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Hello, this is Tahnya Ballard and I’m an attorney. I wanted to talk to you today about why you shouldn’t go it alone. I had a client who tried to go it alone after he slipped and fell on a plastic lid and that was on the floor, and he had some success in terms of getting some compensation for that, but I would not say complete success, which is what landed him in my office. There’s really two basic reasons that I think it’s best not to go it alone when you’re trying to get recovery for your injury, while you’re trying to recover physically and they both stem from the primary thing is you don’t speak their language.
You don’t speak the language of the adjuster and you don’t speak the language of the judge and sure, yeah, we’re all speaking English to one another, but you have to phrase things in a certain way so that the other party can really understand what you’re saying because each party to the negotiation or to the legal hearing has their own point of view, their own goals of what they’re trying to accomplish. As somebody who doesn’t deal with injury claims on a daily basis or doesn’t go to court on a weekly or monthly basis, you’re probably not familiar with that language.
I would say especially in the case of after you first get your injury and you’re on the mend and you want to start thinking about, well, how do I get some of these expenses paid back, the first kind of person you’re going to deal with is the insurance company for the other person who caused the injury and they have their own set of goals. Their goals aren’t necessarily to prevent you from getting anything. I wouldn’t say that, but they definitely want to minimize the amount that their employer, the insurance company has to pay out, right? You have to phrase things a certain way, which is why as part of our injury claims, we learn that language, we know that language, and we’re able to present the type of that the insurance company is interested in and there’s other types of information they’re not interested in.
If you spend a lot of time on that type of information, they’re not interested in that and as well, if you’re not able to settle the claim before you have to file a legal action, you might find yourself in a courtroom with a judge. I have to say I’ve been in courtrooms my fair share of time. It’s not a stress free environment. Many of the judges have very good temperaments and there’s others that don’t, and they’re trying to keep their courtroom and their calendar moving, and you need to talk to them succinctly and stated in a way that they understand using the legal terminology that makes sense to them. Chances are as somebody who hasn’t practiced law, you don’t know those things.
I thought of that when I was in court last week and I saw a lady in there who was by herself. She was not with an attorney and I thought how intimidated she must feel. Not that the judge was trying to intimidate her, but it could be very scary. It’s good to have somebody to help you in those situations. I think you would agree and so you might want to consider that. Now if you’d like to talk to us, please give us a call. You can call us and we’d be happy to talk to you about what kind of matter that you had. Our phone number is 775-391-5131 and our California number is 916-287-7157 please give us a call. I’d be happy to talk to you myself, unless I’m in court or I’m with another client.