If there’s no injury that’s diagnosed and there’s no treatment, it doesn’t add much credence to the settlement being high. There was no impact on their life, at least from a medical standpoint.

It’s really important to make sure that we’re very specific in what’s going on. When the patients are getting close to or done with treatment, we get to that maximum medical improvement.

Looking at their duties under duress and their loss of lifetime enjoyment activities, we say, “Prior to this, they were able to work eight hours a day sitting at a computer, no issue. Now, they can only work three hours; their pain level is at a five after three hours. If they go to four hours, it gets to an eight and they have to stop.”

That’s a huge change, especially if we talk about a forty-five year old who is going to be working for another twenty years.

That’s how things compound, and that’s how these case values grow, but you need to make sure all the bases are put into place to actually grow that case.

The most important thing in a case is not just a claim or trying to settle somebody’s claim.

I need something I can actually take in front of the jury — the doctor’s opinion about what caused the injury and the doctor’s opinion about what the future prognosis looks like.

Those two things, in my opinion, are the most important thing your doctor can do for you beyond getting you better.