In this episode of Brutal Honesty, Nick Rowley argues that valuing legal cases by stacking and multiplying medical bills is inhumane and misguided. He urges listeners to set medical bills aside and instead focus on the human experience of the injured person. This includes the pain endured minute by minute, the emotional turmoil, the inconvenience to daily life, and the loss of loved ones. To determine fair compensation, Rowley advises violating the "golden rule" by imagining the injury happening to oneself and asking what amount would reasonably compensate for that suffering. He emphasizes that non-economic assets—such as a healthy body, freedom from pain, companionship, and love—are priceless and represent the most valuable aspects of life. When valuing a case, one should not limit the potential award but have the courage to ask juries to do the same. This requires personal work and belief in the worth of human experience. Rowley encourages sharing the podcast and following him on social media for further insights.
[Music] Welcome to Brutal Honesty with Author, Teacher in National Trial Lawyer. Nick Rowley. I'm Nick Rowley and this is Brutal Honesty. How do we value cases? Do we look at the medical bills? Is that what we do? We stack up the medical bills and then multiply the medical bills by two or three or four and say that's what the case is worth? I believe that's an inhumane thing to do. It's the wrong way. If you are valuing cases or building the value of cases by building up medical bills, you're going about it the wrong way. Make the medical bills whatever they are, set them aside. What has the human being experienced? What's happened to that person? What is the inconvenience that the injury or the damage has caused? What's the emotional turmoil that human being has gone through? How does he or she live day to day? Is it different? How so? What are the human stories that illustrate that change? Is there pain? What's the pain? What does it feel like? Imagine that pain in your own body and living with it. Minute after minute, hour after hour. Day after day, week after week, year after year. Imagine it. Put it inside of you. What would you pay to make it go away? It's a reasonable value for that pain. What's the amount of money that would, if you stacked it up, that would be enough to fairly compensate for that pain as you feel it inside of you? Emotional suffering, loss of a loved one, do the same thing. Imagine it's you. Violate that golden rule. The golden rule doesn't apply to you. So, golden rule yourself. Golden rule yourself. And ask, ask yourself, what would it take? What would it take to reasonably compensate me if this happened to me? What if my loved one was taken away? What would it take? When you start to do that, you're going to realize that the things that we've been given as human beings in this lifetime, this experience of life that we lose are oftentimes priceless. To live a life without pain, to have a body that works, a body that's healthy, and to have that changed and taken away, to be imprisoned by pain, to lose a loved one, to lose love, to lose companionship, fellowship, comfort, society, guidance, care of someone that we love. Those are priceless things. Priceless things. The non-economic assets that we have are the most valuable assets we have in this experience of life. So, when you value a case, the question is, how high are you willing to go? Don't limit yourself. And don't let people around you limit you. When you begin to value cases this way, you'll be ready to go in front of a jury and ask them to do the same thing. And they will. You just have to have the courage and the belief. But there's work to be done to get there. That work is something you do yourself on your own. Thanks for listening to Brutal Honesty. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a review on Apple Podcasts. To catch all the latest from Nick, you can follow him on Instagram and YouTube at jury trial lawyer and sign up for events at trialbyhuman.com.
Podcast Summary
Key Points:
Case valuation should not be based on multiplying medical bills; this approach is inhumane and incorrect.
Instead, focus on the human experience
Use the "Golden Rule" technique—imagine the injury happening to you—to determine fair compensation.
Non-economic assets like health, companionship, and love are priceless and should be valued accordingly.
Have courage to set high values and prepare deeply to persuade juries to do the same.
Summary:
In this episode of Brutal Honesty, Nick Rowley argues that valuing legal cases by stacking and multiplying medical bills is inhumane and misguided. He urges listeners to set medical bills aside and instead focus on the human experience of the injured person. This includes the pain endured minute by minute, the emotional turmoil, the inconvenience to daily life, and the loss of loved ones.
To determine fair compensation, Rowley advises violating the "golden rule" by imagining the injury happening to oneself and asking what amount would reasonably compensate for that suffering. He emphasizes that non-economic assets—such as a healthy body, freedom from pain, companionship, and love—are priceless and represent the most valuable aspects of life. When valuing a case, one should not limit the potential award but have the courage to ask juries to do the same.
This requires personal work and belief in the worth of human experience. Rowley encourages sharing the podcast and following him on social media for further insights.
FAQs
You should value a case by focusing on the human experience—pain, emotional turmoil, inconvenience, and loss—rather than just stacking up medical bills. Set medical bills aside and consider what would fairly compensate the person for their suffering.
Relying on medical bills and multiplying them by a factor is inhumane and wrong. It ignores the real human impact, such as pain, emotional suffering, and loss of priceless life experiences.
Imagine the pain in your own body and ask what you would pay to make it go away. That reasonable amount is the value for that pain.
It means putting yourself in the client's shoes—imagine if the injury or loss happened to you or a loved one, and ask what would fairly compensate you. This approach reveals the true, often priceless, value.
Non-economic assets include living without pain, a healthy body, love, companionship, guidance, and care. These are priceless and often the most valuable aspects of life that are lost.
By doing the internal work to genuinely feel the human impact and having the courage to ask the jury to do the same. If you believe in this approach, you can effectively present it.
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