I am an independent contractor personal injury paralegal who offers paralegal services at every level and stage of a personal injury claim from intake to trial.
The First Step Is a Big One
Prepackaging is not a difficult or complex part of getting a demand ready, but it is a vital one. How many times have you thought (or worse yet, heard) “This file is totally ready for demand!” only to discover that it’s actually ready for demand (1) When the radiologist’s report comes in; or (2) When the primary care physician’s final review after physical therapy is complete; or (3) When the client gets finished with another round of physical therapy that they never told you about, because no one asked?
I have procedures in place that mean when I find a file is ready for demand, it is truly ready for demand. No “ready as soon as” (unless you are asking for a status report. Which I can deliver with only a few minutes’ notice, or I can give you access to your own personal spreadsheet for your cases, and you can look to see what’s up when your client unexpectedly calls.) Call me and let’s see about putting it all together.
“Write Tight,” Said White
Writing a demand package boils down to telling the story of your client’s no good, horrible, very bad day when they were driving to work after dropping the kids off from school, and WHAM!! Someone hit their car. Or when they were at the grocery store, trying to remember if they needed spaghetti sauce or not and WHAM!!! They slipped on a puddle of water. They were helping out a neighbor, up on a ladder, and WHAM!! The ground underneath one leg was soft, and they fell to the ground.
One then summarizes the medical treatment they undertook to heal, the costs of that treatment, and the effects on their life. The time they were clearing the dishwasher, and their back spasmed, so they had to lie on the floor and get their teenaged kid to finish the job. Bending sideways to style their hair because it hurt too much to bring their hand over their head.
I can talk to your client and elicit the details that make a personal injury demand personal to your client. My background as a creative means I understand good narrative flow, and can gain a sympathetic response even from an insurance adjuster dealing with a towering stack of sob stories.
I’ve received compliments from adjusters who called the attorney to thank them for a clear and reasonable demand package. They could find the relevant information to enter into Colossus, and as a result, they were ready to come to the table with a reasonable ballpark offer. Give me a call, and let me show you some of my work.
Is It Hot In Here, Or Is Your Hair On Fire?
When you’ve done your best, argued with passion and reason, and still have not been able to reach a solid settlement, sometimes there’s nothing left but to bite the bullet and file a lawsuit. That’s when the real fun begins, with a client who does not understand that this is not television, where the case can go from the filing to the hearing (and ultimate victory!) in half an hour with time for commercials. Instead, you have a tangle with deadlines to be assiduously tracked and met. You have the need to poke holes in the adverse side’s case while defending the weak spots in yours. You still have work back at the office that needs attention, and only one brain to think with.
Then of course, you have the need to organize the file such that you can pour it all into your head and be able to find that one page with the smoking gun on it to triumphantly wave in court, knowing full well that this was disclosed in one of your disclosure statements and is fair game under the rules of evidence.
It’s tough work. Fortunately, I have a passion for turning chaos into order. Call me and let’s see if our worldviews mesh.
Prepackaging Services
I can work with you at intake, or simply take the completed intake packet from you. I can collect all the medical records and review them for completeness. I can obtain police reports for you.
I am happy to reach out to your clients on a monthly basis for the first month or two, and then follow up to determine where they are with their treatment more frequently in the last months. I don’t want to miss a dollar of your client’s claims (as I presume you do not) and at the same time, I do not believe in letting a matter sit fallow for any longer than it must.
The first step in a demand is for the client to heal from their collision-related injuries. However, unlike wine and cheese, claims do not improve with age. I believe in getting a file put together thoroughly and expediently so it can be moved on to demand drafting and presentation without delay. Call me so we can discuss getting the ball rolling.
Demand Package Drafting
One we have the relevant records and bills, the fun begins. I offer a “Chinese Menu” of price points that lets you choose how much demand you have an appetite for. If you just want the summary of medical expenses and injuries, I have a package for that. If you want me to get the client’s backstory and the effects of the injuries on their life, I have a package for that. If you just want me to handle facts and liability, I have a package for that.
Naturally, if you want the combo, I have a package for that, and you even get a price break if I do the whole thing as opposed to the three separate parts. (“With three you get egg roll? “ Precisely.)
I also offer a “heart-centered” sliding scale discount on demand package drafting services. I know sometimes a claim that looks golden at intake turns into iron pyrite before settlement. Call me and let’s discuss my fee schedule.
Litigation Assistance
I actually have more experience doing litigation than I do prepackaging. My skills range from:
- Drafting a complaint (and all the documents that go with it) to
- Keeping on top of disclosures so everything goes to adverse counsel timely to
- Propounding and responding to discovery to preserve objections and answer the questions without revealing everything to
- Preparing coherent trial notebooks with solid indices so you can turn directly to the document of significance to
- Assisting at trial, whether that be something as simple as keeping an eye on the jury to see how they’re taking your work or being a spare pair of hands to get the next exhibit ready for you to present.
I do personal injury litigation from beginning to end. I’ve worked on complicated matters with multiple surgeries, years of treatment, and hot and cold running experts to simple “red car – blue car” MIST matters. Let’s meet and confer to see if I can help you put the pieces in order.