Trial Professionals | Naples Personal Injury Law

We have clients with open claims switch from their current attorneys to The Trial Professionals almost every week. The process of switching attorneys is very simple and pain free. Some people are dissatisfied with their attorneys not being aggressive enough, others feel that their case has been neglected in favor of other “bigger” cases, and still others are just frustrated because they can’t get their attorney to return a phone call. You’d be surprised by how many clients tell us that they never actually spoke with much less met their former attorneys. We’re happy to meet with you to discuss whether we might be able to help you. If we are able to help you, we’ll simply have you sign a one sentence letter stating that you no longer want your former attorney to continue representing you for your accident. Well have you sign and date it, and then we’ll have fax it to your attorney along with a formal request for a complete copy of your file. You never have to have an awkward moment or conversation with your attorney, and we’ll take care of any housekeeping matters.

Under Florida law, if an attorney withdraws from representing a client, then the attorney is not allowed to assert any type of charging lien or fees or costs against the client’s subsequent recovery period. If, on the other hand, a client terminates an attorney, then that attorney does have a right to assert a lien against the file for fees and costs. In almost every instance, we will take care of satisfying the former attorney’s lien out of our attorney’s fees. We do not want our clients to be penalized with additional fees and costs simply for switching to our firm. Accordingly, if we decide to take over and assume the handling of your case from a prior attorney, it will not cost you any extra money.

As a quick side note, please be aware that you always have a right to request a complete copy of your file. Our firm and most others are happy to provide a copy of our clients’ files to them for free. I have heard of other law firms, however, being cheapskates and insisting that their clients pay them for a copy of the file. I’m touching on this issue only because in many instances we need to see a copy of your current file, especially if your former attorney has already filed a lawsuit, to help us determine whether or not we will be able to take over representation of you for your claim. If your attorney has already filed suit, we want to find out exactly who has been deposed and what type of discovery had been completed and what still remains. We also want to know the status of settlement discussions as well as if your case is already scheduled on a trial docket. If your attorney has not already filed suit, we may not need to see a copy of your file in order to make a decision whether we will agree to represent you.

Call the Trial Professionals immediately at 1800trialpro (1-800- 874-2577), or email us at info@1800trialpro.com

Not only have we represented many clients who have been involved to other motor vehicle accidents prior to the accident for which we represent that client, we also have several clients with multiple pending accident claims. First, lets discuss the effect of prior accidents on a recent accident claim. Many people have been involved in multiple motor vehicle accidents over the course of their lifetime, some accidents more severe than others. When you consider that prior accidents may also include slip and fall accidents, workers compensation accidents, or other types of accidents, I dare say that the majority of our clients have had at least one prior “accident”.

The effect of these prior accidents depends on several factors such as how long ago the accident occurred, the severity of the accident, the injuries sustained in the accident, and the recovery “or lack there of” of the client before the most recent accident. The more remote in time of the prior accident, the easier our job will be in establishing that any current injuries are a result of the most recent accident as opposed to one of these prior accidents. In many instances, we are able to compare and contrast x-rays and MRI films from the current accident with those taken after previous accidents. As such a comparison will hopefully allow us to demonstrate that any current injuries are new or at a minimum, represent very clear aggravations for those earlier injuries. Even if you have had multiple prior accidents, we can help you with your current claim. While we may not be able to argue that your injuries are completely new, we can certainly take the position that your current complaints represent an aggravation or exacerbation of your preexisting injuries.

A more complex situation arises when our clients have multiple open injury claims at the same time. In some instances, different parts of the body were injured in each accident so it is fairly simple to distinguish which injuries were sustained in which accident. In many instances, however, the same parts of the body are injured in these different accidents. Under Florida law, if a treating physician can not distinguish which accident caused which injuries, then we will be prepared to hold the defendants from both accidents fully responsible for our client’s injuries (the indivisible injury rule). You need an experienced personal injury attorney to sort through the complex situation of having two open injury claims at the same time. As a result, we will only represent an injured person with multiple injury claims if we represent that person for all of the claims. I cannot foresee a situation where we would agree to represent a person for one injury claim while they are being represented by a different attorney for another open injury claim. We need to be involved in both claims to make sure that we are able to maximize the value of each.

One final note on this issue, given the propensity of insurance companies to always try to attribute our client’s injuries to prior accidents, I always advise people to make an injury claim when they have the opportunity. Many people get in accidents and they just don’t think the accident is “that big of a deal”. They may treat with a doctor for a short period of time, but never retain an attorney and just wait and hope to get better with time. These people may feel that they are taking some moral high ground by not pursuing an injury claim unless the injuries and/or the accident are severe. Rest assured, however, whether you elect to pursue an injury claim from that accident or not, the damn insurance companies will use those prior accidents and injuries against you if you claim injuries from a subsequent accident. You will be having the same argument with the insurance company about whether your injuries are new injuries or aggravations for preexisting injuries regardless of whether you pursued a claim from the earlier accident. So why leave money on the table? If you’re involved in an accident that was not your fault and you sustained injuries, you might as well retain us. Allow us the opportunity to help get you compensation before it is too late. You’re not going to get any brownie points in heaven just because you didn’t pursue a claim, and the greedy insurance companies are still going to use those prior accidents against you.

 Call the Trial Professionals immediately at 1800trialpro (1-800- 874-2577), or email us at info@1800trialpro.com

We’ve represented hundreds of clients over the years who have suffered injuries as a result of slipping or tripping in a restaurant, grocery store, apartment complex, residence, or some other place of business. The most common type of slip and fall accidents involve some foreign substance such as water, food, oil, or other slippery material on the floor in an establishment open to the public that causes our clients to slip and fall. We’ve had a lot of success handling these claims, but there is some very important information you should note.

First, many people incorrectly believe that if you fall and hurt yourself on someone else’s property that they are automatically legally responsible. Nothing could be further from the truth. A business that is open to the public has an obligation to maintain its property in a reasonably safe condition so that these types of accidents do not occur. Taking it a step further, businesses have an obligation to keep their property clear of any dangerous conditions about which they either are aware or should be aware. If for some reason they cannot clean or fix a dangerous condition, then they have a duty to warn customers about the dangerous condition so the customers can protect themselves. Plenty of people call us with stories of slipping or tripping at a business, but are unable to explain exactly how or why they fell. A person does not have a claim simply because they fall on a business’ property

Over the years we’ve handled so many slip/trip and fall cases, its difficult to list all of the dangerous conditions that have caused our clients to fall. Some of the more common examples would include spilled water on the floor of a business, slippery cleaning residue on the floor, grapes or other food items, pet urine, baby formula, potholes, cracked or broken flooring, and oil. In almost every slip and fall case, the defendant/business claims that it was unaware and had no notice of the dangerous condition prior to our client’s accident. The Issue of Notice is extremely important in a slip and fall case. Even if a defendant is correct that they didn’t know about the foreign substance on the floor that caused our accident, there can be a valid argument that they should have discovered that dangerous condition and cleaned it if they had been doing regular inspections of the property. The frequency and type of inspections that may be deemed reasonable depend of the type of establishment as well as the volume of customer traffic on the property.

Pretty much everyone uses a cell phone these days, and most cell phones have built in cameras. The single best thing a person can do immediately after falling is to take your camera phone and snap several pictures of the area where you fell, including any substances that causes you to fall. This type of evidence can be extremely helpful to your attorney.

As soon as possible after falling, please report the incident to a store employee, preferably a manager and try to insist that they document the incident in some form of incident report. The law does not require a business owner to document these types of incidents, nor does it require a business owner to furnish a copy of an incident report to our client. Don’t worry about that, let us handle that issue. Try to get the names and positions of all the employees to whom you report the incident, as well as the names and phone numbers of any witnesses who observed the accident.

If you feel your injuries are severe enough to warrant emergency medical treatment, please do not hesitate to call 911 or have someone take you to an emergency room. If you do not think you injuries constitute an emergency, however, the next step should be to contact us at 1-800-Trial-Pro, so that we can discuss the case with you and possibly refer you to a doctor for treatment. If we think you have a valid case, we will be able to refer you to a doctor who will provide all of the treatment you need under a letter of protection whereby you would never be required to pay a cent out of your own pocket. Please note that stores and their insurance companies do not pay for your medical treatment as it accrues. Don’t expect them to simply agree to pay your medical bills as you turn them in. We will make sure that all of your bills get paid and that you are fairly compensated if we accept your case.

 Call the Trial Professionals immediately at 1800trialpro (1-800- 874-2577), or email us at info@1800trialpro.com

Mediation is a formal settlement conference that is directed by a certified mediator, who is usually a retired attorney or judge. At a mediation conference, all parties to a lawsuit and their attorneys and other representatives are present. The mediations usually begin in a joint opening session where all participants are present in the same room. During this opening joint session, the mediator usually explains the ground rules for the mediation. The most important ground rule for the mediation is that whatever is said during the mediation is strictly confidential. If the case is not resolved at mediation, neither side is allowed to mention anything that is said at the mediation, including any offers and counteroffers, in front of a judge or jury at a subsequent trial. The purpose of this strict rule of confidentiality at mediations is to encourage the sides to be reasonable by enabling them to make certain arguments and concessions for the purposes of settlement discussions without being bound by them if the mediation is unsuccessful.

The next step of the opening session is for the attorneys to make opening statements. These opening statements are relatively short outlines of each side’s position intended to educate the mediator about the important issues in the case. These opening statements are very different than trial opening statements, which are much longer and more detailed in nature. Parties to the lawsuit are not permitted to speak during this opening joint session, and they are not permitted to respond and/or debate the issues with each other during this session.

After the opening statements, the different sides are taken into different rooms, and usually don’t see each other again until the end of the mediation. For the remainder of the mediation, the mediator meets with each side privately discussing various issues in the case and taking offers and counter-offers back and forth between the rooms. Mediations are negotiations, and most mediations have anywhere from seven to fifteen rounds of offers and counteroffers. I always caution our clients not to be disappointed when they hear the other side’s ridiculously low opening offer and not to be too excited when they hear our extremely high opening demand. Negotiations at a mediation conference are a process and take time. The one promise I always make to clients before mediation is that we will have 100% confidence at the end of the mediation that we have left no money on the table. We will push, stretch, and test the other side until we are 100% convinced that we have their absolute bottom line, top dollar offer. We can then do the math together, and discuss whether it is in the client’s best interest to accept or reject that offer.

If an agreement is reached at mediation, the parties execute a mediation settlement agreement at that time. This signed mediation agreement is a binding contract between the parties and is enforceable by the Court. The defendant usually has 20 days to provide the settlement check to our office from the date of the mediation.

An Arbitration is similar to a trial in that an arbitrator (usually a very experienced attorney or retired judge) hears evidence and makes a decision on the case. There are two types of arbitrations: binding and nonbinding. A binding arbitration means that the parties are bound by the decision of an arbitrator as they would be by decision of a judge. Nonbinding arbitration means that the parties are not bound by the decision, but have now had the benefits of seeing how at least one tryer of fact has ruled on the issues. Nonbinding arbitration usually has the practical effect of helping the parties assess the strength of their positions and often leads to a settlement between the parties. In my experience, however, neither type of arbitration is used in a personal injury or workers compensation case. Areas of the law such as commercial litigation lend themselves more frequently to arbitration.

Finally, trials are trials. In Florida, most personal injury trials are conducted before juries, which are comprised of six people “with driver’s licenses who are eligible to vote.” The six jurors listen to the evidence and heed the jury instructions presented by the trial judge. They must render a unanimous decision. Please see our separate blog entry regarding trials for a more in depth discussion of trials. It usually takes between a year to a year and a half to get most personal injury cases to trial and most personal injury trials take three to five days and the trial does not always represent the conclusion of the lawsuit as the parties may file post-trial motions and appeal judicial rulings as well as the verdict.

Call the Trial Professionals immediately at 1800trialpro (1-800- 874-2577), or email us at info@1800trialpro.com

I hate to say it but a lot of personal injury attorneys are lazy. As in any profession,  you find people who work hard, continue to improve, and excel. Unfortunately, you also find people who are set in their ways, think they know everything, and just don’t have that drive. Some attorneys get it and some don’t. One thing I’ll say about the attorneys at The Trial Professionals is we’re hungry. Every case represents its own battle with an insurance company, and we’re competitive people who do not want to lose.

Many personal injury attorneys are happy simply to get a promising case. A lot of these attorneys are passive attorneys who don’t speak with their clients regularly, are not involved in the direction of their client’s medical treatment, and basically don’t do any work until their client has finished treating. These regular personal injury attorneys just wait around twiddling their thumbs until their clients tell them they are finished treating, and then these lazy attorneys try to pressure their clients into settling a case. Regular personal injury attorneys just want to hurry up and settle cases, get their fees, and move on to the next easy and quick settlement. These regular personal injury attorneys are not concerned with doing whatever it takes to get the best possible recovery on every single case. I don’t have a whole lot of respect for these “mill” law firms that sign up tons of cases, yet lose sight of their individual clients.

The Trial Attorneys are by our very nature aggressive, not passive. We don’t sit around waiting and hoping for a case to settle. Our office is in regular contact with our clients, and our clients treating physicians. We stay very involved in the medical treatment process to make sure that our clients are treated by any necessary specialists. Finally, we work closely with these doctors to make sure that our client’s medical complaints, the doctors treatment recommendations, and the doctor’s opinions regarding the permanency of our client’s injuries are properly explained in narrative form for us to use to our client’s advantage in connection with the clients case. The Trial Professionals still give insurance companies a fair opportunity to settle cases, but we are hypersensitive that these settlements be in our clients best interest. We never pressure a client to take any settlement and we understand that the client is the boss. Our clients make the decisions, but we always give very clear, easily understood legal advice. We do not use any tricky, confusing, or misleading “legal speak.”

 The Trial Professionals are certainly not shy about filing lawsuits and seeing them all the way through trial when appropriate. We understand that better results come with better preparation. We prepare every case with the expectation that it will go to trial in order to put pressure on the insurance companies to offer top dollar to settle the case. Insurance companies know very well which attorneys are willing to go to distance and which attorneys are simply pushovers looking for a quick and easy settlement. We know all of the games that insurance companies play to try to frustrate regular personal injury attorneys, but we don’t let them jerk us around. We’ve worked with almost every insurance company out there at one time or another over the years, and we’re proud of the reputation that we’ve cultivated.

Call the Trial Professionals immediately at 1800trialpro (1-800- 874-2577), or email us at info@1800trialpro.com

If I had a dollar for every time someone asked me “how long does a lawsuit take?” or shared horror stories of lawsuits taking years and years, I’d be a very wealthy man. In reality, most of the lawsuits that we file end up getting resolved in about six to ten months. There are, however, certain cases that can take a couple of years or even longer to get to trial. These cases usually involve very significant injuries and claims for very large amounts of money.

The first step in the litigation process is to file the actual lawsuit with the appropriate court. Once the lawsuit has been properly filed, we hire a process server to serve a copy of the lawsuit on each defendant. In most instances, the service of process is a relatively simple task that is completed quite efficiently. In other instances, however, the service of the lawsuit can take a month or more. It does take longer to sue defendants who are located in other states and to serve defendants who may intentionally be trying to avoid service. Regardless, we eventually do perfect service.

A defendant has 20 days from the date of service to file a responsive pleading with the court, which usually comes in the form of general Answer in which the defendant simply denies the allegations of our lawsuit. If a defendant fails to file a timely answer, we do have the option to move for a Default Judgement. After the defendant files an answer, both sides begin what is referred to the “discovery phase” of the lawsuit. In short, both sides have an opportunity to send each other written questions called interrogatories as well as requests to produce certain types of evidence such as medical records, insurance policies, photographs of the accident scene, etc. This part of the discovery process usually takes about two to three months.

After both sides have completed the written discovery process, the next step is to conduct the oral discovery process. Specifically, both sides have the right to depose the parties to the lawsuit as well as any witnesses. Depositions are formal question and answer sessions of parties and witnesses who take an oath to tell the truth. Every spoken word during a deposition is recorded by a court reporter. Depending on the type of case, the number of parties and witnesses involved, and the schedules of the attorneys, the oral discovery process usually takes another two to three months to complete.

After both parties are satisfied that they have completed all necessary discovery up to that point, the next step is to schedule a mediation conference. The mediation conference is a formal settlement conference where all of the parties and the attorneys participate in settlement discussions at a mediator’s office in an effort to resolve the lawsuit. In my experience, approximately 80 percent of all cases end up getting resolved at the mediation conference. I do want to note that while the parties are required to participate in a mediation conference in the state of Florida prior to going to trial, the mediator is not a judge and has no authority to force either party to agree to a settlement. If the mediation is not successful, the next step is to notice the case for trial. Depending on the location of the lawsuit as well as the presiding judge’s calendar, most judges will order a trial date approximately four to six months later. During this time, the attorneys complete any unfinished discovery such as the taking depositions of physicians and expert witnesses as well as follow up on depositions of the parties to be thoroughly prepared for trial. Most personal injury trials take anywhere from two to five days to complete.

Unfortunately, the trial is not always the end of the lawsuit. After the jury returns a verdict, both sides have the right to file “post-trial” motions, which may take another several months for the judge to rule on. After the post-trial motions have been adjudicated, the loser at trial also has the right to file an appeal, which could drag the lawsuit out for another year or more. This litigation outline is simply a very general summary. Certain cases can and do go the long route, but the vast majority of cases are resolved within the first year as previously mentioned. If you have specific questions about what to expect during the litigation process with your case, please do not hesitate to contact The Trial Professionals at 1-800-Trial-Pro. We’re happy to discuss your unique case with you.

 Call the Trial Professionals immediately at 1800trialpro (1-800- 874-2577), or email us at info@1800trialpro.com