Episode 10

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Published on:

13th Jul 2023

Gateways to the Gavel: NJ Injury Lawyers Unraveling the Pre-Litigation Intake Process

Episode 10 of Jersey Justice™ Podcast: Gateways to the Gavel: NJ Injury Lawyers Unraveling the Pre-Litigation Intake Process

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Transcript
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Welcome to Jersey Justice, a civil law podcast that shares

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practical tips and stories about personal and workplace injuries.

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Joined two of the brightest New Jersey injury attorneys, Gerald Clark

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and Mark Morris of Clark Law Firm.

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As they take you behind the scenes of.

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Justice and civil law.

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But first, a quick disclaimer.

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The information shared on this podcast is for general information purposes only.

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Nothing on this site should be taken as legal advice for any

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individual case or situation.

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This information is not intended to create and does not constitute

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an attorney client relationship.

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Hi everyone.

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Today we're gonna be talking about the litigation process, and we're

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gonna be talking about if someone gets injured on the job, what is the

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process that they have to go through.

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I know that they have so many questions.

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It is a time for them where they are wondering if they're gonna get paid,

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how they're gonna get compensated.

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How long the whole process takes.

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So we're gonna be talking to Mark and Jerry today about that whole

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litigation process and the process of when a client comes in, you know,

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what really happens behind the scenes.

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So I wanna welcome Mark and Jerry to the show today.

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Welcome.

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Thanks Dimple.

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Thanks Dimple.

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I'm glad to see that Mark got the jacket memo today.

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Yes, he, he sure didn't.

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Something different this time.

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You know what?

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You might even, you might even like put on a tie for the next episode.

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You guys have to like, you know, definitely subscribe and tune in.

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So, surprise, surprise.

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Yeah.

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You'll never get what color tie it will be.

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No, it's gonna be a fun one.

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So, so Jerry, let's say that someone comes to you, right?

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They work for a construction site, they work at a construction site.

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They were injured because they fell off of a scaffolding and

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they are really in bad shape.

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Their family is actually the one that's approached you because they

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are just, you know, not doing well enough to even talk at this point.

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What happens, like how can you help someone that has been injured at a

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construction site in a workplace injury?

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Okay, so thanks for asking that.

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That's a good question.

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We see this very frequently.

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In this situation, people come to us.

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This kind of thing happens all the time.

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So when someone is in, first of all, when someone's hurt at a construction

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site, when they come to us, it is usually a pretty bad injury.

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It's like if you fall from scaffolding over six feet,

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it's, it's often a bad injury.

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If a trench collapses on someone, it's usually a bad injury.

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If a big piece of construction debris falls on someone or they

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fall from a ladder, they're usually very, very bad injury.

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And usually those people are laborers working for a living, supporting a family.

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So, you know, after the initial kind of trauma, when they get around to

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coming to us to an attorney, their primary concern usually is, how

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am I gonna put food on the table?

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So when this happens, you know, because they can't work.

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So when this happens, there's two types of cases that are looked at.

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One is a worker's compensation case, and then the second type

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of case is a third party case.

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What's the difference for our audience?

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Because I know like they don't really understand how the legal system works.

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What is the difference between a worker's compensation case and a third party case?

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So let's take your example, dimple of like a scaffolding fall.

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Let's say it's a large construction site and there's a scaffolding fall.

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Let's say that.

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Construction is a new building.

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There's gonna be an owner of the building, you know, they're

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kind of at the top of the chain.

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And then the owner usually will hire a general contractor and

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the general contractor will hire all the subcontractors.

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And we also call the general contractor like gc.

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So the GC will hire a subcontracting companies, say to install

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the siding on the building.

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And often what happens is that company that's hired to do the siding will

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then sub subcontract out the work to another company, and then that

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company will hire the actual workers.

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Okay?

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So OSHA has rules so that workers aren't needlessly injured on job sites,

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including fallen from scaffolding.

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Not to get into this in this podcast in in detail, but with regards to

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scaffolding, there has to be training on how the scaffolding is set up, how

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it's used properly, and probably most importantly, not only scaffolding,

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but any situation where a worker is at height on a construction site.

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Most importantly, if the worker is above six feet, they have to be

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protected by fall protection, and that's super important on scaffolding.

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So when they come, the difference between a worker's compensation and third party

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is that the workers' compensation case is, is brought against the direct employer.

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That's the company that's actually giving them a paycheck each day.

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And you, when you get hurt at work, generally speaking,

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it catch to your employer.

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You can only bring a worker's compensation case.

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And the workers' compensation case is limited to getting like

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your lost wages, medical bills.

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And a relatively small permanency award.

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Again, this is all generalities cuz each case is different.

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So that's the worker's compensation case.

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And then the third party case, let's assume you're on a job site

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and the general contractor is not enforcing those os osha safety rules

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because generally speaking, it's cheaper to not enforce the rules.

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And if it's cheaper, you can bid the job for less.

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More likely you might get the work because yours is the low bid because

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you're cutting coordinates on safety.

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So if that happens where the general contractor is permitting these

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subcontractors to not file the safety rules, say for example, in the

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scaffolding fall down case, then the worker can sue that interim subcontractor

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and the general contractor for failing to enforce the safety rules.

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And that's basically a negligence case.

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Also the difference between that and a worker's compensation case is that

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you can get compensation for like the permanent life changes, which

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is usually the worst harm in these cases, is how the person's life is

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forever changed because contractors decided to not file safety rules to

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maximize profits in a lot of cases.

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So that's the difference.

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You could also get punitive damages to deter that kind of conduct in

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the future, which is important.

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So that's kind of the difference between those two cases.

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Yeah.

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Thank you for, you know, thank you for sharing that.

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I think that's really important for our listeners to have a thorough understanding

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of how that works, what the differences are, and when it comes to someone

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being injured, especially through.

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You know, a devastating fall, falling off a, a scaffolding their family, they're

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probably the breadwinner for their family.

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Their family's not maybe working, doesn't have money coming in.

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They might have kids and, and all of that.

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And I think it is important for, you know, someone who has been injured, especially

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through the negligence of, you know, the construction company failing to.

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Really put proper safety measures in place.

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You know, I am sure you get this a lot, but can you go into a

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little bit more details about how their compensation is determined?

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Because you said something about punitive damages.

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I mean, how does that come into play and, and how as attorneys.

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Do you go to fight for justice for your clients when it comes to getting

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them the settlement that they truly deserve versus just a settlement?

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So Mark, maybe you can tell us a little bit more about the intake process and you

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know how all that works so our listeners can get a better understanding of that.

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Sure.

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Thanks Temple.

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Like Jerry just talked about there, there's typically two types of cases.

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It's a worker's compensation case.

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Then the third party case, and normally we would represent an injured

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worker in the third party case.

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, in New Jersey, you normally can't bring a third party case against your employer.

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The exclusive remedy is worker's comp.

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We'd normally set someone up with an attorney to help with the

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worker's comp case, and then we would investigate the third party.

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Like Jerry talked about the third party, that's when you

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go up the chain of command.

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You go up the ladder to the interim sub.

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And the general contractor, if those entities knew that there were safety

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rules that were being violated on the job site, or say they put in

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place circumstances that violated.

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Industry standards a lot of times which are, which are osha.

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So when an injured worker comes into our office, we'll sit down

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usually in a conference room.

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Obviously with Covid, we've done quite a bit of zoom intakes or things

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over teams, any of those, you know, video conferencing software that

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no one had heard of before 2020.

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But so we'll do a general intake with the client and it's kinda like, If

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you're talking about a newspaper article or any investigative work that someone

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does, we wanna know the who, what, why, when, where, all those kind of W words.

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And then I guess the how as well.

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So we wanna know who the potential players are in the case.

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Obviously, we'll start with who the worker was working for at the time, and

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ask if they know who was above them in the chain of command on the job site.

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A lot of times the.

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The worker may not know.

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So that's why what we talked about in one of the last episodes about doing the, the

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pre-suit investigation, kind of the early on investigation can be important cuz a

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lot of times the worker might not know who was giving their boss commands or who

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was the kind of top dog on the job site.

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So in the past we've had times where we've even taken at a client's cell

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phone, obviously with their permission and looked at some of the pictures

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that they have from a job site.

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Because they might not even realize they're just guys who are proud

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of the job they're doing, taking pictures of a job site and then

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there's a, a van with a company we know's a general contractor in it.

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So obviously we'll still do our investigation, but that

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sometimes is, is part of it.

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Mark, how long does the investigation process take?

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I'm sure it varies depending on the type of case it is, but

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can you give us some examples?

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Sure.

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So in New Jersey, we may have mentioned this, and if we haven't, this is.

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One of the most important things that any, you know, member of the public,

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any non-attorney that's listening to this podcast know is that you have two

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years in New Jersey to file a lawsuit.

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So if say, on January 19th, 2023, we'll use the example of, you

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know, falling off a scaffolding.

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If you fell off the scaffolding and got hurt on January 19th, 2023,

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you would have to file a lawsuit by January 19th, 2025, where you'd be

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forever barred from bringing a claim.

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So ideally someone would come to us kind of early on in that process if they were

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to have fallen on January 19th, 2023.

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Obviously there's a lot of things going on.

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Their first thought might not be, Hey, I'm gonna file a lawsuit.

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Like I think Jerry had talked about, or we talked about.

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It's, you know, your main concern oftentimes is, how

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am I gonna feed my family?

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How am I gonna go back to work if you're injured?

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So when someone comes to us, it could take, and there's no one size fits all.

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Each case is unique.

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But it can take, you know, months to a year.

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Our general kind of, what we like to do is file cases a year outside

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of the statute of limitations.

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So again, using that example, if a case came to us relatively early on,

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we'd do our investigation, say for anywhere from two to, you know, 12

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months, and then like to have the case filed a year out of the statute.

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It doesn't always work that way.

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When I say statute, I'm talking about that two year time limitation cuz it all

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depends on when the case comes to us, how, I guess, cooperative some of the different

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agencies we might need to work with.

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Be it the towns, the other defendants in the case are in getting us some

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of that investigative material that we can get early on in the case.

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Because a lot of times we're not gonna get the full picture until we've filed

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a lawsuit, but we want to have enough of an image of what's going on to make sure

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that we have the right people in the case.

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And that we understand the facts as they've been presented to us.

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It's also important, like we talked about, the early investigation

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and what can the client do.

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So I'm gonna read to you, this is an email I got just today.

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Person was on a job site, had a pretty bad laceration to their hand.

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And because the client didn't even have basic information about the job, the case

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got rejected by the workers' compensation lawyer that we referred the case to.

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So I'll just read part.

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I'll read part of this email to you without revealing any names.

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It says, in light of clients' inability to provide us the address of the job site

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where he was injured, the name of the general contractor, or anything more than

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a name and phone number for his boss.

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I am disinclined to file a claim petition in workers' compensation court.

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So it's kind of funny, the client just not even having basic information

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because maybe the person there, they just got picked up for work, they

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set 'em to a job site and often these clients are intentionally kept in the

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dark as to wait, who's even hiring me?

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Where am I?

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They'll just get picked up in a van.

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They'll be put in the back of the van with like probably no windows, whatever.

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They're keep, they don't even know where they are.

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Often they get dropped off and say Go work, and a lot of times we find that

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that seems almost to be intentional because then they can't bring a case

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if they don't know who it is or where it happened or who's on the site.

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So that's some basic information that.

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These workers should, should get and should know where they're working.

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So Jerry, it sounds like Jerry, it sounds like, I mean, they're getting

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taken, obviously they're getting taken advantage of right by, by people who

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are just trying to make money because they know that these workers need money.

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They're not gonna say anything cuz they don't know maybe how to handle

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the situation or they don't know that they're being taken advantage of.

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So that's, that's very disheartening to hear though.

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Yeah, there's, I guess this is somewhat related to the intake

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process of a case in these cases.

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There is definitely, we often, in our opinion, see an exploitation

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factor, no doubt about it.

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If they hire non-English speaking migrant workers, they're

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paying them less refining.

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This isn't in all cases, but it's frequent from what, in our

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experience, we see it a lot.

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They're not following the wage and hour laws.

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They often don't have workers' compensation insurance.

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Like the case that I just read to you that I just got today, we heard back from

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the workers' compensation lawyer, there's really no workers' compensation insurance.

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I.

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And the wages are lower.

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Payroll taxes aren't being paid often they're not paying workers'

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compensation and for our purposes, they're not enforcing the safety rules.

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So there's definitely an exploitation factor to this, and it's not just ripping

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off a few bucks from people, it's, it's life-changing, catastrophic injuries and

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more often, and sometimes people, you know, die as well on these job sites.

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So, mark, what else can you tell us about the intake process?

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What does our audience need to know about.

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That whole intake process.

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Yeah, sure.

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So it, it's tough not to go off on tangents talking about

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these construction cases.

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You can tell, I mean, we've both litigated them with them and I guess I would have

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to say you can kind of see the passion about seeing what happens a lot of

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the times from the moment that person walks in your door till the litigation

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phase when you're kind of fighting these guys that are doing things like

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putting a guy up on the scaffolding who doesn't know who he's working for.

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If he were to complain about not having fault protection, he might risk losing his

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job and not being able to feed his family.

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So when that person comes into our office, like I talked about, we'll sit down

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with them, be at conference room, zoom, however it is, it's gathering facts like

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the what happened, how'd you get hurt?

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How bad are you hurt, where'd you go when you got hurt.

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And a big part of it, you kind of, you split it into, I guess

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you could say three parts.

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Like what's the liability?

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Like who did something wrong?

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What are the injuries like?

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What are the damages?

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Are you still treating?

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Because a lot of times that will impact when we're able to file a case as well.

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If there's ongoing treatment, we don't want to just go ahead and file

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a complaint because we wanna make sure that that treatment's part of the case.

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But again, each thing's unique.

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It's all, it's kind of a moving target that varies based on a

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combination of investigation and the medical treatment as well.

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So we want to have an idea of what the injuries are, what the treatment

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status is, and then I think, like I'd mentioned, who the players are.

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Is there a general contractor that's available to go after?

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Did they do something wrong?

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Were there safety rules that weren't enforced?

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Or is it a job site where it was just the client's employer?

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And maybe it's just a worker's compensation case, but it's rare.

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That ends up being the, , the scenario A lot of times, like we've talked about.

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Someone might not realize that there was someone above them in the chain of command

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or someone else that was running the job.

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Because, you know, and I've got cases, plenty of 'em where it's, you know, my

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uncle's friend got me this job, and I think the company had these initials,

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but maybe it was these initials.

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They just, these guys don't know.

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A lot of time people don't know who they're working for.

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So it's a lot of fact gathering.

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And then I guess just from a practical standpoint as well.

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We have the, the client sign HIPAA authorizations, which allow us to

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get medical records so they don't need to sign anything for us to start

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investigating, you know, what happened to them, how they got hurt, but

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obviously under, you know, privacy laws.

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We can't just go to their doctor's office and say, Hey, give us medical records.

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So we'll sit down and we'll have the client sign HIPAA forms as well

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so that as they treat, as they see different providers, we can get their

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records and keep the case moving.

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Cuz that's a big part of building the case, is having the medical.

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Great.

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Thank you for sharing that.

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So Mark, thank you so much for sharing that.

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I think, you know, the intake is obviously the first step when you

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know a client comes to the firm and they, you know, have a case that

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they wanna discuss and someone's been injured on the job and you know, what

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happens after the intake process is completed, what are the next steps?

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So at that intake process as well, we'll, we'll have a retainer

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agreement, investigative retainer, and a lot of times when people hear.

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The phrase retainer as it relates to an attorney.

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Maybe their only experience with, with an attorney was buying a house or

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unfortunately going through a divorce.

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So their first thought is, oh my gosh, how much?

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How much money upfront?

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And the way that we work as personal injury attorneys is it's on a contingency

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fee basis, which means that we don't get paid, we don't make any money

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unless we win the case, be it through a settlement or a verdict at at trial.

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It's a good incentive process for us to be honest, straightforward

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about the cases that we take on.

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If we don't believe in a case, we're not really incentivized to take it on

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and just, and just spin our wheels.

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And then also, just frankly from a business standpoint, the more money

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that we can get the client, the bigger our contingency fee would be.

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So it, you know, it incentivizes us to go to bat for the client

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and not to try and settle a case.

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The cheap, and there's a whole inner working of essentially how

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the contingency fee works out.

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That I'm not sure I quite need to get into detail, but the big thing is, is

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that it's not a money upfront thing.

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It's not like someone needs to bring five grand, 10 grand before

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we start working on their case.

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We typically, once they leave, we'll send an email opening up their file.

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As long as we have the sign retainer, we'll open up the file, start putting.

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Together, and then probably the next time that we'll meet face to face, they'll

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have, you know, a stack of papers this big or multiple red wells at that point.

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But again, each case is, is kind of unique.

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So, so Jerry, after the intake process, what happens in terms

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of, you know, communication?

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How do you know you communicate with the clients To keep them

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up to date on their case?

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So as, as Mark said, there'll be an intake meeting.

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A lot of times it's virtual these days and the, the length of the meeting can vary.

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If at the meeting we decide to take the case, then the client will

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sign a formal retainer agreement, which is, it's basically a written

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agreement that talks that lays out the terms of the representation.

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In short, the way we do things, usually in cases, it's not all cases,

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but most cases, is it's a contingency agreement, which basically means

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there's no attorney fee to be paid if there's no recovery in the case.

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So if we don't get any money in the case, the client does not have to

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pay an attorney fee, then that, that, that works to give people access

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to the courts that can't afford to hire attorneys on an hourly basis.

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And as a footnote, as a side note, that that's important because

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it gives people access to court.

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So a lot of times when we, we find that, like when large corporations,

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they'll do these things called tort reform, which is limiting

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people's ability when they get hurt.

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To get recoveries against corporations and insurance companies and corporations

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are generally in favor of tort reform because, Then they can go about doing

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their business without fear of lawsuits if they injure or kill someone by a

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defective product or negligent conduct.

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And one of the ways that they'll often do tort reform to make people think

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it's good for people is to say, these attorneys, these contingency fees,

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you know, we gotta get rid of these contingency fees where these lawyers

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are getting money on these cases.

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That's the only way where many, and I dare say most people can't even afford an

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attorney, is by contingency relationship.

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So if you're gonna cut contingency relationships or cut contingency fee

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percentages, you're hurting people.

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You're hurting real people and getting their access, access to the courts.

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But the way, so after the intake meeting, if we do a contingency

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agreement, we then, uh, move forward.

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Sometimes the contingency agreement is we agree to continue and investigate the

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case, and sometimes the agreement will talk about, we'll actually file a case.

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So after the intake, assuming we're gonna file the case, kind of,

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that's when the, the case starts.

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There'll be like a claim letter.

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Then down the road, a case may be put into court, and I think in another episode we

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can pick it up from there and talk about what actually happens, what actually

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starts a formal case in court, and what kind of things can a client expect when

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that happens, how long is that process?

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We can talk all about that in the next episode.

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All right, wonderful.

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Thank you Again, we keep saying, you know, it's not a one size fits all.

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Each case is unique, but Jerry's right, that's, that's how it works.

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Client comes in and then hopefully we can help them.

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We'll talk about what we do next.

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All right, everyone.

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This is a wrap.

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Then we'll see you guys on the next episode, and thanks for tuning in.

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And there you have it, folks.

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Another episode of Jersey Justice Podcast.

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If you're loving what you're hearing, it's time to head that subscribe button

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on Apple, YouTube and Spotify podcast.

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And don't forget to leave us a review online, share this podcast with your

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friends and become their legal hero.

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Dive into more episodes@jerseyjusticepodcast.com

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or clark law nj.com and check out our show notes for more information.

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If you're navigating legal issues and need a guiding light or just a phone

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call away, call us at +1 877-841-8855.

Speaker:

Again, 1 8 7 7 8 4 1 8 8 5 5.

Speaker:

Until next time, Jersey Justice Warriors stay empowered and informed.

Speaker:

And there you have it, folks.

Speaker:

Another episode of Jersey Justice Podcast.

Speaker:

If you're loving what you're hearing, it's time to head that subscribe button

Speaker:

on Apple, YouTube and Spotify podcast.

Speaker:

And don't forget to leave us a review online, share this podcast with your

Speaker:

friends and become their legal hero.

Speaker:

Dive into more episodes@jerseyjusticepodcast.com

Speaker:

or clark law nj.com and check out our show notes for more information.

Speaker:

If you're navigating legal issues and need a guiding light or just a phone

Speaker:

call away, call us at +1 877-841-8855.

Speaker:

Again, 1 8 7 7 8 4 1 8 8 5 5.

Speaker:

Until next time, Jersey Justice Warriors stay empowered and informed.

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About the Podcast

Jersey Justice
A Civil Law Podcast
Jersey Justice delivers insightful and engaging discussions on a range of civil law and policy matters in New Jersey, including workplace and construction site injuries, automobile crashes, commercial litigation, and other related legal matters. Jersey Justice is designed to keep listeners informed and educated about the complexities of civil law and policy in America.

Jersey Justice: A Civil Law Podcast is hosted by esteemed attorneys Gerald H. Clark and Mark W. Morris and delivers captivating and informative content through an interview-driven format, enriched with panel discussions that showcase the expertise of distinguished guest speakers from the legal field. The podcast is produced by Dimple Dang, Podcaster and Legal Marketing Expert.

About your hosts

Gerald Clark

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Gerald H. Clark, Esq. is certified by the New Jersey Supreme Court as a Civil Trial Attorney and holds a distinction shared by less than 3% of New Jersey attorneys.

Gerald H. Clark, an accomplished and influential attorney in New Jersey's construction injury law, has made significant strides in the legal field. A long-time member of the Board of Governors of the New Jersey Association for Justice, he has served as counsel on numerous state and national class action matters, including a landmark consumer fraud lawsuit against Cooper Tire & Rubber Company, which resulted in a settlement valued at $1-3 billion.

Throughout his career, Gerald has successfully handled catastrophic loss and wrongful death cases, passionately representing deserving clients on a contingency basis to ensure access to justice. His strategic appeals in cases like Costa v. Gaccione and Fernandes v. DAR Development Corp. have influenced New Jersey's construction injury law for the benefit of workers.

Gerald has been recognized in the New Jersey Law Journal's "40 Under 40" and named a "Rising Stars Super Lawyer" from 2006-2012. Since 2013, he has been consistently honored as a "Super Lawyer" by Thompson Reuters, a "Top 100 Trial Lawyer" by the National Trial Lawyers Association, and a "Top 100 Litigation Lawyer in the State of New Jersey" by the American Society of Legal Advocates.

Mark Morris

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Mark W. Morris, a senior trial attorney, has been recognized on the Super Lawyers Rising Stars List each year since 2019 and has been named a “Top 40 Under 40 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyer” by the National Trial Lawyers Organization since 2019 as well.

Throughout his career, Mark has obtained remarkable settlements and verdicts for his clients, such as a $2 million settlement for a concert patron injured by a stage diver, a $1.325 million settlement for a motorist struck by an intoxicated driver, a $1 million settlement in a negligent security case and a $975,000 settlement in a worksite products liability case. Additionally, he has played a vital role in helping Clark Law Firm P.C. achieve numerous multi-million-dollar settlements and jury verdicts including a jury verdict of $2,579,000 for a construction worker who was injured when he was backed over by a utility truck.

Leading the firm's Consumer Rights Division, Mark has successfully prosecuted state and nationwide consumer class action claims, representing clients against businesses engaging in misleading or fraudulent practices. Notably, he worked on an obsolete motor oil class action that resulted in a $28.5 million settlement for consumers in 2021. Mark has also secured a $1 million consumer fraud class action settlement involving misleading business practices related to the service of process.

With a commitment to all aspects of litigation, Mark has demonstrated success in handling client intake, depositions, motion practice, arbitrations, mediations, and trial. He has won several cases before the Appellate Division and has litigated in both state and federal courts throughout New Jersey and the Southern District of New York.