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00:07 Speaker 1: Good afternoon, Matt. Good to see you.
00:08 Matt Dolman: Hey, Christian, how are you today?
00:10 S1: Doing well. Got a couple of questions from some viewers and some clients. I'd like
to ask you a few questions.
00:16 MD: I'd love it.
00:17 S1: One comes from Mike, and Mike has recently been involved in an accident. He
sustained some physical injuries. Does he really need an attorney?
00:27 MD: That's a loaded question. Obviously the self-serving answer for me at Dolman Law
Group is to say yes. But truth be told that individuals who go about it alone, and studies
have proven this, often receive 40% of the compensation they are, otherwise, deserving
of, and those are in minor impact crashes. So, imagine if you're involved in a very substantial
automobile accident, you're going to only get probably nuisance value, meaning the insurance
company's gonna pay you a certain amount of money to simply walk away. The problem is,
you as a lay person, or even if you hire an attorney who's not competent, or has not experienced
a personal injury intends to be a jack-of-all-trades-master-of non-type of attorney, they might not do the
proper investigation to determine all lines of available insurance coverage that might
be out there.
01:12 MD: Sometimes there's insurance coverages that may not be readily ascertainable at the
scene of the accident. You might get a lazy attorney, who only looks up the bodily injury
and uninsured/underinsured motorist coverage, and not realize that they can look at a separate
policy for the driver and the owner of the automobile. They may not check off to see
if underinsured/uninsured motorists was actually checked off by the individual, the motorist,
at the time they signed up for their insurance policy. These are things that a competent,
experienced personal injury attorney will do. We will search for the lay witnesses,
the individuals who may have seen the accident. We will know the lay of the land, the doctors
that handle personal injury claims, what to look out for in the pitfalls that we often
see in many cases.
01:55 MD: When you're looking for an experienced competent personal injury attorney, you wanna
find an attorney who has handled hundreds of very similar cases. That will enable them
to determine what is the proper amount of compensation or value for the typical claim.
What is the average jury verdict for this type of case? Many attorneys do not know this.
Many attorneys have never picked a jury. You need to find an individual, who is very competent,
who has litigated cases all the way through trial if necessary.
02:22 S1: I wanna spin off a question you just... Based on your answer, you're talking
about insurance companies.
02:28 MD: Sure.
02:28 S1: We see and... The public is inundated by questions or ads from insurance companies
that they're their neighbors, that they're their friends, that they're safety. In your
years of personal injury experience, could you tell us whose interest the insurance has
in mind, and what do you think about these commercials, as portraying themselves as the
way they are?
02:51 MD: Sure. We often see Allstate proclaims that they're the good hands people or State
Farm is like a good neighbor. Well, if State Farm acted like a good neighbor, I wouldn't
have hundreds of cases in my litigation department against State Farm themselves. If Allstate...
If you're in good hands with Allstate, they would gladly pay out the policy limits when
it's obvious, as what a reasonable person would do when looking at the very same medical
records. But these insurance companies, time and again, will give us low-ball settlement
offers and it goes throughout our community.
03:21 MD: I talk to many of my colleagues, some of them are the best trial attorneys
in town, and some of them are just personal injury mills, and they're still seeing the
very same offers from Allstate and State Farm across the board. The only difference is whether
you're going to litigate it. When I say that, is there teeth behind our threat. Are we willing
to file a lawsuit? Are we willing to invest money in the case and try it before a jury,
if necessary? That's what you get at our law firm, and there are several law firms in this
town, in Pinellas County, that are willing to do such, but there are many others who
do not. When you asked me the first question, "What's their interest?" Their interest is
their shareholders. Their interest is preserving their money and keeping as much money as possible.
The longer they delay, the longer they stall, the more interest they draw off the money
that's sitting in their account.
04:03 MD: They don't just do this to your claim, they're doing this to millions of claims
across the board. This is a pattern of business. This is how Allstate, State Farm, GEICO, Progressive,
USAA, and a host of other insurance companies handle their daily business. They don't look
out for their insureds. What they're looking out for is to make as much money as possible,
therefore profit business. If you ask me, "What is a good insurance company?" I don't
know what a good insurance company is. It's level upon level of lies that we see from
insurance carriers all throughout the state of Florida. I don't know if there is a such
thing as a good insurance company. Insurance companies are looking out for their own best
interests, never for the interests of their insured.
04:39 S1: When clients come in, you obviously see mistakes made by them prior to retaining
counsel such as yourself.
04:49 MD: Sure.
04:50 S1: Could you tell us what are some of the things that people should do directly
after suffering injuries in an auto accident?
05:01 MD: I often find clients who are salt-of-the-earth types. They always remind me of my father.
They'll be injured or will have pain and they hope and pray that it goes away. They're reluctant
to see a physician. You might be in pain and I understand that, and I'm not looking to
demean your injuries. But until you actually see a physician, someone who is competent,
someone who can actually document and chart your injuries, take a recordation of what
is really bothering you, somebody who'll conduct a clinical physical examination of you, it
really doesn't mean a whole lot to an insurance company. And if necessary, we have to try
this case before a court of law, before a jury of your peers, what evidence do we have
to produce that you were actually injured? If you're not seeing somebody, if you're sitting
on your butt at home, no matter how much pain you're in... Everyone has a different threshold
to what bothers them.
05:51 MD: Our cases are based on the values, based on objective, medical documentation,
so we need to be able to show, objectively, what is wrong with you. And that's through
chart notes, through SOAP notes of different physicians who may have seen you, who may
have clinically examined you along the way. We show this through MRIs and other diagnostic
films such as x-rays, CAT scans. This is how we show the pathology is through the diagnostic
examinations. And then through clinical examinations, we're able to correlate what is shown diagnostically
with your actual physical complaints and how you react regarding certain stimuli. Without
doing such and without seeing physicians, all we are going off of this is your complaints
and that does not hold a lot of value. You know another mistake, also Christian, I meant
to bring to light is individuals who give recorded statements to insurance companies
prior to retaining legal counsel. Now I am not here to paint an insurance adjuster or
individuals that work for insurance companies with one brush. We know they're good people
and they may have an adverse interest in Mike or us or our law firm, but they're good people.
They're there to do their job.
06:56 MD: The problem is their job is to save money for the insurance company and they may
make a decision based on statements that should never have been made that should never have
been recorded. It's important that you consult with and talk with a licensed Florida personal
injury attorney, one who is experienced and competent, before you give a recorded statement
to the insurance company. It's important that your attorney is present during the recorded
statement or live via telephone. They may be able to interrupt a recorded statement
to prevent certain questions from being asked that are privileged or do not pertain to what
we're actually getting to the heart of, which is what caused the accident and where are
you treating medically.
07:30 S1: Some people, when they retain an attorney after being injured in an automobile
accident either get confused or misunderstand what pre-litigation and litigation entail.
Could you give the viewers a cursory idea of how that works and when they actually enter
litigation and why?
07:53 MD: Sure, again, it's a loaded question because there is so much criteria that comes
into play in determining when a case is ready and ripe for litigation. The first of your
questions, Christian, is, what is pre-litigation? Pre-litigation is a case or a claim rather
that comes into my office, I'm representing the client, and we're trying to work the case
up and maximize the value of the case or claim with an insurance adjuster before ever filing
a lawsuit. At that point a lawsuit is not an option, we're just working with the adjuster.
We file a lawsuit based on several reasons. One is, we have a breakdown in communications
with the insurance adjuster or we receive an unreasonable settlement offer, there's
no room for dialog they're not moving up much. We know what a fair value, what a fair compensation
would be for the given claim and they're never gonna get to there to that point without us
filing a lawsuit. Other times, we may file a lawsuit very early in the case based on
prior dealings with that very insurance company knowing the lay of the land. And I talked
earlier about being an experienced personal injury attorney. At our firm, we have four
very experienced personal injury lawyers that understand the lay of the land, I mean the
landscape.
08:56 MD: We know which insurance companies are gonna work with us, which aren't. How
certain insurance companies react to specific physicians and specific types of medical treatment
as well as the property damage involved. And whether they're going to take a hard line
approach early or not. And depending on how much coverage is available in a case, we may
make a decision very early to file a lawsuit because there's no exposure to the insurance
company because there's such a big policy. Many times my clients will walk in and say
"Wow Matt! There's a one million dollar policy for the at-fault party this is great news."
Not always. It's good news in the fact that it will allow you to undergo any type of medical
treatment that is warranted for your case and there's clearly enough compensation at
the end of the case or enough in terms of policy limits to pay you for the proper medical
compensation due in your case. However, in those type of cases the insurance company
has very little exposure. There's no exposure above and beyond the policy limits, so we
are often forced to file lawsuits to get the insurance company to come to terms and to
take a reasonable posture on the case.
09:55 S1: Everybody listens to the radio, people watch TV, and we often hear advertised,
these gimmicky 1-800 numbers that promise to get you $10,000 benefits. Could you explain
to us a little bit about what the advantages if any or disadvantages of having a knee jerk
reaction in calling these 800 helplines to assist you in your injury case?
10:21 MD: Again, this is only my opinion, I can only speak for myself. And this is not
to paint every attorney or physician associated with lawyer referral services with one brush.
There's some very competent attorneys that belong to them. The problem is I recently
heard an advertisement on 94.1, here in Tampa, where a young lady, a non-lawyer spokesperson,
I don't even know what that is. It's an individual that doesn't have the ability to go to court
or the ability to represent you, was speaking about how there's so many different members
of the Florida Bar. She actually stated the exact number and yet there is only one Pain-411.
This is a commercial for Pain-411, which is a lawyer referral service here in Tampa, and
your average viewer may draw the inference that there is some special criteria quality
that belong to this lawyer referral service. There is no special criteria or quality to
belong to any lawyer referral service. In fact, just last year, Pain-411 entered into
a settlement with the Attorney General's Office for the state of Florida, and they actually
are no longer allowed to state that you have to have a special criteria to belong to a
lawyer referral service. There is no special quality.
11:21 MD: You're just simply paying to belong to the service whether it's Ask Gary, Pain-411,
there's several other smaller lawyer referral services. They pay a fee and then you're on
a rotation of what cases you're going to get. You're calling into a call center and they
arrange your medical treatment, they coordinate that and they coordinate you with an attorney,
so is there anything about these services? I don't think so, but that's only my opinion.
If I'm injured in an auto accident, I'd rather just talk to a lawyer, a lawyer right away.
An individual who is gonna give me personal attention, a lawyer who is gonna give me their
cellphone number that appears on my business card. I think that is what separates us at
Dolman Law Group from a lot of our peers, not just lawyer referral services, but many
attorneys in the community.
12:00 MD: How often can you get an attorney on their cellphone, after hours? How quick
does your attorney get back to you with emails? This is something I pride myself on. This
is why I have been able to a build up a successful personal injury practice, it's based on word
of mouth. It's based on doing a good job for my clients and giving them good service. I
can't promise the results you're going to get. All I can promise is I'm gonna do the
very best job I can do for my clients, I'm gonna work my damnedest and I'm gonna keep
an open line of communications. It's the only way that we can foster a very good relationship
and a fruitful relationship going forward.
12:34 MD: So when you ask me, do these 1-800 numbers provide any special service? No, it's
the same as picking a lawyer off of a billboard. We see many billboards in town for different
lawyers who we've never seen in court, who farm out their litigation to other lawyers,
who state that they are a specific type of attorney, whether it's a auto accident attorney
or a motorcycle lawyer, or whatever have you. Just because the attorney looks nice posing
on a billboard does not mean they are any more competent than anyone else in the community.
In fact, some of them are not very competent, some of them are.
13:03 MD: I don't want to paint lawyers who advertise on billboards with one brush either.
There's some very good law firms that run on billboards, but to pick a lawyer just off
the billboard, or off a television commercial, or off a radio spot, it's a bad idea. Research
the lawyer, see what their clients think about them, look at their reviews online, ask other
lawyers in the community what their reputation is. Go to Avvo.com, look to see what their
colleagues are saying about them. Go to Martindale, look online and Google Reviews and see what
other lawyers and their former clients have to say about that attorney, the type of service
they performed, and their integrity. That's what you need to know, not whether the lawyer
looks good on a billboard or had a good makeup session beforehand. That really doesn't hold
a lot of weight when you have to go to court.
13:49 S1: We often hear questions about mediation. What is mediation? What can I expect in mediation?
Who are the players in mediation? Who makes the decisions at mediation? Could you explain
in some detail those answers and what a person can expect going into mediation?
14:11 MD: Mediation is a process that we often go through during litigation, but it's not
only related to litigation. Sometimes insurance companies want to engage in what's called
a pre-suit mediation before we file a lawsuit to see if we can possibly amicably resolve
the case. Mediation is a process where you'll have your attorney, the plaintiff attorney,
the attorney for the injury victim, you'll have sometimes the at-fault party will appear
live sometimes they won't, but you'll have a defense lawyer, an insurance adjuster on
the other side of the table, and then you'll also have the mediator, the only impartial
individual in the room, and his or her job is to facilitate communication between both
parties.
14:49 MD: So what you can expect in mediation is the plaintiff attorney like myself will
give an opening statement. I'll surmise the facts of the case, our arguments, our very
cause of action, and how we see this case going if we are unable to successfully resolve
the case in mediation, and the next step is to try this case before a jury of your peers.
The defense lawyer will give their opening statement. Often times, they'll put on a dog
and pony show for the adjuster. You gotta remember the defense lawyer he answers to
the adjuster, and many times I have to coach my client and explain to them, don't take
any of the comments personally, remain poker-faced, but you're gonna hear everything that's wrong
with your case. They're gonna take some shots that you might feel are below the belt, don't
get emotional. They're going to go through it, and when they're done the mediator may
make a couple of statements and we break off into separate rooms. That's called caucusing.
And then we go back and forth with offers. Generally, the defense lawyer will make the
first offer and the mediator will work the rooms. They'll go back and forth between each
room relaying the offers and the counteroffers and the arguments that each side has made
as to why the offer is not just or why the offer is fair depending on who's eyes it's
in.
15:54 S1: What is a successful mediation then?
15:58 MD: A successful mediation is one in which... I often talk to my partner, Christian
Meyer, about this and we agree, it's one where all parties leave unhappy. And what that basically
means is settlement is the art of compromise. So everybody has to give in a little bit in
order to get the case resolved. So in a successful mediation, we are able to get the case resolved
or... And sometimes we don't get the case resolved and we get very close to getting
the case resolved and we have an open line of dialog where within a week or two of mediation,
we are able to get the case settled.
16:26 MD: But when I say all parties leave unhappy, defense lawyer and the adjuster feel
like they paid too much and my client feels like they didn't get proper compensation,
that the case possibly worth a little bit more. And that might be true, perhaps the
case is worth another $10,000 or $15,000 dollars, but they were paying $150,000. The point is,
is the juice worth the squeeze? Is it worth going forward? Is it worth taking on that
risk? Is it worth possibly losing a trial or exposing yourself to defense fees versus
having to give up $10,000 or $15,000 dollars, or maybe 5% or 10% of the overall value of
the case. And that's oftentimes the decision my client has to make. I can't make a decision
for my client, all I can do pursuant to the Florida Bar Rules is strongly advise them
as to what I think they should do. I dictate strategy, they dictate decisions, but many
times each party leaves, a little bit unhappy.
17:15 S1: So in your opinion, there is a certain certainty to resolving your case at mediation
as opposed to what is the other option?
17:24 MD: The other option is to let the chips fall as they may and try the case before a
jury of your peers. Or push the case further to the courthouse steps and hope that the
other side caves in or truly find their value. It's like a card game. It's you want to bluff
them and maybe take the case up to trial. We don't really try to engage in that game.
If we are not successful in resolving the case in mediation, the next step is to take
the case up to trial, pick a jury, and see what we can do. And do our damnedest to get
the best job and best outcome for our client. But there is risk involved. Anytime you put
a case in the hands of six lay people... There's no IQ test to sit on a jury.
18:00 MD: There are going to be very smart people and individuals who are not very sophisticated.
All you need in this town is a driver's license, rather, in the State. So, if all you need
is a driver's license, we're not testing you for intelligence. Many individuals do not
have any experience dealing with injuries, have no scientific background, you do not
know what a jury is going to do. We've seen verdicts that are shockingly above and beyond
what we ever expected on a case, but you see also many verdicts that are far below what
we ever expected. And sometimes zero dollar verdicts for some phenomenal trial attorneys
in town. So, you're taking a huge risk going forward. The risk that you avoid is by getting
the case resolved at mediation. That's whole point of when you asked, "What is definitive
about mediation?" is you walk out of that room with the case resolved, we have settled
the case and now we avoid the risk of going forward.