How much is enough?
How much is enough? How much money will it take before we call off the dogs and let the insurance company and the defendant be? I have heard of lawyers who have formulas they use to determine the value of a case, and all insurance companies use formulas, but at the Wayne O’Bryan Law Firm, we don’t use formulas, because every case is unique. Each person responds to pain and tragedy differently, and each person’s circumstances are different. For one person an accident may be a minor hindrance, and for another the same accident could drastically change their lives. Many lawyers get trapped by focusing solely on the medical bills, which to us is like focusing on the tip of an iceberg and not paying attention to the part of the iceberg which we can’t see, which makes up 90 % of the iceberg. However, the tip of the iceberg can be seen, and the rest of it cannot be seen.
This may explain why so many lawyers make the mistake of focusing so much on the medical bills that they pay little attention to the remaining 90 % of the case – the actual injuries and damages to the plaintiff, and the negligent conduct which caused it. Many clients, as a result of an accident, have to treat with medical physicians for years to get some relief from their injuries, and here is where the art of trial advocacy an settlement strategy comes in. As important as the medical bills are, and they are vitally important, the remaining 90 % of the case is even more important. The medical records, unlike pain, can be easily seen – all you have to do is add them up. The pain, suffering, and inconvenience from an accident, however, are not easily seen. It takes skill on the lawyers part to honor the client’s case by focusing on the real damages, and not just the medical bills. It takes skill to portray an injured person as an injured person, when the insurance company is trying to portray that same person as a malingerer. To do this, the whole case needs to by carefully scrutinized, and a true portrayal of the client’s injuries must be painted. This is where the skill and experience of the lawyer come in, and it is why we have been able to help so many injured people.
This does not mean we do not carefully examine the medical bills and beat the insurance company over the head with them. We beat the insurance company over the head with the entire case, and the bills are crucial. Before we advise a client to accept an offer of settlement we make sure it is the right offer for that client, and not the right offer for some other client based on some formula. Everyone is unique and every case is unique, and we treat them that way. What it does mean, is, we present the full case to the insurance company, and if they don’t like it and aren’t willing to pay, we take our baseball bat to court with us and demand a jury trial, where we excel as much as we do outside of the courtroom.
Being an accident victim is no game and it is no joke. It is a serious matter. An injured person needs a serious lawyer, one with the proper skill and experience to beat the insurance company. We can’t guarantee we will beat them every time, but we have been in business a long time because we honestly care about our clients and we fight for them to win.