Trial Professionals | Orlando Personal Injury Law

Far and away the number one complaint we hear expressed by new clients about their former attorneys is that their old attorneys never returned their calls, and in some instances, never met with or even spoke with them over the telephone. I know plenty of very smart attorneys who make it almost impossible for their clients to reach them. They simply work away in their protected little bubbles of offices expecting their clients to simply trust that they’re working hard for them. We always want our clients to know how hard we’re working for them. Regular communication with our clients is an extremely important part of our practice. There are certainly plenty of instances where we may not have any meaningful developments in a case for months at a time such as periods of time while our clients are treating with doctors, but they all deserve regular contact. Attorneys often forget that while we do this day in and day out for a living, many of our clients have never needed an attorney before and they have no experience with attorneys in the legal process.

I’ll share another pet peeve of mine about attorneys- one that I experienced when I had to hire an attorney for a business matter. I can not stand attorneys who are afraid to give a clear opinion or recommendation on a legal issue. I’ll never forget when I hired an attorney to give me the answer to a contract issue in a business matter, and he gave me a 20 page, inconclusive, memorandum of law without any clear answer or recommendation. I am the first person to tell a client that we can never guarantee a particular outcome in a case, especially at trial. I do not shy away from, however, expressing my opinions and feelings on issues in cases to our clients. Our job is to lay all the cards on the table for our clients and to talk through all the strengths and weaknesses of our case with our clients to help our clients make the best, most-informed decision they can. Every client is different, and some clients are more risk adverse than others. When it is time for me to discuss potential settlements and or trial possibilities with our clients, I pretend that the client is my relative. What would I tell my mom or my sister to do in this situation? At the end of the day, the client is the boss, and we will follow that clients instructions. I do want to make sure that we have properly and thoroughly counseled our client, after all that’s why they hire us in the first place.

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

I’m very proud of how our commercials have improved over the years. A few days ago, I watched a disc of the first commercials I ever shot back in 2003. I rotated between laughing out loud and absolutely cringing. Something happens when you realize the camera is rolling. It becomes difficult if not impossible to relax and be your normal, everyday self. In our early commercials I appear obviously uncomfortable and inexperienced in front of a camera. These are not exactly the characteristics to inspire confidence in prospective clients. My first boss told me that the most important means to inspire confidence in clients is to demonstrate your experience and knowledge about the issues in their case. I’ve applied those instructions to a lot more than a practice of law.

While I have handled all different types of cases, ranging from DUIs to commercial litigation to complex chapter thirteen bankruptcy reorganization plans, I feel very fortunate that we have been able to specialize in the area of injury law for the past eight years. The first few years of The Trial Professionals, I was forced to practice all different types of the law because we couldn’t sustain a firm based on the limited amount of personal injury cases we had. If anything, this wide breadth of legal experience simply confirmed to me that I was able to do any type of law if I put my mind to. I do feel, however, that specializing in injury law allows us to learn and practice in a very defined area at the top of our game. There are rarely issues on our cases that we have not previously researched and addressed before. We would rather be excellent in our practice of injury law than just be good at a lot of areas. We do not spread ourselves too thin at The Trial Professionals.

Back to our commercials, I’ve really enjoyed our recent attempts to inject some humor into our television commercials. I’m the first one to change the channel when I see some stiff, boring, fake-sounding attorney rambling on with some boring speel about why he or she thinks they are so special and different from other attorneys. The public is not stupid, and people can quickly and easily see through fake smiling spinsters on television who remind them of used car salesman. We have far too much pride for that. Everyone at The Trial Professionals has worked extremely hard and sacrificed to help The Trial Professionals become the firm it is today. We are not some small, start-up law firm. We celebrated our ten year anniversary this year, and we plan to be around for the rest of our careers and perhaps beyond. If you hire an attorney, you’re probably going to spend a considerable amount of time with that person, so be sure to hire someone who you like as well as trust. We hope that some of our more humorous commercials give you an insight into our personalities and interests as well as our legal qualifications.

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

Fewer than seven percent of attorneys of Florida are board certified civil trial attorneys. Only these board certified civil trial attorneys are permitted by the Florida Bar to refer to themselves as “experts” or “specialists”. Andrew Rariden is one of the few and one of the proud. As with attorney Don Williams, I first met Andy Rariden when we had a personal injury case against each other. I have a specific recollection of Andy being a very effective, professional, and reasonable attorney who “got the big picture”. We were able to effectively negotiate a settlement agreement on behalf of our respective clients at a mediation conference. I do recall Andy’s mediation presentation as being extremely thorough, professional, and pleasant. My pet peeve as an attorney is when a defense attorney unnecessarily makes an overly aggressive, hostile, or personal presentation at a mediation, which is always counterproductive to trying to reach an agreement. It’s pretty easy to recognize an experienced defense attorney from an inexperienced one based on how they conduct themselves at mediations.

Andy had a thriving practice as one of State Farm’s top trial attorneys for many years and had an absolutely fantastic trial record. Consequently, Andy and the Attorneys at the Trial Professionals were all able to get to know each other better and discovered many similarities in our personalities and approaches to the practice of law. We’re fortunate and proud to have Andy as a partner of the Trial Professionals. He has one of the busiest trial schedules at the firm. He is a very thorough and prepared trial attorney as he is quick to anticipate and research answers to expected evidentiary and procedural issues in cases. I’ll never forget my first boss telling me that the world is full of glib, strong, orators. Most attorneys are reasonably comfortable and articulate in front of a jury. Preparation, however, is what separates the men from the boys. The Trial Professionals don’t rely on our natural oratorical skills and just “wing it” at trials. We are extremely thorough in our pre-trial preparation which makes us all that much more effective at trial.

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

Jason Gumula is one of the first friends I made when I moved to Orlando over ten years ago. Jason has proven to be one of my closest, most trustworthy, honest, and loyal friends ever since. To give you some perspective, Jason is the kind of friend who will drop what he is doing on a Friday night to help talk a friend through personal problems. Jason is the type of godfather (to my three year old son PJ) who will help me assemble toys on Christmas eve and who will have a special basket of treats ready for when my son shows up trick or treating on Halloween. He is also the son/sister to whom his family turns for help with the most important family issues. He is the type of grandson who will drive hours each way to help his grandfather connect a DVD player for his aunt. In other words, Jason Gumula is kind, generous, and dependable, a sentiment clearly and often expressed by many of his clients.

He and his wife Morgan recently got married in her home state of Texas, and Jason enjoys going back to Austin with her a couple of times a year. He now wears cowboy boots, tucked in shirts out at night, chews tobacco, and sings along with Shania Twain (joke).

Jason heads up our workers compensation department, and has spent his entire 14 plus year legal career specializing in workers compensation law. Jason represented several of the largest workers compensation insurance companies for many years before joining The Trial Professionals as a partner in 2006. These days Jason exclusively represents injured workers and puts his years of defense experience to work for our clients. Jason is a very well-prepared, persuasive, and respected trial attorney within the workers compensation community. There are no questions or cases too small for Jason Gumula and the other members of The Trial Professional’s workers compensation department. They understand that when accidents happen in the workplace, you’re going to be under a lot of stress and have a lot of questions. Workplace injury affects not only you as the injured person, but also your family and everyone who depends on you for support. We understand how serious these matters are and give you our word that we will treat them aggressively and seriously for you.

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

David Sackman is one of those attorneys who “just gets it”. I can’t begin to tell you how many “brainiac” attorneys I have met over the years, they have brilliant legal minds, but are unable to communicate effectively with people, especially their own clients. You probably know this type of personality. A person who unnecessarily uses big words in a misguided effort to impress you. The person who makes even the most simple thought unnecessarily complicated. I really don’t have much patience for this type of person. One of the most important abilities any person, much less any attorney, can have is the ability to write and speak (and think) clearly and succinctly. Far too many attorneys “talk down” to their clients or try to impress them with “attorney speak” otherwise known as legalese.

I have been extremely impressed with David Sackman’s ability to communicate with our clients from the moment he joined The Trial Professionals. He’s very personable and has a great talent of explaining legal issues in a very comfortable, non-threatening, easy-to-understand manner. I’ve also been impressed with David’s tenacity in telling insurance adjusters and opposing attorneys “how it is.” David does a great job of laying his cards on the table at the appropriate time without playing games. David has earned a reputation within the legal community and amongst insurance adjusters as being honest and true to his word. If we tell an insurance adjuster that we’re going to file a lawsuit unless they come up with a certain amount of money, we mean it.

In his spare time, David Sackman is the current President of the Florida Lacrosse Officials Association (FLOA). David grew up playing Lacrosse in Long Island, New York, but is quick to point out that he is not from some stuffy background. David’s dad was a New York City Police officer for many years before going back to law school later in life to become an attorney. David and his wife Beverly have two children, and he spends most of his free time helping coach and referee his children’s lacrosse teams. David is also one of the funniest people I’ve ever met, and he can do impersonations of almost anyone. I always joke with David that if he could be as comfortable in front of a camera as he is telling jokes and doing impersonations around his friends, he really could have a future in show business. David has plenty of experience handling both personal injury and workers compensation cases, which comes in very handy. As you may have noted from some of our other blog entries, plenty of clients have both workers compensation and personal injury cases arising from the same incident.

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

I’ve had the privilege of knowing Don Williams as a friend, an attorney, and a law partner for almost 10 years. We first met back in 2001 shortly after I founded The Trial Professionals (back then known as the Law Office of Piercy J. Stakelum) when his sister Patty worked as a receptionist for me and another attorney. It wasn’t until Don and I butted heads on opposite sides of a case several years later, however, that I got to know him better and really appreciate his skills as an attorney. Don certainly lived up to his reputation as an excellent attorney and was primarily representing defendants and their insurance companies for much of his career. We ended up having more cases against each other, and my respect for Don continued to grow the more I worked with him.

In my opinion, Don has the very rare and important ability to make everyone around him extremely comfortable, which is why he is so universally well-liked and respected by plaintiffs and defense attorneys, judges and mediators. Don was so well-respected that several of his largest defense clients tried to persuade him not to switch over to the plaintiff’s side, but I feel that Don was ready for a change. Since merging his firm with The Trial Professionals two years ago, Don has thrived defending injured individuals with all types of accident claims. As with most attorneys who have switched from the Defense to the Plaintiff side, Don particularly enjoys not having to keep track of his “billable hours.”

Given Don’s 28 plus years of experience as a trial attorney, Don spends a considerable amount of his time at work litigating some of the firm’s more complex and significant lawsuits. The Trial Professionals employ a team approach to our cases. While certain attorneys may cover depositions and hearings for each other depending on our respective schedules, we always have at least two seasoned, experienced trial attorneys participate in every trial for our clients. Attorneys at our firm are not about “our egos,” but rather are about making sure our firm continues to provide the best legal representation we can. As is often the case, two minds are better than one.

In his personal life, Don is certainly never bored. Don is recently widowed, and spends a considerable amount of time with his children and stepchildren. He is extremely active in all of their lives and very supportive of their interests. Don is the type of person who remains close to this day with many of his childhood friends where he grew up in Sanford, Florida. Don also visits regularly with his friends from his baseball team, his Fraternity at Western Carolina University and from his Law School at Florida State University. Don is a great ambassador of our firm to the Central Florida Community, and we’re very proud to have such an experienced, distinguished member of our Team. Many attorneys in Central Florida remember Don’s father, who was a long-time judge in Seminole County, very fondly.

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

The answer to this question depends on the type of case you have as well as the type of insurance that is available to you. Do not worry if you do not have health insurance. If we accept you as a client, we will make sure that you are able to get the medical treatment that you need even if you don’t have health insurance without you having to pay a cent out of your pocket.

If you’ve been involved in an auto accident, you should be entitled to have the vast majority of your medical bills paid for through your personal injury protection coverage afforded under your automobile insurance policy. In Florida, each person’s own automobile insurance company pays for 80 percent of that person’s medical bills up to a limit of $10,000 regardless of who is at fault for the accident. Don’t worry though- an auto insurance company cannot raise your rates simply for filing a PIP claim. The remaining 20 percent of your medical bills as well as any additional medical bills are satisfied out of recovery that we obtain for our clients. Our clients never have to pay a cent out of their own pocket under any circumstance.

If you do not have any available insurance and if we agree to represent you, we’ll be happy to assist you in finding a doctor who will provide all of the medical treatment you need under a Letter of Protection. Simply put, a Letter of Protection “LOP” is an agreement that the client, the attorney and the doctor sign whereby the doctor agrees to provide all of the treatment that a patient needs without billing the patient directly for it. The parties further agree that the attorney will satisfy any outstanding medical obligations out of the recovery obtained for that client prior to disbursing any funds to the client. Accordingly, our clients do ultimately pay the doctors for the medical services, but it is at the conclusion of a case out of the proceeds of a recovery. If no recovery is made, then you will not have to pay the doctor for the services.

For those of you that do have health insurance, it is extremely important that you advise your attorney about it as early on in the process as possible. In many instances, we are able to obtain higher recoveries for our clients when we arrange for you to treat with a doctor under a letter of protection rather than through your own health insurance. Also, be aware that if you do choose to treat through your health insurance, your health insurance will have a right of “subrogation”. A right of subrogation means that your insurance company will have a right to be reimbursed for any money that it pays out for treatment related to your accident. Very rarely is there any strategic advantage to treating under your health insurance for injuries sustained in an accident. We’ll be happy to found upon these issues. Feel free to call us at 1800-Trial-Pro and we’ll explain any of these statements in more detail.

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

I moved to Naples, Florida, in 1997 for my first job out of law school with the law firm Johnson, Blakely, Pope, Bokor, Ruppel, and Burns, P.A. At the time, this large Clearwater/Tampa based firm had just opened an office in Naples with an emphasis on personal injury law. I’ll never forget my first impression of southwest Florida as I was driving down I-75 from Gainesville. I had recently graduated from University of Florida College of Law. I was absolutely struck by the sunshine, palm trees, and immaculately manicured foliage. In my first couple of weeks in Naples, I really came to appreciate the cosmopolitan feel of the city, especially the strong European presence and influence. On a funnier note, I have a specific recollection of calling my parents back in my home city of New Orleans to report that there were actually coconuts on many of the Palm trees. I’m not quite sure why I was so impressed by the coconuts, but I was.

Over the next couple of years, I gained valuable experience working at this Naples law firm, and learned a very strong foundation from my mentor John Blakely both in the practice of law and in life generally. I would describe those two years as the most formative years of my life without question. I take seriously the pledge I made to John Blakely to pass on the life and legal lessons I learned from him to other attorneys and young people generally.

After a couple of years in Naples, however, I decided that I wanted to explore life in a bigger city, so I moved to Miami. I worked as an associate for the very large law firm of Shutts and Bowen, which is one of the largest and oldest law firms in the state of Florida with offices around the state. While at Shutts and Bowen, I had an opportunity to practice many different areas of the law, including but not limited to complex commercial litigation, bankruptcy litigation, and insurance defense work. During this period, I gained valuable insight into many of the business practices and legal strategies employed by insurance companies and insurance defense law firms to defend law suits. I saw how first-hand insurance companies delay and frustrate injured plaintiffs, bury plaintiff’s attorneys in irrelevant paperwork, and could care less about treating injured plaintiffs fairly. Most importantly, however, I was able to appreciate the legal strategies used by a very select group of plaintiff attorneys to apply pressure to the insurance companies, which resulted in much higher recoveries for their clients than other attorneys with a little less drive, experience, and guts obtain for their clients.

In June of 2001, I moved from Miami to Orlando, and founded The Trial Professionals (which at that time was named the Law Office of Piercy J. Stakelum, P.A.). In early 2011, we opened a permanent law office in Naples, Florida.

I am really proud and excited that the Trial Professionals now have a permanent presence in Naples from which we serve the entire southwest Florida community. Our Naples office is open from 8:30 to 5:30 Monday through Friday, but our attorneys are available to assist potential new clients twenty four hours a day/seven days a week. Simply call 1-800-Trial-Pro.

I still can’t get over how much Naples, Florida has grown in the last fifteen years. The entire north Naples area, which is where our office is located, was new to me. Some things don’t change though. The beaches, the palm trees, the restaurants, the landscaping, and the people are all as great as I remember. I’m very thankful to be back in Naples, and we expect to become as much a part of our community in the Naples/Ft. Myers area as we have become in the greater Orlando area.

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

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