I drafted and filed my first lawsuit today. (previous litigation job had a complaints department that did all that for me). Client was hit by a box truck that lost lane integrity on a turn, box truck didn't notice collision and was eventually flagged down by client. tortfeasor tells cop that "design of the intersection... would cause the rear of his vehicle to swing left enough to make contact with vehicle #2". Cop further writes "The damage on vehicle 2 is consistent with statement of driver 2. I must conclude that vehicle 1 was at fault for the accident". Photos show a relatively light impact but back up my client's version of events. Carrier outright denied liability and refused to make any offer. this is the way to do it.
if any of yall have decent offers on any fred loya cases you should probably take them. their in house people in san antonio apparently used to have an office of 8 and they're down to 2 with no plans to fix that apparently. would be stunned if they're still in business by the end of the year
Got a great liability case (lady died from a damn kidney stone despite 4 visits to the same hospital), but the economic damages aren’t great because she wasn’t working and she died before any real treatment was given. Presuit ends today and I got a formal demand for arbitration from two of the defendants. This would cap my damages against them Dammit. Holding out hope that the two remaining defendants just deny the claim.
omg just talked with a lawyer i used to work with who has some fred loya cases. she said they did a mediation in dallas a couples months ago and at the mediation they went down on their offer instead of up!
I didn’t even know they were doing mediations I thought they were trying everything in an effort to not actually have to cut settlement checks
Now fred loya attorney, who literally never responds to emails, is claiming she needs to hire a PI to find her client I looked at our records when we served her client and first attempt wife answers the door and is like yep this is the right address please come back around 6:00 and my husband will be home. Next day server goes at 6:15 and service is perfected Heard a lot of lawyers left fred loya because they thought they were doing shady shit. Sounds like they might be trying to fake their way around pulling coverage
I just started a new job today after leaving a firm where the majority shareholder was recently recommended by one of the Florida DCA’s to be suspended by the bar for ethical stuff. I took that as a hint to gtfo. Now learning construction defect, which I expect to be considerably more boring.
Just got $1,512,000.00 for a meniscus tear and arthroscopic surgery from a jury in Georgia. First trial in over 5 years.
Dale is an absolute piece of shit who should have been disbarred a long time ago. he has gotten away with lying to judges for so long. He continued chasing the whole reverse Boecher thing even after Worley. I don’t know a single lawyer that likes him. He’s a disease on the legal community.
Did a little of that. It’s VERY boring but pretty easy. Most everything settles quickly before the first hearing. At least the few things I did.
Pretty much what I’ve gathered. I had my own caseload and took over a bunch of new cases so I was pretty insulated from dealing with him since they weren’t close to trial. But yeah, plaintiff’s attorneys want his head after him making so many enemies after all these years. So yeah that was a huge reason for my departure.
Hell of a job! The last one of those I defended, plaintiff got $60k. My client was driving a G-Wagon and subsequently died.
Was talking to a partner who is a specialist tonight about something a client asked about. During the course of the conversation, I mentioned how I’m leaving town Friday - Tuesday and since I have no need to be on the call with the client, I asked if he could handle it solo. Guy I’m talking to is probably 50 years old, generally pretty cool for a lawyer (all things considered), and someone I occasionally grab a beer with. He’s a normal dude. When I mentioned leaving town, his tone and demeanor completely changed and he made the comment, “I haven’t had a vacation in 21 years and you’re leaving town and want my help?” I was completely taken aback and had no idea what to say, so I just responded to something to the effect of, “yeah but I’ve worked a ton lately.” He dgaf. Thinking back on it, I don’t think I’ve ever had a work convo where someone explicitly resented another person taking a quick vacation. Which is a great thing in retrospect
You need to be taking like a solid week long or at least 5 day vacation every quarter, every 6 months at the least. And take some long weekends here and there on top of that.
Sent a good faith letter because it was obvious in defendant employer's responses that they had statements/affidavits from former employees about a workplace injury that they weren't producing. They supplemented and produced an affidavit but then also said they had another affidavit/written statement and a recorded statement that they weren't going to produce because they were taken in anticipation of litigation. Sounds like BS to me. About to research this issue and if the law looks favorable file a Motion to Compel. Somehow have never had to fight this fight before. Usually they produce this stuff.
If i'm doing something for 21 years straight with no vacation i better end up warren buffet rich at the end of it.
If you’re doing something for 21 years straight with no vacation to get Warren buffet rich, break that up with a few vacations and be Warren buffet rich minus a few bucks there is no reasonable explanation for neglecting yourself (and any hypothetical family, even if it’s just parents, much less a spouse or kids) to that degree
He’s either lying about the 21 years thing or he’s completely ungrounded from reality of work/life balance. What’s the point of working so much if you can’t enjoy the money it provides?
This is precisely the thing I used to tell my former partner. But he's a turd, so it's not like I could summon any sympathy for him.
Most big firms are just pyramid schemes. "Firm culture" is a fancy way of them pretending to feign interest in your persona life. They don't. think it can be true for smaller firms, though. They're not making money unless you're doing 2,000+ hours. They don't want you to take vacations.
I just had a captive counsel for a really shitty nonstandard insurance carrier that cut me a check for $1.5 million in January because they fucked up a minimum policy claim so badly lecture me on what a jury in the county where my wife grew up would think of my case. “I guess we’ll see, man.”
One of my first cases with the PI firm I've started with is a dog bite case. Never handled one on the defense or pltf side before. Also being brought in early for a 17-year old cheerleader that was a passenger in a flipped golf cart, busted her hip real bad and will need surgery. Parents knew the driver was wild and it was at a County park that was supposed to have supervision. Contingency baby babyyyy
There are layers in between these days. We found that we were losing too many good associates after 3-5 years so we created non-equity tracks that pay objectively based upon smaller hour goals. We retain a lot more people that want to work, but also want to be a primary care provider for their kids and we’re pretty flexible about work from home.
There are certainly outliers, maybe like your firm .My main experience is ins def which is just a race to the bottom.
Looking back on it I shake my head. Still keep in touch with a handful of lawyers that are still there. Soul crushing. It's a shame because the firm's namesake is a brilliant guy and tremendous person.
Y'all are painting with broad brushes. This firm is more of "it is what you make it" type thing. I posted in here a few weeks ago about how I took 5-6 weeks off last year. It's 100% on the guy and not the firm forcing him to do it (although its incentive structure may). This is much more accurate and applicable to my firm than forcing people to work without vacation.
I took off last Friday, taking off tomorrow, Monday, and Tuesday. Y'alls firm must suck if they won't let you do that /s
Losing a bunch of associates after a couple years is not a good idea unless most of the work you’re doing can be done by baby lawyers my dad was the hiring partner at his firm in south Texas for about a decade and 100% of the women he hired stopped practicing law when they got pregnant. He got so frustrated that he eventually had to stop doing it