Episode 10: Pick the Right Lawyer for Your Semi-Truck Wreck Case

Michael Leizerman:

We started the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys with the main purpose to try to differentiate for the person who’s out there who suddenly dealing with, oh my goodness, what do I do? People would find a place where there’s objective criteria of experience and knowledge in truck crashes.

David Craig – Host:

Today, on After the Crash, we’re going to talk about one of the most important decisions that the victims of a serious semi wreck have to make, and that is, how to pick an attorney? And I can’t think of a better person to talk to about that than Michael Leizerman. Michael Leizerman is thought by many of us as one of the top truck lawyers in the country. This is After the Crash.
I’m attorney, David Craig, managing partner, and one of the founders of the law firm of Craig, Kelly, and Faultless. I’ve represented people who have been seriously injured or have had a family member killed in semi or other big truck wreck for over 30 years. Following the wreck, their lives are chaos. Often, they don’t even know enough about the process to ask the right questions. It is my goal to empower you by providing you with the information you need to protect yourself and your family. In each and every episode, I will interview top experts and professionals that are involved in truck wreck cases. This is After the Crash.

Michael Leizerman is taught by many of us as one of the top truck lawyers in the country. He’s the founder of The Law Firm For Truck Safety. He handles truck accident litigation involving serious and catastrophic injuries all over the country. He is one of the first, I think, was the first chair of the AAJ, trucking division. He is one of the founders of the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys. He was instrumental in getting the truck area recognized and board certified.

More importantly, he’s actually handled these cases, not only in the settlement phases, but he’s actually tried these cases, and he’s been very successful, extraordinarily successful with millions and tens of millions of dollars in settlements and in verdicts. So I don’t think I can think of anybody better to interview or talk to about how to select an attorney to handle these cases than Michael. Michael, thank you very much for joining us. I really appreciate your guidance and your help.

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I have a big smile from your introduction, because it’s very kind, and also, because the way you introduced it, it’s almost a given these days that there is something that’s a truck accident law. That there’s something different about truck crashes than just regular old car crashes. And I’m so glad that we’ve evolved to get to that point. Because when I back, in 2000, was the first chair of the trucking litigation group, that was not a given.

People really didn’t understand, lawyers didn’t understand, right now it’s really helping to educate the public, the consumer, how to best choose a lawyer, but back then the lawyers didn’t even understand, and many still don’t that there’s a big difference. And I think that’s a lot of what we’re probably going to focus on today when you’re thinking about finding the right lawyer.

How to Find the Right Lawyer for Your Semi-Truck Wreck Case?

Michael Leizerman:

It’s very interesting, if I could just start us out by mentioning a great organization called the National Board of Trial Advocates, and my wife’s on the board, so a little disclaimer, she’s a lawyer too. And I’m on one of their committees, the National Board of Truck Accident Attorneys. And what we did was decide, in keeping with NBTA is mission, that there should be specialists in the law, just like there are specialists in medicine. So if you’re got a problem, you’ve got a nerve twitch, you might start with your family doctor, but if you have a nerve twitch in your shoulder, you don’t go see a podiatrist. If you need brain surgery, God forbid, you don’t just go to a general practitioner. I mean, it almost sounds absurd to even be talking about that. Of course, we want specialists in medicine.
And the NBTA’s mission is, there should be specialists in the law. Every lawyer should have a specialty, even if it’s kind of like in internal medicine that there’s like a general practice lawyer who then gets people to specialists. And one of our big goals, and I’m very proud that we were able to do this, to get the American Bar Association to recognize that there is a specialized area, truck accident law, and that there’s lawyers who know what they’re doing in that area. You know that very well, because you’re board certified in truck accident law. And there’s others of us out there who have gone through the required experience and testing to show that we understand this area of the law, and that it’s very different from just a regular old car crash.

David Craig – Host:

And I think you’re absolutely… When I first started practicing 35 years ago, I was very fortunate, in that, one of the very first cases I got was a trucking case. But as a young lawyer, I remember being scared to death, because here I was entrusted with this case, and so, the first thing I did was, what do I do? And there weren’t the resources there are today. When I looked for books, there weren’t that many books. When looked for seminars, there weren’t that many seminars. When I look for people like yourself that had handled these cases, they were maybe out there, but they weren’t well known and they weren’t put together or pulled together. And I remember just because I was young and scared, I read every case that I could find. I read every book I could find. I read everything I could find, so that I could do that case right.

And today, I think that, like you said, a lot of young lawyers take it for granted that there’s this base of knowledge you can pull from. And I think it has raised the level of the quality of those lawyers who do specialize or who do narrow their practice. It’s made us all better.

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah. And then when you think of the people that you and I deal with all the time, the consumers, the victims, survivors of truck crashes, and no one ever thinks that that’s going to be them. And then when there’s a crash with a tractor trailer, an 80,000 pound vehicle with a three, four, five, 6,000 pound car or SUV, it’s not a fair fight. It’s catastrophic many, many times. And so people find themselves in the unthinkable, it’s giving me shivers to… The people that you and I talked to, whose spouse, whose children, they were taken from them, or they find themselves now paralyzed, just unthinkable circumstances.

And then in the midst of that, how do you go about finding a lawyer, and most people, while it’s easy to make fun of the only lawyers they may have heard of, unless you’re in a class of people where your social group is lawyers and professionals, and then maybe, someone in your column, but for most people, they know the billboard and TV advertisers. And so it’s easy to make fun of those things. And it’s a way that the word gets out there. I don’t do any of that. And I used to many years ago. I’m glad to not have to do that any longer, but I understand why some people do, to get their names out there.

And what happened was we started the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys with the main purpose to try to differentiate, for the person who’s out there who suddenly dealing with, oh my goodness, what do I do? That, hopefully, through an internet search, hopefully, through programming like you’re doing now, with you and me talking, that people would find a place where there’s objective criteria of experience and knowledge in truck crashes. So we started the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys, the organization is wonderful. There’s many attorneys who just share with other lawyers, because we want to make this world a safer and better place.

And now the goal is to get that word out to consumers, the legal services, so that when someone’s in that situation and now more than ever, someone starts going to the internet and doing a search that they’ll either be able to check out that advertising lawyer, or they’ll be able to find the lawyer that doesn’t advertise. But in any event, where they know they’ve been vetted with objective criteria, that they have experience. That they’re not going to take in the case and treat it just like a car accident case. There’s so many differences.

I’ll just give you one example, and actually, let me just take a pause for a second, because you’ll notice, I’ll say accident, I’ll say crash. I use the word accident, because that’s what a lot of people use. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a truck accident. I think when you really look at systems that can be put in place to avoid this, both from technology and safety culture, I think they’re crashes. So I use both terms and I’m very aware of the idea that these aren’t accidents that you and I are handling, these are crashes.

But in any event, when someone is out there and maybe they’re used to the car crash case, and they’re used to calling the insurance adjuster, and the insurance adjuster might say, “Oh, there’s no insurance here. The car that hit your client’s car, wasn’t covered. They didn’t add it as a covered auto to the insurance policy.” And if it’s a car accident, car versus car, that’s the end of the story. Unless you’re able to go and collect against someone personally, if anyone even has equity in their house or cars anymore, you’re out of luck. And you tell the person, the client, the consumer, “I’m sorry, there’s no insurance.”

Now if that same lawyer, hasn’t been trained like you and I, aren’t familiar with the federal regulations, then they wouldn’t know, like you and I know, wait a second, there’s actually a regulation that says, “Because we want the public to be covered, because these truck crashes can be so catastrophic as a matter of public policy. It doesn’t matter if the truck is listed as a covered auto, we’re still going to cover it.” So that could be the difference between helping a client recover or not.

David Craig – Host:

And I think that, as I’ve been… And, unfortunately, when you get hired in these cases, you go meet these clients and your heart pours out to them. And all too often, they’re dealing with death or a traumatic brain injury or paralysis or other serious, serious life altering injuries, or sometimes all of those. And you go in there, and the last thing they’re thinking is, I need to file a lawsuit, or I need to file a claim, or I need to hire a lawyer. They’re worried about their family. They’re preoccupied. They’re not sleeping. They’re not eating. They’re just focused on their life and their family.
And it often is someone else in the family or a close friend, who says, “Hey, look, you need to do something.” And then they bring us to the room. But they don’t know, they haven’t dealt with these situations, and they don’t even know what questions to ask. And that’s one of the reasons I started this podcast was, because regardless of whether they hire me or they hire you, I want people to know what they need to know. What questions they need to ask, where to look, so that they can make an informed decision. Because there’s no more important decision they probably will make in their entire life, if it’s one of those serious, serious injuries or death, then picking the right attorney.

And one of the first problems is that it has to be made relatively quickly or it should be. Because as you know, and I know, evidence disappears, construction zones are changed. So, let’s talk a little bit about, the beginning place is, just, why is it important for the families to make a decision relatively quickly?

Why Is It Important for Families to Hire a Lawyer Quickly?

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah, there’s a lot of reasons. And I believe very strongly when you find a lawyer, who not only understands the trucking aspect, but they’re able to have the resources to not have hundreds of cases, but to really devote time to your case, that litigation can be healing, if done right. Now, that’s very difficult to do right, especially if there’s a lawyer that’s handling a 100 plus cases, it’s impossible to really give the case the attention it needs. When it’s done right, I hear most people, yes, they are very concerned about replacing household income, about paying medical bills.

There’s no question that our primary job is to go and maximize recovery. And there’s another job whether it’s secondary, or I like to think of them as co-equal, and that’s most people will say, how can we keep this from happening to others? What can we do to try to make the road safer? And that that’s so important to them speaks a lot about human nature. And again, I think that the way that we deal with these cases, and hiring a lawyer can be the most important decision some people make in their life, maybe other than deciding who to marry, there has to be a trust.

So, I’ll say that first and foremost, there’s got to be a trust and a candor, because maybe the law doesn’t always support the things that are out there. You don’t want a lawyer that just tells you the things you want to hear. You want someone that’s polite, that’s courteous, and will be very bluntly honest with you. I think most people want that. So that’s one thing I want to say is, I really believe that law, when done properly, can help in the healing process.

And why do we do act quickly? It’s exactly what you said, evidence changes. And particularly in trucking, we know, I think every case I’m handling right now, that there was a lawyer, not just an insurance adjuster, but an insurance adjuster and a lawyer on the scene before the crash was cleaned up. Maybe there’s one I’m handling that they weren’t there until the morning after, for the lawyer, but the insurance adjuster is always there. They’re there immediately.

The first phone call for the truck driver is always to their company, many times before they even get out of the truck cab. And so right away, the wheels are turning. There’s certain evidence that can be destroyed. For example, log books after six months, now with electronic logs, they could have it on an automatic turnover, where at six months and a day, electronic logs get written over. It’s not true of every company, but that certainly happens.

There’s really a more important reason, and it’s not just those traditional things like log books that would get destroyed. But now with telematics, so we’ve got GPS pings, we’ve got all kinds of safety technology in the trucks. We have dash cams, sometimes pointing in the cab, sometimes pointing down the road, that’s communicating through satellite. And we now have, I see more and more, cameras in the cab that aren’t dash cams, but they’re actually for, if someone dozes off or their eyes are off the road, that that will alert.

Now, those type of systems, and there’s also just to add to that, I get a lot of cases with Verizon Connect these days, even if the cab doesn’t have the built-in hardware, there’s an app on a phone that the motor carrier has subscribed to. And I need to get that data, because that data may not exist if we wait too long. So sometimes you don’t know what you don’t know. I guess you always don’t know what you don’t know. So you’ve got to come in, and as technology just continues to advance, it’s a matter… You know, we’ll go to a seminar and webinar after webinar to learn, what’s the newest out there? Where’s it being stored? And how can we lock that down?

I probably have, it might be close to half the cases that I’m handling right now, where some piece of technology is making an absolute difference in the case. One more example, a case where a young man was killed, I’m handling right now, the car was broken down with a flat tire on the side of the road, the truck driver insisted. “I don’t know what happened. They must’ve just cut out right in front of me. And that’s why I hit him. I have no other explanation.” But we dug and dug and found, not in the cab, but on an overpass just a couple seconds before the crash occurred, a webcam that the DOT, the state DOT would have just for traffic flow. And because we acted quickly enough, we were able to get that, show we could see the car came off the shoulder, onto the roadway, probably 30 seconds before impact.

And that’s actually made all the difference in the case. So that’s just some examples that the roadway marks will go away. The technology can get erased. Cell phones can get erased, and you need to act quickly.

David Craig – Host:

I tell my investigators, nowadays, to just assume that the wreck was captured on video, to assume that when they go to the scene or they go nearby. And maybe it wasn’t, but they should assume, and look for cameras. But you’re right, that if you don’t get hired quick enough, then that video, wherever it’s at, will be lost.

Also, as I’m sure you’ve seen, I’m seeing other vehicles, other semis passing wrecks, that aren’t involved in the wreck, who have captured video. And if you’re lucky enough to figure out who that is, sometimes you can get the video off of their truck, even though they weren’t involved in the wreck. If you’re hired quick enough, if not, they’re going to go on down the road and that’ll be lost forever.

Michael Leizerman:

It’s other truck drivers. More and more it can be a Ring doorbell or one of those other brands that actually, if it’s in an area where there’s residences nearby, it may capture the crash. And then of course, maybe somebody only has a 30-day subscription, that after 30 days or after so many dings, the video overwrites. So wouldn’t it be nice to start knocking on the doors and find or have investigators find, oh, there it is. That or the banks, I’ve had bank cameras that were on a corner that actually captured it. So example after example of a technology that… Maybe sometime in the future, space will be so limitless that will save everything, but right now we need to act and get this information.

David Craig – Host:

In addition, I’m sure you’ve seen as well, when we get involved, you’re trying to figure out all the people that are involved, and what caused this wreck to happen? And sometimes it seems simple, it’s a semi driver in semi truck, but all too often, it’s a lot more complicated than that. It could be signage on a construction zone. It could be a contractor that did something wrong. It could be equipment. There could be a mechanical problem. I’ve got a case right now, where, I almost, I felt silly doing a truck inspection, because a good state trooper had done a level one inspection. And I knew this. I knew this person, this person teaches other troopers how to do the inspection of the brakes, but I still had my mechanic go out just because that’s happened. That’s what I do.
And lo and behold, we found out that the brakes weren’t on properly and they had been installed improperly. And so that gave us a whole different avenue to go down, to just go down to this person, this company that had installed this brake improperly, that contributed to this wreck. And so, again, if you’re not hired quickly, that equipment, many times they put it back in service or they try to put it back in service, or they move out of state, which becomes difficult to find. So those are… I’m sure you’ve seen it as well, because if you’re looking at all the different options and all the different players that were involved, the sooner you get involved, the sooner the lawyers are hired, the sooner they can find that and preserve that and trace those leads down.

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. And I understand, like you said, that this is many times the absolute toughest time of someone’s life, so they are usually in despair. The last thing they want to do is think about lawyers, or even think about, how am I going to get on after this? Right now, today is just grief, is just a blinding grief, that, how do I even function? And so we’ll meet with clients, and I know that the next day they’re going to only have retained like five percent of what we talked about, and I don’t blame them.

So, what’s very important is that you have a lawyer that knows what they’re doing and can come in, and what I’ll usually say is, “I’m here. I’ll spend hours on the phone, explaining the law. I’ll come back out to your house as often as you want, and explain everything to you. Right now, the last thing you probably need to hear,” unless the person is wired that way, maybe sometimes some engineers or science people are, but “the blessing you need to hear, is the statutory history of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations and the changes that they made to 49 CFR 392, that affect your case. Yes, we know these things, but how about for right now? Let’s talk about what we’re going to do to represent you.

And we’re going to go out and send letters and preserve information and fly drones over the scene to get the roadway marks. We’re going to check out all the technology to get that saved. We’re going to do everything so that you can grieve and know that this is being handled. We’re going to need you to sign some paperwork right now, maybe probate paperwork, so we can get things rolling with a probate lawyer. But for right now, sign these initial papers, so we can do legally and ethically what we need to do. And then, we’ll check back with you. You call whenever you want, but what do you need? A week? A month?”

Because I think that’s people’s fear, and rightfully so. The last thing I want is a phone call right now, three times a day that says, “Well, what was this? And where were the prior employment?” Yeah, there’s a time for that, so for right now, there’s… It’s like a triage, at the beginning of the case, it is important to be timely and good lawyers will know, come in, get everything signed, “We’ll check back with you.” And more and more technology seems to help with that. So more and more people like to have a text message. I personally prefer email or phone call, but I know a lot of people want a text message.

So, there’s a young woman I represent right now, her husband was killed, and she has three little kids at home. The last thing she needs is to be reminded of her husband not being, there while she’s trying to deal with the three kids and whatnot. So I’ve found, “Here it is. You text 24/7, I’m available.” And when I need something, I can text her and say, “When’s a good time to talk. Nothing urgent, just want to give you an update.”

So, it’s really having been through this enough to understand people are in a mental state, where they want to meet people, find a lawyer they trust, and most people will say, “Deal with it for me. Come back and let’s talk in some more detail in a couple of weeks,” but I can’t say it enough times that it’s such a difficult time for people. And you need a lawyer who understands that and can work with that.

David Craig – Host:

And I think that’s important, is that, assuming that you pick somebody who is experienced, who has the knowledge, who has the expertise to the handle these types of cases. The other thing this is important is that you’re going to spend a lot of time with them over a long period of time or it can be a relatively long period of time. And so, not only do you have to pick somebody who fits all the other criteria, which we’ll talk a little bit more detail about, but you do need to pick somebody who understands this and who relates well to you.

So, I recommend that they interview people or talk to them. Before they hire them, they need to know, talk to Michael Leizerman. What kind of person is Michael? Is Michael somebody that I’m comfortable with in my living room, sitting down with me over the next year and a half, two years, three years, whatever it takes? Would you agree with that?

Michael Leizerman:

100% agree. I think that the threshold, who you even interview is by looking at experience. I highly recommend, for a truck crash, is a board-certified truck accident lawyer. Once you know, someone’s board certified, okay, they have the experience, the knowledge, now I need to be comfortable with them. The last thing… And it needs to go both ways, right? We need to know that people aren’t hiding things from us and that they feel comfortable knowing they don’t have to hide things, that there’s an attorney/client relationship, the things they say are privileged.

And so, yeah, you find who has the experience and knowledge and the results and look at their background and all the things like that. And then, who do you resonate with? I’m not going to resonate with everyone. You’re not. I like to think we’d get along with most people, but it’s really important that you’re able to… When you’re listening to advice, when you’re asking questions that you’re very comfortable with that person. It takes a while sometimes to develop that relationship. It doesn’t mean it’s like a love at first sight, but it’s very important that attorney/client relationship.

David Craig – Host:

And you talked about the knowledge, and we’ll talk about board certification, which kind of is great because it’s a quick way to go out and vet people, vet attorneys, but let’s talk about why it’s important to have knowledge. I see billboards. I see television commercials. I see social media ads. I see companies that aren’t even lawyers that are trying to attract cases, so they can refer them to lawyers. I see all these things and maybe they’re good, maybe they’re bad, but certainly, I would hope people wouldn’t pick somebody just because of something they see without vetting it. And without looking behind it to see, who is this? Who are these people?

And I think in trucking cases, you might be able to do a car crash, but not every lawyer’s qualified to do a truck case. And tell us a little bit about why it’s important to have some knowledge of and how it’s different. And we talked about it a little bit on the front end on investigating, but there’s a lot more to it.

Why Is It Important to Hire an Attorney with Truck Accident Knowledge?

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah. There is a lot more to it. There’s all the different regulations that cover everything from drug and alcohol tests to safe driving hours to the technology we spoke about. I mean, I can go on for hours and hours, and I know we don’t have that kind of time. So let me think of, maybe… I gave the example of the telematics. There’s the ability to get in and look at the safety culture, for example. So right away to decide…

You mentioned it’s not just the crash itself. So a lawyer who’s handling just car accidents is going to say, “Oh, it looks like the truck rear-ended someone I don’t need to do anything more.” And so what we know is that, and it goes back to it’s a truck crash, not an accident, because we’ll go back and say, why did this happen? To do a root cause analysis and have our own legal team, that’s experienced in doing that. And then we can look and say, “What’s the safety culture? What safety technology did they have? Because if they had automatic emergency brakes on their trucks, this shouldn’t happen. Did that company ever look into it. Do they have the resources to do that?”

There’s so many questions that… What we know from board certification is that lawyers have been exposed to those different systems and will at least look at those places. And that’s a great example, when there’s a rear end crash, where maybe even the truck drivers admitting fault, don’t we want to look behind why it happened, not only to maximize compensation for what’s deserved by the client, but to help keep this from happening in the future? What we do as truck accident lawyers is very important to safety, to help keep the roads safer.

David Craig – Host:

And I think the consumer of legal services, the person who’s out there looking at this video or this podcast, are often people that don’t even realize that there is a Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulation. They don’t know that there’s a CDL manual in every state that’s practically the same. They don’t realize that there are state laws that regulate interstate versus intrastate. They don’t know that there’s industry standards. I mean, again, in a car wreck, you don’t deal with all those things. And you have industry standards that vary.

And so, there’s so many more things that someone has to look at in a truck case, I assume you agree, that you have to have a lawyer who has that level of knowledge, or they don’t even know what they’re missing. And you and I both probably get cases from other attorneys, occasionally, that maybe have held them a little too long, that this didn’t do anything. And it wasn’t that they were dumb, it wasn’t that they’re not good lawyers in their area, but it was just a lack of knowledge. They didn’t even know what to ask or what to look for.

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah. And many times, I guess we can liken it to medicine, that one of the problems with the internet, I have friends who are doctors who would say… Heck, I’ve done this myself. I’ll go into the doctor and I will have self-diagnosed, “Here’s the problem. I looked it up on the internet, blah, blah, blah.” And they say, “Well, that might be right, and there’s something else going on here too. You need to deal with your sleep patterns,” or whatever it might be.

And so, the same thing happens here as well. To be board certified, means that you have enough experience, and hopefully, have opened your mind and have systems in place, a checklist and other professionals in our office, other lawyers, paralegals, the consultants we work with, the whole team that’s looking, and says, “Okay, I know it looks like you have this figured out that someone was over their safe driving hours, and there was likely fatigue. Here’s something else I found.”

And so, that this person… there’s so many, here’s something about the phone, here’s the suction cups. Here’s something that happens a lot is, look at the photos and we see suction cups on the window, but where’s the inventory from the crash. I don’t see anything inventory that would explain what was on those suction cups. Let’s look into that. And we’ve found sometimes where that was a second cell phone, and someone was playing a game. Somebody was, happens all too often, texting and even believe it or not pornography and sexting and those kinds of things with someone driving an 80,000 pound truck.

So, it’s important to have the experience and also to have the team and the systems in place, so that it’s not just me. I’ve tried a lot of cases. I can look at something and have a good idea of where it might go, and I can never just rely on that. I want to make sure that I’m looking at the checklist of things, that we have full discovery, that I have other people that are following up, so, like you say, we’re not missing something. That we’ve explored everything fully. I don’t mean to be vague about it. I just, I don’t want to get into every detail of every case.

David Craig – Host:

Sure. No, but I think that it’s, I mean, again, like you said, and a friend of mine says, “You don’t know what you don’t know.” And unfortunately, not all lawyers know about the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations. Not all the lawyers know what the industry standards are. Not all lawyers know what the CDL manual say. And if you have one of these cases, it’s important to find a lawyer who has that base of knowledge. I think, we can agree on that.

Michael Leizerman:

Certainly.

David Craig – Host:

And then I would like to know how important you think it is that, so you have a lawyer that has that knowledge, how important it is to have a lawyer that’s actually gone to trial in their career? That actually tries cases, is that important? And if so, why?

Michael Leizerman:

Yeah, I think it’s important. I’ve tried a lot of trucks case, so… There’s nothing wrong with settling a case. I came into my family firm, I started working there in the ’80s and became a lawyer there in the early ’90s. And I remember my uncle, who started the firm, he had this saying that, “If you work up a case for settlement, you’ll end up in trial. If you work up a case for trial, then you’ll have a chance of settling.”

So, it’s important if the other side calls your bluff, that you’re not bluffing. It’s important to have the communication with the client, and also to look at the nature of the case. So, here’s what I mean by that. Is this a clear liability case where the value of it’s being disputed? The truck driver rear-ended, stopped traffic, killed somebody, and we believe that, we discuss it, and the value is a certain value, and other side is just not offering that much. So in that case, we can talk to the client, and explain, “We’re going to win this case.” Now they’ve already admitted liability, or this is a case that would… highly likely that we win. It’s a matter of value.

I hate settlements. I settle a lot of cases, in addition to trying a lot, but I hate them, because they always leave me with this feeling, did we get everything we could? I want to make sure that we’ve gotten everything we could, and helped the client, and done every safety initiative we could. And there’s always that moment of settlement is sometimes, okay, but boy, wouldn’t it have been nice to go into the courtroom and fight.

So, in a case like that, most clients are great. They’ll say, “Yeah, that’s not enough. I’m willing to take the risk,” because your lawyer should give you informed consent of what the downsides, the upsides. “I’m willing to take the risk. And if a jury tells me that, we thought it was worth a certain dollar figure, they’re offering five million dollars, a jury might come back with a million or two, but I think it’s worth 10 million, but I can’t promise you that, ethically, I can’t do that.” And then to talk through, here’s the different results. Here’s my verdicts. Here’s what this jurisdiction does. But no promises, no lawyer can promise you a result.

And then when the client says, “I’m willing to take a risk. If the jury tells me this is a two million dollar case, not a $10 million case, then, okay. Then at least a jury has heard that, and I will abide by that, but I don’t want to settle for that.” Now, usually the insurance companies make it a lot easier. They offer you $60,000 and then you get to go to trial.

The other kind of case is when the liability is more challenging. We think we have a very good argument. The truck driver turned left in front of somebody who then hits them in a car, and we know the commercial driver’s license manual that sets the standard, says, “If you’re in a tractor trailer, don’t turn left, unless you can completely clear the intersection before oncoming traffic comes.” So we know that’s in there, and we know we’re going to stress that that’s standard for a truck driver. It’s something they all are trained on and should know. And they’re arguing that the car was speeding 10 miles an hour over the limit. And that made a difference. So I need to inform you the client that a jury could say,” 50/50.” In some jurisdictions, you win with 50/50, you get half. In some you lose, you need 51%. In some jurisdictions, one percent speeding, if you’re a contributory states, you lose. Some states, any percentage and you’ll collect.

So, you need to understand that state’s law. And in that case, we say, “Okay, the risk versus the possible verdicts, they’ve offered this much so far.” I’ll just keep using that number. “They’ve offered $5 million. Now, if we go to trial and the jury believes that the speeding was more of a cause than the turning in front, in most states, then you could get nothing.” So kind of weigh, getting nothing versus what if we get what we think it’s worth, 10 million.

Now a good lawyer is going to spell it out for you. Here’s the possible risk? Here’s the range of what I think is reasonable. Here is if we had a home run. I don’t really like saying that, it’s not a home run because these are tragic cases. But if the jury does everything we would hope, here’s what could happen. And there’s many clients that say, “You decide for me.” I can understand. They don’t want to make the decision, because they don’t want to decide wrong. And ethically, we can’t do that. We can give strong advice and say, “Here’s what I would do, but I need you to buy in. I need you to vote. You’re the decider. You’re the CEO here.”

And so that’s where this trusting relationship is super important. You don’t want to ever have in the back of your mind, is your lawyer not going forward and saying to settle, because they don’t have the trial experience or they’re not confident of their trial abilities.

Or are they wanting to try it, because they’ve been so successful that if they lose, so what? I’ll say that to my clients, “I’ve got more cases. This is your case. Boy, I’m putting my all into this, and I sure hope we don’t lose. There’s a risk of it. If we do, I’ll be devastated, but not as devastated as you, because I’m going to move on. I’ve got more cases. This means so much to you.”

So, when insurance companies do their job to maximize their shareholder profits, while by not risking these huge verdicts, they would do that by coming in and offering just enough that a client can’t say, no, to it, because it’s fair. We’d like a little more, but it’s fair, so let’s settle it. In those situations, when there’s a possibility of losing, you have to have a very candid and trusting relationship with your lawyer to really bounce around different scenarios and to understand what the risks are.

David Craig – Host:

I tell my clients that I’m not going to force them to settle, but I’m also not going to force them to go to trial. I want them to make the decision. I want them to be comfortable with that decision, because they will have to live with that decision for the rest of their life. And although, like you said, I’ll go to my next case, but this is their only case. Hopefully, it’ll be the only case they ever have. And so, they have to live with that.

But to me, it seems like it makes a difference if your lawyer is willing to go to trial. And oftentimes, I tell my clients, “I would much rather lose in a courtroom than lose in a conference room, sitting there in a mediation,” not being treated and my client’s not being treated properly. And like you said, sometimes they make it easy for us, at least till closer to trial. But do you think that it matters to the other side? Do you think that it matters to the trucking companies and to the insurance carriers, if the victim’s lawyers go try cases?

Do Trucking Companies and Insurance Carriers Care if the Victim’s Lawyers Go to Trial?

Michael Leizerman:

Oh, there’s no question. They know who is going to take the case to trial. They definitely know that. We know that for a fact, they write it up, and they take it into account in their evaluations. So I think that a lot of clients, most people, their biggest fear in life, surveys have shown, is public speaking. More so than heights, more so than fire or spiders or anything else out there, it’s the fear of public speaking. People are just afraid of it. They’re afraid of doing something wrong, of being humiliated, embarrassed. So I’m always on the lookout for, and lawyers who try cases, that’s another benefit of having been through this with clients, will recognize… I never want my client to make the decision not to go to trial, just because they don’t want to take the stand.

Now it’s different if there’s just this emotional toll and they want to settle it because of that. And that’s partly our job to make sure that the environment is as healing as possible, and that it’s not emotionally more traumatic to go through the litigation than it needs to be. And that’s a different question from, “Oh, I just don’t talk in front of people. I can’t imagine going to trial. Let’s just settle.” Because it’s our job to spend lots and lots of time, and I’ll say that to my clients, “I’m going to come over, I’ll be there one day, two days, but I’ll come back every weekend for months, whatever it takes until you’re comfortable. And you’re going to be so overly prepared, we’re going to talk through this.”

Now that doesn’t I’m telling them exact questions and answers, but rather getting stories. Because these cases are about stories, the story of why this crash happened, the story of this safety culture, or lack of safety culture behind it. And then the story of the person who either was killed, whose life has been so altered that it’s our job, and that’s a huge responsibility to really tell the story so that the jury gets it, wow, this is what was taken away from this person.

There’s this story I like to tell about that. I had a client, I was having a difficult time trying to relate to what happened to him, because of his injuries, I mean, all he did was work and golf. He couldn’t work any longer. So that’s easy to kind of blackboard the numbers, any the lawyer that hires an economist can get that done. And I was just having a problem, I don’t know if it’s because I’m a horrible golfer, so I don’t like golf at all, so it didn’t mean that much to me. So what, you couldn’t golf. Until I really spent a lot of time with this person, talking with them, looking at their golfing trophies, trying to understand. And as we spoke more and more, and he started talking about Tom and Bill and Fred, who they would get together every Tuesday and Saturday.

And I heard that enough times, and I started asking more questions, “And do you still see Tom and Bill and Fred?” “Well, they stopped by a little bit after the crash, but I mean, we really golfed, so they’re not going to come hang out twice a week.” And the more I spent time and got to know this person, I realized the story here was, the truck company didn’t take golfing from him. I mean, so what. I mean, I know it’s a game that means a lot to people, but I’ll just say, so what. The trucking company took his friends from him. This was this person’s social network, and now they were disconnected from the world.

People understand that. Now you can relate it not to golf, but for me, I have a group of friends, we get together every Thursday, we have, it’s kind of like a book club. If you took that from me, okay, I get it. That’s my connection to the world. Someone else it might be around NASCAR or soccer or bingo. I don’t know, but that helped me get the story.

So that doesn’t, maybe it comes more naturally for some people than others, but trial is this artificial environment. I love it. But it’s really, as the lawyers, were the producers, the directors, the actors, the writers we have a lot to do. And so, especially when people are used to watching television and television trials, we have to really work to get the story, and distill it, so that it can come through at trial without boring people to the death, because attention span is so shortened these days. There’s no substitute for just trying cases and understanding how to do that, and continuing to evolve and to never think that you have it figured out. I’ve always told people, “If I ever say ‘I got it all figured out, I’m a 100% confident of this trial.’ Someone better kick me in the butt.”

Because it’s important, the uncertainty is important. It’s essential actually, because you have jurors. I’m not deciding it. If I decide it, that’s easy, I believe my client, they should recover. But for me to approach jurors 12 or eight, or how many of our jurors are in this jurisdiction, and to really tell a story that resonates, that is truthful and human, I have to recognize the jurors are the decision-makers and I can’t be condescending. I can’t be so cocky that it’s a 100% confident we’re going to win. I need to ask the jury to help, because no matter how righteous our cases and how much the law and the facts are on our side, they have the ability to say, no, because they don’t like the way I dressed. I mean, that could happen.

So, it’s really this awesome responsibility. And it’s something that’s great about being a trial lawyer, trying cases and being used to standing, and it means being vulnerable in the way I try cases, not condescending. But to build a relationship with the jury, just like the client and the lawyer have to have a trusting relationship. The difference between a lawyer that only settles and a trial lawyer is that the trial lawyer can stand in front of the jury and build that relationship on a real honest basis, not just on BS, but really understanding that.

So, I love trial work. I could go on and on about it, but you hit some important points here that you want someone experienced and knowledgeable in law of trucking, of course, to build the case. And then someone who is willing to go to trial, so the insurance company will either come up with the best dollar to settle it. And if they don’t, that your lawyer’s ready to back up what they’ve threatened. And it shouldn’t be a threat, it should be a, “Yeah, we’ll go to trial. We’re willing to have a jury decide this. Let’s go.”

David Craig – Host:

And I thank you for that. I think there’s a difference between trial lawyers and those folks who don’t try cases. I worry, because there are so many lawyers, I read things that they’re the best at this, and they’re the number one this, and they’re number that. And so many of them, you can just buy a certification today and you can plug it here and you can plug it there. And one of the great things about it is that, the National Board of Trial Advocacy, the board certification in truck accident litigation, you can’t buy that. You can’t just go in and say, “Hey, here’s my $1000, give me my badge for my website.”

And I have the utmost respect for you being instrumental in setting that up, because that does give people… It’s kind of pre-vetting people. And the other stuff we’ve talked about today is extraordinarily important the trial and the having somebody who believes in you, who relates to you, but it starts with that foundation of knowledge and experience. And the great thing about the National Board of Trial Advocacy, it gives you that, it pre-vets people, so that you can narrow the focus down. I think you were one of the first, if not the first board certified lawyers. When I did it, there was still less than 50. I don’t know how many there are today, but at least that kind of narrows the focus down to some people that you might be able to interview to see if they have trial experience. If they relate well with you. The-

Michael Leizerman:

For sure. And I think it is around 50, still, you can go to the NBTA or you can go to the Academy of Truck Accident Attorneys website, it’s trucklawacademy.org, the ATAA website, and it lists the board certified lawyers who are a part of that organization, just to help people choose. And I do want to say, it’s so important, like you started saying, to interview. So check out who’s board certified, and then interview, so that’s just like a base of knowledge and experience. You have to go a step further, but that should, the minimum for a truck crash, is my lawyer board certified in truck accident law?

David Craig – Host:

Well, Michael, is there anything else you would like to add or tell the consumer? Obviously, you and I can talk for hours, but I’m not sure that anybody would want to listen to us for hours. But is there anything else that you think is important for the consumer out there, the person who’s facing this catastrophic event, whose world has been turned upside down, that they should consider when selecting a lawyer?

Michael Leizerman:

Just to ask any question that’s on your mind. Any lawyer worth her weight, his weight, their weight is going to not be put off by anything that you ask somebody. So don’t have that person leave, and wonder in the back of your mind, I wish I knew this or I wish I knew that. The lawyer/client relationship is very important, and you should ask anything whatsoever you want. And you should be able to get a satisfactory answer from the lawyer you’re talking with.

David Craig – Host:

Well, Michael, thank you so much for your time. Michael is not only a one of those qualified lawyers and has the experience and has the trial experience, but the other thing I want to thank you for is making this world safer Michael and his firm. And he does a lot, you do a lot on, of trying to make all of us safer by making these truckers follow safety rules, making their equipment safer. And I thank you for that as well.

Michael Leizerman:

Thank you for putting this on and for having me.

David Craig – Host:

This is David Craig, and you’ve been listening to After the Crash. If you’d like more information about me or my law firm, please go to our website, C-K-F-L-A-W.com. Or if you’d like to talk to me, you can call 1-800-Ask-David. If you would like a guide on what to do after a truck wreck, the pick up my book, Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families. This is available on Amazon, or you can download it for free on our website, ckflaw.com.