Teaching Clients About Not Going Too Far

Hey everybody, this is Keith Mittnik. And in this series I've called it Handpick Highlights from Click and Pick with Mittnik. Hey everybody, in this episode I want to talk to you about something that's central to what we do and it comes up all the time in my phone calls with our lawyers. And that is clients that say things in their deposition to get used against them that make them look like they're exaggerating. And honestly, it happens too often to put your head in the sand. And I just don't believe it's because we got a bunch of lying clients. I don't, does it mean you'd never have one a course not? If you do enough cases, either side is going to come and call somebody in the straight shooter. But the vast majority of them, they're just either don't understand the question. Remember, they've been picked at and prodded and suggested they're faking and making it up or suggested you had it all before, suggested it's all the natural aging process or suggested they're all cured when they're not. And you know, that gets old. And the bad person doing it to you, it's easy. We're the lawyer because we understand they do it in every case. If it was your case and you were a non-lawyer, you'd be pissed. You wouldn't be happy with that. And you'd be defensive so they get in their deposition, they feel defensive. And so when they say, did you have this before? No. Haven't you had some improvements? No. Since then. No. And it's like, now you've got big problems. And so it's our job not just to be the lawyer, but to be the counselor at law. We need to counsel them. In first and foremost, they need to understand. They are trying to get you to go too far. Defense, lawyers and insurance companies by their very nature are extremists. All their defenses are going too far. They take something with the kernel of truth and they push the envelope. Not a lot of visible property damage. They make it out to be it wouldn't hurt a flea. Well, it's true. There's not a lot of visible property damage. So now we don't know for sure whether this would hurt or not. So they can argue it. But to make it sound like it wouldn't hurt a flea, that's going too far. To suggest someone didn't go to the emergency room. Is that a consideration? Sure. But they don't say it's a consideration. They turn it into, you obviously weren't hurting you to be at the emergency room. This wasn't a life and death emergency. They had options. They had ice cream in the back. Their car was still drivable. They had a kid to pick up. They were sore and stiff and thought it was going away. It doesn't mean they didn't have the herniation since herniation start feeling out, start out initially feeling just like a strange strain. And a lot of people would rather not go to the emergency room with all those sick people for five or six hours of spend of fortune when they're expected to get better and they got obligation. So it's not fair. Well, because they are wired to go too far, they are wired to try and push your client or bait your client into going too far. So I want to talk about a few strategies to help stop that because it can devastate your case. First of all, you got to talk straight to your client. They need to understand. They're trying to bait you in to say in things like in their two main categories. Before the crash, the trying gets you to make it sound like you never had pain like this. You never had pain in your neck before when the truth is never had pain like this before or I had pain like this before and it got a lot better or it went away. But not never had it because then when they get the records, we all know and it's there. Now your client looks like they're a Fibre and it isn't in most cases that they're covering it up. It's they've been propped and prodded and they're thinking these other people other side is going to exaggerate into something that's not not and they get defensive and next thing they've set it a little too strong in the defense is popping champagne. What's the other big category into the future? They love to say I can't do this when they absolutely can if you're in a wheelchair in a paraplegic you can't walk. That's fine. If you got a herniated disc in your neck, they don't need to say I can't walk. What they say is I don't or I don't do it like I used to or I do do it but I know I'm going to pay the price. I have to make all these many choices now. I've lost my freedom to live life without having to make all these little choices. Do or don't do knowing I'm going to pay a price either way. If I don't do it, I've paid the price by skipping something I would otherwise done in the past. If I do it, I'm going to likely pay the price with elevated spikes in pain and be laying on a heat pad. I'm going to go from a lower level pain to pain that's more interfering. So don't say I can't for future unless they absolutely can't. But with herniation type cases, that's rare. It's I don't or I don't do it that way anymore or I do do it but not as often or I do do it but I pay a price because I'm always making many choices. Do it or don't do it knowing there's a price to pay either way. If we're talking about the past, don't say I've never had a pain in my neck before. No one is going to believe it. Every adult has had pain in their neck at some point. Say I've never had pain like this. Say I've never had ongoing long term treatment like this. As opposed I've never ever seen a doctor for my neck unless they've never seen a doctor for it. And explain to them not only the differences in how important it is, why in terms they get, you think Miss Jones, the defense, if you say that you're going to help your case, trust me every single medical record in your life they're going to have and comb through it looking for any time you complain about an echo back of the slightest amount. Even if you went to a gynecologist and you were talking about having a headache and your neck was hurting, they're looking at those records. Wrong part of the body, they're looking at it forever. So don't come in there saying never unless you're positive it's never. Say never like this. I haven't had it like this. I don't recall having doctors treat me for it. If they did, it's not sticking to my mind because it wasn't for any length of time that I could be surprised unless it was years ago. I haven't had problems in the last five years. I still have neck problems. I had it before this crash but not like this. It's a lot worse. If you're out, then they're ready to explain exactly how. And then you tell them why? Because you think if you downplay the past and upplay the future, you're going to put a stop to them trying to paint it like no big deal or you're a faker. What you're actually going to do is they're going to pop champagne and laugh all the way to the bank thinking, oh my god, we tricked this dummy. We tricked them. We baited them. They went too far. Yeah. The company's going to say, we want to send you some more cases. You're the best lawyer in the world. And you're going to be going, it's going to feel good for the moment. And then you're going to be sick. And then I'm going to have to have a very miserable conversation about, you know, your case may have been worth as much as a million dollars or more. It's probably worth a lot less now. You just may have cost yourself a million dollars or more. A money they owe you. And not because you're not hurt. Because they didn't hurt you because you didn't listen to my advice and you got carried away. They baited into it. Do not, you know, in football, folks, I want to tell you this, Mr. Jones, you watch football. Yeah. You know, you hear about people talking about don't, don't get out of position. The linebackers and defensive backs. You get all that motion. They get over aggressive. They over pursue. They go too far. They leave a big alley. And it's a big long play. They're going to try to get you out of position. Good coaches teach their linebackers and defensive backs. Be disciplined. Stay in position. I need you to be disciplined. Outsmart them. Don't let them pull that off. And then get all of their records. If there are a bunch of third party subpoenas for medical records, don't let your client go to depot until you've got them and studied them and prepared them. I would pull out a binder and take excerpts of everything you can find and turn it over to the depot of the other side. And the court reporter, have your client have it sitting with them. Have them handwrite everything from the excerpts. And anything else they can think of and turn that over, making an exhibit to the depot. Then if they forget one, you can say to you, can they refer to their list? No. Okay. You listed four, there was a fifth thing. You see that on your list, number five, yes. You realize you didn't, no, I don't didn't realize I didn't list it. Is that one, yes. Now there's no cover up. They get no mileage out of it. It takes them nowhere. So have them create the list. Get all the records for you subjectum to depot. Teach them about discipline and not taking the bait and explain to them in detail how don't is a dirty word. Say, not that I can't, can't is a dirty word. It's not that I can't do it. It's that I don't or I don't do it the same way or I don't do it as often. Or if I do it, I pay the price and I make it all these many choices. And when they're talking about the past, don't say I never, not like this. Well then what? I'm sure I've had something with my neck in the past. Well, I know I had a car crash back four years ago. Anything before that? Gosh, you talk, I'm 60. Not that I remember, but certainly could be. Now they can't score. They don't score because you have taught your client how they're gonna do it. You've done it in very simple terms they can understand. No one wants the other side to laugh at them for being a dummy. You've taught them that's what's gonna happen. No one wants to help the other side, short change them on what's due and on the reasonable amount for justice. You taught them that. And then you stood guard during the deposition and if mistakes happen, then you're there to clean it up at the tail end or on a break as long as you do it within the ethical boundaries. And then justice is gonna be done. Why? Because you taught your clients about not going too far and you owe it to them. I hope you all enjoyed it. I hope you found it useful. And I hope you don't mind sharing it with colleagues or friends who may be facing a similar situation but didn't have an opportunity to listen to it because we're all in it together for the same goal, justice for our clients.