072 What a Georgia Personal Injury Lawyer Does

VERONCIA: Welcome to the House Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB. Yes, you know that melodious voice. It’s your girl, Veronica Waters, back in the house with you. So happy that you are in the house with me.

CRAIG: Thank you. Good to be here.

VERONICA: Yeah, well, you don’t sound that enthusiastic, sir. What’s up? One of our solo dolo. I think you’re like, am I correct that you’re are you in shock because I’m pronouncing your name correctly?

CRAIG: I am.

VERONICA: All right. Well, you’re very kind. In the meantime, I’m the one who’s on the worldwide interwebs calling you by the wrong last name. And your mom’s mad at me now. OK, so Craig Le Chance, UGA undergrad, Georgia State law. You’re a native of Canada. And interestingly enough, you came to personal injury law after working for a couple of major insurance companies.

VERONICA: Why?

VERONICA: Really? So, I’m guessing that you know some people have such horrible experiences with insurance companies. And it’s like a former client was in here one time and he said it wasn’t anything like he was familiar with growing up. It was like they were on the dark side or something all of a sudden and not what he believed them to be.

CRAIG: It does feel that way sometimes. I mean, I think it’s a matter of perspective, but certainly from this side, you know we feel like we’re doing the right thing. We’re on the good side and we’re helping people as opposed to working for insurance companies where you’re sometimes standing in the way of people getting the medical care and the financial compensation, they need to be made whole.

VERONICA: Yeah, two businesses, both very good at what they do.

CRAIG: Well, I think the most important thing for any personal injury client is to get into medical treatment right away.

VERONICA: Now, is it too late for me to call if it’s been a week ago, two weeks ago, two months ago?

CRAIG: There’s going to be an outer limit as to how long you can wait to seek medical care, but that’s going to be case dependent. So, it’s best they give us a call so we can give them an individual consultation about their particular case.

CRAIG: Well, if you hire us, if you hire a law firm to represent you, we take care of all that. We’ll get all your medical records and bills directly from your providers. You just tell us where you’ve been, and we’ll handle the rest for you. That’s a big part of why you hire us.

VERONICA: OK. Fair to say it’s a mind I could step on if I’m not doing those couple things.

VERONICA: Yeah, and it’s having had medical coverage before, I know that those bills can kind of come drip, drip, drip. They don’t all come at the same time.

CRAIG: They don’t come the day after the accident, that’s for sure. Yeah. Okay.

CRAIG: Absolutely. So, you know a lot of people, there’s a big misconception. I’m sure we’ve talked about this on the show before about the idea of full coverage. In Georgia, there is no such thing. Coverages are purchased a la carte. So, from your perspective, your personal insurance, you’d be looking to see if you have medical payments coverage that might cover medical bills, an uninsured motorist coverage that might cover you in the event the at-fault driver isn’t insured or doesn’t have enough insurance.

VERONICA: How do I get all that stuff?

CRAIG: Well, if you hire us, we’ll take care of all that for you. But if you’re trying to handle this on your own, you’ll be looking at what’s called your declarations page, which is a document that you should receive from your insurance company every six months that indicates the coverages that you’ve purchased, and the limits associated with those particular coverages.

CRAIG: Correct.

VERONICA: Make sure that which goes back, everybody, to what we’ve been talking about, about how to make sure that you have what might be actually closer to, quote unquote, “full coverage.” That’s a really I like how you said that. It’s really a la carte. It is.

CRAIG: You have to be very specific about what you’re getting on your insurance. And there’s a lot of insurance companies now that market that actually. I know you’ve seen some commercials from some of the major insurers that talk about only purchase what you need. Well, basically what they’re implying is we’re going to cut some coverages out that you don’t think you need.

VERONICA: I never paid attention to that line.

CRAIG: Correct.

VERONICA: Absolutely.

CRAIG: I have a client who reached out to me after his neighbor said, “Hey, give Craig a call.” His neighbor was a former client of mine.

VERONICA: Well, hold up. What’s wrong with taking those thousand dollars? I know I’m going to have medical bills. I probably have some right way that something that I need to do. What’s wrong with me just taking the money?

CRAIG: Because it typically it’s only offered in exchange for a full release of claims past, present, and future.

VERONICA: The first offer offer is a low ball.

VERONICA: Okay. It’s one thing to say don’t accept the first offer. It’s another thing to say, hey, check your bank account. The insurance company might have slid something in there without you paying attention.

CRAIG: Yeah, yeah. I mean, again, typically speaking in terms of how this works, the insurance company will not send the money until there is an agreed settlement with a release and the release has been reviewed. So, they’re kind of putting the cart ahead of the horse in the hopes that you spend that money.

VERONICA: Wow. Have you ever seen that happen before?

CRAIG: I’ve heard of it, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Just dropping the money in there. Yeah. It’s becoming more and more commonplace with digital banking these days. VERONICA: That’s crazy. Now let’s be sure as we get ready to go take a little quick break here. This is not a quick process. What would you tell people about you know packing your patients for this journey?

CRAIG: Yeah, you’ve got to be patient throughout the process.

VERONICA: Wow.

CRAIG: And that’s not even like you know most attorneys going to have stories of cases way older than that, but that’s just an example off the top of my head that accident from 2019 and we just resolved it.

VERONICA: Five years later in February of ’24.

CRAIG: Exactly. Five years later.

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CRAIG: That’s correct.

VERONICA: Let’s talk about that a bit.

CRAIG: Okay. All right.

CRAIG: Absolutely.

VERONICA: And then what do I do?

CRAIG: Well, you know it’s up to you and the individual person. If you’re uncomfortable, you do have the right to seek out a replacement counsel if you prefer. I would recommend that. If you’re uncomfortable with your attorney, if you’re getting vibes that just don’t feel right, I would suggest doing it sooner than later.

VERONICA: And you can say you are fired, lady or sir. I’m going to Montlick. I guess that’s what the I guess that’s how that conversation ends up. All right. Coming up on Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB, we’re going to talk about more of the insurance company Minefield and where they are laying those mines.

ANNOUNCER: You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8:00 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB.

VERONICA: Welcome back to lawyers in the house with Montlick on WSB. I’m Veronica Waters here with Montlick Injury Attorney Craig LaChance. We’re talking about insurance company minefields. And if you missed any of those amazing nuggets that Craig dropped on our minefield today here on Lawyers in the House, make sure you get all of the best stuff once again when you subscribe to the Lawyers in the House podcast on your favorite podcast platform.

CRAIG: Absolutely. And I think the starting point, and I know we’ve addressed this on prior episodes, but recorded statements is really an important thing to consider early on in the process. You want to avoid those at all costs. And if they are necessary, you want your attorney on the phone with you.

VERONICA:  Well, but almost everything that I do, if I’m calling the cable company or something, they’re saying, this call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes.

VERONICA: It’s almost like the Miranda right of an insurance call, right? Anything you say can and will be used against you.

CRAIG: Exactly.

VERONICA: As we settle this claim.

CRAIG: And so our recommendation always is if a recorded, if you haven’t already talked to us first, if a recorded statement is requested, my recommendation is to decline that. Not necessarily you need to end the phone call, but decline that and reach out to us.

CRAIG: Because that’s a red flag. Because as a general rule, if an insurance company has already talked to their insured and their insured has said, I’ve caused the accident. It was my fault, there really wouldn’t be a need for a recorded statement. So, a recorded statement is typically going to come into play, and a lot of people don’t realize this, is in scenarios where they’ve already spoken with their insured and their insured is putting up a defense saying, “Well, I didn’t cause the accident,” or they were speeding, or they did this, and they did that.

CRAIG:  Yeah. And our potential clients’ actions contributed to the cause of the accident. So it’s always a red flag when an insurance company asks for a recorded statement, because if they have already established liability, accepted liability on behalf of their insurer, they’re not likely going to be asking for that, at least initially. VERONICA: So then let’s say then one of these mines might be trying to put some of the liability on you.

CRAIG: Correct. Yeah. And so, under Georgia, the law, that’s called comparative negligence.

VERONICA: That’s legal?

CRAIG: It is, but you know we don’t have to agree with their assessment.

VERONICA: Well, it didn’t reduce my injuries.

CRAIG: Exactly. Exactly. And sometimes those cases will require litigation to sort out. It’ll require deposing the defendant driver and getting their side of the story, putting them on record.

VERONICA: Yeah, don’t go down that one-way street. Let’s talk about blowing up your case.

CRAIG: Sure, sure. So, you know in today’s times, you’re really going to see that mostly in terms of social media. Depending on what social media platforms you’re on and how you have your privacy settings set, an adjuster may be able to go on and look at your photos on Instagram or see your posts on Facebook. And what they’re looking for is evidence that you’re not hurt as badly as you say you are. And I’ll give you an example.

VERONICA:  If I might say, it does seem a little unfair. I mean, there’s no telling the road to recovery is not you know what?

CRAIG: You’re correct. It’s absolutely not fair to our client to do that to them, but it’s just a reality of the world we live in in 2024. So, consider adjusting your privacy settings.

VERONICA: Does that happen?

CRAIG: It still does happen, but that is more in context of typically serious injuries, very serious injuries where surgeries are involved, and it’s typically done in cases that are ensued, in litigation.

VERONICA: Well, a friend of mine had mentioned something about her accident. She had something happened. This company was at fault. And in her process of getting treated, she had to have a lot of treatment on her back, especially. And so, she talked about one time going to the doctor and saying, the doctor said, “Hey, you got any new pain?” And she said, “Yeah, you know I was outside the house.

CRAIG: Yeah. So, you’re talking about what we would call a subsequent intervening action. And basically, what that means is a potential other source for your pain and injury other than the accident in question. So that could be a separate subsequent motor vehicle accident.

VERONICA: Well, what about the fact that she was fine if she had to bend over and pull up a weed on the way to the car before she fell off this machine?

CRAIG: Right. You’re in a weakened state now.

VERONICA: Yeah, let’s talk about eggshell plaintiffs. What’s up with these humpty dumpty folks?

CRAIG: Sure. It’s really someone who has a prior health condition or prior injury that makes them more susceptible to future injury. And I’ll give you a good example of that. I think I mentioned it earlier in this episode, but I have a client that had an auto accident back in 2019. Well, back in 2019, she was already on disability for low back.

VERONICA: So, two things jump out at me when you talk about this. One, how long that case took, right? Five years is a long time. And the other thing is how you could how your life just changes after an accident. Like I used to be able to weed. I used to be able to sit at the game and watch the Hawks play.

CRAIG: Well, yeah. Well, that’s our pushback.

ANNOUCNER: 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: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick on WSB.

CRAIG: We just want potential listeners to understand that you know all law firms are not the same. At Montlick Injury Attorneys, we pride ourselves again on providing a consultation to potential clients with an actual attorney, an attorney that’s going to know the ins and outs of the law in Georgia and what the best courses of action to take might be on your case at that particular juncture.

CRAIG: Absolutely. Insurance companies perceive different law firms differently. Having a law firm that will take your case to the next level, if necessary, like Montlake Injury Attorneys is always willing to do to file a lawsuit in the event that the pre-suit offer is not fair to you. We’re always happy to take that next step for our clients.

VERONICA:  So, if somebody comes to you and says, “Hey, I’m Mr. Insurance Company and I see your client with this photo of them in a dune buggy.

CRAIG: Yeah. So going back to what we talked about earlier, in an ideal world, if you’re involved in a motor vehicle accident or any other type of injury, we would really appreciate and hope that our clients would essentially go dark on social media, never discuss the accident, never discuss your injuries, and really try to avoid posting photos of any sort of activities that could be perceived as an activity that someone who hadn’t suffered the injuries that you’ve suffered would be engaging in.

CRAIG: Correct. Like you said, for example, a photograph of friends and family members sitting around a dinner table, that’s fine. A photograph of you going off the diving board at your neighborhood pool? Probably not good. So, you just have to think about the context of the photo and how it could potentially be perceived.

VERONICA: It’s great if you feel good enough to do it, but just keep in mind that somebody else is going to see that as ammunition to keep you from getting all the way from all the way back to better financially and physically.

ANNOUNCER: You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick.