Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Please welcome to our law talk show and please say hello to new customer and new client.
Mike Agruss:
Sure. Thanks for having us on. I was off last week, so it’s good to be back. I’m Mike Agruss, the managing partner of 844 See Mike.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yes.
Taylor Kosla:
Good afternoon. I’m Taylor Kosla, I’m a partner at 844 See Mike. And thank you for having us on the show again today.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yes. First of all, I need to thanks so much for your attendance and your time and your patience as well, because we try to explain to our community, make sure they understand, “Okay, what is this law?” And when they need to hire a lawyer. Especially in a car accident, personal injury, and all this stuff as well. Right? Divorce as well. Okay.
Welcome to our shows. And last night we discussed so many issues about personal injury, but we still have a more questions. We need to find out more details. And just in case someone, they get involved into car accident, what should they do? The first question, okay, I would like you to share: “What kind of experience does 844 See Mike have with a personal injuries cases?”
Mike Agruss:
That’s a good question. And when you’re looking to hire a personal injury attorney, I think this is one of the most important things a potential client can ask is, “How much experience you have? And is this something you focus on?”
So this is something we focus on exclusively. I’ve been handling personal injury cases for 17 years. Our firm’s been around for 10 years. Actually, to today. Started March 2nd, 2012. And over the last 10 years and throughout my career, we have helped out over a thousand personal injury clients. Last year we just rolled out state-of-the-art software at the firm. And so that really sets us apart from a lot of other firms that handle personal injury cases.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yes. All right. Thank you.
[Foreign language 00:02:25]
Thank you so much for your answer here. That’s very… that you have a long, long, long years right? 17 years experience, right? For Ms. Taylor, okay? “What is 844 See Mike strategy in personal injury cases?”
Taylor Kosla:
Our strategy for a personal injury case starts with the investigation. We start an investigation the exact day we’re hired by ordering a police report report and a FOIA report to get all evidence from the scene of the crash. After that, our next goal is to ensure our clients get the best treatment and all the treatment that they need by working with a network of doctors that we have. We make sure we get our clients into appointments and stay on top of our clients to ensure that they go to all the appointments that they need.
After that our strategy is to ensure that our clients’ medical bills are paid. That’s a really big concern for our clients, that they’re injured, they need treatment, but they maybe don’t have health insurance or they can’t afford to pay for their medical bills. So, that’s something that we strive to ensure that their medical bills are paid.
And then the last strategy for personal injury cases is to ensure that our clients get a fair and reasonable settlement. And the way that we can do that is really sticking to those first three goals. Getting the investigation done quickly, having our clients get the treatment that they need, allows us to get a fair, fast, and reasonable settlement.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
All right. Thank you.
[Foreign language 00:05:17]
That’s a very good answer because a lot of people, they concerned about the treatment, the medical bills, and also when they get money and how you settlement, right? The next question for Mike is: “Are there any alternative to go into the court?”
Mike Agruss:
Yeah. And oftentimes clients are concerned about this, where they don’t want to hire an attorney, because they’re afraid of going to court, litigation, and all of that. We’re well aware of that. And we do our best to settle cases outside of court. We call it a pre-suit settlement before a lawsuit’s file. When we do that it allows us to maintain control over the case because the moment you file a lawsuit, you’re then under the control of the court and their order and their rules. So the philosophy we follow at our office is, if we can get a fair and reasonable settlement pre-suit, we always settle pre-suit. It’s always in our client’s best interest. However, that doesn’t happen all the time. And so if it doesn’t happen, we file lawsuits. We go a hundred miles an hour. We’re not afraid to litigate. And the moment we file a lawsuit we’re always asking the other side to do some… It’s called alternative dispute resolution, which would be settlement conference with a judge or we would do mediation with a private mediation company.
So pre-suit, we’re always looking for reasonable settlement. If we file suit, we’re always trying to do some sort of alternative dispute resolution. And look, sometimes cases go to trial. We try cases. We’re prepared to try cases. And the other side knows that. And so they view our cases differently because they know that we’re not going to refer the case out, they know that we will take the case to the end and try it, if need be.
But what I want to stress to the viewers here is, we always do our best to settle it outside of court, because outside of court we have control over things. We can guarantee what’s going to happen. The moment you file a lawsuit and start litigating, there’s a lot of unknowns.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yes. Okay. Thank you. Wow. I didn’t know about that. Okay. Now I learn something new every single day.
Mike Agruss:
That’s what we’re here for.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
[foreign language 00:09:21]
Next question. I would like to ask Ms. Taylor: “What are possibility outcome in a personal injury case?”
Taylor Kosla:
There are three types of outcomes you can have in a personal injury case. The first type Mike had just mentioned: settling pre-suit. So your case is resolved before an actual lawsuit is filed. Another outcome you can have is the case will settle during litigation. It’s not uncommon for cases to settle after a little bit of discovery, which is just an exchange of information. And then the third possible outcome is going to trial. And we are not afraid of going to trial, which is really important for the other side to know. We’ve certainly tried cases and that plays into our strategy of being fierce and aggressive. We will do whatever we have to do to make sure our clients get fair and just settlements. And if that means going to trial, we will certainly go to trial. However, I would say most cases settle either pre-suit and then in the early stages of litigation.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Okay. All right. Thank you.
[Foreign language 00:11:51]
Thank you for your answer. The next call is: “Who will actually handle my case as 844 See Mike?”
Mike Agruss:
Sure. And this is a great question that clients should ask when they’re looking to hire an attorney. The first question we talked about was, “What type of experience you have and do you have experience in this practice area?” And the next thing is, “Who will actually handle my case?”
And I think is probably the biggest gripe people have with attorneys is they’re very hard to get in touch with, and it’s not a transparent process. They’re not accessible. What’s awesome about the system we have at our office is the moment a case is opened it automatically gets assigned a team. And that team is an attorney, a paralegal, and a case manager. So the attorney is handling the case. The paralegal is working up the case and the case manager is managing everything.
And from day one, you will always know who’s handling your case. You will also have that person’s contact information, their direct phone number, their cell phone, their email. Once again, we are very easy to get in touch with. It’s very transparent at our office. And the nice thing about our software as well, is everyone has access to it. So you could come in, contact our office, ask us about any case. Anyone could look it up. They can tell you where it’s at, who’s handling it, and what’s going on.
And we’re actually just in the process, I was talking to our IT administrator this morning, we’re rolling out something that I think is really cool that the viewers would want to know. And it is a client portal. And what this is going to allow our clients to do is once we have opened up a case in system, the clients will have access to their file, so they can log in and see where we’re at, as far as gathering information, ordering medical records and bills, sending out a settlement demand. So our clients will never feel like they’re in the dark. Even if they don’t call text or email us, they can just log onto their portal, they can see where we’re at with the case. And I think that transparency and our efficiency really makes us different than a lot of other firms out there.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Okay. Right. Thanks.
[foreign language 00:15:39]
Yes. Thank you for your answer. And that’s what we concerned about. Who should… When we talk when… Education, if someone get involved into the car accident? Right? The next question is: “As a client of 844 See Mike, what is the role of my cases?”
Taylor Kosla:
So our client’s role, the most important role that they play in their case, is getting the treatment that they need. Seeing doctors, going to every appointment. If their physical therapist says, “You need to come twice a week for five weeks.” They need to be there twice a week for five weeks. And the great thing about 844 See Mike is we handle everything. We will handle their property damage claim, their loss wage claim, the investigation. And we’ll handle all that, so our client can focus on getting better and getting the treatment that they need.
We will need assistance from the client, getting certain documentation, such as their health insurance card, a copy of their lost wages from their employer. We’ll also need open lines of communication with our clients so we can easily get ahold of them. And they can easily get ahold of us at any time, like Michael said, which is really unique for a law firm. And that is primarily the role of the client. So they focus on getting better. We handle everything. We make it a really seamless process.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Right. Okay. Thank you.
[Foreign language 00:19:29]
Yes. I think we should take a short break and we’ll be in a few minutes.
[Foreign language 00:21:32].
844 See Mike Ad:
[foreign language 00:21:32]
Loan Factory Ad:
[Foreign language 00:23:16]
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
[foreign language 00:24:05]
So yes, let’s go back to our talk show here. We do appreciate your time again. One more time. We have only one hour and there’s so many question again, and we try to digest here. Okay. The next question, I would like to ask you is: “What percentage do most personal injury lawyers charge? And what does 844 See Mike charge?”
Mike Agruss:
Really good question. And this is super important as well. Our contingency fee is one third. And what that means is our clients will not pay us any money up front. They don’t pay us until we get a settlement. And when we settle the case, it’s one third. Other firms out there will start at one third, and if a lawsuit is filed, it goes up to 40%. If the case goes to trial, it can sometimes go up to 50%. Some firms start at 35% or 40%. So this is something that’s really important for people watching the show. When you’re talking to a potential lawyer to ask what the contingency fee is. And also I have found, sometimes, personal injury attorneys may have a higher contingency fee based on different people that they’re representing. And maybe people who aren’t as familiar, they’re charging a higher contingency fee.
Ours is very simple. It’s one third. Never changes. and another thing that’s very different about our firm is if the case ends up settling, and for whatever reason, maybe the bills are too high or the case doesn’t settle for as much money as possible due to various reasons, we will never take more in attorney’s fees than what our client puts in their pocket. And let me give you an example of this, because I think this is really important and I think it concerns clients, potential clients, because they think, “Well, I have to pay back all my medical bills. Then I have to pay you a third. What’s left for me?” This is very simple. If we have to cut our attorney’s fees, waive our costs, whatever we have to do, we will never take more than what our client puts in our pocket.
So if our attorney’s fees are $5,000 and that’s only going to leave you $4,000, we will cut our fees to make sure we get the same amount. Okay. And so, our clients can feel comfortable with the fact that when they hire us, our fee never changes, and for some reason, and there are several reasons this can happen, if the settlement is not large enough at the end, we will always cut our fees. We will never take more than what our client gets. And sometimes we do this. Yes. And it’s just doing right by our client. And there’s a lot of other firms out there that won’t do that. And so for the viewers, I think it’s important for them to know.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yeah. It’s very reasonable to me and I like it. Okay.
Mike Agruss:
Good. We hope the viewers do too, right?
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yeah. Right. It’s very good. Okay.
[foreign language 00:28:06]
Next question, I’d like to answer Taylor here. Okay. So many questions here for you today, right? “Will 844 See Mike handle my property damage claim?”
Taylor Kosla:
Yeah. So first let me explain what property damage claim is. So when you’re in an auto accident and there’s damage to your vehicle, that’s property, that’s damage. Most insurance policies have coverage for a property damage claim. And at 844 See Mike, we try and get your vehicle repaired, replaced, fixed as quickly as possible. We handle this as a service to our clients for free. They don’t owe us a penny, we don’t take a third of anything. This is just to help our clients get back on their feet as quickly as possible. Other law firms typically do not help their clients out with this. And they certainly don’t do it for free. So it’s a really valuable service that we offer to our clients. And it’s really important that our clients have the ability to drive to their doctor’s appointments, get back to going to work, which is why we offer this service.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yes. Okay. That’s very good point.
Taylor Kosla:
I want to add one more thing. In situations where maybe we’re getting pushback and insurance companies aren’t paying out on the property damage or maybe they’re taking too long. We file suit against the insurance company and make them pay quicker. So if we’re ignored or they’re not responding fast enough, we’ll take action to make sure our client’s vehicles repair or replaced as quickly as possible.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
All right. Thank you.
Mike Agruss:
And this reminds me, Taylor and I were just working on a case and I think real world examples are really helpful. We helped out a client. They didn’t even have a personal injury claim, it was just property damage. It was actually someone who was watching the show and hired us to do this.
And they were involved in an accident, they had coverage. The insurance company who insured the car was saying, “You didn’t follow the procedures to T,” and they’re pointing to all these words in the contract and they’re saying, “We’re not going to pay.” Our clients paid out of pocket over $7,000 to get their property damage fixed. And it kept getting denied and denied. We got involved, it got denied, denied, denied. And so Taylor and I were talking, we filed suit. Couple weeks later, they called up and settled the case.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Oh, okay.
Taylor Kosla:
And paid the full property damage claim, plus some.
Mike Agruss:
Yeah. So yeah, don’t be discouraged because sometimes property damage claims don’t go smoothly, and we’re here to help. And like Taylor said, if someone doesn’t pay and they should pay, we’ll sue them.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yeah. Okay.
[Foreign language 00:32:17]
Yes. Next question is: “When I hire 844 See Mike, who pay for all the costs in the case?”
Mike Agruss:
Sure. So we pay for all the costs and we front those. And the only time we get reimbursed is if we get a settlement for our client. So our client never pays us a penny for costs. We reimburse ourselves when we settle the case. And for some reason, if we don’t have a successful settlement or we don’t get a positive result for our client, doesn’t happen often, but when it happens, we eat all of those costs.
So our clients will never pay us a penny for costs. They’ll never pay us a penny for fees, unless we get a settlement. And in the unlikely event, we don’t get a settlement or we lose the case, our clients never owe us any money. And so we pay to order the police report, the medical records, the bills. We have an investigator who will take pictures, will serve a complaint on the defendant. We pay to have the complaint filed. We have a nurse on staff who reviews medical records and writes summaries for us. We pay all of those costs. We pay for experts, everything. And the clients don’t pay for it. And then when we settle the case, we reimburse ourselves for those costs.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Okay. All right. Thanks very much.
[Foreign language 00:36:10]
Yes. Thank for your answer. Okay. That’s a very good answer. And I like it because we don’t need to worry about how much are we going to pay a lawyer at 844 See Mike for our service.
Mike Agruss:
Right. Yeah, there’s no risk for our clients. And I think that’s really important for people to know.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Right, right.
[Foreign language 00:37:54]
I got the last question for Taylor here: “Why should someone hire 844 See Mike for their personal injury case?”
Taylor Kosla:
We are not a typical law firm and that’s on purpose. Throughout the show we’ve probably mentioned five different ways that we’re different from a typical law firm. We treat our clients like family, friends, and neighbors. We put people first. And we have a team that Mike has built that is dedicated to putting people first.
I don’t think there’s any other law firm that operates like we do, or with the technology that we have when we do this all to take care of our clients. We really care about our clients and getting them the best results possible. So I don’t think any of our viewers should hesitate in hiring us as a law firm.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yeah. I believe generally this is excellent law firm. Excellent services, right? Because you cover everything. Most of everything, right?
Mike Agruss:
I don’t… Sorry to interrupt. What I always tell people too is you don’t have to believe us, me, Taylor, anything. Go online. I encourage people to go online. We have over 1300 five star reviews from clients. And this takes years and years and years to accomplish. And if you don’t believe a word of anything we’ve said today, hopefully people will, but if you don’t go online, you can read all of our reviews and our clients say the exact same thing.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Yeah. When we first start I mentioned about it, but actually I said only a thousand, but actually it’s 1300 like views. Right? That’s the best, right?
Mike Agruss:
We’re working very hard.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Okay.
[Foreign language 00:39:34]
Yes. Thank you so much for coming up to our show. And we do appreciate your time, your experience, and your help too as well. Right? Before we say goodbyes, please say goodbye to your new client and we’ll see you next.
Mike Agruss:
Sure. Thanks for having us on. And we will be here next week to discuss more about car accidents and personal injury.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Okay. All right. It sound good to me.
Taylor Kosla:
Thank you so much for having us on the show again. And we look forward to teaching you more about your rights next week.
Tai Nan Ca Nhan:
Again, thanks so much for coming.
[Foreign language 00:42:20]
