settled a case for $40k with Walmart where a lady slipped and fell on a wet mat and she thinks she 'fractured' her ankle but it was more of a bad sprain with an 'avulsion fracture.' she had like 1,000 of an urgent care visit where she got a boot and some pain meds. she was pumped as fuck in november when we settled. now she's read about other cases where walmart has paid millions of dollars for shit and shes PISSED i love these people.
adjuster: offers $26,200 via a fax i call: hey is this a minimum limits ($30,000) policy? adjuster: yes me: so can you just pay it or do we need to send a stowers demand? adjuster: as soon as you send the demand i'll offer limits why is this the way this industry operates??
This may be a horrible way of doing business but I've gotten to a point where I've cut down on a lot of the pre lit negotiating I do with adjusters. Instead of going back and forth with incremental offers I've been pretty quick to cut to the bottom line. It isn't really working because my bottom line is always higher than theirs. I'm having to file suit a good bit lately. Which leads me to my next point: I have no way of proving this but I think the offers on MVAs have gotten worse since the pandemic. I'm guessing carriers know that people are more desperate than ever for money right now. I could be wrong and the offers are the same as ever. But I'm hardly ever seeing them offer even 2x meds on a soft tissue case.
We can get them set here but there's probably a 70%+ chance they cancel them. Probably better to have them set though, puts everyone's feet to the fire and helps them get resolved. There's always the threat that the judge will actually go forward with it.
Settled a case in first week of December. Still waiting on Allstate’s in-house to send me release. They’ve had check for over a month. Can I please just close this file out?
Back on the search for a new legal assistant. This will be my 5th in a little over a year. Fucking hell it's hard to find competent people.
I’ve been lucky. My GOAT assistant had health problems that ended up in her going on disability, but the one I hired to replace her is also great.
I think my paralegal also has had some health problems that she isn't sharing with me because she's been missing time, missing deadlines, and generally just not doing her job the way I'm used to her doing it. I've asked her if she needs anything or if she's okay, but she hasn't really wanted to share with me (which is fine, obviously). I just have no real help right now in the office, I'm staying home every day to help my kid with virtual school, we decided to adopt a fucking puppy back in March, and I'm stuck at home doing all the day time house shit because my wife works in healthcare. I'm freaking exhausted.
Best thing about today: $50 workers comp google ad leads to a 6 figure Jones Act case client. I'll take that ROI
I believe him yo! "We would like to retain your firm for a legal representation, please if you are interested I will forward you the adverse party information for your conflict check. Warm Regards, C.K. Chong, President PT. Sintertech Kawasan Industri Jababeka Blok J 5 Q, Desa Harjamekar, Kecamatan Cikarang Utara Indonesia. Tel: 21-89325163 Fax: 21-89325161"
I never even usually see those but emails I actually need have been going to my spam box so I have to constantly check the spam box now. Gmail kinda sucks sometimes. Outlook >gmail
Florida’s property insurance market faces collapse. Major factor is cost of litigation. Could it be that carriers are being cocksuckers and denying/fighting claims that clearly should be approved and thus incurring unnecessary litigation expenses and attorney fees? Could it be that insurance defense firms are advising carriers in a way that results in high fees to said firms on claims that should have been approved? https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2021/01/20/598034.htm
I just had motion calendar via Zoom here in South Florida. A person I can only assume is a pro se litigant was there with his name listed as Southside Pollie and his avatar was a picture of him (white dude) with a backwards cap and chinstrap beard throwing up a peace sign.
@z this zoom docket call is killing me. The random pro se dude who doesn't know how to mute his microphone is cracking me up.
Probably the only thing I miss about practicing in AL is the cattle-call docket calls. There's almost none of that out here. Bill 3 hours to drive to Arab, sit and mess on your phone for 45 minutes, "we're not ready judge," drive back.
That's the one. I also loved the old dude in the gamer headset yelling at the opposing counsel about his motion to compel. It was a laugh a minute.
Florida construction defect litigation is among the worst in the country for insurers. Every contractor with any remote connection to a job gets named defendant, whether they had a connection to the defective work or not. They don’t get dismissed, so 27 insurer appointed defense firms work every case through MSJ or trial. Carriers either settle to avoid the defense or bite the bullet litigating meritorious claims that are frivolous when asserted against 27 defendants instead of 4. It’s not how the system should work.
Yeah, what the fuck was that? He said he was cool with being set and then gave 10,000 reasons why he wasn't.
Arab isn't a county seat. But, you're right, those are awesome days. It sucks that they're all moving to Zoom now.
Yeah, we agree that the case is ready for trial Judge. But, oh wait, here's all the reasons why I don't think we can have a trial in April in this climate. Newsflash my man. If you're a defense lawyer in Greene County, you better take a COVID trial. You're still going to get hammered, but the cross-section of the community argument works in your favor in this venue.
Opposing party just copied and pasted an entire paragraph from his MSJ into his appellate brief, except for the most the most important sentence of a block-quoted regulation upon which the whole case largely turns. That's . . . not going to be a good look.
Ha, I wasn’t really playing attention and didn’t even catch his name. My case was dead last on the docket.
I am anticipating a bad review showing up online from an insane client. What am I at liberty to discuss in my reply? Does the Client waive privilege by discussing privileged info in his review?
Gotcha. That's what I thought. I just thought that last case was the Shunnarah one with wes tegg 's crew .
Yep. At least half the people that do it aren't actually any sort of reputable business but are complete con-men. They'll cut timber on land that isn't even owned by the people they contracted with. I LOVE MVAs in this part of the world with them. We're already super liberal, and then people usually hate loggers.
That's just the tip of the iceberg and it's everyone in the chain, not just the cutters. Just rampant fraud on sawmills, on the Forestry Commission, on state and local taxes, etc.
I know the response will be state-specific, but does anyone who has comp knowledge know whether an employee can decline comp coverage in favor of using their own, employee-provided health insurance? I would think the answer is no, but the obvious answer isn’t out in the ether like i expected it to be.
In Alabama if you're a business falling under the comp umbrella (i.e. more than 5 employees, a municipality over 2k people, not a farm, etc.), that's your only option. You have the choice of voluntary market, assigned risk pool, or self-insurance, but you do have to have comp coverage.
I understand having to carry WC coverage as the employer, but can an employee decline coverage and use their own insurance? For more context, the question posed was related to Covid. I got out of the comp game many years back and have forgotten about everything I ever knew about comp.
No, comp is the exclusive remedy for an on-the-job injury here. I guess there's nothing stopping them from just not making a comp claim, but they'd be responsible for paying everything that wasn't paid by their health insurance.
An employee could do that but if the employer/carrier knows about a workplace injury , they have a duty to start a claim and offer to pay for it. Just because the employee doesn't want to file it through comp doesn't relieve the employer/carrier of their obligation imo. And theoretically, in certain situations, knowingly allowing an employee to use health insurance for a clear workplace injury could land the carrier in bad faith territory
I have no clue how our ALJs and comp commission are handling alleged COVID workplace transmission. I haven't taken one because it seems like it would be near impossible to prove causation. I've probably only been approached with 2 or 3 potential cases. Also lets assume the judge will grant you causation, what are you permanent damages? The medical/scientific community doesn't even know that yet. A carrier might be inclined to just settle the claim due to unknown levels of future exposure for ongoing lung damage etc.
We are turning down any that aren't in the medical profession, but I've not had one yet. For damages: I know there is a small impairment rating for loss of smell/taste, but I imagine the best way to go for permanent damage is chest xrays/ct scans along with a pulmonary function test + an opinion from a pulmonolgist. I don't know about proving causation. Seems to be the toughest part.