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Hi. I'm Terry Crouppen from the law firm of Brown and Crouppen. I know you are concerned
about your on-the-job injury. We know that getting hurt at work creates all sorts of
problems: Health problems, money problems, family problems. My partner, Ron Brown, and
I created this video to help you take the first step in solving these problems. The
first question you need to answer is, "Should you get a lawyer or can you handle your case
alone?"
Let me tell you what your lawyer can do for you. Understand when you are hurt on the job,
you are in what is known as an advocate system. Both you and the insurance company representing
your employer try to get the best settlement they can. To you, this means that insurance
companies are going to try to compensate you for your injury with as little money as they
can get away with. Obviously this is not very good news. Also the people representing the
insurance companies are experts. Yeah, usually the adjusters, investigators, and yes the
lawyers hired by the insurance companies are experts with years of experience in pretty
much doing one thing: Settling hurt worker's cases cheap.
So you need to ask yourself how experienced, how effective are you going to be for yourself
if you try to handle your case alone without a lawyer's help?
To decide, you need to ask these questions:
Do you have enough experience in worker's compensation to know what your case is really
worth? Do you know a medical doctor who will work for you to provide the medical information
and ratings you need to get a fair settlement? Most important, if you have to, can you prepare
and present your case in front of a worker's compensation judge and jury to get the money
you need and derserve? The answers to these questions are probably not, but a good lawyer
can.
Look, if your basement was filled with water, you would get a plumber. In fact, when you
were hurt on the job, you went to a doctor. The point is, the type of worker's compensation
legal problems you are involved in now are best handled by professionals: Men and women
who work every day with the judges and laws of worker's compensation.
Please understand, I am not trying to insult you. With no experience, I could not do your
job very well. But these are important questions to think about because the success or failure
of your case could affect you and your family for the rest of your life. The bottom line
is, we at Brown and Crouppen believe that in virtually all the cases we take, a good
worker's compensation attorney can make you a better settlement than you can make yourself,
even after the lawyer is paid a percentage fee. Also it can usually be done in a matter
of months, not years. We also believe in most cases a good lawyer will do nothing that should
jeopardize your job with your company if you still want it.
Look, why do you think that insurance companies usually do not want you to have a lawyer?
It is not because they are worried about you. It is because they know an experienced worker's
compensation attorney will usually make them pay more. And do you think they want to pay
as much as they can? Or as little? You decide.
If you believe a lawyer can help, the next question is which lawyer to choose. Well since
you called Brown and Crouppen, I guess you have some interest in us. So let me tell you
about us. Brown and Crouppen is one of Missouri's largest worker's compensation law firms. Our
people come to work for one reason, and that is to help you. Our main offices take up a
whole floor of the Laclede Gas Building in downtown St. Louis, plus we have satellite
offices all over the metropolitan area. Our offices are filled with all sorts of high-tech
equipment, from computers to high-speed word processors and printers, all of it to do one
thing: To serve you better.
Today, we feel we are just about the right size: Big enough to have the legal and financial
resources to fight the big insurance companies, but small enough to be able to treat our clients
as people, as individuals, as friends.
Over the years, we have represented thousands of people just like you: People who are not
greedy, but people who needed help to get fair compensation from billion-dollar insurance
companies who just did not care.
If you need us, we're here to talk more and answer all the questions we can. Call 421-HELP.
That's 421-HELP. But whatever you decide about your your injury case, I hope you have a quick
recovery and feel better soon.
Thanks for listening. Good bye and take care.