Excited, yet nervous, I inquired about the case they had in mind. They kind of smirked and said, “It’s the kind of case even a new trial lawyer can’t screw up.”

Intrigued and relieved, I asked for more information about this great car crash case that was a slam-dunk.

On a rainy evening our client was driving up a wet US 19 in the middle of 3 lanes right behind another car. Traffic was steady even though it was about 9 p.m. Both my client and the driver ahead of him were cruising at the speed limit of 55 mph.

As they approached an intersection with a solid green light, the driver ahead quickly changed lanes which revealed to our client that there was an abandoned car directly ahead of him in his lane of travel. The car was sitting at a dead stop on US 19 with its hood propped up and no tail lights were on. It was a stalled and abandoned car and had been sitting there for who-knows-how-long.

The client quickly looked to his left and right hand lane, saw cars and realized he had nowhere to go. He jammed on his brakes, but too late. He hydroplaned directly into the back of this car at a relatively high rate of speed in an explosive collision. Since it was dark and the abandoned car had no lights on, it was only seen at a few car lengths away so the crash was imminent.

The client absolutely believed there was nothing he could do to avoid this crash. In fact, since he was pretty badly injured he placed the blame on the person who abandoned the car at that terribly dangerous intersection.

Okay, back to my conversation with the law partners about this case. “Uh…..you think this case is an absolute winner? Aren’t there problems with liability?”

“That’s what we’re talking about!! You cannot possibly screw this case up because you cannot win this case. It’s unwinnable. Florida Statutes state that if you rear end somebody there is a presumption you were following too closely and you were at fault.”

The other partner chimed in: “And, there’s no law against leaving your broken down car in the road way if you cannot move the car yourself. We have no proof this young woman who had driven the car wasn’t trying to get help. In fact, she was. Her father was on his way to help get this car off the road.”

Well then, I inquired, isn’t it irresponsible for any of us to try this case? Turned out our client was injured, was very mad about this situation, he understood the risk and, in his words: “I can’t believe a jury wouldn’t sympathize with me. If I was truly at fault in this crash, I want to hear 6 jurors tell me so!” So, theory being, I could get courtroom experience and in no way worsen a case due to inexperience. However, something also told me my law partners didn’t want to touch this and I was the perfect foil.

So, onto a jury trial we went. The trial was held in downtown Clearwater in the glorious Courtroom 1, the oldest courtroom downtown that was built around 1924. It looked and still looks like something out of “To Kill a Mockingbird”. It was the most beautiful place to have my ass handed to me.

While everyone on our side of the fence knew the risks and there was still a chance of some success, I still felt a bit like a Roman gladiator being led to the slaughter. I remember our judge, a man of great character and girth whose complexion resembled something like rare roast beef due to excessive high blood pressure, wiggled his finger at me prior to jury selection and said “Son, are you sure you want to go forward with this?”

No, I thought. “Yes”, I said.

I could stretch this out for another 1,000 words. A jury was chosen and opening statements were made. Suffice it to say that the opposing counsel and I spend an inordinate amount of time on how the collision happened. The jury at first looked confused, then perplexed, then kind of……….mad.  The reaction of “I’m missing time from work for this?”

I noticed that when we were presenting testimony about my client’s injuries the jury looked distracted and bored. They had already checked out mentally since they most likely weren’t getting past the fact that they probably thought our client caused the collision.

Despite my trumped up optimism during the course of the trial that this case isn’t a stinker, it wasn’t shaping up to be the case of the year. Or even the day.

After I finished my closing argument at the podium just a few feet from the jury box, the man who turned out to be the foreman of the jury looked to the woman beside him and whispered: “This won’t take long…”

Gulp. I knew that I had done nothing wrong during the trial, in fact I held up pretty well during the 3 days, but hearing this made my stomach churn. I now knew what it feels like to await a jury verdict. It is something that every trial lawyer kvetches about regardless of depth of experience.

We sat in the Courtroom hallway and before you could say: “It’s Friday afternoon and we want out of here,” the jury returned with the verdict.

Well, the client took it well. He assumed the risk, and the gigantic goose-egg of $0.00 the jury handed him was a hard thing to take, but it was an important lesson for us all.

Afterwards in Chambers, this judge, after bumming yet another smoke from his secretary because he quit smoking years ago, told me, “Son, the most important thing I’ve ever learned from being a lawyer, isn’t the law at all. It’s trust your instincts. In this case, you had both the law and instincts working against you.”

I know. I didn’t have a chance. Still, I had jury trial #1 under my belt.

The real reason to settle an injury claim rather than trying it in front of a jury trial is summed up in two words: reducing risk. As you sit there waiting for 6 jurors to return their verdict, you will get full value of your case. You may not like the value a jury puts on your case, but you’ve run the gamut and you’re about to find out what your peers think about you and your injuries. That’s a 100% return of some unknown value.

Anytime a case is settled short of a jury trial, there is a reduction in risk, but in exchange for that, there is also a discount to the 100% return of the case since a jury didn’t decide it. When we settle a case “in demand” and without filing suit (about 65% of the time), a client might not net as much as if he litigated the claim, but the trade-off can be tremendous. You might get close to full value, you’ll have a lesser percentage attorney’s fee, no court costs and a much quicker settlement. Some cases in litigation can drag on for years and cases generally don’t get better with age, they can go stale.

Probably the closest a client can get to full value on their claim is in mediation. After a demand has been sent and there is a stalemate in resolving the claim, litigation is often the solution. This is what people know as “filing a lawsuit”. After full discovery has been taken (depositions, interrogatories, request for production, et al) the parties will head to a settlement conference known as mediation.

Since mediation is the step just prior to a full jury trial, the parties have shown to be risk adverse up to this point – that is willing to take the risk of the full litigation process – and mediated valuations tend to be higher than those settled in demand. This isn’t always true, but usually. A bad case will still be a bad case whether litigated or not. But mediations have proven to be enormously effective in resolving cases short of trying them with a jury.

A mediation is just an arm-twisting session where there are no pronouncements or judgments, just an impartial mediator who attempts to get both sides to resolve the issue of valuation of their injury claim. When a mediation is successful both sides are fairly miserable. And this is true 100% of the time. A Plaintiff has usually had to reduce their expectations to somewhere south of where they were hoping to go, but then the Defendant has almost always offered more than where they wanted to stop.

Why walk away from a mediation miserable? See paragraph #2 above. Next stop: You’re about to find out from 6 of jurors of your peers the full 100% value of your claim, but that could be any number from $0 to twice your expectations or anywhere in between. In my experience, many injury clients would rather resolve their claim for a known quantity than let it rest in the hands of jurors who may or may not have understood their medical condition and may or may not empathize with their plight.

A good personal injury attorney will always guide a client during the process in how to weigh the options.

Next, the bill will be sent to the House for their vote and most everyone agrees that it will pass this body as well. And Governor Rick Scott has already stated that he will sign the bill into law. So, 2013 most likely will be the year when Florida got the memo and attempted to stem the tide of texting and driving. So, what’s in the bill?

The thing about this law is violating the proposed law is only a secondary violation. You cannot be pulled over for texting alone – there would have to be an underlying reason for the offense, such as careless driving or running a light. If ticketed, though, texting and driving is its own separate offense. In other words, you could get two tickets: One for careless driving and one for texting and driving. While the penalty is only $30 for a first time texting violation, if caught a second time in 5 years the fine is $60 and 3 points will be assessed to your license. If you’re texting in a school zone, it could get you even more points.

You cannot get a ticket for texting and driving, if you’re not driving. If sitting at a red light it’s okay to text. Also, if you’re in a traffic jam and in stop-and-go traffic, while not a great idea to text (and let’s face it, who hasn’t done this?) it will not get you a ticket.  And finally, you can text in “high-tech, hands-off” cars when presumably you’re dictating your text through the car’s blue-tooth feature.

Personally, I’d rather wait to get where I’m going before I text which is usually twice as fast as trying to drive and text at the same time.  I’ve passed people going half the speed limit because they’re busy texting and attempting to navigate their car. I’m sure you have too.

Nobody likes to discuss car insurance, so I’ll keep it short. You need UM/UIM car insurance on your policy! It could save you and your family…

Let me explain: So many people in Florida think they have “full coverage”. That phrase is so misused it has almost no meaning. When you buy car insurance you’re actually buying about five different types of insurance. “PIP” –  will pay your medical bills if you’re injured in a car crash. “Bodily Injury” – if you’re at fault and the other driver is injured, this will protect you financially from a claim. “Collision” – will pay for car repairs. “Medical payments” – will pay for more medical bills than just PIP. And “Uninsured Motorist Coverage” – without question UM is critical coverage to get, yet it is the most optional.

Figure that out! The most important insurance to cover you and your family is also pretty easy to waive. And many families do waive the coverage to save some money. Do not assume you have it. Go check.

UM will cover you and your family financially in the event you are in a car crash, you suffer a permanent injury AND the other at-fault driver has no car insurance. Working in the area of personal injury for more than twenty years, I cannot tell you how many clients I’ve had to turn down because the person who crashed into them did not have any insurance at all, and my client didn’t have any UM coverage as backup.

“But I have to have car insurance, why don’t they?” Florida can be a very transient state with people moving into and out of areas pretty quickly and it’s easy to trick the DMV when someone buys a policy of car insurance to register their car and then they just fail to make any additional payments. Then they crash into you and leave you holding the bag full of injuries and damages.

Another good thing UM can do: If the other driver did have a policy of car insurance but it wasn’t enough to fully cover your damages and injuries, your UM might pay you benefits over and above what the other company has paid you. That’s UIM – Underinsured Motorist coverage.

In a time when medical costs continue to escalate, when most working people are two or three paychecks away from being broke and when a personal injury might keep you out of work for weeks or months on end, I think you can now see just how important UM/UIM insurance is.

That wasn’t too painful, was it? Now go check your car insurance policy……..I’ll wait……..

First, when an injured client isn’t feeling well, it’s easy to become forgetful, easily distracted and lose mental acuity. It may help to print out these simple steps to ensure that you’re doing as much as you can to help yourself out medically as well as to enhance your legal claim.

• Always, always keep your doctor appointments. Failure to timely treat will delay your recuperation and great lapses in treatment can look as if you’re not truly injured. “How bad can your client’s injury be if he cancelled half his treatments and didn’t treat at all for two months?” This can be devastating to a claim;

• Don’t be afraid to complain about your level of pain and/or discomfort. Some clients, men in particular, don’t want to sound like they’re “whining” and tend to downplay their aches and pains. This sometimes gets translated into “Patient states he’s doing great!” in a doctor’s charts. Well, for that day maybe, but make sure your doctor knows about last Saturday when you spent the day on the couch after mowing your lawn and aggravating your low back;

• Along those lines, probably the most helpful advice is to document your disabilities in a weekly journal. At some point, you will feel somewhat better as you continue to treatment.  When your lawyer asks you six months from now how this injury has affected your daily routine, you may not recall some of the ways this complicated your life, even temporarily. If you write it down every Friday evening how you progressed during the week, there won’t be any question down the road. Some memorable entries from past clients include: “I had to throw out all of my lace shoes since I couldn’t bend down to tie them. I had to buy all loafers.”  Another client wrote: “I cannot leave for work until I have drained the hot water tank in the shower. It takes all the hot water in my house to make me mobile.”

• When documenting your disabilities think about three very important aspects of your life: Your home life, your work life and your recreations.  If you have to heavily rely on your spouse to do things you used to do around the house, that’s important.  You now have to take a break every 20 minutes at work or else your neck goes into spasm. That’s important. You used to belong to a bowling league every Friday night but now you must rest up from the week on a Friday and had to quit. All of these things are relevant, related and make you, you. It is the things insurance adjusters remember and can relate to. You are an individual, not just a claim number;

• It’s important that you update your attorney at every new turn. If one doctor refers you to another, don’t assume that we will find out. Contact your lawyer to advise so that we can be one step ahead and contact him or her;

• Finally, keep an updated list of your out-of-pocket expenses. Keep a list of it all, prescription costs for even over-the-counter pain relievers, mileage to and from all physicians’ offices, co-pays for visits, time missed from work. It all adds up and will be presented as a medical special at the end of the case for reimbursement. While it doesn’t necessarily add up dollar-for-dollar, it is an element of your financial damages.

If you keep these in mind, you will greatly assist yourself, your physicians and your attorney, and your case by extension.  It all sounds like common senses, I know, but when clients aren’t feeling like themselves, it helps to have some linear and logical guidance.  Good luck, and good health!

I know the indictment of the profession and am familiar with all the derogatory terms that won’t be regaled here for those who delight in lawyer-bashing. Suffice it to say, “ambulance chaser” sums it up.  Some of my colleagues make light of this and reply with, “No, we beat the ambulance!!” Yuk, yuk. Bad answer – this just plays into the stereotype.

Really good personal injury lawyers are a paradoxical mixture of empathy and swagger. You must like people and take an interest in their lives. You must get to know their family and learn about their jobs, their recreations and truly understand how this serious injury has turned their world upside down. And make no mistake, a serious injury does affect the whole family – sometimes for years.

The “swagger” of an effective personal injury lawyer comes with experience and confidence. You feel uniquely qualified to represent this client and his or her family to the insurance company with absolute assurance that you are zealously representing this client to the best of your ability. No one could do a better job than you – not even Atticus Finch could come close. Good aggressive negotiating skills are critical and a successful result that leads to a settlement or judgment for your client is your best referral source. One happy client is worth five billboards.

Those of us who have represented the injured all have anecdotal stories of families helped. Of settlements that allowed a client to retire early to concentrate on therapies for further recuperation. Of a minor child’s settlement that will allow a pretty little 6 year old girl to get scar revision surgery as she grows after a horrid dog bite to the face. Of the client too young for back surgery after a wreck, but who can now put away the money for future surgery since she is now “uninsurable” for purposes of health insurance.

I cannot tell you how many new clients have confessed at the time of the initial client interview that they never, ever thought they’d be employing a personal injury lawyer.  “I’m not the suing type, but I’m hurt, I have no car, medical bills I don’t know what to do with and I cannot work…….”

I know. I understand. No hard feelings. We’re here to help. Just remember that the next time someone refers to personal injury lawyers and you, by extension as “sweaty” or “slimy”.

It happens every once in a while: A client involved in a bad car crash through no fault of his or her own and is handed a citation for causing the collision by a deputy or trooper.

Maybe you were taken away to the hospital by ambulance because of your injuries and you weren’t able to give your side of the story to the police regarding liability; maybe the investigating officer just didn’t believe you against the two other people in the other car who corroborated their story.

This is a predicament lawyers everywhere have experienced.  Investigative policing agencies aren’t infallible and are often underpaid and overworked. The result can sometimes be snap judgments in assessing liability that are frankly, wrong.

If you’re involved in a car collision that wasn’t your fault, you’re injured and you get a ticket, don’t panic! The burden of proof in traffic court and civil court are different, so a traffic infraction on your driving record cannot be used against you in civil court as proof of guilt if you make a claim for personal injuries.

However, if you or your attorney makes a claim against the other driver’s insurance company for injuries sustained and you do not fight the ticket, you can bet that insurance adjuster will presume guilt and either reject the claim outright, or assess the value based on a very subjective degree of comparative negligence. They may state that you were 90% at fault and offer you a settlement of 10% of their valuation of your case.

This doesn’t make it right, but it is a reality that might force your lawyer to file a lawsuit to litigate the issue of liability before getting onto the issue of your injuries.

To avoid this, if you are ticketed for a car collision that you know wasn’t your fault, fight the ticket. You can do so with or without a lawyer.  Simply go to the Clerk of Traffic court, enter your not-gulity plea and you will be notified of the traffic hearing. Bring your photographs, your witnesses (subpoena them if you cannot count on them to show up), any diagrams of the intersection (“Google Earth” is particularly good for this), and make sure to cross examine the police officer who ticketed you.

If the officer who arrested you doesn’t show up to Traffic Court, you or your lawyer should ask the Judge or Hearing Officer to dismiss the charge since the State cannot prove its case without its prime witness. There’s a better than even chance that the ticket will be dismissed.

We’ve prevailed on many cases when the client was about ready to give up because they got a ticket they thought they didn’t deserve. Don’t give up!

Most Harley gas tanks are on top of the bike. This means he was filling up the tank much higher than on a car, and the gas tank entry was pointed straight up.

Well, you know what’s coming: the tank filled, the float failed, gas continued flowing and sprayed up directly into “Jim’s” face. It saturated his body within seconds. Because he was in full biker gear, he was wearing a chamois which is meant to collect sweat. Now, he was essentially wearing a diaper filled with toxic, burning gasoline.

Jim complained, of course, and filled out a form, but he wanted to get back home as soon as possible to wash this off of himself. Imagine the terror he felt sparking up a hot Harley after being marinated in gasoline.

My client sustained multiple chemical burns that will largely heal over time, but were incredibly painful, debilitating and embarassing.

Believe it or not, the worst was yet to come. After staying home for more than one week to recuperate, Jim decided to take the Harley out. In first gear, he quickly noticed something was wrong. The engine began to rev higher and higher, the bike was gong faster and faster and he soon lost control of it, crashing and damaging the Harley, and more importantly, injuring himself.

Three mechanics have agreed that the gasoline doused Harley eroded the mechanics of the throttle and when Jim opened it, the throttle stuck wide open.

So, with road rash, ligament damage and many fractured bones later, Jim realized the severity of the gasoline incident wasn’t his rash, it was the mechanical damage to the Harley which could have killed him.

I took a particular interest in this case, since many years ago I was filling up when the hose disengaged from the pump handle dousing me with gas. Knowing gas is an alcohol based product and dries quickly, I didn’t exactly race home to shower, I continued to Orlando for a five day legal seminar. I was as sick as could be for the entire seminar.

The take-away from all of this for me, is now I always use the “auto-pilot” when filling up and I stand back from the hose. I never, ever try to squeeze another ounce of gas out of the pump. I always turn the car off (maybe you’ve seen the parent who leaves the car on so the kids in the backseat can remain cool). I’ve heard that cell phones can create sparks near pumps igniting the gasoline. In preparation for this blog post, I researched and the FCC reports that this is completely unconfirmed. But, when you’re standing between a tank full of gas and a pump with an unlimited supply of it, is it worth diverting your attention?

“Jim” and I don’t think so.

Here on the Gulf Coast many of her reliable Palm Harbor area clients stopped using her services in the summer and fall months of 2010 when she is usually her busiest. Why? She asked them. Their answer was almost universal: “Our business has suffered financially since the BP Oil spill. Our client base isn’t spending money”, or “My company isn’t offering overtime since we’re so slow and I cannot afford your services. The tourists haven’t come due to the oil spill.”

It almost doesn’t matter what business my client was in, the BP Oil spill stopped a lot of businesses dead in their tracks. Retail, travel services, restaurants, recreational expenditures, even attorney and dental services suffered because the common denominator is discretionary spending. If it wasn’t an expense necessary to keep food on the table and a roof overhead, many Palm Harbor, Dunedin and other Gulf Coast residents just stopped spending while the tourist industry avoided the Gulf Coast thinking we were knee deep in oily residue on our beaches.

And this extended well into 2011 and for some, 2012.

While many may have chalked off business losses in 2010, 2011 and 2012 to the continuation of a bad economy, this is wrong. If your business weathered the storm during the worst of 2008, and 2009, your business should have been recovering during the last three years.

As you may have seen on television, British Petroleum has settled a class action lawsuit for billions of dollars and all residents and businesses in Gulf Coast counties (Pinellas, Pasco, Hernando, Hillsborough, Manatee) are eligible to receive compensation.

If your company or business sustained inexplicable financial losses in 2010, 2011 or 2012, some attorneys and law firms are prepared to work with knowledgeable accountants to connect your losses with the BP Oil spill. You may have a legitimate claim to make. Don’t waste time. The time to make a claim is drawing down. Please speak with a local area attorney or law firm as soon as possible to ensure that your financial claim can be addressed.

We can help!

I applaud our Commission for doing this. It’s a good start. Legally and ethically it is the right thing to do and will ensure couples access to each other in case of hospitalizations along with other benefits.

However, as the article states, the more encompassing document that same sex couples need is a Power of Attorney. A strong Power of Attorney is a totally comprehensive medical, legal and financial document that allows your loved one to act in your place if there is a need. The couple cited in the article linked above paid $1,600 for mutual Powers of Attorney.

As a celebration of this legal civil rights recognition, I am offering any same sex couple residing in Pinellas County a mutual set of Powers of Attorney for $50. Not $1,600. No strings attached. No hidden costs or fees. I may get a handful of takers, I may get dozens. No matter. It’s not meant to make money; it is meant to assist same sex couples who are still routinely hassled over the course of their relationship because they are not married, cannot get married and find themselves at the mercy of legal, medical and financial system. This will help. I promise.

If interested, please contact me through my e-mail: walt@glb-law.com. Please read the not-so-fine print below. And feel free to share this offer with other couples.

This offer is good until Valentine’s Day, Thursday, February 14^th, 2013. It is valid for same sex couples residing in Pinellas County, Florida. This offer has been pre-approved by the Florida Bar.