Speaker 1 | 00:00
Welcome to Your Case, Your Justice, Personal Injury with Empathy with Lowell Steiger.
Speaker 2 | 00:06
Hello and welcome to Your Case, Your Justice, Personal Injury with Empathy with Lowell Steiger. Lowell is a dedicated Southern California attorney who has been fighting for injured clients since 1998. With a genuine passion for advocacy, he works tirelessly to secure justice and compensation for those in need. My name is Kevin Rosenquist, and today's episode is Tangled Up, navigating the complexities of multi -vehicle car wrecks. Lowell, good to see you.
Speaker 3 | 00:32
Good to see you, Kevin. All.
Speaker 2 | 00:34
Right, well, we're gonna talk about something a little more complex today, the multi -car wreck. So what all makes the multi -vehicle car wreck in Southern California more complex to handle compared to single car accidents?
Speaker 3 | 00:46
First of all, when you have a multi -car wreck, how do you know who's at fault? You know, where did it start, where does it end? Because a lot of times they're chain reaction accidents or multiple, you know, they're a bunch of people at an intersection.
So first thing is just trying to figure out who's at fault. That is a major one. In California, we have something called comparative fault, meaning that if there are a whole bunch of people involved in an accident, each person may have a certain percentage of liability as opposed to one person having that liability. And so that has to be apportioned, and it becomes pretty complicated. That's another thing. Another thing with multi -car accidents or multi -vehicle accidents is the insurance. In those cases, insurance companies, they try to shift the blame away from their insured onto everybody else in the accident.
So those are a couple of things. And then it becomes very complex at some point.
Speaker 2 | 01:41
How does, you know, the fault get determined? What are the challenges that come with identifying liability in these situations? You've.
Speaker 3 | 01:48
Got so many people involved, right, in a multi -car collision. So you have a lot of different versions of the event.
So that's one thing. So you have, they almost always will end up in litigation, you know, a lawsuit.
So depositions will be taken. Then the other thing is maybe somebody had a black box on their car. Hopefully many do.
You know, those can be downloaded and analyzed. There may be dash cams. There may be, depending on where the accident happened, it's a major intersection, there's probably businesses with cameras where you can get that. There you can have pedestrians who maybe saw what happened.
So there are a lot of different ways to determine liability. And then of course, no, not of course, but then there are accident reconstructionists that will take every car involved in the accident and all the details of where the cars were hit in relationship to all the other cars and where it was on the street. And they'll figure out, hopefully, who was at fault by reconstructing the accident.
Speaker 2 | 02:40
We've talked on other episodes about uninsured, underinsured coverage. And you've talked about how everybody needs to make sure they have that coverage. Can you talk about why it's crucial for multi -car accidents?
Speaker 3 | 02:54
In multi -car accidents, let's just say it's a chain reaction. There's three cars, right? And each car is far enough away from the car in front of them that they can't be at fault when the car in the back just hit the first car so hard that shoved everybody into the cars in front, right? Now let's say that very first car had no insurance.
Well, all of the people that were injured by him or her, if they have uninsured motorist coverage, then their own insurance will kick in and cover, and it'll step in. That policy will step in as though it was the policy of the guy that hit them.
So that's one of the reasons. And if he doesn't have enough insurance, then uninsured motorist coverage can become what's called underinsured motorist coverage and fill in the balance of your damages.
Speaker 2 | 03:43
Yeah, because even if that first guy's got decent insurance, if there's four cars involved, and it's gotta be split between the four cars, right? It's not a matter of that whatever coverage he has doesn't go to each car separately. It's basically a big pot that gets split up, right?
Speaker 3 | 04:01
Right, that's right. And I know you were asking about uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, but one of the other things you always wanna do in any accident, but especially in a multi -vehicle accident, is try and determine whether the person or people that were at fault may have been in the course and scope of their employment at the time.
Like if they were driving for Uber even, or if they were driving just for their own boss, that company's insurance will kick in, and it's usually a commercial policy that will have much larger limits. The first thing we always do is check to see what kind of insurance do people have.
Speaker 2 | 04:38
Right. And so what do you focus on? What are the key factors?
Someone comes to you with a multi -car case. What are you looking for, and how does your process kind of unfold compared to if it's just a single car accident?
Speaker 3 | 04:51
I mean, the main thing is trying, again, like you were asking earlier, trying to determine who's at fault, who are the players in this accident. And you just start making claims against everybody. Everybody, obviously, except your own claim. But you make the claim against the insurance companies for all the other drivers, and then start letting the dust settle and trying to figure out who's at fault, or what percentage each person might have. We've.
Speaker 2 | 05:20
Talked in previous episodes about how you always recommend people get an attorney, no matter what. And even if it's not you, you're not trying to be selfish, but you're encouraging people to get an attorney if they've been in an accident. Does it become even more important in multi -car accidents?
Speaker 3 | 05:36
Yeah my gosh, absolutely. Because the insurance companies, everybody's gonna point fingers at everybody else, right? You need to have lawyers to handle that. Because the insurance, if you don't have a lawyer, the insurance company's gonna sit to get rid of that part of the claim. Again, it'll be a lowball offer, and they'll tell you, look, there's just so much going on here, there's no way you're ever gonna get, it's gonna be years before this settles here. Take our check now, that kind of thing. You're really, it is not a level playing field at that point.
I mean, it never is, but then for sure it's not level, whether it's a multi -car accident or a multi -vehicle.
Speaker 2 | 06:12
You've been doing this a long time. Will any insurance company insure you? Will they insure me?
Yeah, are they all scared of you?
Speaker 3 | 06:19
Yeah, no, they're not scared of me. Not that kind of scared. If they didn't insure me, they'd have to be scared. That's true.
Speaker 2 | 06:26
That's true, there you go. There you go, then you're coming after them.
So how do they approach these multi -vehicle car wreck claims? So as far as the settlement process goes, you talked about how they're gonna point fingers and gonna try to obviously limit the amount they're paying out as they always do. How do they approach settlements when it comes to multi -car wrecks?
Speaker 3 | 06:45
They approach it pretty much the same way they approach any settlement. They evaluate the injuries, they evaluate the, and they evaluate the liability or their insured's portion of liability as they see it, and then they make offers. And typically what will happen in a multi -vehicle accident, if you can't get it settled without litigation, without filing a lawsuit, it'll go into litigation and depositions will be taken where all the lawyers will have the opportunity at one person's deposition to ask their questions of that person, whatever that person's role is in the case.
And then once the positions are taken, we'll end up going to a mediation where a neutral third party, usually a retired judge or a retired attorney with a lot of experience in lawsuits, personal injury lawsuits, will try and get the matter settled for you. And when there are a lot of people involved, that's usually the best way to do it, otherwise it just gets so messy. When you Right, yeah, you sue the people and then their insurance company indemnifies them.
Speaker 2 | 07:42
Say file a lawsuit, who are you suing? Because you can't sue the insurance company, right?
Speaker 3 | 07:52
They're the one, they defend them and they pay out depending on the policy limits that are available. So yeah, no, you're never suing the insurance company except your own insurance company if they mess you around on an uninsured or an underinsured settlement where they actually lowball their own insured or just refuse to pay it. Then you can sue your own insurance company for what's called bad faith in California, here in California. It's called first party bad faith.
Speaker 2 | 08:21
And when you do, so when you sue the at -fault driver or drivers, can you ever get more than what their policy is worth? Maybe.
Speaker 3 | 08:28
If their insurance company has the opportunity to settle the case, let's say the case, say your injuries between your actual injuries and your pain and suffering and all loss of earnings and everything else is worth, has a value of say $250 ,000. And let's say that the at -fault driver, their insurance has, they have $100 ,000 and they refuse to pay you more than $50 ,000. And you file a lawsuit, you go to trial, you get a $500 ,000 or you know, $500 ,000 jury verdict.
Well, that basically will open the, it should open the policy where the insurance company is going to have to cover the difference between what the policy limit was and now what they're insured was, got a judgment against their insured, the amount that they got the judgment for. Because otherwise they're gonna get sued for bad faith by their insured.
Speaker 2 | 09:21
Call that. So yeah, it's a bit of a roll of the dice from the insurance company then. It depends on how confident they feel. If they don't wanna go to trial, you better not try to low ball.
Speaker 3 | 09:29
That's not a good idea. Bad faith can be really bad for the insurance companies. Recently, USAA, which is actually a really good insurance company from my perspective, they usually offer very fair settlements. They got sued for bad faith for, I guess, not taking their own insured seriously when they claimed a brain injury. They were offering them, I don't remember the numbers exactly, but less than their policy limit. And they got hit for $100 million bad faith. Holy cow.
So bad faith is a very serious tool, very serious weapon. Insurance companies don't like to hear those words. I'll bet.
Speaker 2 | 10:05
Is it hard for you negotiating with insurance companies when there's multiple parties involved to ensure that your client is getting the best compensation that they deserve? It's.
Speaker 3 | 10:16
Hard because you don't know what they're offering if they have a limited policy. So say they have a call of 50 ,000 Slack $100 ,000 policy. 50 ,000 means 50 ,000 maximum per person, 100 ,000 maximum per policy. Okay?
So say there were four people that were injured, I mean, per 100 ,000 per accident, four people that were injured, well, four people can't get $50 ,000 each. So now they're gonna probably divide $100 ,000 up between four different people, right?
So it makes it a little difficult when you're negotiating because if your client's injury is worth $50 ,000, you don't wanna take less than 50 for them, right? You wanna get the 50. But there are other people involved. And if you don't know how much everybody's getting, it's hard to negotiate, which is why it's good to go to a mediator in those situations.
Speaker 2 | 11:03
Okay. Do those cases a lot of times go to mediators?
Speaker 3 | 11:06
Yeah. Maybe not when there's a policy that's at low 5 ,100, but if the policies are larger, yeah. Mediation is a very powerful way to get cases resolved. And on so many levels, it's not just the money. It's a situation where the injured people can be heard and acknowledged for what they've gone through. And that goes a long way to helping to get cases resolved.
Speaker 2 | 11:32
Do you have any stories for us? You usually have stories of a successful multi -car accident where you were able to help your client out through difficult times.
Speaker 3 | 11:41
Yeah, I have one right now, which we're just finishing up. And that is where there were three cars involved other than my client. My client had stepped out of her car safely, and all of a sudden there was an accident where three cars whacked into her car, and her, I mean, just her car, but her physically as well.
So we went after all three insurance policies and hit their policy limits on each, which were pretty large. Two were large and one was small. It really helped my client get through a lot of hard times.
So that is just finishing, wrapping up. But the reason I'm saying it's just finishing and helped her get through hard times was because one of the policies, policy limits we got right away, I was able to advance her some money on her case so that she could survive, you know, and move forward with her life. It was terrible.
Yeah, she had multiple surgeries. It was a pretty bad, awful.
Speaker 2 | 12:36
Bad thing. Yeah, I would imagine.
I mean, if you're outside of your car and yeah. So.
Speaker 3 | 12:41
That is. She's a really lovely person. And it's really, for me, it feels good to be able to do something for somebody that is, that really deserves it.
Well.
Speaker 2 | 12:49
You talk a lot about empathy and that's one of your motivating factors of just to help people and get them through things. Is it hard on you to sometimes to see some of the, you know, it sounds like you maybe get somewhat emotionally involved because it's hard not to if you have, if you're an empathetic type person.
Speaker 3 | 13:05
It is, but you have to keep it, you know, you still have to keep a slight, I don't know if wall is the right word, but there has to be some separation between how I'm feeling about it because otherwise I won't be able to do a good job if I let my emotions run wild. So I have to be objective and really, you know, focus on what's going on. When I'm dealing with the insurance companies and then with my client, of course, I empathize with them when I talk to them because you can't help it.
I mean, when you see somebody in pain, it's hard not to feel horrible for them. Makes you want to help them.
Speaker 2 | 13:36
More. Absolutely, yeah, for sure. If someone's involved in a wreck, or specifically a multi -car wreck for the purposes of this episode, what do they do first?
Speaker 3 | 13:46
Like I always say, get medical attention immediately. Even if you're not sure, even if you don't feel anything, go get checked out and make sure that you document, you know, what happened.
So documents what happened, you know, it's all in the medical records, emergency room, urgent care, your own doctor, whatever it is. Next thing is make a claim with your own insurance company, let them know you were in an accident. Don't give them too much information. Don't talk about liability. Just say, I was in an accident, here's where it happened, and I'm getting a lawyer.
So they won't ask you details. And get a lawyer. At the scene of the accident, like, I don't know if we talked about it in this episode, if we didn't, scene of the accident, again, try and get, if you can, if you're well enough, get witness statements, you know, use your phone and just say, hey, what did you see? Or what happened? What did, why did you do that to me? And I'm so, no, not really. But take photos, you know, make sure you get comprehensive photos. Don't erase your dash cam, you know, things like that.
Speaker 2 | 14:43
Yeah, the standard stuff. Just make sure you're okay, and then try to document the scene as best as you can.
Speaker 3 | 14:49
Right, make sure you're okay. Make sure everybody else is okay.
Yeah. And call the police. Always call the police, have them come. If nobody's injured, or if it seems like nobody's injured, sometimes they won't show up. But you should try and insist on getting the police there to write a report.
Speaker 2 | 15:03
Yeah, to get the report, to be part of your case. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah. All right, well, thank you for tuning into Your Case, Your Justice. Personal injury with empathy with Lowell Steiger. To connect with Lowell, head to steigerlaw .com. And please like and subscribe to our channel, and leave us a review. Lowell, it's always great seeing you. Thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 3 | 15:21
Great seeing you too, Kevin. Take it easy.
Speaker 1 | 15:24
Thanks for watching. Be sure to hit that like and subscribe button, and leave us a review in the comments.
Welcome to Your Case, Your Justice, Personal Injury with Empathy with Lowell Steiger.
Speaker 2 | 00:06
Hello and welcome to Your Case, Your Justice, Personal Injury with Empathy with Lowell Steiger. Lowell is a dedicated Southern California attorney who has been fighting for injured clients since 1998. With a genuine passion for advocacy, he works tirelessly to secure justice and compensation for those in need. My name is Kevin Rosenquist, and today's episode is Tangled Up, navigating the complexities of multi -vehicle car wrecks. Lowell, good to see you.
Speaker 3 | 00:32
Good to see you, Kevin. All.
Speaker 2 | 00:34
Right, well, we're gonna talk about something a little more complex today, the multi -car wreck. So what all makes the multi -vehicle car wreck in Southern California more complex to handle compared to single car accidents?
Speaker 3 | 00:46
First of all, when you have a multi -car wreck, how do you know who's at fault? You know, where did it start, where does it end? Because a lot of times they're chain reaction accidents or multiple, you know, they're a bunch of people at an intersection.
So first thing is just trying to figure out who's at fault. That is a major one. In California, we have something called comparative fault, meaning that if there are a whole bunch of people involved in an accident, each person may have a certain percentage of liability as opposed to one person having that liability. And so that has to be apportioned, and it becomes pretty complicated. That's another thing. Another thing with multi -car accidents or multi -vehicle accidents is the insurance. In those cases, insurance companies, they try to shift the blame away from their insured onto everybody else in the accident.
So those are a couple of things. And then it becomes very complex at some point.
Speaker 2 | 01:41
How does, you know, the fault get determined? What are the challenges that come with identifying liability in these situations? You've.
Speaker 3 | 01:48
Got so many people involved, right, in a multi -car collision. So you have a lot of different versions of the event.
So that's one thing. So you have, they almost always will end up in litigation, you know, a lawsuit.
So depositions will be taken. Then the other thing is maybe somebody had a black box on their car. Hopefully many do.
You know, those can be downloaded and analyzed. There may be dash cams. There may be, depending on where the accident happened, it's a major intersection, there's probably businesses with cameras where you can get that. There you can have pedestrians who maybe saw what happened.
So there are a lot of different ways to determine liability. And then of course, no, not of course, but then there are accident reconstructionists that will take every car involved in the accident and all the details of where the cars were hit in relationship to all the other cars and where it was on the street. And they'll figure out, hopefully, who was at fault by reconstructing the accident.
Speaker 2 | 02:40
We've talked on other episodes about uninsured, underinsured coverage. And you've talked about how everybody needs to make sure they have that coverage. Can you talk about why it's crucial for multi -car accidents?
Speaker 3 | 02:54
In multi -car accidents, let's just say it's a chain reaction. There's three cars, right? And each car is far enough away from the car in front of them that they can't be at fault when the car in the back just hit the first car so hard that shoved everybody into the cars in front, right? Now let's say that very first car had no insurance.
Well, all of the people that were injured by him or her, if they have uninsured motorist coverage, then their own insurance will kick in and cover, and it'll step in. That policy will step in as though it was the policy of the guy that hit them.
So that's one of the reasons. And if he doesn't have enough insurance, then uninsured motorist coverage can become what's called underinsured motorist coverage and fill in the balance of your damages.
Speaker 2 | 03:43
Yeah, because even if that first guy's got decent insurance, if there's four cars involved, and it's gotta be split between the four cars, right? It's not a matter of that whatever coverage he has doesn't go to each car separately. It's basically a big pot that gets split up, right?
Speaker 3 | 04:01
Right, that's right. And I know you were asking about uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage, but one of the other things you always wanna do in any accident, but especially in a multi -vehicle accident, is try and determine whether the person or people that were at fault may have been in the course and scope of their employment at the time.
Like if they were driving for Uber even, or if they were driving just for their own boss, that company's insurance will kick in, and it's usually a commercial policy that will have much larger limits. The first thing we always do is check to see what kind of insurance do people have.
Speaker 2 | 04:38
Right. And so what do you focus on? What are the key factors?
Someone comes to you with a multi -car case. What are you looking for, and how does your process kind of unfold compared to if it's just a single car accident?
Speaker 3 | 04:51
I mean, the main thing is trying, again, like you were asking earlier, trying to determine who's at fault, who are the players in this accident. And you just start making claims against everybody. Everybody, obviously, except your own claim. But you make the claim against the insurance companies for all the other drivers, and then start letting the dust settle and trying to figure out who's at fault, or what percentage each person might have. We've.
Speaker 2 | 05:20
Talked in previous episodes about how you always recommend people get an attorney, no matter what. And even if it's not you, you're not trying to be selfish, but you're encouraging people to get an attorney if they've been in an accident. Does it become even more important in multi -car accidents?
Speaker 3 | 05:36
Yeah my gosh, absolutely. Because the insurance companies, everybody's gonna point fingers at everybody else, right? You need to have lawyers to handle that. Because the insurance, if you don't have a lawyer, the insurance company's gonna sit to get rid of that part of the claim. Again, it'll be a lowball offer, and they'll tell you, look, there's just so much going on here, there's no way you're ever gonna get, it's gonna be years before this settles here. Take our check now, that kind of thing. You're really, it is not a level playing field at that point.
I mean, it never is, but then for sure it's not level, whether it's a multi -car accident or a multi -vehicle.
Speaker 2 | 06:12
You've been doing this a long time. Will any insurance company insure you? Will they insure me?
Yeah, are they all scared of you?
Speaker 3 | 06:19
Yeah, no, they're not scared of me. Not that kind of scared. If they didn't insure me, they'd have to be scared. That's true.
Speaker 2 | 06:26
That's true, there you go. There you go, then you're coming after them.
So how do they approach these multi -vehicle car wreck claims? So as far as the settlement process goes, you talked about how they're gonna point fingers and gonna try to obviously limit the amount they're paying out as they always do. How do they approach settlements when it comes to multi -car wrecks?
Speaker 3 | 06:45
They approach it pretty much the same way they approach any settlement. They evaluate the injuries, they evaluate the, and they evaluate the liability or their insured's portion of liability as they see it, and then they make offers. And typically what will happen in a multi -vehicle accident, if you can't get it settled without litigation, without filing a lawsuit, it'll go into litigation and depositions will be taken where all the lawyers will have the opportunity at one person's deposition to ask their questions of that person, whatever that person's role is in the case.
And then once the positions are taken, we'll end up going to a mediation where a neutral third party, usually a retired judge or a retired attorney with a lot of experience in lawsuits, personal injury lawsuits, will try and get the matter settled for you. And when there are a lot of people involved, that's usually the best way to do it, otherwise it just gets so messy. When you Right, yeah, you sue the people and then their insurance company indemnifies them.
Speaker 2 | 07:42
Say file a lawsuit, who are you suing? Because you can't sue the insurance company, right?
Speaker 3 | 07:52
They're the one, they defend them and they pay out depending on the policy limits that are available. So yeah, no, you're never suing the insurance company except your own insurance company if they mess you around on an uninsured or an underinsured settlement where they actually lowball their own insured or just refuse to pay it. Then you can sue your own insurance company for what's called bad faith in California, here in California. It's called first party bad faith.
Speaker 2 | 08:21
And when you do, so when you sue the at -fault driver or drivers, can you ever get more than what their policy is worth? Maybe.
Speaker 3 | 08:28
If their insurance company has the opportunity to settle the case, let's say the case, say your injuries between your actual injuries and your pain and suffering and all loss of earnings and everything else is worth, has a value of say $250 ,000. And let's say that the at -fault driver, their insurance has, they have $100 ,000 and they refuse to pay you more than $50 ,000. And you file a lawsuit, you go to trial, you get a $500 ,000 or you know, $500 ,000 jury verdict.
Well, that basically will open the, it should open the policy where the insurance company is going to have to cover the difference between what the policy limit was and now what they're insured was, got a judgment against their insured, the amount that they got the judgment for. Because otherwise they're gonna get sued for bad faith by their insured.
Speaker 2 | 09:21
Call that. So yeah, it's a bit of a roll of the dice from the insurance company then. It depends on how confident they feel. If they don't wanna go to trial, you better not try to low ball.
Speaker 3 | 09:29
That's not a good idea. Bad faith can be really bad for the insurance companies. Recently, USAA, which is actually a really good insurance company from my perspective, they usually offer very fair settlements. They got sued for bad faith for, I guess, not taking their own insured seriously when they claimed a brain injury. They were offering them, I don't remember the numbers exactly, but less than their policy limit. And they got hit for $100 million bad faith. Holy cow.
So bad faith is a very serious tool, very serious weapon. Insurance companies don't like to hear those words. I'll bet.
Speaker 2 | 10:05
Is it hard for you negotiating with insurance companies when there's multiple parties involved to ensure that your client is getting the best compensation that they deserve? It's.
Speaker 3 | 10:16
Hard because you don't know what they're offering if they have a limited policy. So say they have a call of 50 ,000 Slack $100 ,000 policy. 50 ,000 means 50 ,000 maximum per person, 100 ,000 maximum per policy. Okay?
So say there were four people that were injured, I mean, per 100 ,000 per accident, four people that were injured, well, four people can't get $50 ,000 each. So now they're gonna probably divide $100 ,000 up between four different people, right?
So it makes it a little difficult when you're negotiating because if your client's injury is worth $50 ,000, you don't wanna take less than 50 for them, right? You wanna get the 50. But there are other people involved. And if you don't know how much everybody's getting, it's hard to negotiate, which is why it's good to go to a mediator in those situations.
Speaker 2 | 11:03
Okay. Do those cases a lot of times go to mediators?
Speaker 3 | 11:06
Yeah. Maybe not when there's a policy that's at low 5 ,100, but if the policies are larger, yeah. Mediation is a very powerful way to get cases resolved. And on so many levels, it's not just the money. It's a situation where the injured people can be heard and acknowledged for what they've gone through. And that goes a long way to helping to get cases resolved.
Speaker 2 | 11:32
Do you have any stories for us? You usually have stories of a successful multi -car accident where you were able to help your client out through difficult times.
Speaker 3 | 11:41
Yeah, I have one right now, which we're just finishing up. And that is where there were three cars involved other than my client. My client had stepped out of her car safely, and all of a sudden there was an accident where three cars whacked into her car, and her, I mean, just her car, but her physically as well.
So we went after all three insurance policies and hit their policy limits on each, which were pretty large. Two were large and one was small. It really helped my client get through a lot of hard times.
So that is just finishing, wrapping up. But the reason I'm saying it's just finishing and helped her get through hard times was because one of the policies, policy limits we got right away, I was able to advance her some money on her case so that she could survive, you know, and move forward with her life. It was terrible.
Yeah, she had multiple surgeries. It was a pretty bad, awful.
Speaker 2 | 12:36
Bad thing. Yeah, I would imagine.
I mean, if you're outside of your car and yeah. So.
Speaker 3 | 12:41
That is. She's a really lovely person. And it's really, for me, it feels good to be able to do something for somebody that is, that really deserves it.
Well.
Speaker 2 | 12:49
You talk a lot about empathy and that's one of your motivating factors of just to help people and get them through things. Is it hard on you to sometimes to see some of the, you know, it sounds like you maybe get somewhat emotionally involved because it's hard not to if you have, if you're an empathetic type person.
Speaker 3 | 13:05
It is, but you have to keep it, you know, you still have to keep a slight, I don't know if wall is the right word, but there has to be some separation between how I'm feeling about it because otherwise I won't be able to do a good job if I let my emotions run wild. So I have to be objective and really, you know, focus on what's going on. When I'm dealing with the insurance companies and then with my client, of course, I empathize with them when I talk to them because you can't help it.
I mean, when you see somebody in pain, it's hard not to feel horrible for them. Makes you want to help them.
Speaker 2 | 13:36
More. Absolutely, yeah, for sure. If someone's involved in a wreck, or specifically a multi -car wreck for the purposes of this episode, what do they do first?
Speaker 3 | 13:46
Like I always say, get medical attention immediately. Even if you're not sure, even if you don't feel anything, go get checked out and make sure that you document, you know, what happened.
So documents what happened, you know, it's all in the medical records, emergency room, urgent care, your own doctor, whatever it is. Next thing is make a claim with your own insurance company, let them know you were in an accident. Don't give them too much information. Don't talk about liability. Just say, I was in an accident, here's where it happened, and I'm getting a lawyer.
So they won't ask you details. And get a lawyer. At the scene of the accident, like, I don't know if we talked about it in this episode, if we didn't, scene of the accident, again, try and get, if you can, if you're well enough, get witness statements, you know, use your phone and just say, hey, what did you see? Or what happened? What did, why did you do that to me? And I'm so, no, not really. But take photos, you know, make sure you get comprehensive photos. Don't erase your dash cam, you know, things like that.
Speaker 2 | 14:43
Yeah, the standard stuff. Just make sure you're okay, and then try to document the scene as best as you can.
Speaker 3 | 14:49
Right, make sure you're okay. Make sure everybody else is okay.
Yeah. And call the police. Always call the police, have them come. If nobody's injured, or if it seems like nobody's injured, sometimes they won't show up. But you should try and insist on getting the police there to write a report.
Speaker 2 | 15:03
Yeah, to get the report, to be part of your case. Yeah, that makes sense.
Yeah. All right, well, thank you for tuning into Your Case, Your Justice. Personal injury with empathy with Lowell Steiger. To connect with Lowell, head to steigerlaw .com. And please like and subscribe to our channel, and leave us a review. Lowell, it's always great seeing you. Thanks so much for being here.
Speaker 3 | 15:21
Great seeing you too, Kevin. Take it easy.
Speaker 1 | 15:24
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