THIS IS MUST READING - READ THIS FIRST!!!
FIFTEEN THINGS WE DO FOR OUR CURRENT CLIENTS
Please, before you leave this website or even before you start to scroll around our Website, please read this section. It is extremely important because it tells you specifically what our law firm is really about, what we believe in, what we are doing for our current personal injury clients, and what we have done and continue to do for our past personal injury clients.
First, What We Stand For: Mission Statement: Our Mission Statement is to provide effective representation of your personal injury case in a caring, compassionate manner while seeking the maximum recovery possible for your injuries.
For Criminal cases, our Mission Statement is to effectively represent you in all aspects of your criminal charges while treating you as an individual and looking at things thru your eyes.
All Mission Statements sound good, but let's talk specifics. Any attorney's website will tell you that they can get the most money for you and that they can do things that Superman can't even do!!
What I want to do is to take some time and explain to you specifically what we do for our current clients.
How do we help our current clients? First of all, we do return calls in a big way. Any current client who calls our office and says it's important that they speak to me, will get a call back that day. We regularly contact current clients and let them know what the status is of their case. Sometimes there is not a lot happening legally, but we do keep in touch with our current clients.
Second, when someone becomes a current client of our law firm, they have me, Bernie Tully, with my 30 years of experience, working for them directly. Their case will not be handled by a junior associate fresh out of law school. Why is that important?
Other law firms may tell you that the senior partner is going to handle your case. That sounds great. However, unless your injuries are extremely serious, life threatening, or are catastrophic in nature, the likelihood is your case will be handled by a younger associate of the law firm. Not the attorney you envisioned when you signed on with them. That is not how we do it at our law firm. If you become our current client, you will have me or someone with as much experience as I have, handling your case. That is our promise to our current clients. I am 58 years old and I have been doing personal injury cases for over 25 years. I have been out of law school longer than I care to admit to anyone.
Third, we copy current clients, if they ask us, on all correspondence and records in their case. We also provide them copies of all their medical records as we accumulate them if they want us to.
Fourth, we follow up on a regular basis with our current clients and check in with them about how they are coming along medically. We do not just sign current clients up and then talk to them two years later, as we have heard some other law firms do. We stay in contact with our current and former clients. We like to think our clients become like family to us.
Fifth, we ask our current clients, at the beginning of the case, how often they want us to contact them. Some clients want us to contact them weekly, and other clients want us to call them monthly. Some clients don't want us to contact them at all until we have an offer on the case. That is fine with us. We tailor our response to our client's needs based on what their comfort level is.
Sixth, for all of our current clients, we provide them at no charge a free monthly Newsletter. In the monthly Newsletter, which I write myself each month, we talk to them about important things that are going on in the law and how those things possibly affect their case. We hopefully provide some humor in the Newsletters and take a different approach in writing it than you might expect from an attorney. You can check out some of our current Newsletters that are on our Home Page.
Seventh, we have a free monthly drawing and if you are one of our current clients or even a prior client, you may have a chance to win a free $50.00 gift card or other prizes of similar value each month. We have the drawing once a month and we ask a ridiculously easy question for anyone that reads the Newsletter. To answer, all you need to do is call in to Mary, our trusted secretary, at 800-491-4996 with the answer!
The person who calls in with the correct answer is then placed in a drawing. At the end of the month we draw a name from the correct answers and that person wins a $50.00 gift card of their choosing. No obligations, no commitments and no money required - All Free!!
We feel we must be doing something right because we have almost 5,000 former and current clients whom we send the monthly Newsletter to. Again, this is sent to the client for free and it is published each month.
We also feel we are doing right by our clients because about 75% of our new clients are referred to us by current or former clients. That is huge! Think about it. Obviously, clients would not be referring us to friends, neighbors, and associates if they didn't think we did a good job for them in their case. Consider that when deciding whether you should call us.
Eighth, for our current and past clients we notarize important documents for them at no charge. I am a Notary Public and Denise, one of our Paralegals, is also a Notary Public. We will provide you with the appropriate notary seal so that your important documents can be sent to the right places. This service is a lifetime one for you whether you are a current or a former client. Did I mention to you that we do that service for our clients for free?
Ninth, we give our current clients a realistic value of their case and what their injuries are worth. Some attorneys and some law firms will tell you your case is worth millions and millions when you initially sign on with them. We evaluate your claim realistically and honestly. We will not tell you your case is worth a million dollars if it is only worth $50,000. Of course, none of our current clients come back to us and say why did you tell me my case was worth ten times more than the insurance company actually offered? The reason they don't say that is because we are realistic in our evaluation of their injuries.
Tenth, we tell our current clients why we think the case has the value that it does. It is not just enough to tell our clients that their case is worth $50,000. We explain to our current clients how we arrived at that number. It might be because of the type of injury the client has, or it might be because of what past juries have given in this area for a similar type of injury. Regardless of the reason why, we will at least have a thorough discussion with our clients about the value of their claim.
Eleventh, we will not settle the claim of a current client or a past client without their specific approval. We suggest to our current clients what the value of their case is. We update current clients regarding what the insurance company offers to settle the case. We advise current clients what we feel the case is worth. However, we always follow the client's wishes. Even if we disagree with our clients and their assessment, we believe our clients control how they want to proceed in their claim. Why? Because they are the ones who have suffered the injuries!!
Twelfth, if they want, all current clients get my personal cell phone number that they can call me 24/7. That means you don't have to go thru a receptionist or secretary to get to talk to me if it is important. You get my personal cell number and I am available 24/7 to all current clients except during Pittsburgh Steeler games.
Thirteenth, all current clients get our written guarantee that they will not be charged any fee unless we get a recovery for them. Further, we give all current clients a written guarantee that they will not be charged any money for costs incurred in pursuing their case, unless their case settles or we get a jury verdict. For example, in order to get hospital records, the hospitals charge us a fee to obtain the records. The same applies for medical doctors and their records. They all require payment before they release the records.
We pay that money up-front for you. Again, if you do not get a recovery, you do not owe us a penny. In addition, you don't owe us a penny for the records we accumulated in your behalf. We eat those costs as the cost of doing business.
Fourteenth, all our current clients get the experience and stability of an established law firm. We have been in business for decades. Our Paralegals, Angela and Denise, have been with me many, many years. Mary, my secretary has been with me for a long time also. The same goes for our two private investigators. Ditto for our Economics expert. All this spells one thing and that is stability. We are not a fly-by-night law firm that jumps around from one office to another and takes a scatter gun approach to things. We have a system in place to handle accident cases. All our current clients get the value of our stability and long term knowledge of the legal landscape in Western Pennsylvania. All our current clients are assured that we will never yell at them or scream at them or use a loud voice toward them. That is just not our style. We have been doing this too long to do those types of things. We treat our clients with compassion. We look at things from their eyes. We don't look at things from the insurance company's perspective or from the Court's perspective. Our goal is to represent our current clients first and foremost.
I can relate to your injuries. I am in my late fifties. I am married and have 5 children - one (Beth) is a Phi Beta Kappa college graduate and is happily married with children. Our second son, Kevin, graduates from Widener Law School in May, 2011. Jessica and Michael are twins who go to Penn State University. My youngest daughter Katie is an eleventh grader in high school.
You may be married. You may have children yourself. You also know what is involved in raising a family. You go to work every day and try to do the best you can for yourself and your family and the people who count on you. Those people are our clients.
The point of all this is that our law office can relate to you. We feel what you are going through with your injury claim.
When you retain us to represent you, you become part of our family. Wouldn't you want family representing you in your injury case?
Fifteenth, in auto accident cases, we help our current clients get the fair market value for their car which was damaged in the auto collision. And we do it for free! We do not charge anything for helping our current clients receive fair value to replace their damaged automobile or to repair them. That is just a free service we do for our current clients.
Okay, let's talk about what we do for our current clients in all accident cases: initially, after we meet with the clients and discuss the injuries our current clients have, we obtain medical authorizations. The purpose of receiving the medical authorizations is so that we can get the records of our clients and see what their treatment was. Another purpose of the authorizations is to find out how the doctors diagnose our current client's injuries.
Obtaining client records can be a time-consuming procedure. Unfortunately, it is not as simple as just putting in a phone call and getting the medical records. Mary, my secretary, has to call and call and call the hospitals and emergency room departments in order to get the records. We need to also obtain the medical records from the treating doctor. Again, there is an almost endless series of phone calls our office makes in order to get the proper records for our current clients. But we do get it for them.
Additionally, in auto accidents we help to open up what is called a First Party file. In Pennsylvania your medical bills are paid by your own insurance company regardless of who is at fault.
It does not raise your auto rates in any way. But in order for your medical bills to get paid we must submit the proper forms and records to your insurance company. We provide this service to our current clients at no charge to them. Again, it just another one of the things we do for our current clients as part of our representation in their injury case.
After we have accumulated all the current records, including physical therapy, medical records, hospital records and family doctor records, we sometimes request what is called a Narrative Report from the treating doctor or surgeon. A Narrative Report is a request from the medical specialist to outline what her diagnosis is of the current client's injures and what her prognosis is in the future.
After we have obtained the specialist's medical report, we evaluate any wage loss issues for our clients. If the client has lost wages after their first five days, then 80% of their wages are paid by their auto insurance carrier, provided they have wage loss on their auto coverage. We obtain this for the client at no charge to them.
If we feel that there are some long term problems regarding future employment, we have an economist evaluate our client's long-term wage loss. We use a forensic economist who can project what our client's loss of earnings capacity is into the future. This number often becomes a big multiplier because whatever that number is, it is multiplied by the number of years of work life left in our client's work life career.
After obtaining all of the above, we contact our client and outline what we have in terms of an evaluation of their case. We double check with them to make sure we haven't missed any medical records or medical bills.
At this point, we are able to send out what is called a Demand Package for our client to the insurance company. A Demand Package is an accumulation of all medical records and bills that our current clients have undergone and went through. It also highlights what our client's injuries are and our theory of the case.
We end the Demand Package with a request to settle the case for a certain amount of money. Almost always, our Demand for our clients is a lot more than we realistically expect the insurance company to offer. Why? The answer is that there are negotiations involved in the offer and settlement process.
With our client's permission, we then negotiate with the insurance company for the wrongdoer in an attempt to resolve the case. Never, and I mean never, do we ever accept an offer from the insurance company for our clients without their specific O.K. This process usually involves telephone contacts back and forth between the insurance company and our law firm. It also involves phone calls with our current clients outlining what the status is of the negotiations.
At some point we get to what is called the bottom line. This is the top number that the insurance company has to offer to try to resolve the case prior to the filing of a lawsuit. Experience is a pretty good indicator to us as to what the bottom line is. We communicate that offer to our current clients with our suggestions.
Although the ultimate decision is up to the client whether to accept the offer or not, we give our input concerning what we think the value is, the merits, and the real value of the case.
At that point after we have done our evaluation, our clients tell us how they want to proceed. Any clients can either accept the offer that has been made or decide not to accept the offer. If the top offer from the insurance company is not accepted by our client, then with our client's permission, we proceed to file a lawsuit on their behalf.
It is important to keep in mind, as we tell all our clients, that just because a lawsuit is filed does not mean the case will go to trial. It is very unusual for a case to be heard by a jury. Rather, there are countless opportunities in the process after we file the lawsuit to try to settle the case. We get a realistic assessment from the clients of what their comfort level is with being in a Courtroom and going through a deposition and a trial.
After we file the lawsuit for the client, the defense hires an attorney to represent the wrongdoer. They then file an answer to our Complaint. The answer either admits or denies each paragraph in the Complaint that we filed for our clients. They may raise something called New Matter. That is additional facts they think are important in evaluating the case. We then answer the New Matter with a Reply on behalf of our clients.
The next thing that usually happens is both sides send out what are called Interrogatories and Request for Production of Documents. They are just fancy words for a series of written questions to us outlining what our client's injuries are and the treatment they have received. Interrogatories also deal with how the accident occurred and what the wage loss or other injuries are for our clients.
After that part of the Discovery is completed, our client is scheduled for a Deposition. A Deposition is just a series of questions under oath in an attorney's office that goes into greater detail concerning the questions that were posed in the Interrogatories.
I have found, from doing over 2,000 such Depositions, that the four main areas that the other side usually covers for our current clients are as follows:
First, they ask about our current client's background, where they went to school, where they currently live, who they live with, and whether they had any prior accidents and injuries.
Second, they then ask about the accident itself - all the particulars as to where it happened, how it happened, witnesses to the injury, and where our client went for medical treatment.
Third, they often cover what the client's medical treatment included. Did our client go by ambulance? Were they admitted to the hospital? When did they follow-up with their family doctor? Were there diagnostic tests, like an MRI or x-rays, done and what were the results? Was surgery recommended? If so, when is the surgery scheduled?
Fourth, how has the injury affected our client's daily activities? What things could our client do before the accident that they have trouble doing now? What limitations does she have that she didn't have prior to the accident? Was there a pre-existing condition of the client?
We are with our client throughout this whole process. Obviously we are there for answering the Interrogatories as well as being there for the Deposition of the client. After we have had a chance to depose the other side, in a similar manner, the question then becomes whether the case is Placed At Issue or not for our clients.
Placing the case At Issue tells the Courts we are ready to proceed to trial. At some point, the case will come up on what is called the Trial List for our clients. During that period several times a year, a list comes out of cases to be heard in that particular term. At that point, we have a trial date and can proceed with jury selection.
Again, it is important to keep in mind that all throughout this process, there are attempts being made by both sides to try and settle the case. Another method that we have been using for our current clients is something called Mediation. Mediation involves a person, usually a former judge or an attorney, who has no involvement in the case. They act as an independent evaluator of both sides of the case. They attempt to bang heads together with us and the insurance company and the other attorney to reach a fair settlement of the claim.
As I have indicated already, the vast majority of cases wind up settling prior to going to trial. If the case needs to be heard by trial, we will begin the selection of the jury and outline our theory of the case to the jury. I am very comfortable going to trial for our current clients, especially if I feel they are being honest and their injuries are real and substantial. Even when juries are out, prior to a verdict, there is still an attempt to resolve the case by both sides.
It is also important to keep in mind, as I tell all our clients, that they control the process. They can decide at any point to resolve the case if they wish.
So there you have it. That is what our law office is all about. That is how we are different from other law firms. That's how we treat our current clients. Would you like to be treated the same way? We have about 5,000 current and past clients that we have represented over the years. Clients would not be referring us their friends and relatives if they didn't think we did a great job or that our staff was not caring and understanding.
Does that make sense to you? If you think that our law firm would be the type of law firm to represent you and your injuries, we welcome the opportunity to meet with you.
Remember that the initial consultation and even the second consultation are free. Remember, also, that just as with our current clients, you do not pay any money at any time to us unless we get a recovery from the insurance company or from a jury!
Finally, keep in mind that if we do not get you a recovery, you don't owe us for anything including the costs we have expended in pursuing your case. And the money you receive in the settlement for your pain and suffering is tax free.
Why not become one of our current clients by calling us now at 800-491-4996 ? We treat you like family!!
