(00:01):
We ask people what they were most surprised about after their case. Uh, the number one answer is, I was surprised how little of the actual settlement money I got myself, and how much of it went to my doctor, my lawyer, my financier, and to other parties who kind of have their, their, their hand in the, in the pot.
(00:32):
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All right. Hey, Josh, how you doing? I'd love to hear more about the problem that you're talking about. I've got Josh Schwadron here of mighty.com. He is an attorney. And where are you based out of?
(01:17):
Uh, I'm based out of New York.
(01:18):
Out of New York. Awesome. Great. And
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He's,
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Pardon? Go ahead.
(01:23):
But yeah, no, I'm, I'm, I'm being out of New York, but, um, mighty, uh, is all over the country.
(01:28):
Mighty's all over the country. Okay. But, uh, the reason why we're talking today is that Josh wants to talk to us about whenever you go to try to hire a lawyer to just, just some of the things that you might wanna be aware of before you sign right away with someone if you've got an accident or some sort of civil case or whatever, uh, that you need to pursue. So, get started. Josh, tell us what some of the problems are out there that you've seen.
(01:56):
Yeah, thank thanks so much for, for having me. Uh, there are millions of accidents that happen in the United States every year, uh, from car accidents to slip and falls to construction accidents. And, uh, a a huge amount of people do one of two things. Uh, they either call the lawyer they see on the billboard or TV commercial, um, and they immediately sign with that person, uh, or, uh, they get contacted by the person who hit them's car insurance offering a small amount of money, uh, and they decide to just take it and make their life easier. Um, and, uh, both of those are probably the wrong, the wrong move, uh, to, to be honest. Uh, and so, uh, one of the things that I've been really actively doing, uh, is, uh, talking about what people should do after an accident. And, uh, it affects so many people a year that it, it's a selling topic. Not to mention that for many people, car accidents, you know, might mark a a, a turning point in their lives. Um, and it's really important that as people recover, uh, and they, and they look for help and they get, uh, compensation, uh, that they do it thoughtfully, uh, and, uh, in, in the right way.
(03:16):
Thanks for saying that. I really appreciate the fact that you say, well, you know, you wanna be able to do this in the right way. The problem I think that everybody out here has, who doesn't know the industry that you're in or the practice that you're in, is that you think of doctors and lawyers as people that you know, you go and you find someone that can represent you, and you just think, okay, good, great, I've gotten past that hurdle. But what, what you're trying to say is, Hey, wait, hold up just a second. This could be a very important decision for you on who it is that you're hiring. Um, is there, so a particular problem you might want to bring up that we could know what some of the red flags are?
(03:59):
Yeah, yeah, a hundred percent. And I think, Sally, you're, you're, you're spot on, uh, especially in personal injury. Um, when lawyers talk about the fact that they get only get paid if, if you win, what they are trying to tell people, uh, subliminally, is that their incentives are aligned with yours. And in fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The incentives of personal injury lawyers, um, are, are often very misaligned with that of their clients. Uh, and so one example of this dynamic is that the lawyer gets paid a percentage of the total settlement. Uh, the client only gets, uh, part of the settlement. What's left after the lawyer, the doctor, a financier, and other expenses on the case are taken, are taken out. Um, and so the, the lawyer actually is incentivized for those bills, and in some cases, to be higher, um, while the client is incentivized for them to be lower.
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Uh, and so it's important that lawyers, um, talk about these issues, um, and have really fair billing practices, um, disclose conflicts of interest. Uh, and you can often, uh, f you often know what lawyers, uh, do this by how they advertise. Uh, and so if you see lawyers who are talking about, um, getting clients millions of dollars, uh, that's probably a red flag. Um, because those, those lawyers, uh, number one, uh, million dollar cases are incredibly rare, you know, point 0.01%. Um, but also what they're talking about is not action, what the client gets, it's what the total settlement is. And so that's a bit misleading.
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And if it is a case where there is, you know, a lifelong injury, you might not have a chance at all to really get the care and the compensation that you need for that if you're not understanding upfront what that means.
(06:11):
Yeah, I think that's exactly right. Uh, some of these cases, they get settled and the client has no recourse despite having years or decades or a lifetime, as you say, of, of treatment that has to continue. And so the advice that I give a lot of people is, uh, you know, don't, don't be scared to wait. Um, if you can manage to get medical care, uh, and medical treatment, uh, that is the most important part, uh, of getting you better. Um, and lawyers want you to think that if you don't sign with them that moment, uh, that your entire case is gonna be ruined, uh, that everything's gonna be, um, uh, for, not, that you're not gonna get even close to as much money. Um, and certainly if your accident was, you know, only days or weeks, uh, ago, um, you know, that, that that generally is not true.
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Are there any statute of limitations that we should be thinking about or concerned about when we are thinking about filing a lawsuit?
(07:22):
Yes, definitely. I mean, statute of limitations are, are a real thing. Uh, they are typically different in every state. Uh, but the most common accident is a car accident. And, uh, I don't, I don't believe, uh, than any of the 50 states, the statute of limitations, uh, is less than one year. So if you're injured a week ago or a month ago, uh, that's generally not something that you have to worry about. Uh, and in some states, uh, it actually is two years. Uh, it may, it might even be more. So I think, um, you know, there are people who call lawyers, they were injured yesterday. Uh, they have access to health insurance or medical care. Uh, they get on the phone with a lawyer and the lawyer, uh, their job is to convince you to sign with them right then and there, and, uh, you know, they're a salesperson.
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So you have to, you have to kind of understand and, and even respect the game. Uh, but the reality is that it's often not in the, in the person who was injured is Beth interest. That's a sign written then and there. In fact, I'm a big believer that people should be talking to four or five different lawyers asking about their price, uh, negotiating, uh, and, uh, looking at, uh, all of the different options before giving away 33 to 40% of their case to a contingency lawyer, um, who may or may not be what they need.
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If someone is maybe not quite ready to pick a lawyer or either go in the lawsuit direction, what would the advice be for them to do first? Would you say, like, let's say it was a hospital claim or a worker's compensation, or if it was just a pers are you only talking about personal injury type claims, or, I mean, what are some of the other options? Like sometimes, you know, I used to work in risk management. You would call the risk manager, you would call the hospital or who the, wherever, whoever it is that you think is at fault for what happened to you, you would be calling yourself just to at least report the claim.
(10:06):
Yeah. So my, my company, my.com focuses on, uh, accident cases. And we are trying to change the paradigm where from today, where, you know, personal injury lawyers on billboards and TV commercials who charge, uh, large amounts of money are, are not great with transparency, offer a tiny bit of services. Uh, they're the, they're the leading force in the market today, and we're trying to change that with a, a service that's more empathetic, uh, less expensive, uh, that provides much more holistic service. Not only do we help people with their, uh, legal claim and getting compensation, um, but Mighty Law, which is an unaffiliated, um, law firm that, uh, sorry, there's an affiliated law firm that has different ownership than Mighty. Uh, they'll help people get, uh, compensation, uh, find and pay for a doctor. So there's a lot of, um, there's a, so, so we focus on personal injury. Uh, and my advice to people is, first and foremost, when you get in an accident, you of course have to report it to the police. Um, but you should try and get medical treatment that you need in order to recover. And frankly, if you have health insurance, if you ha have health, Medicare or Medicaid, that usually is your best option. And there might be pressure amongst society to hire a lawyer immediately. Uh, but oftentimes, uh, people who can get better first and then weigh their options as far as a lawyer are, are better off.
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Now, I'd love to hear an example, and you got an example that you could tell us about, of course, be anonymous. You don't have to spell anyone's name, but do you have some examples of actual scenarios that Yeah, maybe the wrong thing, and then what to do would be the right thing?
(12:34):
Yeah, no, a hundred percent. I think that the most, uh, I, I will give you one scenario that encompasses, frankly, dozens and dozens of cases that I've seen firsthand, um, which are, uh, people who get injured, um, and they, uh, they go to a doctor and the doctor, um, tells them that they can't, uh, treat them unless they hire a certain lawyer. Um, and they refer that patient to a lawyer. And that lawyer immediately takes 33 to 40% of that client's case. Um, they get treatment, which is often, um, inflated because, um, had they gone through health, health insurance or Medicare or Medicaid, um, it would've been at, at, at lower rates. Um, and at the end of the case, um, instead of getting, um, you know, the, the $50,000 settlement, uh, they'll be left only with, uh, 10,000 or 15,000 or 20,000 of it, because they didn't think at the beginning of their case to negotiate with their lawyer.
(13:47):
Uh, they didn't think to, uh, ask their doctor what the price of the treatment was, which actually usually comes out of somebody's case in, in most states. Um, and so, uh, what we see time and time again is that people think that they're gonna get the entire settlement, uh, and their lawyers aren't helping to educate them, that they're only gonna get a very small part of it. Um, and I think that is the, the most predominant case. And when we ask people what they were most surprised about after their case, uh, the number one answer is, I was surprised how little of the actual settlement money I got myself, and how much of it went to my doctor, my lawyer, my financier, and to other parties who kind of have their, their, their hand in the, in the pot.
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So are you saying that even at the hospital that the Dr. May be in on this, that gets you going in that direction of thinking?
(15:24):
Um, yeah. So u usually the hospitals, um, are, I work a little bit differently, but yes, there, there's definitely, uh, , uh, close relationships that doctors and lawyers have, uh, that often aren't disclosed. Uh, they're referral relationships back and forth. Um, the, uh, the doctors often treat the client not on health insurance or Medicare or Medicaid, but on what's called lean or ledger of protection, which essentially means that the doctor is taking a interest in the client's case and gets paid at the end of the case. And usually the amount the doctor gets paid is, is actually far more, uh, than had they, uh, had the client had access to the normal reimbursement rates through health insurance or through Medicare or Medicaid. Um, so yeah, look, I I think just like any, frankly, business, unfortunately, law and medicine are, uh, businesses as well. And it's important that, um, the client understands that after an accident, uh, they have to be educated and they can't just rely on their lawyer, uh, to navigate them through the system because the lawyer has incentives that aren't always aligned with that of their clients.
(16:49):
Now, we also have talk about the tax man. Isn't the tax man gonna come and take away a portion of that settlement as well? So then the person's amount they get is taxable income at that point?
(17:01):
Uh, great question. The answer to that is, is surprisingly no, not usually. Uh, and so, uh, the irs, uh, actually treats, uh, most parts of a personal injury settlement, um, as tax free. Um, there are some exceptions, uh, but, uh, most personal injury lawyers structure the settlements in a way where whatever is left for the client, uh, typically does not get taxed.
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It may be that if they file their taxes a certain way, it could be that the medical is above a certain percentage of their income, and then that's how you write it off.
(17:44):
Um, no,
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No,
(17:47):
No, it, so, so, um, you know, the, the, the, the government considers, um, excuse me, um, parts of the settlement, uh, related to, um, for example, pain and suffering, uh, which is a common, a common claim, uh, related to, uh, the, the medical bills, uh, all text free. Uh, typically, uh, and there again, there are some exceptions. Typically, the only two parts of a settlement that are taxed, um, are, uh, reimbursement for lost wages because you're of course, uh, getting money for wages that you would have gotten otherwise. So that's taxable. Um, and the other is punitive damages. Um, but, uh, frankly, a good personal injury lawyer, uh, will structure a settlement in such a way where the settlement will be for the things that are not tax, uh, instead of the things that are tapped to avoid that liability typically.
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Got it. That makes sense. Is there any, any other story you'd like to mention or any other aspect about this?
(18:50):
I can't, I just can't emphasize enough that personal injury lawyers, um, that you see on the billboards and the TV commercials, uh, they should be running a competitive business where they can, uh, negotiate their, where they should be negotiating their price, uh, where you should ask about the services that they give you, uh, that, uh, you should have a clear understanding of transparency, uh, and their general kind of practices. Do they, for example, answer your phone call and return your call within 24 hours? Or do they, uh, or do they kind of take a, a, a a less HandsOn approach? And most people, unfortunately, uh, hire the first law firm they talk with. Um, and if I had to give one piece of advice to, to people, it would be, um, talk to four or five different law firms, negotiate with them, understand the various, uh, services and promises they're gonna make, make sure those are in writing in their contingency agreement. Um, and if everybody practiced that way, not only would people who are injured, uh, get better deals and better outcomes, but frankly, the entire personal injury industry, um, which is currently perceived as, uh, shady and, uh, often, um, filled with, uh, um, bad practices, they would have to change because they realized that there's actually now a competitive market with discerning customers who are going to hold, uh, these businesses to account.
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(20:58):
That makes a lot of sense. I did just look at your website and I think that people should go look at this to, especially the blog. I'm looking at your featured blog posts, how to negotiate personal injury lawyer fees down as the value of your case goes up. That would be a very interesting read. We're starting a fight with Billboard lawyers, here's why. And then ask these five questions before choosing a personal injury lawyer. I think those three blog posts are probably gonna answer a lot of people's questions. And I encourage the listeners to go to, uh, mighty.com, m i g h t y.com, and then go find the blog and read those. And I see you have a lot more articles than that as well.
(21:43):
Yeah, thank you so much for saying that, Sally, you know, at So, so Mighty, uh, does offer help for people after an accident and Mighty Law, which is an affiliated law firm mm-hmm. , um, uh, partners to, to bring people's cases and to, you know, take them to trial if necessary, uh, and, uh, to get people the compensation they deserve. But one of the things that we found was that the more educated consumers were, the more they choose us. And so if people talk to four or five different law firms, they pick us. But if they just talk to Juan and they never talk to us, then they pick the one. So that's why we are a huge proponent of educating people about the bad practices of personal injury, what people should be looking for, because an educated consumer means that our business is going to be doing very, very well. So thank you for talking about our blog and recognizing that, and I, I couldn't agree more, uh, at people can check it out at, at mighty.com.
(22:50):
Yeah. I like to go and look at people's websites to see what information they're giving to educate their potential clients, or at least potential readers to come and learn more about what they need to do to take, you know, their advocacy in their own hands. Sometimes that can be a very emotional thing when you're in the middle of it, or maybe you're actually so injured that you're, you know, not necessarily the right one to be doing that, but a family member could be helping out as as well. So, thanks for coming onto the show. I really appreciate the information. Um, everybody, this is Josh sch squadron with mighty.com, but, uh, is there any last parting thing you want to mention before we go?
(23:34):
Um, thank you, Sally. Yeah, thank you for having me. And it, it's really been, uh, a pleasure. Uh, I think the, the, the, the parting words are, um, if anybody that, uh, has been in an accident even a, a year ago, um, uh, has questions, they're feel free to reach out to us. Uh, we, you can talk to, uh, a specialist on our team for free. Um, and, uh, one of the unique aspects about working with Mighty Law is that even if you sign up with our law firm, um, you can change your mind, uh, within 60 days. Uh, and there's no, uh, fee whatsoever. Uh, and even after 60 days, uh, people only pay if they win. Uh, so, um, you know, reach [email protected] and, uh, we'd love to, we'd love to help you.
(24:31):
Excellent. So how many people do you have with mighty.com?
(24:35):
Um, so, uh, mighty, uh, and Mighty Law are, um, uh, different, uh, entities with different ownership, but together, uh, we have about 50 people, um, across the world.
(24:46):
Wow. That's great. Yeah. That's very impressive. Thank you. Thank you so much about, uh, informing me and the, and the listeners to all of this. I really appreciate
(24:55):
It. My pleasure, Sally. It was great chatting with you. Thank
(24:58):
You. Yeah, thank you.
(24:59):
Thanks for having me.
(25:02):
Thank you for listening today. My name is Sally Hendrick. Be sure to visit our website for show notes and more information on how you can inspire others. If you would like to contribute content to our magazine, please apply on our website at shoutyourcause.com.
