Legal Costs

WEBVTT 00:00:06.986 --> 00:00:08.329 Medical malpractice, 00:00:09.371 --> 00:00:12.742 I think one of the reasons a lot of our cases come from other lawyers 00:00:12.743 --> 00:00:15.443 is its one of the most expensive forms of litigation. 00:00:16.040 --> 00:00:21.100 In any given case, we need to talk to probably 20 different doctors. 00:00:21.557 --> 00:00:24.128 Some of them are ones we hire to be experts in the case, 00:00:24.129 --> 00:00:26.543 some of them are our clients' treating providers 00:00:26.544 --> 00:00:28.972 who have information that's important to the case, 00:00:28.973 --> 00:00:32.558 but they're not there to opine on whether somebody made a mistake or not, 00:00:33.040 --> 00:00:36.486 but they still get paid to show up to their depositions, 00:00:36.487 --> 00:00:38.057 they're not going to come for free. 00:00:38.058 --> 00:00:41.043 We have to pay the court reporter who's there in the deposition, 00:00:41.044 --> 00:00:44.557 we have to pay the treating providers who are coming to give information, 00:00:44.558 --> 00:00:48.229 we have to pay the experts who are reviewing the case to give us opinions. 00:00:48.230 --> 00:00:53.299 We can have cases that are up to $100, 000 before you even go to trial. 00:00:53.300 --> 00:00:55.271 We spent $100,000 in the case. 00:00:55.560 --> 00:00:59.757 Then through trial, we've had them as high as $250,000 00:01:00.043 --> 00:01:01.557 that we've written checks for. 00:01:02.257 --> 00:01:04.700 That's not our time, that's not our staff's time, 00:01:04.701 --> 00:01:06.486 that's hard costs in the case. 00:01:06.487 --> 00:01:10.529 We front all of those for our clients and so that's a risk we take. 00:01:10.530 --> 00:01:13.172 If we lose, that money is gone along with our time. 00:01:14.543 --> 00:01:17.999 Costs are a big hurdle. 00:01:18.000 --> 00:01:20.171 Because medical malpractice is so expensive, 00:01:20.172 --> 00:01:23.229 you have to be creative in trying to get them done efficiently 00:01:23.230 --> 00:01:26.572 so that maybe the case value is $100,000. 00:01:26.600 --> 00:01:31.671 If it costs 60 to get to trial, and then you win $100, 00:01:31.672 --> 00:01:33.885 in the end, the client is going to be unhappy 00:01:33.886 --> 00:01:36.571 because most of the money goes to the experts 00:01:36.572 --> 00:01:40.985 and the court reporters, and the filing fees, 00:01:41.440 --> 00:01:44.386 and there's very little left for the client or the attorney. 00:01:45.671 --> 00:01:48.142 We've gotten good at identifying cases 00:01:48.143 --> 00:01:51.786 that even though they're not high-value or major injuries, 00:01:52.257 --> 00:01:57.071 you can still make them work, and sometimes it's just a principle thing. 00:01:57.072 --> 00:02:00.300 I've taken cases where we lose money and I know we're going to lose money, 00:02:00.301 --> 00:02:02.443 but I'm so frustrated that this happened to somebody, 00:02:02.444 --> 00:02:06.556 and they shouldn't get away with it just because they only hurt them a little, 00:02:06.557 --> 00:02:07.943 they didn't hurt them a lot.