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Something else you need to know. So we talked about the demographic. What do you need to
know about -- well, let me go back even further. Remember I asked you at the very beginning,
you've now learned or gotten a suspicion that the person you're talking to may have a valid
medical malpractice case. What do you do next? So now, here's what you do next. Now you're
going to come to the client and you're going to say, "Ms. Jones, here's what you need to
do next. I'm going to send you off (for example, to Mr. Oginski). I want you to take this book
that I have in my office, this book that he wrote called 'Secrets of a New York Medical
Malpractice Attorney.' I want you to read this and I want you to read it because it
will help explain how these cases work. Then I want you to call him." Or call another attorney
that you're referring them to. "And now they're going to help you understanding whether or
not you have a valid basis for a case." But before you make that call to send a case to
an attorney who handles this, the real question you have to ask yourself is: is this the type
of case that you can handle on your own? Is this the type of case that you feel comfortable
handling from start to finish? And if the answer is yes, by all means take it and run
with it. If you think it's a valid case. If, on the other hand, you think wait a second.
I don't do this every single day. Let me send the case out to an experienced attorney who
handles these cases on a regular basis. Now what you're doing is you're doing a client
a service, you're doing yourself a service (a good one!) and you're also doing a service
for the referring attorney, for the attorney you're sending the case to. And what you're
doing before you make that call, you have to ask that attorney a couple of things. Here's
what you need to know. Did you know what the attorney's fee is in a medical malpractice
case? For those of you who don't, you should know in a negligence case the attorney's fee
is one-third after the expenses are reimbursed to the law firm. But in a medical malpractice
case, the attorney's fees are much less. They are on a sliding scale and they only start
at 30% and go down by 5% as we get more and more money for the client. So that's important
for you to understand before sending the client out to an attorney who handles these matters.
Why do I say that? Because when you send a case out and refer it to another attorney,
what you need to do is confirm with the attorney in writing (1) that you're sending the client
to him, (2) your mutual understanding of what the referral arrangement is. And typically
what will happen is when you send a case to an attorney who handles medical malpractice
cases, the referring fees is a sliding scale of the sliding scale. So, for example, if
I'm able to recover a 25% attorney's fee you would then be entitled to a 25% fee of my
attorney's fee. If I was able to get 20% then you would get 20% of my 20%. Now in order
for you to take advantage of getting a referral fee, there are a couple things you need to
know and this very important. New York law and the court rules say you have to justify
that you are entitled to receive a fee. Okay, well how do you that? Well the rules say that
you have to show that you have done some level of legal work in order to justify a fee. What
exactly does that mean? It means that you have spoken with a client, you communicate
with the client on a regular basis, it means you strategize with the trial attorney as
the case progresses. It might mean that you have obtained medical records for the client
and are now evaluating, together with the attorney you referred them to. Different things.
All of those things have been found to be justified in order to for you to get and to
be entitled to that referral fee. Now, wait a second. Before you get that referral fee,
you may ask yourself how can I protect myself so that I can be sure to get that referral
fee? One of the best ways to be sure of getting that referral fee is by filing an OCA retainer
statement, that's known as an Office of Court Administration retainer statement, which tells
the court administration, hey, Attorney Jones has just signed up this client. He's now referred
them to Mr. Oginski. Now he's on record as being the referring attorney. Again, before
you go ahead and deal with filing an OCA retainer statement, you should ask the attorney "Wait
a second. Do you do this for me so I don't have to?" The good attorneys -- and when I
say good attorneys, the good law firms who do this on a regular basis -- will do it all
for you. So that all you have to do is sign the form we send you in the mail, drop it
in the mail. We get the postcard with your retainer statement number and you're good
to go. Plus, you also get written confirmation from us, the attorney, telling you "Okay,
Ms. Jones. We now signed you up and now you're on record as being the referring attorney."
Here's something else you must do and this is critical. When talking to your client and
now you tell them, "Okay, Ms. Gonzalez. I'm going to send you over to Mr. Oginski or to
this other attorney. Here's the book I want you to read in the meantime. By the way, if
Mr. Oginski is successful in getting you compensation for your injuries, you should know that there's
only one attorney's fee." And you can, if you want, describe what the fee is or just
say the attorney will discuss it with them. But you have to ask them this key question:
if you are successful, I just want you to be aware that because I'm now referring you
to Mr. Oginski who handles these cases every day, it's okay and there's one attorney's
fee. I will then receive a percentage of Mr. Oginski's attorney's fee. Is that okay with
you, Ms. Jones?" And of course they're going to say yes. There's no reason to say no. So
it's very important that you acknowledge and get from the client her understanding that
you are going to be sharing a fee once you send the case out to the trial attorney. Very,
very important because you never want to be in the situation where now the case has settled
and now you come in trying to assert the fact that you're entitled to a fee and the client
says, "The first attorney didn't tell me anything that I'd be sharing a fee. I don't want to
give that attorney anything. She didn't do anything." So you have to be very careful
and just ask that one question and you'll always get a positive answer.