Wonder what happens when you have a verdict, signed judgment, and aren’t paid and an insurance company goes under. It doesn’t sound like Fred loya has any plans on paying us. I guess I have to file some turnover motion to get the judge to assign us the defendants claim against Loya. we had a signed mediated settlement agreement and had to basically start the litigation process over when accc went out of business.
I think you just begin efforts to collect against the insured, send him a letter cc’ed to his counsel and the adjuster informing him that you are executing the judgment on him personally because his insurance company has not satisfied the judgment.
OC in a pre lit case asked if I'd let my client be examined by an IME pre lit for purposes of, I guess, vetting causation and damages. Don't think I've ever seen this request before. Has anyone ever done this, the IME agreed with your side of the case, and it helped get things settled? I'm assuming they'll get some whore who will dispute causation and damages and it won't help get the case settled. I'm inclined to decline.
It would be funny if you used this to get a bad faith case against the carrier , got a verdict, the carrier didn't pay that either, and you got to execute against the carrier and garnish their bank account. If it was big enough they might file for bankruptcy. But you'd be famous.
The turnover motion is basically getting her cause of action against Loya assigned to us. I think I would rather do that than threaten to execute a judgment. I think what will happen is loya will offer to pay us the $68k or whatever after this motion gets ruled on but I’m going to say we aren’t agreed until you pay us fees on this. Between researching what to do, letters to OC asking wtf is going on, drafting the motion and an oral hearing that will be 6-8k of my time at $800/hr.
We get requests for pre-suit IMEs all the time, mainly for first-party and PIP. I'm inclined to allow anything they'd get in routine discovery, just draft a strong stipulation that says they don't get a second IME in litigation. Of course the IME is going to dispute your damages, but find another doctor to rebut that report.
given how many plaintiff's counsel plead in their complaint that "the insurance company didn't even request an IME," I'd be pissed if that same office or attorney then pitched a fit about a pre-suit request for an IME.
Good idea to video it. Most of the time they don’t really do shit, and you can have your expert explain what additional stuff he did.
Have a down-on-his-luck client that is on like his 4th or 5th litigation funding company, they've all denied him because his claim isn't large enough/they probably won't get their 25% interest back with his recovery. He has maybe a $20,000 - $25,000 case. We'll have to cut our fee so he can maybe put $10K in his pocket. I have filled out like 4 questionnaires about his case, and now he just asked me if I could tell them his case is worth more than it really is. Made the fatal error of giving him my personal cell phone number and he is not afraid to use it.
So this case is set for trial in a few weeks. At our pre-trial conference yesterday he closed pleadings. This morning Defendant files a motion to strike our experts saying they weren't timely disclosed. They were. We filed amended witness lists post deadline to add detail to testimony to be given and changed our damages expert from one contractor to another from the same company because they sent the wrong person to the house. All of this happened 3+ months ago and everyone has been deposed. Without a hearing or even giving me time to file a response he grants their motion. Striking both of my experts. My afternoon just got insanely complicated.
I ain't giving out my cell for a seven figure case. My sanity is worth more than that. I'm going to need 8 figures. And maybe a burner phone .
My law partner is insane. He put his cell on his business card and on his email signature I think. Clients call him on his cell all day every day.
sounds like loya is not paying a ton of people. called a lawyer who posted on ttla listserv and he was like yeah dude a ton of people have called me. they're not appealing, they're not posting bonds, they wear verdicts and disappear
Report them to the insurance commissioner for the state of Texas. They shouldn't be allowed to write insurance if they aren't going to provide insurance coverage. Sue the fuck out of them. Absolutely absurd.
I do this. It’s not that bad, and clients appreciate it even if I just send them a text that I’m tied up but will call at X time or they can call my paralegal.
i called them. it's similar to a grievance for a lawyer. they have 30 days to respond and then the tdi makes some determination. the remedy is a ding on fred loyas record like nothing will actually happen to my client and me
I really wish I had come up with The Outlawyer persona (injury lawyer in Birmingham) and his picture of him in a cowboy hat in his email signature. It would make it way more fun to fuck with people.
wes tegg Sammy Meatballs do you have a link/story/anything to the psycho PI lawyer that was sending outrageous demands at like 1:00 AM. "Demand is now $8,000,000, fuckface"
https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3b...ng-counsel-to-pay-up-fuckface-is-off-the-case I’ll never forget “Klee, you cumstain…”
That judge is going to end up back in private practice in however long it takes for this to matriculate through the judicial performance committees. What a joke.
r/mildlyinfuriating•4 hr. ago Captain_JohnBrown I've been walking around for 4 hours like this. I'm a lawyer.
Those feels when you read back all the depos in preparing your opposition to MSJ and you convince yourself that your case isn't that bad after all right before getting the hammer dropped on you and getting kicked out of court.
How many opportunities do y’all give potential referral sources who are friends but work in the same general area? I’m asking because I have a friend who is a tax CPA and reaches out to see if I can work things that either (a) involve crazy facts or are of questionable lawfulness (pushing the tax envelope), (b) needed within an unrealistic timeframe, or (c) plain vanilla. Each time it’s (c), I’ve put a team in place but never hear back from him. For (b), I run him off. And for (a) I give him my initial thoughts (that are usually negative at first), do some additional research to conclude whether it’s feasible based on what I know, and then never hear back. I can’t decide if I’m doing the right thing by being honest up front and avoiding further wasting both of our time, or if I should refrain from sharing my initial thoughts. The fact he’s my friend does cause me to let my guard down and share more than I would with a normal client or referral source.
As an example: Today he called because a client of his needs helping forming a tax exempt church to use as a conduit to fund a charity/foundation his client is starting in Central America. His client doesn’t agree with American policy but can’t quite yet expatriate so they’re looking to pay as little US tax as possible (via the charitable deduction) while moving things off shore. His client is dead set on using a church to do this and “done their research.”
I always answer the phone and always provide initial thoughts. It’s only time. I wouldn’t put a team in place or research anything unless it’s a real opportunity.
Has he ever sent you anything that paid? I’d probably ask a friend if he was working for free in that scenario. I’d still do exactly what Herb said, though.
how in line or out of step is this with your jurisdictions? Colorado, always so Plaintiff friendly, just upped the noneconomic damages cap for claims filed after January 1, 2025 to 1.5 million. For claims accruing after or on January 1, 2024, it was $729,790, which could be increased up to 1.459 million if clear and convincing evidence was shown. They changed it from when the claim accrues to when you file the lawsuit, so I imagine everyone who can will be filing their lawsuit in 2025 instead of late 2024. edit: I see only 9 states have noneconomic damages caps
Noneconomic damages caps are absolutely insane and unjustifiable. No wonder Colorado has such robust bad faith law.
I recently learned that Tennessee law allows UM/UIM limits to be reduced by the underlying liability limits if the policy includes such language. Able to get out of a case with 100k um/uim limits because the underlying tortfeasor had similar limits. Found that be quite wild.