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Lawyers in the House with Montlick - Your Legal Podcast
078 Catastrophic Workers’ Comp

078 Catastrophic Workers’ Comp

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Ben Copeland, Esq.

Ben Copeland, workers’ compensation attorney at Montlick Injury Attorneys dives into the complex world of catastrophic workers’ compensation cases. He tackles the intricacies of the process, provides insight into how the system works and explains the importance of hiring the right firm from the start.

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The purpose of this show is to provide general information about the law. Our guests will not provide any individualized legal advice. If you have a personal situation and need legal advice, contact us for your free legal consultation with a Montlick attorney.

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00:04	Welcome to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Wish you had a lawyer in the family? Now you do. Here’s your host, Veronica Waters. Welcome, friends, into the house. This is Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m your girl, Veronica Waters, welcoming you back into our house for another great and illuminating discussion with one of the best Montlick Injury Attorneys you are ever going to meet.
00:34	It’s a solo dolo show. You know how much I love these, and we’re going to tell you about our guests in just a moment. But first, I want to just ask you a quick little question. What do warehouse workers, truck drivers, movie stars and construction people have in common? That’s the topic of this show. Now let’s go to our guest and say hello to Mr. Ben Copeland. Welcome back to the house. Ben Copeland. Thank you for having me. What was the last thing that we talked about when you were here?
01:03	We talked about work injuries, workers’ compensation claims. Is this because this is your sort of specialty in the law? You spend most of your time working on worker’s comp? Most of the cases that I handle are workers’ compensation claims. That’s right. I handled personal injury claims as well, but mainly workers’ compensation claims. Why do you think that you ended up in that section of personal injury law? It is so specific and so complex. It really is.
01:32	I ended up there because of that reason, really, because it is very complicated. It’s very complex. And it’s from injuries that can lead people to have devastating injuries for long periods of time. And that really interested me helping people through those situations because workers’ compensation is a very difficult system to be involved in. Yeah, you’re a puzzle solver. I try to be. So Ben, you went to law school at Mercer, correct? And where did you do your undergrad?
02:00	I went to Alabama. Alabama. I got my undergrad and a master’s degree at Alabama. OK. And then you decided to go into law when you were in college? That’s right. Yeah, I went to get my public administration master’s degree. I was going to go into public service. And during that time, I decided to also go to law school. And I went to Mercer, and I’ve been in Georgia ever since then. What was it about law, though, that called to you?
02:29	Because it seems that I’ve heard from so many Montlick Injury Attorneys that you feel like you are in public service because you’re doing so many things for people who need your help. But it is sort of a different track. It is, to a certain degree, it sort of dovetails into one another. But you’re right. It is about really helping people. That’s really why I decided to go to law school, trying to help people through difficult situations. When did you know that you were doing the right thing?
02:56	Well, you know I said when I was a kid that I wanted to go to law school, and I eventually ended up in the place that I should be. You knew from a kid? Wait a minute. I told people that when I was a kid. Are you serious? Yeah. Oh, that’s so cool. So did you have lawyers in your family? Nope. No. My mom’s a teacher, and my dad was a telephone man. Were you watching LA law? Like, I mean, how many people have we heard on the show talk about they were inspired into law by watching LA law on TV?
03:27	I did see it when I was a kid. I love it. And so now you know you are in the right place doing something that fulfills your heart. I do. And it’s because, you know, really the goal was to help people, regardless of what I was doing. We’re talking today, everybody, about something that so many industries across the board have in common. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich and famous and working on a movie set. It doesn’t matter if you are not rich and famous, but you’re working really hard in a warehouse. We’re talking about workers’ compensation today, but we’re giving it sort of an extra edge.
03:59	We’re talking about catastrophic injuries because there are workers’ comp injuries then which go far and beyond what some people might think of as a “normal” sort of injury, not just having a box dropped on your foot or a fender bender on the roads. It’s true. Workers’ compensation injuries can be anything as small as a cut or a bruise or something like that.
04:26	And it could also be anything to very devastating injuries like paralysis and amputations and things like that. I think the last time that we spoke, we sort of went over what you were entitled to in workers’ compensation cases. And in general, in workers’ compensation, you’re entitled to basically the big three things are medical care for your work injury that’s provided by your employer through an authorized treating physician.
04:55	And if that doctor removes you from work, then you could be entitled to income benefits, or people call them weekly benefits, or indemnity benefits. There’s a lot of different words that you can use for that while you’re out of work. And a permanent disability benefit if you have a permanent disability as a result of your work injury. But there are limits on even those benefits that you can be entitled to. So just for instance, you’re only entitled to those benefits for a maximum of 400 weeks unless it’s a catastrophic injury.
05:29	Wow. So is that 400 week thing that you’re talking about something that is only in Georgia, which is where we’re sitting today? Or is that 400 weeks across the board in every state? Because I know you guys take cases every single in every single state. That’s correct. That’s an example of Georgia law. And that’s just one state’s law that dealing with workers’ compensation. I’m sure every state has different laws that govern work injuries, and they apply in different ways.
05:57	Now, I want to make sure that we understand what workers’ comp is because it is so complex. And some of these concepts might seem pretty simple. But workers’ compensation comes into play when you are injured during the course and scope of your job or just when you’re on work hours? Is there a definition? Yeah, so a work injury is one that occurs in the course and scope of employment and arises out of the employment. So basically, you have to be doing your job when you’re injured.
06:27	So not walking down to the ladies’ room. Well, no, it can be that as well. Okay. But it just generally has to be in the course and scope of employment. And there are specific instances in which what you describe can be a worker’s compensation injury as well. OK, yeah. One of my coworkers was actually had a worker’s comp case because he was injured dashing into the news booth to do a newscast. Exactly. OK. All right. But that was not a catastrophic case.
06:58	What do you consider? What’s catastrophic? It hurt. It hurt like the dickens, I think. But how do you describe what’s the difference then? So a catastrophic injury is one in which well, a catastrophic injury in Georgia is one defined by statute. And generally, there’s five different injuries that are specific injuries that are deemed to be catastrophic. For instance, those are spinal cord injuries, severe spinal cord injuries that have paralysis associated with them.
07:30	So paraplegia and quadriplegia. Amputations of the arm, foot, hand, burn injuries covering 25% or more of the body as a whole, 5% to the hands, third-degree burns, and traumatic brain injuries leading to severe loss of consciousness and neurological issues and total industrial blindness.
07:59	Those are the specific injuries that can be deemed catastrophic. But there’s also another category. It’s sort of called the catch-all provision that deal with catastrophic injuries that impair someone’s ability to work their pre-injury job or any other job that’s available in substantial numbers in the national economy. So a catastrophic workers’ compensation case arises when you’re unable to do your job as you were before.
08:29	Not only your job, but also pretty much any other job that’s available to you in the national economy that you’re qualified to perform. That you’re qualified to do. It’s a tough standard to meet. Is it? Yeah, because I’m thinking that a catastrophic injury then seems very, very obvious. Like I might not have thought to call you if I tripped in the hallway or my coworker might not have said, hey, let me give Montlick Injury Attorneys a call because I fell in the hall on the way to the news booth.
08:55	They can be very obvious, but I wouldn’t assume that an insurance company is going to do the right thing and automatically accept a catastrophic injury as catastrophic. And that’s when I think you should always, when you have an injury like that, reach out to an attorney and Montlick Injury Attorneys will have someone that can speak to you about your injury. And clients, when they call in, they’ll speak to an injury attorney the first time that they call. They just need to call 1-800 law need, and they’ll speak to an attorney the first time.
09:26	And it’s important that you speak to an attorney soon after the injury because that’s something that can lead to greater outcomes, better outcomes for you in the future. Why do I need an attorney, though? Why can’t I just like sort of navigate this through myself? The stuff is right there in black and white. Isn’t it written down somewhere? It is. But like I said, I wouldn’t assume that someone’s just going to do the right thing, that an insurance company is going to do the right thing.
09:51	And if you have a severe injury, it can be one that, for instance, in a catastrophic claim that it can affect you and can also affect your family for the rest of your life. So you need to protect yourself and make sure that you cover yourself in the event that you have such an injury. How does the worker’s comp system look to the worker and to the business? Is this something that everybody’s happy about? Everybody’s like, oh, this gets on my nerves. Well, I think with any workers’ compensation claim, there’s a trade-off that comes.
10:23	I don’t think that many employers like when they have work injuries. I certainly know that if they had a choice, most injured workers wouldn’t want to have the injury that they sustained because there’s very limited benefits that you’re entitled to in workers’ compensation. What do you mean by that? Well, just for instance, comparatively speaking in a personal injury claim, there are things like full loss wages and pain and suffering that you can recover in a personal injury claim that you cannot recover in a worker’s compensation claim.
10:54	So there will always be loss when it comes to a worker’s compensation case. That’s because of the way that the funds that you get are calculated, right? It’s some sort of percentage of something. That’s correct. It’s only two-thirds. In Georgia, it’s only two-thirds of what you earn per week for the employer. That’s the most that anyone could ever get. And often there are caps, as you mentioned, I think early in the show. These benefits can be capped after a certain time, right? Well, not just capped.
11:24	In a typical worker’s compensation case, they just end altogether. They end altogether. So unless your case is voluntarily accepted as catastrophic, by the end of the 400-week term in Georgia, your case is just over. So if I crushed a leg, if I lost a leg, or lost an eye, or was severely burned with chemicals, and I’m in constant pain, or something like that, you’re saying that at some point, the benefits that I have to help me navigate through my new life just go away.
11:58	They just go away. And if the employer insurer doesn’t accept your claim voluntarily as catastrophic, then you may not get anything else on the case. And that’s why it’s important that you contact an attorney very early on in the claim to make sure that you understand what benefits you’re entitled to and that those benefits are protected. You know, I was doing some research as we got ready to go on the air and looking at what the guidelines look like around the country for reporting workers’ comp claims.
12:28	And it was so striking to me how different everything is from state to state. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know, but there are some states where you might have as little as 72 hours to report an injury and then 10 days in which to file a claim. Some states will give you 10 days, 30 days, 60 days. There’s one state that might have, let’s say, 180 days, but then you only get six more months to file a claim. Another state might give you two years to file a claim. How could I possibly know that? You shouldn’t try and navigate it on your own.
12:59	I can tell you that. You should contact an attorney. And at Montlick Injury Attorneys, we’re a national law firm. So we can get you to an attorney that can talk to you about the problems that you’re having and give you advice about what you should do. Let’s go a little deeper and get some of your real-life expertise, Ben. Coming up next on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB, we’re going to hear a story from Ben about how complex and complicated these cases can be and how he can help navigate you out.
13:32	Stay with us. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday if you want to listen live on 95.5 WSB. Welcome back to lawyers in the house with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick Injury Attorney Ben Copeland talking about the very complex nature of the worker’s compensation system and a very specific class of injuries called catastrophic work injuries.
14:04	And I’m so curious, Ben, the marked difference between what might be a typical injury and a catastrophic one. And you had sort of top of mind a catastrophic case involving one of your clients. Right. Well, what we talked about before is that workers’ compensation cases typically are limited to 400 weeks. Catastrophic injury claims aren’t limited to that 400 weeks. They extend out to lifetime medical care and potentially lifetime income benefits as well.
14:37	And when people have very severe injuries, those are claims, those are injuries that will last someone’s whole entire life and prevent them from doing any substantial work. We’ve represented people for decades even. For instance, there’s someone that we’ve represented that sustained a traumatic brain injury from an attack at work. And it led to him being disabled for now decades.
15:06	And he’s gotten medical care and income benefits during that entire time period. And we’ve also got him things like attendant care with family members and home modifications and things like that that you would typically not get in a normal workers’ compensation claim. But because his injuries are so severe, we’ve been able to work and get him additional benefits beyond the typical 400-week claim for workers’ compensation cases.
15:34	Was that a personal injury case as well as workers’ comp? It wasn’t a personal injury claim, but it’s certainly something that we investigated when the injury arose. Yeah, because it was the result of an attack, but it turned out not to be a personal injury case, only a worker’s compensation case. Correct. So Ben, you mentioned earlier that sometimes there is sort of an incentive, I guess, for an insurance company or a place of business.
16:03	I’m not sure who it is to sort of cap out the benefits or maybe not even designate something catastrophic. Was this one of the easier cases that you had to deal with in that instance? Well, I don’t know that any case with injuries that are this severe are ever going to be easy. There’s a whole host of components that lead to long-term problems for people. And anytime that someone has a catastrophic injury like this, it’s always going to have a mental health component as well that we help people with.
16:36	So there’s some there’s some magic that goes into helping people, but there’s also a lot of hard work and commitment and dedication to representing someone for sometimes decades. Does the worker’s compensation system pay you my attorney? Typically, our fees are limited to amounts that we recover for you. So in that sense, yes, it’s a portion of benefits or it’s a percentage of the settlement of the claim.
17:06	Coming up next on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB, it’s not the after party, it’s the third party. We’re going to talk about third party claims coming up on Lawyers in the House. Stay with us. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB. Welcome back to lawyers in the house with Montlick on WSB. I’m your girl, Veronica Waters here, hosting Montlick Injury Attorney Ben Copeland.
17:35	And we’re talking about catastrophic injuries in workers’ compensation cases. Now we are delving into some really complex issues. If you kind of want to redo or if you missed the incredible story Ben told about how Montlick Injury Attorney has actually helped a client for decades through one of these cases, we got you. Make sure you subscribe to us on your favorite podcast platform. You can always catch replays of the show anytime of the day or night on YouTube as well. And remember, we want to keep up with you, not just when we’re on the show, but all throughout the week.
18:06	So hit us up on your favorite social media platform too at Montlick Law. Ben, workers’ compensation, like many of the personal injuries out there, can just change your life in a flash. Drastically. That’s right. And there’s any number of things that can happen. There are any number of accidents that you can have at work. Many of them can be solely work injuries, and others can be accidents that also have other claims associated with them.
18:34	For instance, it’s very common for people who have to drive for work to get into a motor vehicle accident. And if someone else is at fault for that motor vehicle accident, then there could be a third party claim as well. We’ve represented someone who was injured at work while making deliveries who sustained really bad injuries to her legs and her spine. And as I talked about before, there’s also a mental health component to that that we’re helping her with and pursuing catastrophic designation on that claim.
19:08	But we also helped her with the personal injury case associated with that to get resolution to that claim as well. We pursued the third party that was at fault for that accident. So there could be more than one claim in some accidents. It’s important that you contact an attorney and contact an attorney early on in the process so that we can investigate that and find out whether there is another claim. Because I talked to you before about the fact that workers’ compensation, the benefits are limited.
19:38	So if benefits are limited, you want to make sure that your recovery can reach potential different sources if someone else is at fault. So before I get around to calling you, I need to understand before I’m ever in this situation, what do you mean by third-party claim? That sounds kind of complex. I just mean simply, it means that someone else is at fault. In a worker’s compensation case, you have a claim against your employer for a work injury that you sustained.
20:09	If there is a third party, that means that there’s someone else that’s not associated with your employer, that’s not a coworker, that’s at fault for your injuries. And that could be a motor vehicle accident, or it could be a product liability claim or something of that nature that we need to investigate and investigate early so that evidence doesn’t disappear and that we make sure that we obtain that evidence so that we can protect you in the future. Why is it not applicable if something happened involving a coworker?
20:40	I can’t sue my coworker? You can’t. The only remedy that you have for a work injury is a worker’s compensation claim against your employer. And the same applies to your coworkers as well. Why? Why? That doesn’t seem what if somebody’s like flicking paper clips or I’m changing a light and they knock over the ladder or I don’t know what happens. What if there’s rough housing? What if there’s a fight? What about that? OK, so I have true story. In one of my husband’s first jobs, he was working in a warehouse.
21:10	This woman was like trying to be all coy and flirting with this guy who was on the forklift or whatever. She’s like poking her little toe out like, oh, I’m going to whatever. And she thought that was a good idea. And people were like, don’t do that. You don’t need to do that. And she did it anyway. And this guy ran over her foot. I don’t think he did it on purpose, but she ran. She had her foot run over trying to be all cute in the warehouse. Now, she can’t sue. I don’t know if he did it on purpose, but she can’t. She doesn’t have a claim. Does she have a claim or not?
21:40	It would depend on the facts of the claim, but it’s possible that she doesn’t have a claim at all, but certainly not for personal injury. That’s incredible. That’s incredible. So again, somebody could be liable for your injury on the job. But if it’s somebody under your own roof, no, no way. Assuming it’s not, you know, if it’s the same employer. If it occurs in the course and scope of the employment, the only claim that you have is a worker’s compensation claim.
22:10	Unless there’s a third party. OK, so if you have, let’s say if you have 20 clients come through the door, about how many of those would you say have multiple types of claims, workers’ compensation and something else? I would say probably 10%. But I can’t tell you the number of times that I’ve had people call in after being represented by someone else, and that attorney that was representing them completely missed a claim, whether that’s a personal injury claim or more often a worker’s compensation claim that they just simply didn’t pursue.
22:46	And there have been a number of circumstances where we’ve caught it in time, fortunately, and have been able to pursue claims for those people and get recoveries for people for the injuries they sustained at work when it was basically ignored previously. But sadly, there’s also been times where they just called too late. And if you call too late, there may not be anything that can be done. That goes back to kind of what we were talking about earlier, not kind of. It’s exactly what we were talking about earlier.
23:13	Whatever state you’re in, the laws can be completely different from state to state, the deadlines, the statutes of limitations, all of that. That’s right. So don’t wait. You need to call an attorney as soon as possible. All right. So I know that you’ve got some stuff that has to be calling to you right now. When I say, Ben, tell me about one of the cases that has really stuck with you over the years. Can you give me an example of one of these things where you had to really leave no stone unturned or investigate a lot, or something that was a catastrophic case that had a third-party claim?
23:46	Sure. So there’s another accident that we represented someone on as someone who is working in a factory. And a piece of machinery failed. And it led to severe crush injuries and burn injuries to a young father. And we’re pursuing catastrophic injury for that as well. But we’re also investigated a potential claim for product liability because of the machinery failure.
24:14	And it took experts and investigations and even OSHA investigations to get a determination about what happened in the incident. And if we didn’t do that, it’s more than likely that machine would have been fixed, repaired, or just gotten rid of. And it’s gone and pursuing a claim at that point is going to be impossible. So what do you have to do to make sure that that doesn’t happen? You have to you have to investigate immediately.
24:41	And that’s why it’s important that when someone’s injured, they call 1-800 law need, contact Montlick Injury Attorneys so that we can talk to them, talk to them about their options, and pursue claims and investigate what may be available to them immediately. Is that the same kind of thing where you have to send out a letter? I think we’ve done on shows talking about like trucking accidents or whatever. You have to send out a letter spoliation letter or whatever. Does that mean don’t spoil the evidence? Essentially, right.
25:11	Up and coming lawyer right here. OK, so you have to say don’t mess with that machine. Keep it there. Don’t touch it. Don’t fix it. Don’t do anything. So we can investigate it. Correct. Right. And it’s important that you do it soon. And if you don’t do it soon, then it often disappears quickly. Do you get pushback? Do you get pushback from the company or whatever if that happens? No, they’re sort of at that point in time, they’re sort of obligated to do. And if they don’t, then there could be significant penalties against them.
25:36	So Ben, these catastrophic injuries that you’ve been talking about, the spinal injuries, the incredible burns which can really maim a person, keep them from being able to turn on a light switch or pick up a child or drive. The paralysis, the what else did you say? The loss of limbs, amputations, blindness, the kinds of things that stay with you forever and ever.
26:08	They are I wonder if those are cases which you take home with you at night? Oh, 100%. I mean, it’s almost impossible not to. I mean, I alluded to the last case that I talked about. Young father, I empathize with him greatly because of the fact that he’s not going to be able to really experience his kid’s childhood like he otherwise would.
26:36	He just can’t do the things that he would otherwise do. And that’s devastating. I mean, when you really think about that, I mean, the way that your life can change in an instant from injury at work or injury anywhere. But yeah, it’s tough to deal with sometimes. Do people know I hate to ask a question that seems like it’s so obvious, but do people know that they should have called an attorney? You know, like you said, you’ve gotten calls from someone who was with another firm that maybe botched their case or missed a deadline?
27:09	Or is it that people are trying to like bear this up on their own? They think, I don’t need an attorney. Let me try to handle this on my own. And then they get in over their heads. I think there’s a lot of different reasons that people don’t do that. Sometimes people think that it’s the wrong thing to do, that it’s a bad thing to do. Sometimes people think that they can do it themselves. And I think that it only helps you to talk to someone at the very least.
27:35	I talk to people all the time where it may not make sense for them to pursue a claim with an attorney in a worker’s compensation case, or may not make sense to pursue a claim with an attorney right then. And I tell people that all the time. And when people call Montlick Injury Attorneys, they get to speak to an attorney and they get to know from the attorney whether it makes sense at that point in time to pursue a claim. And you don’t always get that with every firm that you call.
28:03	A lot of times you call and they just move forward with the claim and it may not make sense for you in your life right then. So there are instances where I might call you and you say, this might not be a case right now. It may not be a case that you want to pursue with an attorney right now. Many people have lots of injuries. You alluded to it. You dropped a box on your toe. You suffered a cut or a bruise or something like that.
28:28	A lot of times, if you pursue a claim with an attorney immediately, you may be better in a couple of weeks, and it didn’t really make sense for you to pursue an attorney under workers’ compensation at that point in time. If you call us at Montlick, we’re able to talk to you about it and give you your options early on in the process. But if you wait and you’ve got deadlines that pass or benefits that you don’t receive, it may be something that we just you never are able to obtain.
28:57	Wow. Tell me about another case that sticks with you or one that makes you especially proud. I represented a nice lady who was a nurse who suffered a slip and fall injury and injured her knee. And we ended up getting her, it was a devastating knee injury. We got a knee replacement for her. But during that process, she developed problems with her other knee. And she had to have a knee replacement on that knee under workers’ compensation.
29:27	And because of constant cane use and constant walker use, she had to have shoulder surgeries as well to both shoulders. So essentially, every appendage that she had was injured as a result of her work accident. And we ended up it didn’t start off as a it started off as a knee injury, but it ended up progressing to a catastrophic claim that we were pursuing for her because of just the way that her injuries progressed.
29:56	That’s a huge domino effect of catastrophic injuries. One by one surgery after surgery after surgery. So a case can start out and it be obvious that it’s a catastrophic injury, or it can progress to one that becomes a catastrophic injury because their injuries just progress and get worse. And we’re there for you then that process if you have those severe injuries to try and help you through that process and get you the benefits you need. Are you able to kind of see it coming? They’re hard to predict sometimes.
30:27	Hard to predict. All right. Well, coming up next on lawyers in the house. I’ve got a prediction for you. Guess what’s on the way? It’s the Montlick closing argument. I’m here with Motley injury attorney Ben Copeland and I’m Veronica Waters. We will be right back. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. If you want to listen to our radio show live, you can hear it every Sunday, 8:00 a.m. on 95.5 WSB. You are back in the house.
30:57	This is lawyers in the house with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick Injury Attorney Ben Copeland and you’ve been waiting for it. It’s the Montlick closing argument. Ben, make your case. Well, what we’ve been talking about today has been catastrophic workers’ compensation injuries. And if you have a catastrophic workers’ compensation injury, or if you’ve been injured very severely, you need to contact an attorney immediately.
31:22	It’s important that you talk to an attorney that is able to advocate for you, give you your options, and tell you what benefits you may be entitled to, and protect those benefits in the event that you have very severe injuries. I can’t tell you the number of times where I’ve talked to people after the fact, after they’ve been represented by another firm, and that firm has just missed cases altogether.
31:47	And I don’t know whether it’s a case of tunnel vision or it’s a case of just looking at what’s right in front of them rather than investigating all the options that are available for that person. Fortunately, we’ve been able to rescue cases for people that have been ignored in the past, but we’ve also had to give people bad news that the claims that they may have had are no longer available to them because time has just passed. So it’s important that you call someone immediately.
32:17	And if you call Montlick Injury Attorneys, you’ll have an attorney that you can speak to when you call. I think it’s also a good time to remind folks that it’s not just you at Montlick working on these very complex workers’ compensation cases. You’ve got a whole floor full of attorneys who are especially focused on these very intricate issues. Oh, completely. Yeah, my experience at Montlick has been great. The people that work there are wonderful. We got a great group of attorneys.
32:47	I feel like they’re very good people, importantly, and they care about what happens to their clients. That’s what’s really stuck with me. I’ve been working with Montlick Injury Attorneys for almost 10 years now, and the people there are fantastic, and they do care about their clients. Also, how cool is it that you can get in these brainstorms with people and have a bunch of different eyes sort of look at cases from all these different angles and say, hey, did you look at this? What about that? Could it be this? Could it be the other thing?
33:18	You can’t underestimate the importance of that, really. I mean, to have an extra set of ears to bounce ideas off of, another set of eyes to look at in a claim. People who don’t have that option can be sort of adrift and not really know what options are available. But we’ve got a lot of brainpower there to help through a lot of different situations.
33:43	And then, of course, here at the Motley Brain Trust, we’ve got Ben Copeland, rising star, recognized years ago as somebody who was clearly up and coming and fighting for his clients. And don’t be the person who calls Ben where he says, “Oh my gosh, I wish you had called me in time because now it’s too late.” I hate giving that message. I hate giving that message. It’s not good to hear, and it doesn’t feel good to say. It’s important that you call immediately. Call immediately.
34:11	Ben Copeland, thank you so much from Montlick Injury Attorneys being in the house with us today. We’re talking about catastrophic workers compensation claims. A lot of nuggets for you here if you or someone you know has been hurt on the job. I’ll see you next time. This is Veronica Waters. Peace out. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Catch us live every Sunday, 8:00 a.m. on 95.5 WSB.

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