Tom:
Hi, Mike and Taylor. How you are today?
Taylor:
Hi, great. Thanks for having us on the show today.
Mike:
Yeah, doing well. How are you?
Tom:
I’m doing well. Thanks for joining the show today. And I think, as I mentioned to audience, we’ll talk about car accidents as the topic for our today discussion. All right? I think let’s dive into our discussion for today. [foreign language 00:00:24]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:00:29]
Tom:
So our first question from the audience for today is, why do I need a lawyer when I’m involved in a car accident?
Taylor:
You need a lawyer to help you with this process, because there’s a lot of moving parts, from the accident, you’re going to want a copy of the police report, you’re going to be contacted by various insurance companies. Maybe your insurance company may be the other driver’s insurance company in your attorney is going to be able to be that middleman and handle all that stuff for you. You do not want to talk to an insurance company because they are going to try and pay you the least amount possible. An attorney will be able to maximize your results by making sure you don’t give a recorded statement which could later be used against you. Another reason why you should hire an attorney is to help you get the medical treatment that you need. We work with various doctors and they can work with you and make sure you get the treatment you need, so you can recover as fully as possible. So it’s really important to get an attorney to handle all the behind the scenes, the police report, the insurance companies, and to make sure that you are covered as much as possible.
Tom:
[foreign language 00:01:49]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:03:31]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:04:09]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:04:10]
Tom:
Okay. Right, so our next question for you guys, will the insurance company took care of me if I’m not at fault in a car accident?
Mike:
Yes. So there’s a big misconception here. And I think a lot of people think, “I wasn’t at fault for the accident, I’ve got insurance, the other driver’s got insurance and they’re going to take care of me.” And the short answer is, they don’t, because they’re really just looking out for themselves. I’d say the one thing that insurance companies do right after an accident usually is property damage claims, just because there’s so much information out there on what a car costs and what it costs to fix the property damage on the car. Outside of that, whether you’re at fault for the accident or not, the insurance companies aren’t there to help you out. They want to minimize your claim. They want to minimize your damages, they’re not going to help you with treatment. And their ultimate goal is to pay out as little money as possible on each of the claims.
And we’ve even had cases where insurance companies will act super friendly and say, “Hey, we want to help you out, we’ll pay your future medical bills, and we’ll send you a check for $2500 for your inconvenience, your pain and your suffering.” And people really think that this is a good thing. They get the check, they sign the settlement agreement. And as it turns out, their case is worth $50,000, $100,000. And so it’s just the insurance companies being deceptive to take advantage of the situation. So even if you’re not at fault for an accident, the short answer is, insurance companies don’t have your best interests in mind. And you should always talk to an attorney.
Tom:
Okay. [foreign language 00:06:07]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:06:40]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:07:18]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:07:41]
Tom:
Right. So would the insurance company refer me to a doctor if I need treatment for my injuries?
Taylor:
Absolutely not. The insurance company’s goal is to pay out the least amount of money possible. So, they really don’t care how injured you are or what treatment you need. They just want you to sign a piece of paper, paying you a little bit of money and then moving on. At Mike Agruss Law though, we work with a network of doctors from physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons, pain specialists, that will give you the treatment that you need to make a recovery regardless of whether you have health insurance, which is such a huge benefit because so many patients and clients are afraid to get the treatment that they need, because they don’t have health insurance. But we work with doctors who will treat clients regardless of whether they have health insurance.
Tom:
[foreign language 00:09:17]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:10:07]
Tom:
So do I have to use my insurance to pay for my loss if I’m not at fault? For accidents.
Mike:
So in Illinois… So, to answer your question, it’s nice to have an extra layer of protection. So even if you’re not at fault for your accident, you can always go after the at fault driver’s insurance company for your medical bills, payments, suffering, lost wages and all of that. In Illinois, most people have medical payment coverage on their own auto insurance policy. Typically, people have $5,000 worth of coverage. So what’s nice is it’s an extra layer of protection. So for example, if you have outstanding co pays or deductibles from your own health insurance company, or if you’re getting treatment and have bills prior to settling with the other side, it’s nice to have someone else, your own insurance company to rely on for medical payment coverage.
Illinois also has what’s called uninsured motorist coverage, meaning if you hit me, and you’re at fault, and you don’t have insurance, I use my own insurance to submit the claim. So that’s if the at fault driver does not have insurance. A lot of times people drive around with not enough coverage. So let’s say, you hit me you’re at fault, and you only have $25,000 in coverage. That’s the minimum policy in Illinois. If my damages are $100,000, and I have what’s called under insured motorist coverage, I’m allowed to take your 25 from your insurance company and then go after my own insurance company. So what we do at our firm is we always notify both parties’ insurance companies.
So when we’re retained, we send out a letter to the at fault driver’s insurance company and then we send out a letter to our clients own insurance company and we always tell people, “Not like you’re going to use your own insurance, necessarily, but it’s good to put them on notice in case you need to use them in the future.” And it’s important for people to realize too, that this is why you pay for insurance, right? So if you have coverage for medical bills, uninsured motorist, underinsured motorist coverage, you would use it, if necessary. So that’s why we notify everyone in the beginning, just to protect our clients.
Tom:
Okay. [foreign language 00:13:33]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:13:52]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:13:53]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:14:36]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:14:56] [crosstalk 00:15:14]
Mike:
And [inaudible 00:15:30], this is, If I can jump in, this is probably one of the most important things we’ll talk about during the show where we’re talking about medical payment coverage, uninsured motorist coverage and underinsured motorist coverage. Everyone watching should call their insurance company, I tell this to everyone in my office, I tell this to family, friends. It’s the most important thing you can do if you’re out driving. Call your own insurance company, maximize your uninsured motorist coverage and your under insured motorist coverage. The difference in having $25,000 in coverage or $100,000 in coverage is probably less than $50 a year. So on my insurance policy, for example, I have a million dollars uninsured and a million dollars under insured.
Not a lot of policies will have that high of coverage but if you call State Farm, Allstate Progressive Farmers they should have coverage up to 2, 3, $500,000 and the difference in monthly premiums is nominal. And it’s just a game changer if you’re in an accident. So I can’t stress it enough that everyone should call… And it takes five minutes, just call your insurance company and say, “Hey, what are the maximum policies I can have and how much will it cost me?” Right?
Tom:
And they will be happy to walk you through it?
Mike:
I don’t know if the insurance company will be happy, but you got to protect yourself Absolutely. If you’re out on the road you’ve got to protect yourself because you have to assume that most other people driving don’t have…
Taylor:
Good insurance.
Mike:
Yeah, good insurance or maximum policy, so it’s so important.
Tom:
[foreign language 00:17:10]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:17:12]
Tom:
So, let’s go a little bit into when you have an accident, when that occurs, what should I do?
Taylor:
Well, the first thing you want to do is stay calm, and then call the police. You want there to be a record of the incident. If you are hurt, you should take an ambulance from the scene of the accident and get treatment. You need to be careful of your conversations at the scene of the accident. You don’t want to talk to the other driver and anyone else involved and discuss what happened, but you do want to get their information. So get drivers information. If there’s witnesses, approach them, get their name, get their phone number. You never know how helpful these people can be down the line.
And you also want to make sure that you speak with the officer, give your side of your story to the officer and tell the officer whether you’re injured as well. That’s also information included on police reports, I don’t think people know is, it often says whether a party was injured and if they are transported to a hospital. It’s important that the transportation is taken from the scene of the accident or immediately thereafter, just so there’s continuity in treatment from the scene of the accident going forward, rather than a couple days or a delay that can really hurt your case.
Tom:
[foreign language 00:20:10]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:20:16]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:21:59]
Taylor:
There’s one more thing I want to add to that, that I forgot. If you are physically able to and it’s safe to do so, you should also take photos. Take photos of the car, the road, maybe there’s tire tracks, maybe a sign was knocked over in the accident. If you take photos on your phone, that’s also very helpful.
Tom:
Okay. [foreign language 00:23:02]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:23:26]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:24:17]
Speaker 5:
[foreign language 00:24:42]
Speaker 6:
[foreign language 00:25:31]
Speaker 7:
[foreign language 00:25:39]
Speaker 6:
[foreign language 00:26:00]
Speaker 7:
[foreign language 00:26:22]
Speaker 6:
[foreign language 00:26:35]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:27:49]
Right. So who can help me at the time of the accident if I don’t speak English?
Mike:
Yes. So that’s a good question. So police are the first line of investigators who show up at the scene of the accident. And if you don’t speak English, there’s a couple of things you can do. Because, you’re going to want to tell your story to the police. If you’re not too injured, you could call a family member or friend, put it on speakerphone and have them translate. If you’re looking for someone who speaks Vietnamese, you can call [inaudible 00:28:48]. And you can give his number out too, he could certainly help out.
If you’re in a situation where having someone help translate for you is not an option, just let the police know as best as possible that you would like a translator, you don’t speak English, and that you want to tell your story later on. I’ve seen so many police reports where I know that they didn’t talk to one of the drivers because there was a language barrier. And unfortunately the police are out there doing their job and conducting an investigation and an accident. And like everyone else, they’ve got to move on to the next thing and they’re just trying to quickly get the police report done.
So it’s really important to make sure your story is told to the cops, the police officers and if you can’t get someone to translate on the spot with you to let the police officers know that you would like to get a translator later on. It could simply be a phone call to the station with a family member or friend. You could hire a translator, there’s a number of options. But, as of recent, even in the last couple of weeks have seen Illinois traffic crash reports where I know one of the drivers isn’t speaking English and the police officer is writing down what that driver’s version of events were for the accident. And it’s difficult for me to think that that person was at fault.
So anyway, it’s really important. So get someone to help translate, call a friend, family member call [inaudible 00:30:20], whatever it may be an order to get your story across to the police, because what’s in the police report is really important because that’s the first part of the investigation.
Tom:
Absolutely. [foreign language 00:30:33]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:30:46]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:30:51]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:31:25]
Tom:
Right. So how do I get help if I’m injured in a car accident?
Taylor:
Hire us. Hire [inaudible 00:33:16] law firm and we’ll help you make sure that you get the treatment you need. I can’t stress this enough, if you have health insurance, or if you have doctors that you’d like to work with, by all means, go and treat with those doctors. But it’s important that you get all the treatment that you need. You’re listening to your doctors, if they’re saying you need physical therapy three times a week for four weeks, get there three times a week, do the home exercises and make sure that you’re completing all the treatment that they’re asking you to do.
Tom:
Yeah. [foreign language 00:34:52]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:34:52]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:35:14]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:36:06]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:37:16] Right. So who will pay for my medical bills if the other party doesn’t have enough insurance coverage?
Mike:
So that’s a good question. And a lot of people who are involved in car accidents, that’s their biggest concern is who’s going to pay for the medical bills. So there’s a couple layers of protection people have. So we would go after the at fault driver, go after whatever their insurance policy is to help pay for medical bills, which would be part of damages in addition to lost wages, pain and suffering and things like that.
Once the at fault driver’s policy is exhausted, we then look at our own clients policy. And we were talking about that earlier when we were talking about uninsured, when the other driver doesn’t have insurance are under insured, when the other driver does not have enough. So you go after the at fault driver first. You look at your own client’s insurance policy next. Most people, although it’s not required, have medical payment coverage on their own insurance. And then we also help coordinate getting bills submitted to our client’s health insurance, to make sure that there aren’t any outstanding bills. And then another thing that we also do for our clients, which I think is a huge benefit, is we help them get to the appropriate doctors within their community.
And, if necessary, we’ll have those doctors provide treatment and what’s called… and they’ll lien the file, and what that means is they will give us the bill. And when it comes time to settlement, we will use the settlement funds to pay the doctor’s bills, just so the clients aren’t getting hit with bills and collection letters and things like that. It is complicated but we know the system, we know the process, we know all of the different layers of coverage for medical insurance, health insurance, at fault drivers insurance, UN coverage, UIN coverage. I mean, this is what Taylor and I do all day long. So the short answer is, don’t worry. We’re here to you know help take care of our clients and to make sure that they’re not left with any outstanding medical bills. And we’ve got really good relationships with the doctors who we work within our network in our community. And, if push comes to shove and they need to reduce a medical bill, they totally will.
Tom:
Yeah. [foreign language 00:39:35]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:40:49]
Tom:
How long my case will last before I get my settlement?
Taylor:
This is a question every one of our clients asked us and-
Mike:
All the time.
Taylor:
I wish there was a more straight answer. But it really depends. It’s case by case. It depends on liability. So who’s at fault for the accident? Are you maybe partially at fault? What are the injuries? What treatment do you need? Are you going to need surgery? Are we going to have to file the case? We move extremely fast from getting you the treatment you need to getting the case resolved. I’ve settled a $100,000 case in two months. I recently just settled a million dollar trucking case within six months of the accident. So when it works, it can be extremely fast. Again, it depends on the treatment, the injuries, the insurance policy, but there are times that it takes longer. It’s case by case, but regardless of what the scenario is, we’ll move as quickly as possible to get your case settled.
Tom:
[foreign language 00:43:06]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:44:08]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:45:23]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:45:56]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:46:56]. So what basically Cindy just mentioned is that basically told our viewers who have been in accidents, calling the lawyer firms, be patient basically, be patient is the way to go. And you guys have the interest in mind. So that’s definitely that… Yeah.
Mike:
Yeah. And I agree, you’ve got to be patient. We have a system in place at our office where we move as fast as humanly possible. Everyone in my office jokes with me, because that’s something that’s so important to me, is to make sure that we get not only fair results for our clients, but get them as quickly as possible. Because, look, you’re in a car accident, you’ve got property damage, injuries, medical bills, lost wages, there’s a lot going on. And we understand that the faster we can get someone money, the better they’re going to be. And so these two cases that Taylor talked about, settling an auto case for the full policy of 100 grand in two months, or settling a trucking case for the full policy of a million dollars in six months, those results are unheard of.
You hear that… There’s a joke, if you give a lawyer 30 days to do something, they’ll take 60 to do it. We’re the opposite. We move super fast. We have cutting edge law firm software to make sure that we’re super organized. So yeah, be patient. There is a process. We obviously don’t want to settle early, and we want to get a fair result. But I can assure you that we do things quicker than most other firms out there. And our results, I mean, it speaks for ourselves. Settling these cases that quickly, it’s unheard of.
Tom:
Absolutely. [foreign language 00:48:46]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:49:06]
Tom:
So the last question for you guys, and I’ve seen that many audience during the show is very interested in is, why do they choose Mike Agruss Law? And what can you do to help them better than anyone else?
Mike:
Yeah. So that’s a really good question. I tell people all the time, there are 1.3 million attorneys in the United States, the competition is fierce. And what sets us apart from most other law firms is we take this people first approach of the idea of we see you as a person, not just a client. So the moment someone contacts our office, we immediately start working on their behalf. Most personal injury clients that come to us, I am their first point of contact, or I talk with them the same day. And our goal is to not only help people get money as quickly as possible, but also help them recover.
Like I was just mentioning before, when you’re in a car accident, there’s a lot of moving parts, you’re dealing with lost wages, medical bills, pain and suffering, medical bills that may not be paid by health insurance, and there’s just a lot of moving parts. And we make sure that, not only are we doing work to get you a settlement that you deserve, but we’re also doing work to make sure that we’re settling your property damage claim. We’re also making sure that your medical bills are getting taken care of so you don’t get harassed by debt collectors and so it doesn’t go on your credit report. Another thing that sets us apart, I think, from a lot of other personal injury law firms, is our contingency fee.
And this is something that is really important for people to pay attention to, that our fee is 1/3. And we never change that fee throughout the process. There are plenty of other law firms in the country who do personal injury where it is 1/3 if it’s pre suit, if they file suit, it’s 40%. And if you go to trial, it’s 50%. Our fee never changes. And that just goes to support this people first, we see was a person, not just a client philosophy.
Another thing that I think is really important, and distinguishes us from most other law firms out there, is if you go online and Google Mike Agruss Law, you’ll see that we have on our website, we have over 1500 5 star reviews. I can tell you that I pay attention to that every single day. I pay attention to our client’s needs, I respond to them. And that’s something that you will see… I tell people, they’d be hard pressed to find another firm that has those types of reviews.
So you don’t have to believe a word that I say. You can go online and see what all of our clients say. And honestly, we have one of the most five star reviews when it comes to law firms. And it’s something that is super difficult to achieve. It’s super difficult to maintain. And it really just supports everything that we’re about. And one other thing that I also want to mention, that I think a lot of people might be confused about, and even driving here to today’s show, I saw a ton of billboards, there’s tons of lawyers advertising, there’s billboards, there’s TV commercials. A lot of people don’t realize that those law firms are just referral sources, right? So you call that attorney on the billboard, he’s not handling your case. You call that lawyer on the TV commercial, they’re signing you up and they’re referring you to this firm, they’re referring you to that one.
When people hire us, they’ve got us start to finish. So we’re not referring you out, we’re not taking a percentage and sending you to this firm. It’s us start to finish, which I think is so important. And I think a lot of people don’t realize that there are plenty of referral firms out there. They pay a ton of money in advertising and marketing, and they don’t even handle your case.
And then one last thing I want to add, we just rolled this out a couple of months ago. The program is called Lidify. It’s law firm software, it manages everything start to finish. It’s cloud based, and it’s the most sophisticated law firm software out there. And the reason this is so important is, while we’re handling your case, you can call any single person at my office, whether it’s me, Taylor, Jackie, no matter who answers the phone, they can look up your case, they can tell you what’s going on, they can tell you where you’re at in the process, they can tell you when your next doctor’s appointment is, if we ordered records and bills, if we’ve sent out a demand.
So we have a totally transparent, seamless system that allows our clients to be super informed. And I think if you were to ask a lot of people who’ve worked with lawyers, their biggest complaint is, “I never hear back from them. I don’t know what’s going on with my case.” You call us all the time, anyone can answer and they’ll tell you exactly what’s going on.
Taylor:
And I think that’s something that’ll stand out in those Google reviews. We are incredibly responsive. Everyone in the office can give you a case status, we get back to you normally the same day. Very rarely does an email go unanswered, even one day, And we pride ourselves on it, being responsive, taking care of our clients.
Mike:
And once again, we know that literally, there’s 1.3 million lawyers out there. So if we’re not doing the best and being better than everyone else, they’re just going to go to the next person. And so, I am I knee deep in every single thing that goes on, every single day, seven days a week, because you have to be. And, once again, you don’t have to believe any of this you can just look at our reviews and it really makes us stand out from everyone else.
Tom:
[foreign language 00:55:24]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:56:18]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:57:26]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:57:35]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:58:16]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:58:28]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:58:32] [crosstalk 00:58:42]
Cindy:
[foreign language 00:58:48] [crosstalk 00:59:06]
Tom:
[foreign language 00:59:51]
Mike:
And, Tom, let me add one more thing if that’s okay. I know we’re coming to the end of the show here. But there was one thing that I forgot as well. When you’re dealing with these 1.3 million lawyers and, like an example I gave to you, that sometimes the big advertisers, billboards, TV people, they’re just referring you out, they’re not handling your case. Taylor and I were talking about how quickly we settle cases. I want people to know as well, that we also file suit and we go to trial, which is also something that not all lawyers do. And I think a lot of people are confused about that as well, where they think, “Oh, I’m going to call this person on a billboard, they’ll handle my case start to finish. And they’ll also take my case to trial.”
It’s not always the case. A lot of firms are sort of high volume. They handle the easy cases, if it settles, pre suit, fine. And if they don’t, you then get passed to the next law firm. So when I say we handle cases start to finish, we try to get money as quickly as possible in a fair settlement. But if it doesn’t happen, we will file a lawsuit. We are very aggressive litigators. Taylor may seem nice with her nice smile here. We’re all super friendly. But when we need to fight, we’re fierce. We will take cases to trial. And what’s so important about this is insurance companies know that. State Farm, Allstate, Geico, all these insurance companies know if we don’t offer their client a fair settlement, they’re going to go take this case and violet and litigate it. They’ll take it to trial, and that’s going to cost a ton of money.
So insurance companies evaluate cases. They want to know what plaintiffs firm is involved. And it’s important for people to know that we will take your case to trial, we will be very aggressive when we litigate. We’re nice but we’re aggressive and we will fight tooth and nail to get a fair result for our client. And insurance companies know that and it’s important for your viewers to know that we will be there every step of the way. And if we have to file suit and go to trial, we will 100% do that and not all lawyers will.
Tom:
Right. [foreign language 01:01:49]
Cindy:
[foreign language 01:02:08]
Tom:
[foreign language 01:02:09]
Cindy:
[foreign language 01:02:43]
Tom:
[foreign language 01:03:45]
Thanks, Michael and Taylor for joining us today.
Mike:
Thanks for having us on. Yeah, it was great.
Cindy:
Thank you very much.
Mike:
Thank you.
