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067 Montlick’s $14 MILLION Verdict

067 Montlick’s $14 MILLION Verdict

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Bill Parker, Esq.

Montlick Injury Attorney Bill Parker covers the topic related to personal injury law, and the process of litigating a case. Bill shares real personal injury cases which he brought to trial. With years of courtroom expertise he crafted strategic arguments which brought justice and a significant compensation for his clients.

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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	ANNOUNCER: 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. VERONICA: Hey friends, welcome into the House. Lawyers in the house with Montlick on WSB. I am Veronica Waters here welcoming you back into the house. For what I hope is another enjoyable episode.
00:31	VERONICA: I’m excited because it’s one of our one-on-one shows. And I think you’re going to find that it’s one of your favorite attorneys, just like he is mine. Going to start off this episode with a little bit of a reference first to pop culture reference, which, you know, I like to do from time to time. Let’s talk about a lady called Erin. Her name’s Erin Brockovich. Aaron Brockovich is a single mother who is struggling to care for her family when she’s in a car crash.
00:59	VERONICA: She’s represented by an attorney, but she ends up losing her case at trial. Now, honestly, I have never seen the movie Erin Brockovich, as we see it here today. But the one thing that I do know is that Erin Brockovich was not represented by the attorney who’s sitting next to me in the house today. His name is Bill Parker. He’s a Montlick Injury Attorney, and he is an expert at litigation. This guy, I don’t know if he ever loses trials. He is one of the, what is it?
01:28	VERONICA: Top 100 trial lawyers in Georgia, named so by the National Trial Lawyers Association. Welcome into the House, Bill Parker. BILL: Oh, thank you. VERONICA: So happy to have you back with us. Bill went to College of Charleston for undergrad and then Western Michigan University Cooley School of Law. BILL: That’s right. For a law school. VERONICA: Who is Cooley? BILL: So, I think Thomas Cooley was a Supreme Court justice back in the 1800s, so they named the school after him. VERONICA: Very cooly. Yeah. And Bill Parker is talking to us today about litigation 101.
02:00	BILL: He has a reputation among his peers about being one of the best litigators that there is in the business, meaning he knows how to fight at trial and how to win. Bill says making a difference in someone’s life is what drives me. A quote directly from Mr. Parker. Tell me about it. BILL: Yeah. So, you know, I started off in this business and I was lucky enough to have a mentor and an uncle who got me interested in personal injury law.
02:28	BILL: And I’ve only done personal injury law all 24 years of my of my practice. And so, you know, it’s some people call it. I mean, it truly is a calling, right? I mean, it’s a tough business and it’s a lot of pressure and stress. But helping people and making BILL: differences in people’s lives is what it’s all about. VERONICA: When did you come to Montlick? BILL: I started because VERONICA: you’ve done PI all 24 years to date, right, as we sit here.
03:00	VERONICA: But you were with where were you before? BILL: So, I practiced with my uncle for several years to start off. Yeah. And then I went off on my own and had my own firm for four or five years. Went with another firm that was doing a different type of personal injury type practice. And I started with Montlick in 2016. So, I’ve been there since April 2016. VERONICA: This one feels like home. BILL: Yeah. Yep. Great lawyers, great staff, great place to work.
03:29	VERONICA: How did you become a great litigator, Bill? BILL: Well, you know, they say, you know, the legal profession. I mean, you’re practicing law, right? So, you’re always practicing. VERONICA: You’re always practicing. BILL: Yeah. And so, I don’t I don’t consider myself a great lawyer. I consider myself someone who gives it their best for every client, every day and try to try to do the very best I can for every single one of my clients.
03:59	VERONICA: Do you find that there is something about your personality that sort of makes you better in court? I mean, I’ve talked to lawyers. Some attorneys really like, say, corporate law. They really like paperwork. They like research. They like that kind of thing. Some people, a lot of personal injury lawyers, I know just love being able to sort of help people. But as we’re going to talk about, not every personal injury case ends up going to trial, right? Most of them don’t. So, to be successful, I wonder if there’s something about you that makes you like a really good brawler in court.
04:32	BILL: Well, you know, I think that lawyers that like to litigate cases, there’s something wrong with us sometimes because it is an incredibly stressful. I mean, we do it every day, right? And it’s incredibly stressful for us. And so, and I’ll talk about that a little bit later, but the litigation process is certainly stressful for the person, the victim, right, the person who’s bringing the case.
04:53	BILL: And so, you know, it’s tough, but it’s something that once you get into court and once the judge says, bring in the jury, all your kind of all your nervousness and everything goes away, and you go into fight mode. And that’s what that’s the adrenaline that you get that keeps you going. VERONICA: Yeah, it’s a showdown. BILL: That’s right. A showdown in court. VERONICA: We’re talking to Bill Parker, Montlick Injury Attorney, and today the show is litigation 101.
05:25	VERONICA: Let’s do a sort of primer, if you will, about litigation. Maybe that’s a word that a lot of people don’t know. Everybody knows, I think, what it means to go to trial, kind of, right? That’s what that is. Yes? No? BILL: Yeah, you know, I come across this question all the time where I ask clients in the discovery process, and we’ll get to that a little bit later, too. But in the litigation process, you know, have you ever had a have you ever filed a lawsuit before? Oh, yeah, I had an insurance claim about five years ago. And I’m like, no, there’s a big difference.
05:53	BILL: And so, I kind of want to initially explain the difference between those two concepts so people can understand that. And I’ll use just a standard car wreck personal injury case as an example. When someone is injured in a car wreck, you know, what generally happens and the processes is that they go get their medical treatment, whatever their injuries are, you know, they get treated for those.
06:17	BILL: And once they have completed their treatment and once the attorney and hopefully they have hired an attorney early on in the process has determined what their damages are and damages can be, you know, what happened to you as a human, your personal injuries, your pain and suffering, your medical bills, your loss wages and things like that. Once we have an understanding of what the total damages are and what the insurance coverage is, we make a demand to the insurance company, and we negotiate with the insurance company.
06:49	BILL: And sometimes we do what’s called pre-litigation mediation or some kind of alternative dispute resolution to try to get the case resolved. VERONICA: There are steps that are taken before you ever get to the litigation is what you’re saying. Okay. BILL: And that’s the pre litigation part of it. You know, sometimes cases cannot get settled during the pre-litigation aspect and you have to file a lawsuit. And what a lawsuit is a formal document that you file in a court of law here in Georgia or wherever you are in the country.
07:22	BILL: And it’s generally called a complaint for damages, and it is a lawsuit against the person who injured you. And so that starts the litigation process in a court of law. And that’s what we call litigation. So, when we talk about litigation, we’re talking about a formal lawsuit being filed in a court of law. VERONICA: So up until that point, it’s not litigation. It’s just what? What do you call it? BILL: It’s just the claims process. Yeah, it’s you filed an insurance claim for your injuries.
07:49	BILL: And then once you file a lawsuit, you’re in the litigation process. VERONICA: But a lot of people think if I had an insurance claim, yeah, I had a litigation. I did a litigation. Right, right. I litigated. But that’s not that’s not it. BILL: That’s right. Yeah. So, you know, and in Georgia, there’s, you know, there’s several different courts that you can file a personal injury case in. You know, if you have a case where luckily you weren’t injured very badly and your damages are less than $15,000, you can file a case in what’s called our Magistrate Court.
08:23	BILL: And the advantages of Magistrate Court are that there’s no jury. You don’t have a right to a jury in Magistrate Court and it’s decided by a magistrate judge. It’s quicker, it’s faster to get to court and have your case resolved for larger cases or for cases that that exceed that $15,000 limitation you file here in Georgia in what’s called State Court or Superior Court, which have unlimited jurisdiction as far as monetary value.
08:52	BILL: And in those courts, you can ask for a jury trial of 12 peers, right? Citizens of the county where the case is pending to hear your case and have your case heard by a jury. VERONICA: So, I’ve got a question. You mentioned the money amount that determines into which court it goes. Is that’s after medical treatment? Because what if I think my case is I think my case is worth way more than $15,000. But you’re saying unless the medical bills and such are that.
09:22	BILL: Right. So, if you think your case is, say, for example, when we’ll get too technical, but say the statute of limitations generally here in Georgia is two years and say you’ve you’ve tried to handle it on your own and you go hire a lawyer at the last minute, right? And a lawsuit has to be filed within this two-year statute of limitations generally in Georgia. You know, you would have to pick the court of where you think your damages are ultimately going to be.
09:49	BILL: You know, I mean, if you have, if you have something that’s a very simple case where you’ve only got, you know, $500,000 in medical expenses, that’s probably something that could be heard at Magistrate Court. VERONICA: Got it. BILL: More significant needs to be filed in a different court. VERONICA: I understand. I see what you’re saying. I will tell you that my parents got T-boned by an ambulance once. And I wish that they had had Montlick in their lives at that time. They ended up going into what I guess was a magistrate court.
10:18	VERONICA: It was a case decided by a judge. I will never forgive myself for not realizing that Montlick could go anywhere and take cases in any state. At that time, I didn’t know. And they went with the well-known firm, but they did not get any representation. And they, you know, they were aching in pain. And my mom is still hurting to this day from that accident. It’s really, it’s really terrible. So, knowing in which court to go BILL: yeah VERONICA: and picking the right firm to get you there. BILL: That’s right.
10:46	BILL: And, you know, not every case has to go to litigation, right? So, some cases can get resolved in this pre-litigation stage, right? In fact, you know, not many cases have to be litigated. VERONICA: Yeah, just maybe a year or so ago, the Bureau of Justice Statistics said that only about 4% of personal injury cases ever really go to trial, which is huge.
11:10	VERONICA: So that means everything pretty much settles ahead of time BILL: or gets resolved and they might settle early on in the pre-litigation stage, or you might go through a long period within the litigation period where there’s a whole bunch of stuff going on, and we’ll get that, I think, in segment two. But you know there’s some cases and just from a general standpoint that I have in my history of doing this for 24 years, that are more likely to have to be litigated. And I can talk briefly about those if you want me to.
11:40	BILL: You know, the cases that generally have to be litigated or are cases you know that are a little bit more complicated, right? So, a car wreck versus a tractor trailer wreck versus a medical malpractice case versus a product liability case. The one the latter ones are more complicated and generally those are going to have to be litigated. Some cases there’s no question about who’s at fault for the wreck.
12:06	BILL: If there is just what we call disputed fault or disputed negligence, those are going to have to be decided by a judge or a jury, right, because the parties can’t agree on who’s at fault. So that case is going to more likely have to be filed and have to be litigated. Another issue is, you know, you as a person who’s been injured in, say, for example, a car wreck, you know, you didn’t ask for that to happen.
12:32	BILL: And, you know, all of us bring different things into the equation as far as, you know, our medical history and whatnot, you know, whether your case has to be litigated, it also depends on you as a person, right? If you’ve got a very complicated medical history and say you’re claiming that your left shoulder was injured in the car wreck, but you’ve had prior surgery for a rotator cuff tear in your left surgery, you know, there’s going to be what’s called medical causation issues.
13:01	BILL: And those are going to have to you’re going to have to have a lot of doctor’s testimony and other and other testimony to try to prove that that that is actually related to that. VERONICA: Right. That it’s like so an aggravation of an old injury can be a new injury, but you have to have a doctors say so to sort of prove what that is. It’s incredible how detailed these cases can get. We’re talking litigation 101 here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick and Montlick Injury Attorney Bill Parker in the House.
13:28	VERONICA: Coming up next, the advantages and disadvantages of taking your case to court. Stay with us. ANNOUNCER: 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. VERONICA: Welcome on back to the House. Lawyers in the house with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters talking with Montlick Injury Attorney, Bill Parker, well-known litigator here.
14:00	VERONICA: We’re talking litigation 101. And I wanted to ask you the pros and cons of litigation bill. Is there a reason why I need to step into a courtroom? BILL: Sure. You know, a lot of I’ve learned through this through practicing for a long time that many people are don’t have a lot of tolerance for risk and stress, right? And so, a lot of a lot of our clients try to get their case resolved and we work as hard as we can to try to resolve their case prior to having to go to litigation.
14:32	BILL: Oftentimes we have to litigate. And the most important reason why we have to litigate is because the insurance company is low balling the claimant, the person who’s been injured. And so, a lawsuit has to be filed. You know, the advantages of filing a lawsuit is that you’re in the court process, right? And so, you have a judge that is kind of refereeing the two different teams. And when someone doesn’t act right, we can go to the court and we can we can ask for relief.
15:02	BILL: And we also have the enforcement powers of the judge in the court. So, we can send out subpoenas for records and for documents. We can investigate the case more fully than we can in the pre-litigation stage. VERONICA: Wow, really. BILL: Because we can subpoena people to testify for witnesses. And so back to, you know, the fact that some cases need to be filed, you know, more complicated cases where they’re document heavy, you know, or you need surveillance tapes from a third party or something to prove your case.
15:30	BILL: You really have to file the case in order to get those enforcement powers of the court to be able to subpoena people to testify and to get court documents. VERONICA: So, we’ve talked about mediation before, which is one of those steps that you try where you try to work it out before you ever have to go into a courtroom. Is that you’re subpoenaing people then, right? BILL: Oh, so mediation is just an informal process where everybody has to agree to mediate. I mean, sometimes the judge will order the parties to mediation, which is not necessarily really successful because they’re there against their own will.
16:01	BILL: Most mediations, the parties have agreed to mediate in both. VERONICA: Everybody agrees to sit down at the table. What about a deposition? BILL: Deposition are generally subpoenaed depositions unless they’re the parties. The parties have to sit for their deposition. VERONICA: Yeah, OK. BILL: And so, you know, the other advantages of litigation is that you get your day in court, right? And that you get a jury to be able to decide your case and the value of your case as opposed to an insurance company putting an arbitrary value on your case.
16:32	VERONICA: Right. And we are going to talk straight ahead on Lawyers in the House with Montlick, with Bill Parker about the real-life results that have solidified his reputation as one of the top litigators anywhere. That’s coming up next. Stay with us. ANNOUCNER: You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB. Hey friends, welcome back into the House.
17:00	VERONICA: Hope you’re comfortable and having a good time in here with us. This is Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters, here with my good friend, Montlick Injury Attorney Bill Parker. We’re talking litigation 101. And we got a great primer in that 101-section talking about what litigation is. It’s not the same as just filing a claim after you have an accident. There’s a lot more that goes into it. It’s a very detailed process. And if you missed any of those great details from Bill, just subscribe to us on every single podcast platform so you can get it on the replay.
17:31	VERONICA: You can always find us on YouTube. See our smiling faces along with hearing our melodious voices. And remember that you can keep up with us between every single episode on all platforms social at Montlick Law. Tweet us and Facebook us and TikTok us and Instagram us. We want to hear from you, don’t we, Bill? BILL: Yes. VERONICA: Are you on social bill? BILL: I am. VERONICA: You are. I bet he’s got one of those hidden. He’s got a shady one. He’s got the fake insta, the fence to the public facing insta.
18:00	VERONICA: And nobody knows what’s on the private one except those who are really close to him, which is probably, you know, you’re dealing with the public all day long, right? You need some private time. So publicly, we’re talking about litigation 101. I’m going to say we’re moving into litigation 102, because this is where we’re getting our own sort of practical experience, hearing from the master himself about the cases that he’s really won. And they’ve been some hard-fought victories. I got to tell you, Bill, I have just I’ve heard lawyers talking recently.
18:29	VERONICA: Tongues have been wagging about a huge victory that you got. But I know that this huge victory came in a heartbreaking case. Take us back to the beginning. BILL: Sure. Yeah. So I tried a case back in July for the wrongful death of an amazing six-year-old boy who was at six years old, bilingual, gifted and talented, played the piano, rode motorcycles, you know had a mother who was from Russia and a dad here from the States, had his whole life ahead of him with spectacular expectations of what he could have become.
19:08	BILL: And he and his grandmother were riding with a lady and another passenger when she failed to stop for a stop sign and pulled directly in front of a truck and all four of them were killed in a car wreck. And this case is an example of where there’s limited insurance and there’s horrific injuries and in this case for three deaths that have potential claims.
19:41	BILL: And there was $25,000 per person, $50,000 per accident coverage available. My goodness. And so, you know, we VERONICA: So that was going to have to be split between. BILL: Well, so, you know, again, the importance of hiring a lawyer, an experienced lawyer and a lawyer that knows what they’re doing early on in this case, because we knew of the three potential death cases, right?
20:11	BILL: And the other people in the other truck were also injured, not dead people, but injured, that there were going to be multiple claims for this $50,000 in total coverage. And under Georgia law, an insurance company, if given the opportunity in a multi-claim with limited insurance, can tender all of the policy to one or two claimants and not be in bad faith. And we’ve had a bad faith show on this case. VERONICA: Yeah, you did an amazing job on that.
20:39	BILL: In this particular case, within days of us being retained for the wrongful death of Andrew, the six-year-old and his grandmother, Nancy, we sent time limited demands to the insurance company to pay the $50,000, 25 each on both of their death claims. VERONICA: Let me pause you right there because I want to make sure that people understand there were a limited number of claimants in this case because one person was at fault, right?
21:13	BILL: That’s correct. VERONICA: The driver was at fault. So that case doesn’t even get taken by an attorney because that person is the one who caused the accident. Okay. BILL: Yeah. And so, you know, the three people in her car had claims that their well, their family does. They were killed because of no fault of their own through no fault of their own. And then the other car with the injuries in it, they had claims as well. But anyways, our firm sent a demand for the 50,000 25 each for both of those claimants.
21:43	BILL: And instead of doing the right thing when no other party, no other claimant had filed any kind of notice or demand to the insurance company, they did not pay the demands within the 30 days. And under Georgia law, you have to give the insurance company the opportunity to do the right thing. And so, in this case, we gave them the opportunity to pay the $50,000 and they didn’t do it. VERONICA: So, when you say they didn’t pay it in the 30 days that they sent the check late.
22:13	BILL: No, they never offered to pay the limits. Yeah. So, in this particular case, you know, they were, again, an insurance company looking out for their own interest instead of the interest of the insured. And, you know, I can only assume that they wanted to save money on defense costs and to try to get everybody rounded up and try to settle all cases and split the $50,000 instead of paying the claims that were before them that had been demanded.
22:44	BILL: And so, they let the 30 days expire. So now they’re in what’s called bad faith and right. And so, I kind of want to, you know, tell the tell the audience, you know, sometimes cases, the value of cases are determined about how much insurance coverage here is, right? And sometimes it’s the luck of the draw. I mean, you might get hurt by somebody that’s got a limited policy of $25,000 or you might be lucky and get hit by somebody that’s got $1,000,000 with coverage. Sometimes the value of your case, no matter how bad you’re injured, is determined on the value of the amount of insurance.
23:17	BILL: And so, in this case, Andrew’s life was kind of predetermined was going to be $25,000, right? Because that’s the limit of insurance. But because the insurance company did not do the right thing, they potentially are in bad faith. And you can go and get a verdict against the against the Estate of the person who’s passed away. And ultimately the insurance company might be on the hook for the total amount.
23:45	BILL: So, in this particular case, you know, we took it to trial back in July for Andrew, this precious little six-year-old boy, and we got a $14 million verdict. And, you know, sometimes you hear about these large verdicts in cases and people sometimes, you know, wonder how that verdict could be so high.
24:08	BILL: And people have to understand that 12 strangers heard the evidence in the case, and they heard about Andrew, or they heard about the person who passed away, and they put a value on that person’s life, what they think that person’s life is worth. And so, it’s important to understand that, you know, that and for me to tell the parents that your son’s life, Andrew’s life was worth $14 million, at least according to this jury, not 25,000, what the insurance company, you know, potential policy was.
24:42	BILL: So, we gave the insurance company the opportunity to settle. They didn’t do it, and we went and got this this verdict. And so, VERONICA: on the way to that verdict, though, on the way to the courthouse. You know, and I don’t mean just physically, but I mean also sort of metaphorically as you are making this journey. I can’t imagine that this was something that the parents wanted to go through. I mean, how did they feel about having to go through this litigation process?
25:14	BILL: Yeah, so like we talked about earlier, you know, the litigation process is very stressful to some people. And there’s a lot of anxiety because in this particular case, the parents had to sit for their depositions and they had to relive and talk about who Andrew was and go through that process and talk about how they learned about his death and, you know, what they did after his death and what kind of funeral they had for him and whether he was cremated or buried and these kind of questions that they have to relive.
25:45	BILL: And so, you know, that was that was a stressful time for them. More importantly, the fact that they had to go through this trial or be put through this trial, you know, was significant, you know, to go in front of in a public forum and talk about the death of your six-year-old kid is very difficult.
26:09	BILL: You know, in hindsight, the family actually told me that that it was it was helpful for them, and it gave them some peace and that the and that the mother actually now after this trial and after, you know, kind of opening the box, I guess that she had closed up with Andrew. It’s opened back up and she says she every person she can talk to Andrew about she talks to about now. This case is still pending.
26:38	BILL: And, you know, there’s a there will be a fight about whether or not we will ever collect the $14 million for his death and that’s that will to be determined. But, you know, again, a jury put the value of his life at $14 million and not some arbitrary person did. VERONICA: Yeah. And so, she went through a little bit of a healing there, being able to just get on the stand and tell people, tell the world about her baby.
27:08	BILL: Sure. Yeah, and who he was. And that’s, you know, and that’s the case and whether it’s this case or if it’s just a personal injury case that something happened to you personally. You know, some people have some people have a desire that they want their day in court, right? They want to be able to look at the defendant in the eye and say, this is what you’ve done to me. And, you know, you’ve caused these pain and suffering to me in my life. And I want you to know that. And so, they want to they want a voice, and they want to be heard.
27:38	BILL: And so sometimes, sometimes people do want to litigate cases, you know, and they’re not afraid of the stress and the anxiety. For most, it’s not a pleasant experience. I’ve never and I don’t think in my whole life have I ever finished a case, won a verdict or lost a case where my client turned to me at trial and said, you know what? Bill, that was a great experience. I really want to go through that again. Right. Because it’s not a pleasant experience. VERONICA: It’s exhausting, right? On both sides. BILL: Yeah, it’s exhausting.
28:09	VERONICA: And then as you said, your life is in the fate of 12 strangers or a stranger, the judge. You know, somebody else is deciding what goes forth. In addition to everything else, then there’s this huge question mark over everything. Can you talk to me about what you meant when you said you might not get to recover all of the $14 million for the family? So, this is you know people think about these runaway verdicts, you know these massive, this 10-figure result, which is what has impressed everyone so.
28:40	VERONICA: And to your point, it dovetails right into bad faith, which you and Nathan Krazer, another Montlick Injury Attorney, talked about in episode 26 here. Why might you not get that? Right. BILL: So, you know what people what people don’t, you know, the news will often report the big verdict and then there won’t be any postscript, right? There won’t be a follow up to what really happened. VERONICA: Yes, we get a press release about the big win. We don’t get yet. Right. BILL: When you get a verdict like this, you know, the cards are always stacked against the victim, right?
29:10	BILL: And so, because the insurance company has all the money, they have all the time. The person who’s injured needs money or, you know, does not have time. And so, you know, there’s appeals. They can appeal the verdict. They can file an action on their own to say, hey, judge or jury, we want you to decide whether or not we acted in bad faith by not paying the limits when we should have paid the limits.
29:37	And so, it’s this perpetual appeals process or avenue that they can that they can undertake to try to undo that verdict that they put themselves in. VERONICA: Wow. Wow. Wow. And so, hoping that somebody is just going to give up and take a lesser amount. BILL: Yeah, so it’s a fight and we’re going to be fighting this for a while. The story has not ended yet, but maybe I can come back and do another show on and have some good news about what happened. VERONICA: Yeah, your lips to God’s ears.
30:07	VERONICA: Coming up next, the Montlick closing argument is straight ahead. Don’t miss it. ANNOUNCER: 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. VERONICA: Hey friends, it’s Veronica back with you in the house with Montlick Injury Attorney Bill Parker.
30:35	VERONICA: And you know you have been waiting on it all hour long and I’m not going to keep you waiting one second longer. The MCA has arrived. The Montlick closing argument. Bill Parker, make that argument today. BILL: Well, so I kind of want to just bring everything together. And it all goes back to, you know, hiring the right lawyer at the right time to make sure that, you know, any potential pitfalls in your case are resolved and handled.
31:03	BILL: You know, I tell people all the time, they come to me, oh, you know, my best friend’s cousin’s brother, you know, got in a wreck and he got X dollars. And I want people to understand that you can’t compare your case to anybody else’s case because they have nothing to do with the value of your case. We all, like we talked about, we all bring different, you know, life experiences and medical history to the case. It all depends on the insurance coverage. It depends on how the wreck happened, who’s at fault, whether there’s exceeded liability.
31:33	BILL: And so, you know, and it also depends on, you know, your injuries and what the realistic value of your injuries are. You know, back in talking about the $14 million case, what we argued in that case for Andrew’s life is that, you know, he’s got 70 years ahead of him and he’s got some amazing million-dollar days ahead of him. And I think that really hit home to the jury and made them start thinking about the things that they’ve experienced in life and how precious life is.
32:05	BILL: Because some people just want to put, you know, add up somebody’s paychecks and say that’s the value of their life when really, it’s what you do outside of work is what life is all about. VERONICA: And so, the million-dollar days that his family won’t ever get to share with him. BILL: Yeah. VERONICA: And he doesn’t get to share with his family. His graduations are gone. He doesn’t ever meet someone to marry. He doesn’t get a graduate degree. He doesn’t take that trip around the world. All of those life monumental milestones, Andrew never lived to see.
32:37	BILL: That’s right. VERONICA: And the jury understood that. BILL: Yep. And you know and whether your case can get resolved, your particular case can get resolved in pre-litigation or litigation. You know, I guess my closing argument again, which is, I think, a theme. VERONICA: Yeah, you’re the litigator. Make the closing argument, sir. BILL: A theme on this show is you’ve got to hire a lawyer. You’ve got to hire the right lawyer, some inexperienced that knows what they’re doing, that’s in it to win it, and can get your case resolved either through litigation or before litigation.
33:08	VERONICA: Yeah, and don’t wait, right? I keep hearing this. How many times have you had somebody who called you too late for you? Especially because they went somewhere and somebody else had messed up their case. You’ve got to get the right lawyer on your side from the start. Thank you so much to Bill Parker, Montlick Injury Attorney in the House with us today. Abraham Lincoln said the leading rule for the lawyer as for the man of every calling is diligence. If you do have an injury and you have to go to trial or not, don’t you want the most diligent attorney you can find?
33:41	Keep that in mind. Hopefully you’ll be OK. But until next time, we’ll see you. This is Lawyers in the House. I’m Veronica Waters. ANNOUNCER: 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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