My settlement demand would look something like this: It's going to cost at least 30k to defend this case. Might as well give him the 30k in retirement.
I am very surprised that a lawyer who averages .5 trials a year told me to demand X and that if I did she would give me that and then she came back with 80% of what we agreed to She just signed herself up for a trial in. November or over what we agreed to.
Do you think you have to take a physical therapists' deposition to get the results of an FCE and issues as to restrictions into evidence? Or can you just take the treating ortho's deposition and have him review the FCE and give his opinions as to restrictions? I've never had this issue come up until recently when a lawyer mentioned it. I always just take the specialists deposition and get this opinions as to the FCE and restrictions.
I’m an M&A attorney so apologies for the probably dumb question: anybody have experience in Texas small claims court? Have a good friend who was served a complaint from a former tenant (that I think friend evicted for several missed rent payments in the spring). Just says “breach of contract - asked to open business with a lease after business was open gave lease to another person”. Can give more details via pm, but I don’t have the first clue what to tell them to do. Based on what they told me back when tenant was still occupying the space, I think it’s bullshit. So do I tell them to pull the contract, all correspondence with tenant (specifically anything related to the eviction) and to go to the JP and file for dismissal? Or maybe countersue for missed rent payments? Thanks in advance for any help.
Allstate lawyer admitted to me last week that they never offer more than $5k for underinsured or uninsured BI and make you go try it to get more than that. Doesn’t matter severity of injuries.
I once heard small claims court described as "where the desperate sue the pathetic over the mundane." It's pretty fitting.
I agree. I don't know the best way to go about that though. There are a lot of lawyers in Houston who won't take first party Allstate cases because of it, so it's working. If you have a client and they have $30k of coverage and 2 treating docs it's going to cost you ~$6500 to get to trial and your client is basically going to end up with maybe $1-2k. I get my money back, i get my fees, that i won't reduce if we take a case to trial, and we have to pay the docs. It is fucking their policy holders over so bad.
I like small claims court for certain types of cases such as worthless checks. Technically in Florida there is no small claims court but just small claims rules for County Court. It's very confusing.
Comp Client: "I want $350,000." Me: "It is literally impossible for me to get you more than $16,115."
Is it difficult to follow up and find out the results of a case? Obviously in crim we just check the Clerk.
I usually walk them through the scheduled member calculation or non scheduled member body as a whole stuff , explain loss of wage earning capacity analysis, etc , no pain and suffering, and can talk sense into them. I've been fired before over issues like that in comp cases, but it's pretty rare. Supper annoying though.
As far as amounts paid for settlements? Yes, unless it's a worker's compensation case or a child's case, which generally have to be approved by a judge so you can see the amounts paid in Alabama's e-filing system. And you can obviously see judgments on that system.
Yeah he just needs to hear it from someone else. And I don't mind at all as I'm trying to purge a bunch of small cases that rolled down to me at the former firm.
I had to babysit some comp cases for a few months when I first opened the Birmingham office and those were the longest months of my life
Out settlements get filed in the state WC system, so I get to see what people settle for when they’re idiots and fire me. I had one fire me after I told him $16k was the best we could do. I got fired. Six months later he settled for $10k.
Same here. I had a guy whose FCE said he was self limiting horribly. His treating ortho gave him a 0% rating and no restrictions. The guy was saying he couldn't get out of bed and couldn't work. They offered like $7k because the case was basically worthless. He fired me. I did a ton of work on his case so I filed a lien. He went to a few other lawyers that turned him down. Then he settled the case for the same amount as the original offer and I was paid my lien.
This is the worst thing about negotiation: Me: "Hey here's something to sign to cover this instance." Them: "I don't want to sign that I want to use my own." Me: "Alright let's see it." *Produces something ridiculous and unnecessary for the situation* Me: "Hey your document sucks do better." Them: "Please tell me what you want to change." Me: "It's 11 pages single spaced for something that should take 1 page so I don't want to take time to itemize every reason why I'm telling you no." Them: "I don't understand."
i love practicing law. we have our legal assitant get word copies of discovery from the other party and then format it for us and then we go off that formatting when calling clients to go over discovery. my dumbass legal assistant somehow missed 10 RFP. opposing counsel sends us a letter saying hey you guys didn't answer the last 10 RFP what is the deal? we say it was an error and to please allow us 10 days to answer them. he has his associate respond that we have 10 days to answer without objections and that if we don't he will file a motion for sanctions.
wes tegg , have you noticed a particular lawyer in Birmingham who was personally sanctioned a while back acting totally differently? Just am wrapping up a case with her, and could not have been any more pleasant and easy to deal with. It was honestly bizarre.
I'll believe it when I see it. Funny you mention her, though, because I thought of her today. A co-defendant got a denial of coverage (defense and indemnity) based on failure to notify the carrier in a case where not one deposition has been taken and where the plaintiffs' lawyers each had negotiated with the carrier before filing. I can't confirm it, but I'm near certain that the coverage decision had her hands on it.
reviewing stuff before a deposition in half an hour the expert defense counsel hired said that my clients treatment was reasonable and that all but the charge for a massage were reasonable as well. umm ok thank you!
Yeah, that sounds more like it. I did have to call her out in the middle of an expert deposition for just completely misrepresenting my client's deposition testimony in order to try and confuse the witness. But that's par for the course there. I'm not sure what it was. I have about 3 defendants in this case. One of them I've got absolutely nailed to the wall, and I think she just desperately wants out even though her activity is sort of minor. She's almost been working for me against this other Defendant.
waiting for a depo to start. bullshitting with opposing counsel. he started at allstate in may. he's tried 8 cases to verdict and has one set on monday and one on thursday next week that both look like they're going to go
And just got a motion to exclude my expert because he admitted there was a typo in his records and they’re saying they are now unreliable
I've done roughly 15 mediations since starting 10 months ago and for the first time I have a plaintiffs counsel refusing to to excuse my client from attending. What's the thought process here? Why does he think forcing my client to be there is gonna help anything.
I can see requiring the client to be there if there's a potential conflict between him/her and the company.
to add to this, the robber ditched a bag. The bag was never tested for dna or prints, but they still have it, so I think that might be the first move here.
There was a trial down here last month in a dump truck admitted liability case with bad damages. They offered 4M+ before the trial and plaintiff wanted 6M+. Jury came back with 3.5M.
Firm I worked at in law school does large loss subrogation claims for insurers. Like refinery explosions and shit They had a $25m+ offer to settle on the eve of trial. Spent 3 weeks trying it. Jury came back with $0 Ouch
I love when clients ask for copies of their lawsuits and then send 10 questions about what everything means after the read it
I’m with Sammy Meatballs there is no way I’ll be doing this in 15 years. 75 calls a day asking for updates, clients constantly bitching and then being totally ungrateful Gia getting very fucking old
I have a case set for trial in December where the defendant is a sweet grandma who was looking down for a minute trying to get her drink in stop and go traffic and rear ended my client who is an older lady that doesn't come across near as well as the sweet grandma. Also my client said at her deposition that she must have passed out at the scene because one minute she was upright and the next she was laid out. That was a big surprise to me at the deposition. Her only injury is whiplash and leg pain for a few months. It's in a conservative county. Should I try this just to try it? I think the offer is like less than meds. I think she has like $7k in undisputed meds. Maybe ask for $10k in pain and suffering and keep the ask low. That's the only way I could see us getting a decent result. I'm guessing the jury would give us undisputed meds and like $3k in pain and suffering.