lawyers, it is a bit of a sign of success. You are too busy to get to even your most important cases because there are fires to be fought on other cases. My clients don’t care that I am successful or that I am over busy or that I am working on someone else’s case. …
WHAT MY CLIENTS GO THROUGH
Here is a typical scenario. Rick was driving his motorcycle to work at his job as a bookkeeper for an auto parts store. He had always liked motors and machines and loved riding a motorcycle on a nice sunny day. On this particular day, he was stopped at a red light on a small side road when a kid driving …
Dangerous Dogs – People love their pit bulls but they make an awful mess when they bite
I settled a case recently for $300,000 involving a really savage bite by a pit bull. The dog had never bitten anyone before, but his bite was so bad that it took a year to heal, left my client with permanent cramping in her torn muscle, and it looked like she had been bitten by jaws. The dog was, of …
Blue Cross/Blue Shield is a bad corporate citizen for my clients
Imagine this situation happens to your friend, Sally Slipper. On a lovely spring day, Sally walked to a nearby bank on her lunch hour. She rarely took time for lunch from her job as an Administrative Assistant. As she was going to cross a busy intersection, she was watching traffic, the changing lights, and the blinking walk signs. Sally …
What is Great Customer Service in the Legal Profession?
Great customer service is a critical element of my business. I cannot compete with Morgan and Morgan for stupid ads. I cannot offend people like Top Dog Law. I cannot gather as many negative yelp reviews or complaints to the disciplinary board of Pennsylvania as my larger competitors. But, what I can do is listen to what you are going …
EXPERT WITNESSES / LAWYER WRITING
Every case of mine needs at least one expert witness because my client and I are not allowed to say that an arm was fractured or a herniated disc herniated without a doctor saying it. Them’s the rules. So, I spend a decent amount of time and effort reading the experts’ reports both from my side and the opposing side. …
WHAT MY CLIENTS GO THROUGH
I write a lot about the business of personal injury law. Today, I am going to write a little bit about things I don’t often write about and that is what my clients go through before and during their cases. Here are two examples: Sally is a new grandmother and very excited about her new role and spending time with …
Go/No GO
Deciding whether to file suit on a case is often just a business judgment on my end. Based on having done this for 20 year plus, is this a case that is worth putting into suit? Recently, I have had the difficult conversation with clients in two cases that simply did not make sense to put into suit. What does …
TRIAL NOTICES
When a case is getting close to trial, the Courts will let us know by sending out a trial notice. When I was a younger defense lawyer with an oversize volume of cases, this would start a panic at the office as we struggled to make sure everything was ready for Court. As a plaintiff’s lawyer, while trial notices are …
No Free Bites
Dog bite cases trouble insurance companies because it is very hard to question the dog about his motives. I say his because I have never had a female dog bite a person. I’m sure it happens all the time, but not in my case files. Dogs can do a lot of damage or a little damage depending on the dog …