When we evaluate a case, the first thing we look at is the injuries of our clients. Attorneys are not trained in law school to understand medicals. Law school is all about the law and legal procedures. The issue with this is that, as an attorney, if you do not understand injury medical you cannot get the client where they need to be medically and to a final resolution of their claim.
So how do we examine a case medically? As our clients know from the very first interview with our investigator and staff, a medical condition survey is completed. Our saying at the McGuire law firm is that “We start at the top of your head and work to your feet. If you think you hair is hurting tell us about it.” Why do we do this and not just look at the medical doctors reports? We do this because people don’t like to talk about their aches and pains, especially men. Also, many women will tell us, “Oh, I think my back is hurting by picking up the kids, the groceries, the laundry, cleaning the floors . . .” or a host of other things women do while taking care of their families and jobs. We have to sort through aches and pains, and we do it very well.
You will notice that I did not say we file lawsuits or do other procedural matters first. The first priority is to find out what really is wrong medically with the client. We have done this for so long that we can pick up on buzz words that lead to evaluating a possible cervical injury, TMJ, rotator cuff tear, herniated disc, carpal tunnel syndrome, Raynaud’s syndrome (look that one up), knee injuries and a host of other conditions.
Next, we prepare an initial treatment plan including test such as cat scans, magnetic resonance imaging, EEG’s, EMG’s and others. We will then review those medicals to determine if results can be associated with the accident. Numerous times that “picking up the kids or laundry” was from the accident and not your daily life.
This type of dedicated work is what it takes to convert injuries to damages. After all the medical conditions are analyzed, you are going to either get better, stay the same or get worse, and we will have an initial indication as to the value of your claim. How do we know this? Because we have done this for years and we know what injuries get the jury’s attention. If we do our work correctly and everything is looking in the clients favor, then many times we have the number for settlement.
Is this complicated and does it take specific expertise? Absolutely! And I can tell you that most law firms do not know how to correctly build a personal injury case. It makes no matter how small or large your case appears to be. When we accept a case, we apply the same work to ALL cases, large or small. At the end of the day, our job is to make a large case out of what other attorneys would consider a small case.