Sandhu:
Welcome two attorney, Mr. Mike Bertucci and Mike Agruss, please say hello to your client and your new audience.
Michael Agruss:
Sure. Thanks for having us on. I’m Mike Agruss, I’m the managing partner of Mike Agruss Law.
Michael Bertucci:
And I’m Mike Bertucci, I’m one of the attorneys at Mike Agruss Law. Thank you for having us.
Sandhu:
Yes. Again, we have to thank you so much of all you’ve done in the past, last couple of weeks, and we have so many question. We learned a lot of new thing from your expertise.
Again, one more time, welcome to our program. First of all, I have the question about, what type of cases does Mike Agruss Law handle?
Michael Agruss:
Sure. So we handle personal injury cases. And out of personal injury cases, that would include car accidents. And when we’re talking about car accidents, that’s an umbrella that would cover motorcycle accidents, bicycle accidents, ride chair accidents; people who are in Ubers or in Lyfts.
We also so handle dog bites, slip and falls, trip and falls, which is common in the winter with ice and snow. And then we do handle nursing home abuse cases, as well as medical malpractice cases.
Sandhu:
Yes. Thank you. [foreign language 00:01:14]. The next question is, why do I need a lawyer when I’m involved in a car accident?
Michael Bertucci:
That’s a good question. We handle everything for our clients. So we’ll handle the police report, we’ll handle the insurance companies.
We make sure you get medical treatment and refer you to places. So we really handle everything. So that’s why it’s important not to wait, to call us first, so that we can get started on handling all of that stuff.
And it’s also important that people know not to talk to the insurance company first and not to give a statement, because at some point they’ll try to use that against you.
Sandhu:
Thanks. [foreign language 00:04:02]. Thank you for your answer here. The next question is, will the at fault driver’s insurance take care of me if I’m not at fault for the accident?
Michael Agruss:
So you would think if someone hits you and they’re at fault, that their insurance will take care of you and they’re looking out for you. And this couldn’t be further from the truth.
Here’s what ends up happening. You get into a car accident, the at fault drivers’ insurance company will reach out to you and you’re going to be dealing with two different agents.
You’ll deal with someone with the property damage to your car, and then you’ll deal with someone else for the injury aspect.
The property damage usually goes smoothly. There’s so much information about what cars are worth these days. And so, you may be thinking that, “The insurance is looking out for you. They settled your property damage claim, and why not just settle with them for the personal injury claim?”
It couldn’t be further from the truth. So they’re not interested in your treatment, they’re not interested in you getting better, they’re not interested in paying you for your damages.
What they are interested in doing, is settling your case for as little as possible. Let me give you a quick example. So before we came on the show this morning, I was talking with Jackie, who’s a senior paralegal at our office.
Someone was involved in a car accident a week ago, they got some treatment. They contacted our office and they said, “The insurance company wants to send me $3,500 to settle the case.”
And this is what they do. They send out checks. So don’t do that. Contact a lawyer and we’ll help you out, because we know the extent of all your damages. The other side’s insurance company has zero interest in your case. They just have interest in their bottom line.
Sandhu:
Thank you. I learned something new today about the insurance. Because of most of the time, “Where are my checks, where’s my check?”
Michael Agruss:
Look, if you’re someone who’s been in an accident, your car’s maybe at the tow yard, you don’t have a car to go to work, you’ve got medical bills piling up.
And a lot of people just think, “I’m going to just take this money. This is great.” It couldn’t be further from the truth. The insurance company knows the case is worth more. But when you cash that check, they’re done. Case is over, you can’t come back for more money.
Sandhu:
All right. Thank you. [foreign language 00:08:49]. Yes. Thank you very much. Because this is a very important. A lot of people, when they get involved into the car accident, they panic. They don’t know what to do, they don’t know what to say. There’s no clue, what should they do?
So they just depend on the insurance, “Yes. I got insurance. Do you have insurance? Let’s trade.” And I’m waiting for the check. And that’s it.
Michael Agruss:
What the insurance companies are doing is, they’re taking advantage of people in a really vulnerable position. Because no matter what your position is, if you’re involved in an accident, chances are you’re going to be without your car.
Which means you’re not going to have transportation to work, you’re not going to have the ability to take your kids to and from school, and doing all of those things.
And then bills come in immediately; the ambulance, the emergency room, the doctors. So you’re getting all these bills.
People are in a vulnerable state, and literally, the insurance company comes in and they take advantage of people. We see it all the time.
And I think what they also do is, they, in particular, take advantage of minorities, or people who maybe are from this country who don’t really know our legal system.
So everyone talks about people are sue-happy in the United States, and then we sue people a lot. But there’s a system in place with car insurance.
And if you’re in an accident, you’re injured, you’re allowed to go after someone. And those are your rights. And that’s part of our system.
The insurance company comes in a vulnerable state. They quickly give you a check, just so they don’t have to deal with you.
You can tell this is something I’m passionate about, because I see it all the time with insurance companies. I’ve seen cases where the insurance company will email someone an electronic settlement agreement and ask for their bank information saying, “Just sign this and we’ll ACH you the settlement funds right now. Couple of grand, it’ll be in your account later today.”
And people are like, “Okay.” And they sign off on it. But what people don’t understand is, the moment you do that, your case is over.
You can’t come back for more and say, “But I’m still injured. Or, “What about my lost wages?” Or, “Wait, I might need surgery.”
Once again, the insurance companies, they sure advertise, like we’ve talked about, like, “They’re on your side. A good neighbor.” It is the furthest from the truth.
So anyway, call us, we can deal with all of that. And just like the insurance companies know, we have all of this data too.
So we know what cases are worth, we know what people are entitled to, and we make sure that people get fair compensation. Just like the insurance companies know.
Sandhu:
Thank you. I’m glad, sir, that you mentioned about it. Because I understand a lot of minority, number one, they’re so panicked.
They don’t understand the system, they don’t understand the law. And then moreover, when they get involved in an accident, sometimes they just completely don’t know what to do.
They don’t know who to go, and where to go, what direction? And they get ripped off or take advantage from, “Okay. The insurance will come in anyway.”
Michael Agruss:
And look, this is why we have insurance. This is the system in the United States, where if you get into an accident, you injure someone, you go after their insurance company. You’re not suing someone individually.
If I got an accident and I was at fault, I would tell the other person I injured, “Please, I have insurance. You can come after my insurance company.”
But not a lot of people know that. And the insurance companies know, they come in and they’re like, “Here’s some money. Take it.” Anyway.
Sandhu:
All right. Thanks. [foreign language 00:16:01]. Thanks, sir, so much for your answer. My next question is, will the insurance company refer me to a doctor if I need a treatment for a joint?
Michael Bertucci:
No. They won’t. And like Mike was talking about, they don’t really care about your treatment. And so, they won’t help you get treatment. In fact, they probably hope you don’t get treatment so that they don’t have to pay for it.
The insurance company wants to minimize their own exposure, which means they want minimize any of your damages and any of your injuries, so that they can pay you as little as possible.
So that’s why it’s important to call a lawyer, so that we can refer you to a doctor and help you get the treatment that you need.
Sandhu:
Yes. Thank you. [foreign language 00:19:13]. We’ll take a short break and we’ll be back. Thanks. [foreign language 00:20:53].
Welcome back to our board. I’m here. The next question is, do I have to use my insurances to pay for my loss if I’m not at fault for the accident?
Michael Agruss:
Sure. So generally speaking, what a consumer does when they’re involved in an accident and they’re injured, is, the other driver has insurance and you go after the at fault driver’s insurance.
That’s in a perfect world and that’s when things go smoothly. Oftentimes, things don’t go smoothly. So let’s say for example, the other driver does not have insurance.
You can go after your own insurance for what’s called uninsured motorist coverage; when the other driver does not have insurance.
Maybe there’s a situation where your injuries are greater than the policy that the other driver has. So then you can also use your own insurance for what’s called an under insured motorist claim; when there’s not enough insurance.
And then, most people have what’s called medical payment coverage on their own policy. And what’s nice about medical payment coverage is, it pays for medical expenses that may not have been covered by your health insurance, or maybe you’ve got a co-pay or deductible. So it’s called medical payment coverage.
So when you’re in an accident, in short, you’re always going after the at fault driver’s insurance. If they don’t have it or they don’t have enough, you can then go after your own.
And then, you can also use your own for medical payment coverage. Which is just another layer of protection for your medical bills.
And look, this is the reason why people have insurance, is to use it; to pay for medical bills, to pay for injuries, and damages, and lost wages, and all of that.
I was talking to a woman last night, she called up, her daughter was involved in a car accident. And as it turns out, the other driver didn’t have insurance.
And so, I was telling her that, fortunately, she has uninsured motorist coverage, and we can bring the entire claim against her own insurance company.
Typically, you go after the at fault drivers. Oftentimes in car accident cases, things aren’t typical and things don’t go smoothly. So that’s why it’s important to have your own insurance claim.
Sandhu:
Thank you. [foreign language 00:26:08]. Yes. Thank you for your answer. The question is, who can help me understand enough at an accident if you don’t speak English?
Michael Bertucci:
Yeah. So what you can do is call a friend or a family member while you’re still at the scene, so they can help translate to English for you. Or you can even call Qui Ngoc, in our office, who can help you out as well.
If the police are there, just let the police know that you speak Vietnamese or whatever other language, and you want someone to help translate, and they can let you make that phone call so somebody that can translate how the accident happened for you.
Sandhu:
Yes. Thank. [foreign language 00:29:15]. Yes. The next question is, how do I get help if I’m injured in a car accident?
Michael Agruss:
That’s a great question. And a lot of times people get in car accidents and after the emergency room or urgent care, they don’t know who to follow up with.
Or they’ve reached out to their doctor, and their doctor doesn’t have an appointment for a few weeks. So we have an incredible network of doctors who we work with; orthopedic physicians, pain management doctors, physical therapists.
And we will help our clients make sure that they get treatment quickly, and that they get the appropriate at treatment.
Additionally, if our clients have doctors that they like, and they’re already getting treatment, we’ll help make sure that they’re getting proper treatment and they’re seen quickly enough.
Because that’s what’s really important, is to get treatment right away after an accident, make sure you have consistent medical treatment.
Because, one, you want to get better. And then, two, you don’t want to give the insurance company on the other side, any leverage to use against you saying, “You weren’t really injured. You didn’t really get medical treatment.”
And if someone’s in a position where they don’t have health insurance, they don’t have a doctor. What’s good about our network of doctors is, they will treat people on a lien.
And what that means is, the doctors will provide our clients treatment. And rather than sending the clients the bills, they send our office the bills. And then when it comes time to settle the case, we pay the doctor bills.
So even if you don’t have health insurance, if you don’t know where to go, contact us, we can help you and refer you out to our network so you can get better.
Sandhu:
Yes. Okay. Thank you. That’s very good. That’s good help. That’s really perfect help here. [foreign language 00:32:25]. Thank you for your answer. That’s very important, about the health, and network, and a crystal to working with the health network.
Michael Agruss:
And it’s really an added service for our clients, because it is very difficult. Doctors are busy, it’s hard to get into appointments, it’s hard to see the right people, it’s hard to get to treatment.
And we have just a really good network of doctors who care about clients, care about them getting better, and who specialize in this; helping people out from car accident, injuries, work injuries.
And so, they really know what to do, how to get people in, how to treat them quickly? And take care of our clients. Which it’s great.
Sandhu:
[foreign language 00:35:21]. The next question is, who will pay for my medical bill and if/or the party doesn’t have enough insurance coverage?
Michael Bertucci:
That’s a really good question. It’s really important too. So there are several options for getting your bills paid. And it’s important not to be afraid to go get treatment, if you are injured in a car accident.
The first option, Mike already mentioned, was the uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. That’s through your own own insurance company.
And that kicks in if the driver who hit you doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough insurance. This will kick in to cover your bills.
But it is important to make sure you have it, because it’s not automatic in every policy. It’s important to make sure that you have a high limit on that too.
So if the other driver doesn’t have insurance or doesn’t have enough, yours is high enough to cover all those costs. The second option, Mike also mentioned, was called MedPay.
Again, that’s also through your own insurance company, and that will also cover your bills regardless of who’s at fault. And it’s also important to make sure that you have that as well, because that’s not always included in every policy. It might not be enough. So you want to make sure you have enough of that.
The third one is your health insurance. Hopefully, they cover a good amount of your bills. And then even if you don’t have health insurance, like Mike mentioned, there’s the liens, where the medical providers can put a lien on the case.
And instead of charging you right away, they’ll send the bill to us and we can pay it at the end of the case with the settlement.
Sandhu:
All right. Thank you. [foreign language 00:37:16]. Thank you. The next question is, how long will my case last before I get the settlement?
Michael Agruss:
This is a famous question our clients always ask, is, “When’s my case going to settle?” We never settle a case until it’s time to settle. And so, it depends on a number of factors.
One, the injuries, the treatment, whether or not there’s insurance on the other side. The moment you settle a case, you can never go back to the insurance company and say, “I want more.”
So we always wait for our clients to finish up with their treatment. We reach out to their doctors, make sure that they’re done with treatment that they’ve received.
If they’re at their maximum medical improvement and they don’t need any future treatment, and then we settle a case. We would never want to settle at while clients are continuing to get treatment.
And then, we would never settle a case if the other side is not putting something reasonable on it. What I can say is, we handle cases quickly. We’re super efficient.
We have law firm software that is the best in the country. It allows us to handle things quickly, efficiently. It’s a totally transparent system at our office. And I can give you some examples.
We settled an auto accident case for the full $100,000 policy, in a matter of two months. And we’ve also settled a million dollar trucking case in six months. This is super fast, when it comes to attorneys.
And so, we know how important it is to get our clients money; to get them money quickly. But we also want to make sure that what they’re getting is fair and reasonable, and we never want to sell our clients short.
If they’re continuing to get treatment, the case isn’t going to settle until they’re done. But I can tell you, when it comes time to settle, we move at lightning speed.
And one thing that we just rolled out recently a couple of weeks ago, which our clients seem to love, is, we can now pay our clients their settlement funds through ACH.
So our clients don’t have to wait for a paper check in the mail. Everyone knows how terrible the post office is these days. So when we’re ready to pay a client, they give us their ACH information, they send it, they get their money the same day.
Sandhu:
All right. Thank you. That’s super right. People are always asking about the money.
Michael Agruss:
“Where’s my money?” And the good news is, is the moment the money comes in, once the check clears, we have to let it sit in our trust account for a certain amount of time.
But once it clears, we ACH our clients the funds, and they get it the same day. Which is great. I think people appreciate that. It makes it easy.
Sandhu:
Yes. Thank you. [foreign language 00:41:35]. Thank you for your answer. The next, I believe that’s the last question we have. What does it cost to hire Mike Agruss Law for my personal injuries cases?
Michael Bertucci:
Good question. It cost nothing. It’s free to hire us. So we only get paid if we get you a settlement.
Sandhu:
So good to me.
Michael Bertucci:
It’s great. We work on a one third contingency fee, and that fee never changes throughout the process. Which is great. Because some firms might charge 40%, or some even charge 50%, or they might charge more if a case gets filed, or they’ll charge more if a case goes to trial.
But we will always stay at one third, no matter what. So we work on your case for free, we fund all the costs, and we only get paid if our clients get paid. Which is great. So there’s zero risk in calling us and hiring us.
Sandhu:
All right. Thank you. No risk. [foreign language 00:44:34]. Thank you so much for your presence today. We have a lot of question, and we learned.
And hopefully, again, our community, our new audience, our clients, they understand and they have address on Mike Agruss Law.
And before we say goodbye, hopefully you’re okay. We have more questions that are coming up next week. Please say goodbye to your new audience.
Michael Agruss:
Sure. Thanks, Sandhu, and thanks for having us on. And we’ll be on next week to talk more about car accidents and personal injury. And Taylor will be back next week.
Sandhu:
Okay.
Michael Agruss:
Yeah.
Sandhu:
All right. Yes. That’s my favorite lawyer, I think, Taylor. Yes, Mike.
Michael Bertucci:
Thank you for having us. It was great being on again. And hopefully, I’ll be back again in the future.
Michael Agruss:
Michael, for sure he’ll be back on-
Sandhu:
Sure. Okay. One more time, thanks so much for your presence today. Before we say goodbye, one more time, we do appreciate your time and your viewers today. And hopefully, if you have any question, please email Mike Agruss Law call Qui Ngoc. [foreign language 00:48:45].
Michael Bertucci:
Good bye.
