I enjoy this work on the general counsel side. You may be talking about the insurance side, which I know very little about.
got a phone call yesterday asking for a week extension on a presuit demand in a negligent security case because they were having trouble getting the affidavit from their insured about there being no additional insurance. There’s $6mm we know about. I’d be ecstatic if they pitched the limits presuit.
One of my law school buddies (and colleagues of wes tegg ) just settled a $7.75M semi-truck accident. He got in pretty early with Shunarahrahrahrah. How much of that goes to the handling lawyer in large PI firms like that?
For them, 1/3 of the firm's 1/3. It was a good lick. Happy for him. Edit: 1/3 of the firm's fee. I don't know what it was signed up on. I'm just assuming 1/3 but it could have been 40%.
I'm a big fan of Shunnarah's "Call me Atlanta" advertising. There's no comma, so my wife and I are always sure to give him a good "Hey, Atlanta" whenever we see them.
I think it’s a branding thing. I think some are on a draw, at least for a little while. But, the volume is such that those high enough on the pecking order don’t need it.
Makes sense. They've definitely been trying to shift their practice the last few years to do more litigation. And they've sniped some pretty good lawyers from some really good firms in recent years. The market share of the big advertising firms keeps growing, too. Makes me wonder if I'll have to eventually say, "Well, if you can't beat them...."
Yeah, nine of them came from my firm. They’ve had some massive verdicts. One of them just got overturned, though.
Oh wow. That's wild. I knew they sniped a few plaintiff's attorney, but didn't know they were also raiding the defense ranks.
"Hey, how would you like to make a shitload more money, stop billing hours and have less busy work? Also, the game is pretty rigged in your favor and most judges will side with you regardless." Tough sell.
I'm only familiar with Mobile County and the surrounding good-ol-boy areas, which was comically Plaintiff-skewed. That was more than 5 years ago, tho
Got one with one of them now. Might be the easiest money we've ever made. He filed an iffy death case against a trucking company. They knew about it (defendant and carrier), and allowed him to take a default over 6 months ago. Should be an easy check to cash (but I think he's one of the same ones that got that big one reversed on what should have been harmless error, so now I'm wondering what stupidity SC will come up with this time.
Yup. Draw or commission. Draw provides added security throughout the year for slow months. But also makes you wait until midway through the year to start receiving the big checks.
What’s even worse about it was that the defense lawyer still asked the question after the judge ruled to preclude it in limine. So, the only “harm” was the curative instruction that everyone who has ever tried a case knows is worthless. I’m sure they’ll settle it now, but that $18mm is gone.
Minimum policy. Progressive fucked up and offered like $12,500 even though they disputed liability, so it was a really strong bad faith setup. Plaintiff had an awful TBI and is still missing a chunk of his head, but they relied on their insured’s account that he had stopped in the middle of the road rather than investigate it at all.
wes is leaving/may not know the full story but I’m sure B. B. Has given him more. (And frankly I have forgotten the exact facts but The Progressive rep editorialized their insureds statement a good bit and the insured threw her (Progressive rep) under the bus pretty badly. Also believe she either made up a witness or made up completing a scene investigation and B.B. and his team was able to show she made that up too. When that evidence came out, Progressive should’ve paid what the demand was. Tee’d it up anyway and got smoked. As for how Alex pays employees- typical lawyer there carries an inventory of around 100-125 cases in various stages. Their goal is to settle $85-$100k in gross fees a month. The Lawyer’s pod gets 1/3 of what the firm gets. Also responsible for a portion of their employees costs (which I don’t know if all of it comes out of the 1/3 or just a portion does to cover his/her employees but I’m pretty sure Alex pays a minimum towards the staff’s salary). I do know if the lawyer wants to pay than Alex “allows” for a certain employee, the attorney pays that out of his/her pocket. Your heavy hitters are paid a bit differently- they’ve got a couple who handle the large loss/large litigation only cases and don’t F around with soft tissue cases.
I did not know about making up the witness. I knew she’d screwed it up badly. And they all operate as individual LLC’s.
So I had one divorce file I haven't been able to close out since 2018. I haven't taken a divorce in like 2 years now. It has been set and reset so many times for trial. They are literally fighting over pots, pans, and vacuums. I had an exhibit list with 30 exhibits . Tons of bank statements etc. Prepared all day yesterday as the other side rejected our offer. Showed up for trial this morning and they accepted. What a boondoggle.
Just had a guy call me and he acted like I should know who he was. Apparently I met with him about a MVA 2 years ago but didn't take his case. With some difficulty I was able to deduce that his friend died and left him as the beneficiary of some life insurance. The carrier wants the death certificate which he hasn't been able to procure. I asked him if he knew what state the guy died in, whether the guy had a will, if he had a will did the friend make him the administrator/executor etc. The guy didn't know what a will was. He then got mad and asked me if I was going to take his case or not. I told him I was trying to get to the bottom of it and maybe give him some free legal advice on how to get the death certificate but didn't "want the case." He then hung up on me. You've got to love the general public.
I had a guy get mad at me because he couldn’t understand what I meant by date of his injury, then he gave four different dates of injury spanning 8 years, told me had an attorney for all of them and wasn’t sure if they settled or even filed the claims, then he wasn’t sure if he was getting treatment through workers comp or health insurance, then he wasn’t sure if he was getting workers compensation income benefits or long term disability, and he had no idea who his doctors were, etc. Every time I asked him a yes or no question he would go off talking about something irrelevant that happened years ago. After 30 minutes of that absolute insanity, I told him he was only allowed to answer me with yes, no, or I don’t know, unless I told him otherwise. After another 10 minutes of that, I just told him to talk to the attorney he claimed he had and I had no idea if he still had any case, but I wouldn’t be helping him. Waste of my fucking time.
Yep. What’s great is that I checked the state board’s system, and NONE of the dates of injury he gave me showed up as having been filed. There was, however, a 5th date of injury from two years before any of the ones he mentioned despite swearing he had never been hurt at work outside of the four dates he gave me. GTFO here, man.
I like to use those moments as a teachable opportunity where I tell them that if I ever find out they lied to me again, there is no third strike and they will need to find a new attorney. “My clients all start off with a 1-1 count like this is beer league softball. You just got strike two. Don’t lie to me again or you’re out.”
Spent 30 minutes explaining to a client that spending 30k on solar panels is not a smart decision. “But they are gonna give us a free roof and it’s only $161 a year.” Me: for 25 years. And I won’t be able to get you any money for the solar panels as part of your claim. client: but we are going to get free electricity. me: that’s not how it really works client: we are signing tomorrow me: please respond to the coming email stating that you acknowledge that I advised you that buying solar panels was your decision and that you understand that I will only be able to attempt to recover the cost to replace your roof (about 9k). A house worth at most $150k is getting $30k solar panels.
Met with a client and referral lawyer two weeks ago to discuss upcoming mediation. It was our third mediation. We all agreed our goal was x dollars for defendant "Bob." I start back channeling with Bob to warm everyone up on their side of the table to x dollars. At mediation yesterday, the mediator unsurprisingly suggests a proposal for x amount. I say congratulations we accomplished our goal. I am then told that the referral lawyer and clients had a secret meeting and are unhappy with x dollars. Now they want y. Looks like the mediator is going to be the sole person who gets paid in this case.
After the last few hurricanes we've gotten calls on some roof claims that carrier's are jacking people around on. But assuming they have a valid claim, the roof is worth like 20k at most. You might could juice up your damages by getting an independent appraisal. But let's say you can get $30k for it. It's not a bad faith claim. It just isn't worth it to litigate on a 35-40% fee over damages that small.
Some homeowner's policies have an actual cash value/replacement cost value provision. Basically, insurers will pay the actual cash value of the roof that was damaged up front, which includes depreciation. So the actual cash value of the damaged roof might be $10k because it's 7 years old, while a new roof will cost you $20k. The insurance company will give you the $10k for the one you lost, but then you have to come out of pocket with the other $10k to replace it. Once it's replaced, you then submit the replacement cost to the insurer to show that it was, in fact, replaced and the insurer reimburses you the other $10k. Actual cash value/replacement cost value provisions are often not applicable to roof claims and insurers will instead just pay the full replacement cost, but that might explain why some people are getting jerked around. Insurance companies also don't like mentioning that little tidbit. I can't imagine the money that gets left on the table because people don't read/understand that provision.
honestly, no clue who will be doing the financing. Oh we have our PA estimate already. Even the PA with it's juiced up numbers has it as a 12k roof. Now I've got a bunch of BS interior damage to make the claim have a little more fluff to it, but any defense counsel that isn't straight out of law school will immediately toss it out and rightly offer me 10k+PA and attorney's fees to settle the case.
Yah I just bought a new house and went with replacement cost for most insurance coverage at a higher premium because ACV sucks
I have an Allstate trial next month involving a rear-end collision where my client was diagnosed with cervical dystonia, a painful condition where the neck muscles contract involuntarily, which causes your head to twist and turn to one side. There's no cure for it, and the treating physician testified at deposition that it is likely permanent. $50,000 in liability insurance, and $50,000 in UIM (also through Allstate). The defendant was subsequently convicted of child pornography and is now in prison for 20 years. Allstate has offered $0. I'm definitely in bad faith territory.