7 Ways to Boost Case Value

00:12 Jack Zinda Welcome to the Effective Lawyer, a podcast for ambitious attorneys who want to improve their practice. My name is Jack Zinda and I'll be your host. Hey everyone, Jack Zinda here. Today I want to talk to you about ways you can 10x the value of your cases. You know, my firm has been so blessed to have so many amazing clients. And we've gotten dozens of seven figure results and quite a few eight figure results as well. Is it good luck? Is it amazing marketing? Is it great looks? No, it's none of the above. It is one hard work and then using a system to tell your client's story. Of course, no case happens without a worthy client. So first you have to make sure that you have an amazing client and you have amazing case and a story to tell. 00:57 Jack Zinda Now let's talk about how you can maximize the value for your client and tell the whole story. And I'm not talking about just catastrophic cases. One of our attorneys this year got over $300,000 in a case with $9,000 in medical bills. We've had cases with mild traumatic brain injuries where we've gotten seven figure results. And other firms in the case, we're getting six figures or low six figures. And it's because we have a diligent approach. The first thing you want to do is make sure you put enough resources on the case. Our firm, we put two attorneys, a paralegal, and a legal system on every file. Now, that may seem like a lot, but one of the reasons firms miss out on the damages is they don't have time to put work into the case. 01:35 Jack Zinda So you want to make sure, if you're working on a file, do you have the resources to fully vet it? It doesn't have to always be an attorney, but how do you tell the story if you don't put in the work to do it? Let's say you've got the resources, you got the time, you're willing to put in the effort. And if you're a solo practitioner, don't have a big staff, you want to figure out ways to do this yourself and make sure you put the work in. Because if you don't, you're not going to get the outcome you want. There's just no magic wand. There's not a multiplier of three medical bills. There's not a way to get big results without putting in the time and effort. 02:03 Jack Zinda So one of the first places you want to look is get photos of your client's injuries. You want to try to get those early in the case. And if you can get them in the hospital or the emergency room or urgent care of the first doctor's appointment, if they have a scar, a lot of times the ER will save a picture of the scar for future plastic surgery. A lot of times a family member will take a photo before or when it happened. We've had so many cases where they have tendered a policy limits based on a photo. We had a case where a young woman had her leg hit by a car and it didn't look bad. When she came to us, she was fully repaired. But then we got a photo from the scene and her. 02:40 Jack Zinda Her femur was broken in two and you could see it bent. That led to a much bigger result because you were to show the pain and what she went through at the scene. And that's where just relying on medical bills can be so dangerous. Get pictures of if they're in a wheelchair, if they're in a hospital bed, if there's women with their family members around them, you want to be able to tell the story from beginning to end. If you can go all the way back to the scene, see if anyone there has photos. Go to the gas stations, go the grocery stores nearby. Ask around if you need to post on social media. Is anyone seeing photos of this? 03:09 Jack Zinda Speaking of social media, if you're trying to track down evidence of the defendant and what they did wrong, which is a huge impact on damages, you've got to check social media. You want to check. Remember, you cannot friend people without disclosing you're an attorney on the other side of the case, and you can't secretly go in and try to get information. But if it's public, you can definitely see it. We had a case where we represented a cab driver and they were hit by a young woman who fled the scene. And our guy believed she was drunk. It was downtown Austin. It was about 2 in the morning and she went home. We took a while to track her down. Police weren't involved at that point. We finally find her and of course she says, I wasn't drinking. That's ridiculous. 03:52 Jack Zinda We checked on social media. We found several pictures of her doing shots that very night. And that just made the case immediately. That went from a really tough case to a slam dunk case. And they paid the entire policy limit. So photos of the scene, photos of the injuries, photos of the defendant. The next things you want to look at is look at images from the medical records. Okay? I see a lot of attorneys not get the actual X ray footage or the MRI or the CT scan or all the things that shows the visuals of the harm. Remember, the bad guys or the insurance companies want to make this about a, quote, soft tissue case or, you know, it's a. It's a minor fracture. You need to tell the true story about what happened to your client. 04:31 Jack Zinda And the way to do that is through pictures. In that case, I was telling you before about the broken leg. The picture of her broken femur in the X ray played a huge part as well. If they've had surgery, show the hardware that's put in. If they've had a traumatic brain injury, get a DTI scan to show the damage that's happened to the brain that's not going to get healed. Those images are so much more powerful than words from your client. So that's two tips there. One, get the imaging to get photos from the scene, from the client, from the injuries itself. The next thing you want to look at is mastering the medical terminology that. When I first started practicing law, I didn't know any of the medical terms. 05:10 Jack Zinda And I had a medical dictionary next to me which shows how old I am, and I would just look up every term. I didn't know I was reviewing a medical record. I would circle a term and I would look it up. I got that tip from a cle. I went to not to take credit for any of these ideas. And by understanding the terminology, you can understand what the diagnosis means. Okay. Okay. Again, they want to say it's a sprain, a strain, minor surgery, minor repair. And I see my attorneys fall into that sometimes. No surgery is minor. Read the disclaimer for anesthesia. There is a risk of death every single time. Put yourself in your client's shoes. I hadn't had surgery till a few years ago. 05:46 Jack Zinda Well, I had surgery when I was a high school, but as an adult until four years ago. And I forgot how difficult that is. You know what? One, getting an MRI going into a tube for an hour if you're claustrophobic, that's terrible. Two, going under and knowing even though the odds are small, you could pass away. If you have an older client, the odds go up even more. That's a powerful damage story to tell. It's also helpful if your client is hesitant to get surgery to explain to the jury why that's a normal thing to do. And you would know that if you don't read the medical terminology and read what's going on, look at the side effects of the medical prescriptions they're getting. What? Not just what it does to help, but What? How does it set them back? Can they drive? 06:24 Jack Zinda Are they drowsy? Can they work out? Do they? Because it cause headaches, lightheadedness, Is there risk of long term kidney failure, long term liver damage from taking these medications that they're required to take because of the harm the defendant caused? Take your time and go through the procedures that the client went through. Okay? If they've got injections, you know, explain what the needle did, how did it go into the skin, how does it go into the spine? And they're awake when all this happens. If you have a client that was shot, explain. A shot is not like it happens in the movie. And I'm talking a shot with a gun. A shot is where a piece of metal pierces the skin, then may break the bones. They could go into the lungs. 07:03 Jack Zinda The lungs fill with blood and then goes out the other side through the ribs again through the back of the skin. Explain it that way. Don't explain it like it was a quick shot. That's going to bring out a lot more damages in your case as well. If you'd like a copy of any of the things you heard about here today, or to set up a time to talk about one of our team members about a case, please go to Zendalaw IO and we have amazing resources, downloads, guides, and you can set up a time to talk to us if you want to talk about how we handle things or any case in particular. You also want to slow things down. You want to make sure you're telling the harm for how long it took for your client to go through those. 07:51 Jack Zinda We had a death case two years ago where our client was alive for about 15 minutes before they passed away after getting drugged for 15 yards, about 50 yards, by a truck that hit her. And the defense wanted to make that time frame very short. We wanted to explain how terrible that was. And that was a really gruesome case because the defense hired an expert to say she didn't have any conscious pain and suffering, because that would take some lines off the charge. And so we had to hire a medical examiner to explain that she did have pain and suffering from her heartbeats, from the lungs, from the brain function at the time of the death. But don't underestimate what sometimes insurance companies will do to try to avoid paying these claims. 08:35 Jack Zinda But we told the story from when she got hit, how she was thinking of her kids, how she's thinking about her husband, what she felt, what she saw, what she breathed. And we settled that case about three days before. Trial. But if we tried the case, were going to really spend an entire 15 minutes going through with the jury what the client went through. And you can do that in any type of case. It doesn't have to be a death case. You can do with a surgical case. If your client's paralyzed, what is the fear of having to stay in bed and not get out all night by themselves eight hours a night? You know, how difficult is to walk with crutches, you know, every single day, especially if you're slightly overweight or you can't play with your kids. 09:12 Jack Zinda You have to tell these stories and slow the time down because that's what brings a story to life. If you watch a movie, you know, the slow parts of the story really tell the whole thing about what's happening to the person, you know, find the right experts to explain your damages. That's another key point that you've got to do. If you have a big case now, obviously, or even a medium sized case, you have the source of recovery. Experts can tell the story of what your client went through. We've hired experts for post traumatic stress disorder if we believe that's relevant in the case. We had a case where our client was hit and the truck that hit them caught on fire and she saw the person burn alive. Now, she didn't burn, she gets some minor burns. 09:50 Jack Zinda But that memory of what happened was very powerful and was really traumatic for her and it was causing nightmares, you know, very difficult time with life after that happened. It's difficult to tell that story through just the client or even a lay witness. An expert can explain how the brain works and why that's a traumatic event and how it doesn't go away easily and why it's a natural thing to have happened in that situation. We also look at traumatic brain injury experts. If you have someone who has a TBI and you need to explain what they went through, how does the mechanism of injury affect this? You may also look for loss of earning capacity experts that can talk about the lost wages someone might have in the lost opportunities. 10:30 Jack Zinda Say someone was a blue collar worker, they were going to be a master electrician, and they have nerve damage in their hand, they can't do that anymore. You need to tell what the difference is from the pay they will receive, from what the pay they were going to receive if they'd stayed on that track. And only an expert can tell that story. And that could be hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars in each case. Life care planners are another great way to try to Maximize your damages. They can tell the story of what the future medical bills are going to be. What are the future costs going to be? You know, not just a guess, but what does science and medicine say they're likely to be? Prescriptions are very expensive. 11:06 Jack Zinda You know, if someone has to take prescription the rest of life, that's a huge cost. And finally, the most important thing, you have to tell the client's story. You have to go talk to them, you have to talk to their loved ones, you have to talk to their friends, you have to talk to their families. Go to their house, look at their photo albums. If it's a wrongful death case, look and see the part of their lives that's missing. What part did they play, not just in their life, but everyone around them. What is the whole. How do you tell the story? And I would say almost all my clients, when I first talk to them about this, they say, I don't have anybody who could talk to me talk about this. Nobody knows these things, so they don't know it. 11:42 Jack Zinda You have to go find it out. And the only way you do is you talk to friends, you talk to family, you. You go to their home, you look at their photos, you look how they live, you look how things have changed. I have yet to find a client where I can't find at least four amazing. Knocking up damages, witnesses that can tell that story. We've had amazing cases where, you know, someone at church that they used to see all the time, she didn't show up for, you know, three months, and they knew that was a big deal in her life. Or a former supervisor said the person's the hardest worker they've ever seen. Or it could be a fishing buddy or. Or it could be their neighbor that saw them struggling to pull the trash out every single day. 12:16 Jack Zinda It doesn't have to be someone super close. And sometimes the most compelling stories are the ones where it's not someone that close to them. And so we've got this list of things we want to do, right? We talked about photos of the injuries, okay? We talked about getting images from medical records, mastering medical terminology, slowing things down. Hire the right experts. You want to look to the future, so future medical bills, loss of earning capacity, future things are going to go through, and then talk to the whole story, the friends and family. And I want to take each one of those a little bit and talk about a quick checklist you can use to try to pull out that information. In order to do that, let's talk about how we pull it all together. Okay. 13:01 Jack Zinda It's one thing to hear me say it in a podcast, it's another to take it from this to your practice. And those of you that have listened to this podcast before, you'll know that I am obsessed with SOPs and checklists. One, I'm just a total geek about that stuff, but two, it is so effective, it is crazy what you can do with a great checklist and a great team. Okay, so first put on your client intake or investigation sheet these things. One, photos of injuries. What photos does this client have on their phone? What do photos do their friends or family have who was there with them at the time it occurred? Make that a point that you always check every time they come in. Two, review all medical records for X rays, MRI, CT scans, other images. 13:46 Jack Zinda Decide if you want to retrieve them or not. So you have a line for that and then you have a line if you want to retrieve it. And have your assistant, your paralegal, your case manager, legal assistant bring you a document that has this or put it into a checklist that's automated in your software program so you know what you're trying to ask for. Third, on the medical terminology, have yourself go through the medical records and identify those words we talked about. Add that as an item on the checklist. Review medical records for diagnosis and prescriptions as well as side effects, and what are the long term prognosis of each injury. You can also outsource this to people, medical nurses or doctors. 14:25 Jack Zinda A lot of times if you're new to the practice or you may not have the resources to do that, you can do this yourself. It's not hard. I mean now with AI, you could search this up using AI if you wanted to. I also think it's cool to know the medical terminology. I think it makes you a better lawyer. Three, on slowing things down, put a checklist that says tell the story frame by frame. You can do this where you say at each part, what did they see, what did they hear, what did they smell, what did they say? And just go each frame with the client and slow it down for what happened if and then for the injuries, walk through the mechanism of harm. So add that checklist to walk through the mechanism harm for the injury. 15:03 Jack Zinda How did the injury occur and how did it cause harm to your client? That's a great question. Also for an expert witness in a deposition and have them show it through demonstrative. You can Google search this and you'll pull it up right away. Next, experts have a list of experts that you consider for any case on damages, burn experts, TBI experts, life care planners, loss of earning capacity experts, surgeons, could be PTSD psychologists, neuropsychologists, and I'm sure I'm leaving out a few. But have that on a list that you're checking and you don't just want to check the first time. Check again when you're sending the damages out on the future medical bills, when you're getting ready to send your man, make sure you review to say, okay, are they going to be fully recovered? 15:50 Jack Zinda If not, what care they are need in the future and do I have a document that says they will need care in the future? Add that to the checklist and the same with prescriptions and then for friends and family, just have a list of okay, I need three non economic damages witnesses. Ideally you want to have one story, one witness and you want to have people that are not related and don't have a financial interest in the case. 16:12 Jack Zinda So if you find three compelling witnesses that meet that criteria and we say, you know, co workers, supervisors, friends, acquaintances, club members, you know, find out what clubs are in and if you have to walk through their entire week and entire day, everywhere they go, everything they do, so you see who they interact with and finally pull it all together with a summary of what you think the case is about. You know, I like to use a whiteboard or you could type it up and say, hey, this is what the client has gone through and you also have your first draft of your opening statement there. And if you do it and you believe it and it's true, you're going to get substantially higher damages. 16:51 Jack Zinda And the medical bills don't even seem to really matter at that point because you're telling a compelling story that any jury is going to give you a big number on or a lot with. So I hope this is helpful. If you have more questions or any of our checklists or any of the things we have, feel free to reach out. You can always email us, text me, call us and we're happy to help anyone. Until then, goodbye. Thanks for listening today's episode of the Effective Lawyer. You can learn more about our team and find other episodes of our podcast zindalaw.com as always, we'd appreciate that you subscribe, rate and review the pod. Thanks.