16 www.lawyer-monthly.com Lawyer Monthly Legal Awards 2024 injuries on her own and addressing them at a later date using her own health insurance. However, instead of letting the case go and allowing my client to be pushed around by the insurance company, I got my client’s permission to file for litigation on this case. By taking the case to litigation, I was able to get an attorney assigned for the driver of the at-fault vehicle and took his deposition, which is a formal Q&A that is answered under oath and transcribed into the court record. During the deposition, I listed out everything his insurance company had done and asked whether he knew he was going to be personally liable for the judgment we obtain against him in excess of his coverage amount. Of course, he did not. After the deposition, I believe there was a heated discussion that took place between the at-fault driver and the insurance company because they settled shortly thereafter. What are the most common legal hurdles or misconceptions that clients face when seeking personal injury representation in Nevada? For those of us working in the personal injury field, there are two main hurdles/misconceptions clients face: (1) how the client will pay our attorney’s fees and (2) how much money they will receive from a settlement. With respect to the first point, we see a lot of clients coming in during intake with one burning question in mind: how much money will we need to pay to have you represent us? Much like almost every personal injury law firm in Nevada, our fees are contingency-based. The simplest way to look at a contingencybased fee for legal representation is to think of it as us helping you make a collateral-free bet. If we believe you have a valid case for personal injury, you do not need to pay anything upfront. In fact, we will oftentimes front a lot of costs associated with your representation (i.e. costs to request medical records, fax, postage, etc.) on your behalf. In the event we do not get a settlement, you are not responsible for anything on our end. If there is a settlement, our fees and costs would come from the settlement instead of your pocket. This helps a lot of people without deep pockets to get quality representation they deserve. With respect to the second misconception, we often see people coming in with a false idea of how much they will get from a settlement. One of the things we hear most often during the initial intake is our client stating, “I got hurt the same way my friend did in his case. Therefore, I should get this amount in my pocket at the end.” While similar cases will help provide good guidance for settlement, the truce is that settlement is oftentimes based on the insurance coverage available in a case and any asset the other driver may have. Even if a client came to us with a lost arm as a result of an automobile accident, there is little else we can do if the only coverage and/or asset the at-fault driver has is an automobile liability policy with minimal coverage as required by state law. Of course, one of the reasons we are retained to represent our client is to go out and search for additional coverage/assets in these scenarios. However, there are countless times when the aforementioned scenario is the reality. Las Vegas is known for its tourism and traffic volume. How do these factors affect car accident injury cases in your practice? As a firm that is deeply rooted in the Las Vegas community we are both blessed and cursed by everything this community has to offer. On the positive side, Las Vegas is known as a Sin City and is a tourist/traffic hot spot. This means there are plenty of vehicles and individuals coming through the city every day. With such a large number of visitors, there are ample traffic accidents, slips and falls, batteries, and other types of accidents that will cause injury to a person. For us, there are always opportunities to take on more cases and expand our repertoire, the only question is whether we have the capacity to do so. On the negative side, since Las Vegas has more than enough accidents to cause injuries on a minute-to-minute basis, there are also a large number of law firms competing with one another for business. This is best exemplified by the countless advertisements for personal injury lawyers spread throughout the city. While we are mostly cordial and professional with our colleagues in the same field, there are times when conflict and competition are inevitable. We sometimes have to compete with Q Q Q
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