Blog Archives

Frank finds the Law Office of Robert Mansour

5/31/2014

I used to work for a large insurance defense firm. That means I worked for an insurance company, defending personal injury claims. That's the opposite of what I do now. While my clients were technically the policy holders of the insurance company, my employer was the insurance company. Therefore, I had very little influence (basically none) about how the insurance company conducted business, how they advertised, the way they handled claims, etc. I was a tiny fish in a very big ocean. Those kinds of decisions were made in ivory towers at the corporate level.

After working for 13 years for the insurance companies, I decided it was time to open my own practice. It was something I really had been wanting to do for about 4 or 5 years before actually "jumping ship." There was an entrepreneurial bug in me that had been dormant for years but finally revealed itself to me. I must admit, making the transition was a very scary event, and opening a law practice just before the Great Recession hit was not fun.

In any event, one of the things that I really enjoy about my law office is the ability to have total control about my marketing, my message, how I communicate with clients, the ability to educate...basically the ability to call all the shots. Unlike my former law office, now I have total control over how I do things. While there are certainly burdens associated with being ultimately responsible for everything, there are definite benefits to "being your own boss."

One of the things I most enjoy is the marketing of my law office. For example, this website is managed by me, and pretty much all the content on the website was authored by me. This video above is no exception. Like I said, I really enjoy marketing so I had a lot of fun making this "animated" short promotional video for my personal injury practice. I hope you enjoy it too. It's the story of Frank.

If you need guidance with your personal injury matter, please don't hesitate to contact my office. We will let you know if we can help. Call (661) 414-7100 anytime to see if we can assist you. We serve all of Los Angeles County, particularly the Santa Clarita area and its communities of Valencia, Saugus, Canyon Country, Castaic, Newhall and Stevenson Ranch.

Whether or not you should bring a claim for personal injury depends

5/11/2014

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:

Hello everybody, this is Robert Mansour, and today's video we're going to talk about whether or not bringing a personal injury case is worth it.

Some clients find that it's not worth their time. They come to my initial consultation and say, one client recently said "well, listen, if I don't get $10,000 dollars in my pocket after all is said and done, then this is not worth it for me. So what do you think?"

I told him "well, then it's not worth it for you because I can't guarantee the result in your case. Your case probably won't be worth anywhere near $10,000 dollars. I don't know. But I certainly can't guarantee you some kind of result."

So if you're looking for a guaranteed result, you shouldn't waste your time because there's too many variables when it comes to these kinds of cases. So in some ways, if you have a number in mind, you need to let go of that number or just not proceed at all.

Other clients say "look, I'm not in this for the money. I don't really care. I don't want to make a million dollars. I just want to get fair compensation. I just want somebody to pay for my medical bills and maybe a little bit in my pocket, and certainly pay the attorney for his or her time."

Some clients, it's just worth it for them so they don't have to deal with the insurance company.   Now in that case, it might be worth it for you as well.

But you need to talk about these things with your attorney and you need to kind of talk about your expectations. You need to have a lawyer who will give you a realistic expectation and not just tell you anything you want to hear simply to get the case. Because here's the thing. Some lawyers know that they're going to make money regardless of the case that they take and they don't really have their client's best interest in mind.

If a lawyer's going to tell you something like "hey, I'm not really sure this is going to be worth your effort and worth your time, and these are some of the things that might go wrong with your case", that's a lawyer you should listen to because they're giving you a realistic assessment and not just painting a rosy picture for you.

So whether it's worth it or not kind of depends on your own expectations.

Make sure you talk with your lawyer, and then you can make an educated decision.

Again, this has been Robert Mansour. If you want to learn more about my practice or ask me some questions regarding personal injury, all of my contact information is located below on the screen. You can also visit my website at www.valencialawyer.com.

Thank you very much for watching this brief video. (Call our Santa Clarita injury office today at (661) 414-7100 to see if we can assist you).

Lost earnings claims after an accident

5/2/2014

As part of your injury claim, you are generally entitled to "lost earnings." That basically translates to "money lost from your job due to the accident." Notice, there has to be "money lost" and it has to be "due to" the accident. Speculative lost earnings (speculative damages of any sort) generally won't hold water.

I recently had a case where a client alleged she lost her job because of an accident. I later learned she didn't really lose her job...she was on her way to interview for the job. There was no guarantee she was going to get the job. Even then, there was no proven track record to illustrate how much actual money she would have lost. She assured me she was "going to get" the job. While that may indeed be worth some compensation, a claim for $20,000 in lost earnings wasn't going to fly.

Proving lost earnings is a very tricky endeavor. If you're going to ask for such compensation, be prepared to prove it to the suspicious insurance adjuster. Remember, as far as most insurance adjusters are concerned, you are probably trying to "get away with something." So many people out there are trying to take advantage of insurance companies and most adjusters will treat you as "guilty" until proven innocent. They will want pay stubs, tax records, etc.

I had a client once who alleged thousands in lost income. She had her own business (which makes things even more difficult. Income that fluctuates is even harder to prove). When we closely examined her lost earnings, we found she was actually reporting a loss of a few thousand dollars every year. For example, one year she made $35,000, but she took "expenses" of $36,500 on her tax forms. Therefore, she arguably lost $1,500 by operating her business that year. The same was true for subsequent years. I explained to her that the defense would likely argue she was better off WITHOUT her business because she was LOSING money every year. In short, if she was always operating at a loss, it was hard to show she lost income because of the accident.

I generally don't encourage lost earnings claims unless they are easily substantiated. If you find that you're going to have to do a lot of explaining, it's probably not worth the effort and may backfire. If you can't convince the insurance adjuster of your lost earnings, imagine trying to convince 12 jurors. Imagine showing a jury all your aggressive deductions on your tax records. Do you think most jurors will appreciate that?

Finally, a lost earnings claim should be brought if it doesn't hamper the rest of the case. I had a case recently where my client's injuries were substantial. However, he insisted on arguing for a few thousand dollars in lost earnings. I explained that the value in his case was in his injury claim - not so much with the lost earnings portion. By continuing to emphasize the lost earning component of the case, I was worried it would become a side show that would take the focus away from the serious injuries he sustained. Juries would be closely examining tax forms, income and expense reports, etc., instead of focusing on the client's serious injuries.

If you wish to discuss your case with Robert Mansour, call (661) 414-7100 to see if we can help you with your accident case.