Oftentimes, many of the small details learned during the course of a case go unnoticed. When you capture those nuggets of information and use them to help build your strategy, they can make all the difference in front of a jury and, ultimately, to your client’s recovery. The phrase “the devil is in the details” rings true most of the time, particularly in personal injury cases.
At Wilshire Law Firm, our extensive experience and hard work have enabled us to develop a comprehensive playbook that includes a multifaceted and technologically driven client intake process coupled with a strong determination to understand the many ways the client’s injuries have altered not only their life but those of their loved ones. The outcomes we’ve obtained prove that our tactics are truly a battle-tested recipe for success. Most recently, our team used our playbook—which I explain in greater detail below—to resolve a case with a $1 million policy for more than $35 million.
The Case
The incident occurred in the spring of 2018 on an interstate highway when our client’s vehicle was rear-ended by a tractor trailer. Our client suffered a herniated spine with nerve pain and numbness, in addition to a shoulder rotator cuff tear.
Our playbook consists of three phases, all equally essential: Get to know your client; invest in your client’s outcome; and collaborate to your client’s advantage. Let’s break these three things down.
Get to know your client. Learning about your client—examining every detail and taking notes that support the case—is key to maximizing case value, enabling you to empathetically represent your client before a jury. Spend time with potential witnesses such as family members and close friends. Keep these kinds of questions in mind: Is there a particular hobby your client can no longer enjoy? How has your client’s life been altered in potentially unseen ways? Gathering this type of information will be of paramount importance to help you convey the magnitude of your client’s injuries. We’ve found that this approach helps ignite our passion to seek the best recovery.
Invest in your client’s outcome. Don’t hold back on bringing in top-notch experts, who are the unsung heroes of personal injury cases. They make all the difference in how you convey your messaging and shape your story to explain how the accident occurred and how it injured your client. Don’t just rely on demonstrative models—use day-in-the-life videos, create animations to reconstruct the accident and produce compelling visuals. The presentation should tap into your audience, the jury, from as many angles as possible. Leveraging both outside experts and these sorts of tools, you’ll make it far easier for the jury to understand what happened and how it affected your client’s life.
Collaborate to your client’s advantage. Although our firm has grown significantly to more than 60 attorneys and 400 team members overall, we believe that some cases warrant the involvement of another firm. In the case cited above, we partnered with a firm that handled the two clients with lesser injuries at no additional cost. As such, we were able to amplify our case better given that it was represented by two firms presenting the same story. This also allowed for two openings and two closings on behalf of the plaintiffs, offering various personalities to the jury to maximize impact and the likelihood of juror buy-in.
Bobby Saadian founded Wilshire Law Firm in 2007; it is an award-winning personal injury, employment and class-action law firm that has helped thousands of clients, recovering more than $1 billion in verdicts and settlements on their behalf. Our results this year include a $3 million midtrial settlement in a sexual assault case, a $14 million jury verdict in a motorcycle accident case and a $25 million consumer class-action settlement.
