00:02 [Music]
00:14 welcome back to another episode of the
00:16 Auto Accident Attorneys Podcast i'm your
00:18 host Attorney Ali brought to you by the
00:21 Auto Accident Attorneys Group where we
00:24 take care of you today I'm joined by my
00:27 sister Attorney Holly hello hello she's
00:31 back again uh a listener's favorite
00:34 guest specifically our mother's favorite
00:38 guest you got to stop bringing her up
00:41 she thinks you're making fun of her did
00:43 she say anything she did why does he
00:46 keep talking about me because I love you
00:48 Mom and I appreciate your views now if
00:50 you could like and comment and subscribe
00:51 it'd be even better i have Holly on the
00:55 podcast today because I wanted to talk
00:57 about injuries and pain and how that
01:00 relates to not just auto accidents but
01:03 life in general um and the reason for
01:05 that is because you almost didn't make
01:08 it into the office today oh my god I
01:09 threw out my back yesterday also I just
01:12 want to point out I look like a head
01:13 chef today shout out Made Well but yeah
01:17 I threw out my back yesterday putting on
01:19 pants this is 36 i I turned 36 what a
01:22 week ago this is what it has to give me
01:25 very athletic happy birthday by the way
01:27 happy belated birthday thank you did I
01:29 get you a card you did it was actually
01:31 very nice i might be the first like
01:34 birthday card note that you'd written me
01:36 since I was like 10
01:39 sorry about that that can't be true
01:41 though maybe I've texted me before that
01:45 it's an exaggeration well speaking of
01:49 pain and the heartache and not receiving
01:52 So you threw out your back
01:54 um I was going to bring over a TENS unit
01:57 for you you didn't use that but what
01:59 tell me what's going on like as if I'm a
02:01 doctor but I just want to kind of Yeah
02:04 so basically I was pulling up my pants i
02:06 had felt like tight in my upper back
02:08 like trapped neck area um I you said
02:12 athletic i have been trying to work out
02:14 but it had been a long time so I'm like
02:16 back in the gym after a long hiatus so I
02:19 think my body just hadn't quite warmed
02:21 up or hadn't been stretching well so all
02:24 it took was that one pair of pants to
02:26 knock me on my ass and I ended up just
02:30 laying in bed all day yesterday and it
02:31 was like one of those things where like
02:32 you know you're like I can't I can't
02:35 turn this way that way and so I was just
02:38 doing like ice and heat back and forth
02:41 and it lasted I mean it still hurts but
02:44 I'm obviously here I'm a lot more mobile
02:46 than yesterday but even in that like few
02:49 first hours I was crying like I'd have
02:52 had a lifetime of chronic pain and I was
02:54 like I can't take this we can't live
02:56 this way and this is first off that was
02:59 just one day and this is off this is off
03:02 of bending over to pull pants up
03:08 i think that that's a critical point to
03:10 highlight because we see sometimes you
03:13 see rear end accidents especially um a
03:17 lot of times it's it's when they're in a
03:19 turn lane and so you're you're turning
03:22 your neck to look to the left i was
03:24 thinking about that on the drive here
03:26 because I was like "Okay I need to go
03:27 into the office today but just drive
03:29 very carefully." So the whole time I'm
03:33 thinking to myself if someone hits me
03:35 especially as I was like checking the
03:37 like turn lane I was like I don't know
03:40 if I'm like well am I going to
03:42 die can you die of pain
03:48 and I also was like does that how would
03:50 that affect my case cuz let me back up a
03:53 second you were talking about how a
03:55 simple putting on the pants can injure
03:57 you and now imagine like you're rear
03:59 ended at 35 m plus an hour i haven't
04:03 been in very many car accidents knock on
04:04 wood and so sometimes I forget like the
04:07 amount of impact the little amount of
04:09 impact it takes to really feel it in the
04:11 car i'm a great driver but every now and
04:13 then I'll hit the curb and that happened
04:16 recently
04:18 you
04:19 said a great great driver but I hit the
04:22 curb recently it wasn't even that like
04:24 hard or I wasn't going that fast and the
04:26 car felt like it shook and I was like
04:28 "Oh my god." I was reminded of what it
04:31 would be like to be hit even at a slow
04:34 pace and then I started thinking about
04:35 people who are hit when they're going
04:36 like full speed and I can't even imagine
04:39 that well if if you were hit technically
04:43 it's a pre-existing condition because
04:45 you were in pain before but you're also
04:48 going to be treated we would argue you
04:51 were talking about it earlier yeah the
04:52 eggshell plaintiff theory which we
04:54 learned in law school which is you take
04:56 your plaintiff as they are yep so if
04:60 they're fragile like an egg and you
05:02 shatter them that's exactly what the
05:04 namesake is after eggshell plaintiff
05:06 let's say it reminds me of Mr glass so
05:08 let's say somebody is driving and they
05:11 rear end they It's just a bumper tap
05:14 it's a super super low tap but it's Mr
05:16 glass sitting in the back seat and the
05:18 car in front and he just shatters and
05:21 you're like "Well I wasn't I only hit
05:23 him at like I just took my foot off of
05:26 the brake and I rolled forward." No you
05:28 take your plaintiff as you find them if
05:30 they're sensitive and more susceptible
05:31 to injury you're responsible for all
05:33 those injuries yeah if somebody hit me
05:35 today God please make it home safe knock
05:38 on wood if somebody were to hit me today
05:40 in this state I'd be
05:43 like and they'd probably think I'm
05:45 faking it because they like I barely
05:48 touched you they're like you don't
05:50 understand scratch and you immediately
05:52 like give me a neck brace no literally
05:54 like give me in the stretcher i'm not
05:56 okay it's a good thing you're recording
05:57 this god forbid if it happens at least
05:59 it's it's documented exactly we already
06:01 know and actually now that you're saying
06:03 it I feel like before you leave the
06:04 office you should call your carrier
06:07 and increase both your med pay and your
06:11 underinsured motors protection to the
06:12 maximum limits just for the next 24
06:14 hours no I'm good i'm good we're putting
06:16 too much of this juju out there i'm well
06:18 covered we're good so since we're
06:20 talking about pain I think one of the
06:22 most important things that I can express
06:24 to our listeners is how critical it is
06:27 that your pain you do something about
06:30 your pain in in the legal concept of
06:33 personal injury and when you're suing
06:35 somebody for negligence there is a
06:38 proactive duty on plaintiffs to mitigate
06:42 their damages so the law requires you to
06:45 actually if you're injured the law
06:47 requires you to treat and if you don't
06:48 if you fail to treat and your injury
06:50 gets worse you know after the fact you
06:52 could actually be penalized for that
06:55 you're supposed to treat and you need to
06:57 document your injuries this is an
07:00 anecdote of literally just this
07:02 afternoon we had a client come in um
07:06 rear end collision young guy diagnosed
07:10 with neck sprain and strain and
07:15 instability of the cervical spine but
07:17 never got an MRI so he just had about 15
07:22 visits to a chiropractor
07:24 uh went from a seven out of 10 pain
07:27 scale discharge at a one out of 10 pain
07:30 scale uh we got in excess of whatever
07:34 his medical expenses were but his
07:36 expectations were that because he
07:38 subjectively was dealing with pain
07:40 probably like what you're dealing with
07:42 he's like "Well this is a $100,000
07:44 case." Yeah it's like well it could be
07:47 technically if you document it if you're
07:50 feeling pain you need to share it with
07:52 your physician if if one modality isn't
07:55 working so he was sharing that he he
07:56 stopped treatment because it stopped
07:58 working but he got discharged he felt
08:01 awkward about discharging from the
08:03 chiropractor so instead of saying "I'm
08:05 still in pain this isn't working i need
08:08 something else." He said "I only have a
08:10 one out of 10 pain." So that the doctor
08:12 would discharge her so now he's
08:15 medically documented that he's better
08:18 that he's better and he's actually he
08:20 shot himself in the foot really i mean
08:22 he's he's trying to be nice but he's not
08:25 getting his injuries documented
08:27 appropriately yeah that's so something I
08:29 would do
08:31 let's avoid the awkward conversation i'm
08:34 fine i'm fine you're squirting blood
08:36 yeah no no no it's no big deal yeah it
08:39 comes down to like if you you can't just
08:41 express the words I am in pain like at
08:44 the end of the day it's a legal process
08:46 you have to show evidence of that pain
08:48 and the only way you can show evidence
08:49 is through doctor's visits so yeah it's
08:52 really important and then the other part
08:53 of that too is if you even have like the
08:56 slightest bit of pain after an auto
08:57 accident forget like the claim and the
08:60 amount of money that's up for grabs it's
09:01 more about take care of yourself because
09:04 this is% the opportunity to do that y
09:07 and I think a lot of people
09:11 underestimate like we were saying before
09:13 like even a low impact collision they
09:16 underestimate the impact it can have on
09:18 your body and so I think it's good to
09:21 just get checked out i mean obviously if
09:23 you're like I don't feel anything a week
09:25 has passed that adrenaline has come out
09:27 of your body and you're feeling fine
09:30 okay you're probably fine but if a week
09:32 has passed and suddenly you're like I'm
09:34 starting to feel some aches go to the
09:36 doctor get checked out because speaking
09:40 of a few hours had me so depressed about
09:44 having chronic pain that's going to
09:46 stick with you for the rest of your life
09:49 and uh if you don't take care of it it's
09:52 just going to get worse that I
09:53 appreciate that you were saying
09:55 regardless of your case even if you're
09:57 at fault if you're injured you've got
09:59 one body pay attention to it take care
10:02 of it we've seen it right we've seen
10:04 family members that didn't address acute
10:08 injury and it turns into a chronic
10:10 condition and it just it snowballs yeah
10:13 it gets worse and worse especially when
10:15 it's something that you can get done
10:17 through physical therapy or chiropractic
10:19 therapy where it's noninvasive
10:21 non-surgical it's like man you you could
10:24 have been maybe you're not 100% better
10:27 but by taking that action you get 50%
10:30 better 50% better in a decade it's going
10:33 to have an exponential effect on on your
10:38 daily life how you enjoy life how you
10:41 feel about yourself how the activities
10:42 you're about you're able to do it's
10:45 critical and for the
10:49 case if you are injured and you are
10:52 getting treated tell your doctor
10:56 everything that you're feeling one thing
10:58 that I'm sure you've heard me talk about
10:60 a lot around here is when the clients
11:02 call me we've had conversations for
11:05 several months and they're telling me
11:07 about how awful the pain is and then
11:10 when we get the medical records to start
11:12 reviewing it to actually submit an offer
11:14 of settlement to the insurance company
11:17 nothing that they've told me is in the
11:19 records it's almost as if that they've
11:22 they've gotten it off of their chest
11:24 they're like "Yeah no this hurts that
11:26 hurts that hurts." So by the time they
11:27 get to the doctor's office and the nurse
11:30 is getting them prepped to to see the
11:32 physician and they're checking in to see
11:34 how they're doing they're like "Oh I'm
11:36 fine." Yeah because they've told the
11:38 attorney the attorney can't document
11:40 your injuries right if it's medical you
11:42 got to tell the medical professionals i
11:45 can only use I I tell clients this my
11:48 job is nothing more than to be a
11:51 storyteller but I can only use the facts
11:53 that are given to me from your doctors
11:56 because the story I'm telling is a story
11:58 of your injury
11:59 so it doesn't help for you to tell me it
12:01 helps me so I can understand but I can't
12:04 use your
12:06 subjective symptoms of what you're
12:08 telling me in the story the legal story
12:12 if you will i have to use what the
12:15 doctors say yeah i think it's
12:18 important for clients to kind of view it
12:21 as like okay imagine you're on the other
12:22 side and somebody's trying to give you
12:24 this information i imagine especially in
12:27 this day and age people require a lot of
12:30 like factchecking right so think of it
12:33 that way it's like okay yeah sure your
12:36 attorney can tell the insurance company
12:38 this is what's going on but then the
12:40 insurance company's going to be like
12:41 okay where's the evidence of it but did
12:44 you die
12:47 that's that's even if you did no that's
12:52 not funny um you're absolutely right i
12:54 think it it really helps in general when
12:57 you take the perspective just step back
12:59 be like what is it that I'm trying to
13:01 accomplish and then put yourself in the
13:02 shoes of the other person so just
13:05 pretend you're the insurance company all
13:07 of a sudden now you're this multi-
13:10 billion dollar conglomerate and
13:11 somebody's like "Give me $200,000." Or a
13:14 jury imagine you're a member of a jury
13:16 and you're listening to a case play out
13:19 you know people have watched a lot of
13:22 I'm sure what's that show law and Order
13:26 suits like there's a basic understanding
13:28 of how a court process works so legally
13:31 I I wanted to get uh Maddie and Juju to
13:34 watch Legally Blonde with
13:36 me and this is off topic but uh I told
13:40 you that Juju watched Caro's Way yes
13:43 her favorite movie i just said stellar
13:46 stellar 80s movie it is Ju Guu's
13:48 favorite movie she said she wants to
13:49 dress up as Caro for Halloween one of my
13:52 favorite things that happened was when
13:54 the movie ended uh I said out loud I was
13:58 like "Huh Caro's way i'm reading you
14:00 know after the the the credits roll and
14:04 all of that I just say the name of the
14:06 movie." Guju without missing a beat
14:08 looks at me and goes "It did not go
14:11 Carito's way
14:15 she's so funny she is hilarious if I was
14:18 half as funny as Guju I would have
14:20 stayed in comedy yeah we would not be
14:22 here
14:25 i think that with pain there there's so
14:29 much to get into but I think for an
14:32 introductory a 101 uh the real message
14:35 that I wanted to get out there today was
14:38 that if you are injured or you think you
14:41 might be injured one regardless of your
14:43 case get checked out two when you are
14:47 getting checked out share with your
14:48 physician everything that's going on the
14:51 sad truth of the matter is that with the
14:53 way that the healthcare industry in this
14:55 country is going right now you will get
14:57 the best medical attention after an auto
15:00 accident
15:01 because the reimbursement rates for
15:05 health insurance are nowhere near what
15:08 the hospitals we were just talking about
15:10 that hospital lean yeah that's an
15:13 episode in and of itself it is yeah but
15:16 you know for future um we're going to
15:18 have a guest on who was a former client
15:21 she's agreed to talk about her
15:22 experience and what she went through and
15:25 she had a pre-existing condition and was
15:28 subject to subject to um what maybe the
15:33 insurance company considered a low
15:34 impact collision mhm but it changed her
15:37 life and she was well compensated for
15:40 that but to this day she still has
15:43 trouble so it's like it it even gets to
15:44 the point where you're like "Thanks for
15:46 the money but I'm forever changed." Yeah
15:49 so don't say her name out loud just yet
15:52 but give me the initials sg
15:56 sg okay i can't wait to figure this out
15:59 all right well we talked about it last
16:01 week we can't wait to see you
16:03 oh I remember now okay i'm excited about
16:07 that that's gonna be a good episode i I
16:10 love her she's awesome oh she's great
16:13 and I love her brother and her mother
16:15 yeah the whole family whole family is
16:16 fantastic great package there you guys
16:18 are in for a treat mom you're going to
16:21 love that episode let's make a pack to
16:24 leave mom out of this from now on i just
16:26 realized something we got to come up
16:28 with a topic to invite mom on to the
16:30 podcast oh man she's going to have a lot
16:33 to say i know that yeah she sure will we
16:37 should have had her on this podcast if
16:38 there's anyone that would be an advocate
16:40 of patients sharing all of their
16:43 symptoms with their physicians it would
16:44 be mom and or just going to a physician
16:47 i remember in high school she used to
16:48 drag me out to the doctor's office
16:50 unbeknownst to me I'd be like "We have
16:52 an appointment today." She's like "Yeah
16:53 well you got to go get checked out for
16:55 your problems." I was like "What
16:56 problems?" You have problems i'm like
16:57 "Okay." We're sitting in the waiting
16:59 room she's trying to fill out the form
17:00 where it's like "You're listing your
17:02 problems." And she's asking me I was
17:04 like "I told you I don't have any
17:05 issues." And do you ever get like a
17:06 random shooting like pain in your leg
17:09 like it's just maybe like a muscle
17:11 situation you know and I was like "Ow."
17:13 And she immediately was like "What?"
17:16 Like nothing i just got like a a little
17:18 bit of like a muscle cramp starts
17:20 writing muscle problems
17:25 oh if
17:27 mom if mom didn't like us talking about
17:30 her on the podcast before she's going to
17:32 hate this i was maintaining that
17:34 favorite child status and I'm the one
17:36 that just told the story
17:38 I love you Mom we both love you i love
17:41 you more okay this is getting weird okay
17:45 this may not be the best episode to ask
17:47 you to subscribe and
17:49 like but I do think if you watch at
17:51 least the the middle of this there's
17:53 some golden nuggets in there where it's
17:56 truthtelling and I hope that we can make
17:58 some social media clips on those pieces
18:00 in particular how critically important
18:03 it is that you share your symptoms of
18:07 pain
18:08 discomfort how it's affecting your life
18:10 a lot of people we see a lot of rotator
18:12 cuff injuries and people have a
18:14 difficult time getting dressed did you
18:16 have a difficult time getting dressed
18:17 this morning with your back pain i had a
18:18 difficult time getting dressed before my
18:20 back pain that's what caused it
18:25 touche but did did Brian help you get
18:28 dressed today
18:30 uh no he didn't
18:34 i I'll move away from that topic yes
18:36 this came weird well my point is that
18:39 sometimes you don't think to share that
18:41 piece of information with your physician
18:43 to be like "Yeah it's winter and they're
18:46 they're I'm wearing a button-up but if
18:48 if it's winter and I'm just wearing
18:49 sweaters like it's really difficult for
18:51 me to put my arms up and get a sweater
18:53 over my head." Patients may not think to
18:55 share that piece of information with
18:57 their physician that is a critical piece
18:59 of information we've gotten tens of
19:02 thousands of dollars of value on a case
19:04 on that one fact before yeah i think
19:07 people need to think about when you're
19:08 in an accident every little detail
19:11 matters about how that accident and that
19:13 injury affected your life and you're
19:16 talking about the clients kind of
19:18 venting to you and getting it off their
19:20 chest about what's going on and then
19:21 once they get to the doctor's office
19:22 they don't share any of that document it
19:25 like make a note in your phone okay
19:27 today I had trouble putting on my
19:29 sweater that keep that running list so
19:31 that because that happens to me all the
19:32 time where in that moment yes I
19:35 understand that it's affecting my life
19:37 and then I'll forget about it like 2
19:38 hours later when I'm doing something
19:40 else this is important it's not because
19:42 I don't want somebody to get the wrong
19:43 idea that we're sharing these things to
19:45 be like oh like this is how you nickel
19:47 and dime the insurance company that's
19:48 not it at all this is how you get fair
19:51 compensation for your injuries you have
19:54 to be able to tell your story it's not
19:56 going to be good unfortunately if the
19:58 world was fair you could just say "I'm
19:60 hurt," and you get compensated but the
20:02 world isn't like that when you say "I'm
20:04 hurt," you need to be very specific you
20:07 need to be able to document what is
20:08 hurting what kind of pain you're
20:10 experiencing how often you're
20:12 experiencing it what kind of treatment
20:14 you had that's really the only way we
20:16 can get close to getting you compensated
20:19 to what it's truly worth we could get
20:22 you there's firms out there that will
20:24 get put out a a settlement offer to an
20:27 insurance company and settle the claim
20:29 and send you a check but that's not
20:31 going to be the real value of your case
20:33 the real value of your case is the kind
20:35 of work that we do we document like this
20:38 we make sure that our clients express
20:40 everything they can and when they don't
20:44 those are the conversations that we have
20:45 to have today yeah and the point is to
20:48 get you back to where you were before
20:50 the accident so anything you need to do
20:53 obviously monetary compensation can only
20:55 go so far but if before the accident you
20:58 weren't having trouble putting on
20:59 clothes and now you are well then you
21:01 need to get all the medical treatment
21:02 that you can to get to that point and
21:05 then you know if there's damages for
21:08 pain and suffering you got to make up
21:09 for that too that's really what it is
21:11 it's not about like let's squeeze out
21:13 every dime out of the insurance company
21:14 because I deserve to get paid no it's
21:17 about getting you back to square one
21:19 which maybe you never will be but let's
21:21 try to get you there as close as
21:23 possible yeah remember to mitigate your
21:25 damages thank you so much for tuning in
21:28 Mom we've had a great time bringing you
21:32 up we do love you we're not making fun
21:34 of you we We adore you so much for
21:37 everything you do other listeners please
21:40 subscribe and tune in well hopefully you
21:43 tune in every week if you have any
21:46 questions if there's something that
21:47 you'd like for us to address if you want
21:49 to be a guest on the podcast reach out
21:51 to us you the website is
21:53 www.thea aaagroup.com that's talpha
21:57 alpha alpha g r o
21:60 p.com you could call us at
22:03 844 a4law
22:06 or slide into the DMs or slide into the
22:09 DMs on social media or leave a comment
22:10 down here just don't cuss please and uh
22:14 we'll get to you i'd love to start doing
22:15 some viewer related content miss you
22:18 guys see you soon take care take care