Join Kern Living host Ryan Nelson as he chats with Daniel Geoulla, a Managing Partner at B&D Law Group, about personal injury lawsuits.
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00:00 (upbeat music)
00:02 - Good morning and welcome to Current Living.
00:12 I'm your host, Ryan Nelson,
00:13 and I hope you all are having a great Thursday.
00:15 Coming up first on today's show,
00:17 we're talking with our friends from B&D Law
00:19 about some legal issues that you may have yourself.
00:22 Let's check it out.
00:23 So if someone gets into an accident
00:25 and wants to bring a personal injury claim,
00:28 can you tell us based on your experience,
00:30 what are some of the most common things
00:31 that you see people do that can hurt their own case?
00:35 - Well, okay, so the number one thing I see people do
00:40 that hurts their case is not being honest
00:45 about their accident, not being honest about their injuries,
00:49 not being honest about how the accident happened.
00:51 I think that's the biggest one
00:53 because we live in a day and age
00:56 where there's surveillance cameras everywhere.
00:58 On top of that, the insurance companies
01:00 are following people around everywhere they go
01:03 and doing surveillance.
01:04 They're recording you, they're watching you,
01:06 they're watching everything you do.
01:07 That honesty is really gonna come back around
01:09 and haunt people.
01:10 And being honest includes things
01:13 like lying about medical history.
01:16 Like we've had someone, we've seen these cases.
01:19 I won't accept that case.
01:22 But where they had fallen off a ladder
01:25 months before the accident
01:26 and now they're in a car accident
01:27 telling me how their neck and back hurts.
01:29 But there's ER records from months ago
01:30 saying you fell off a ladder.
01:31 You can't do that.
01:33 You've gotta be honest.
01:34 You can't bury that.
01:35 You gotta be forthcoming.
01:37 And an honest claim is better
01:38 than one where you're not being honest.
01:39 So that's the biggest one.
01:41 - Okay, so it's always good to be honest.
01:43 Is there anything else that could hurt somebody's case?
01:46 - Right, so the medical treatment, that's the biggest one.
01:48 In law, it's not about what you know or what happened.
01:51 It's about what you can prove, unfortunately.
01:53 And documenting the injuries, documenting them early,
01:57 being consistent with the medical treatment,
01:59 that's the biggest thing.
02:00 You gotta get to the doctor's appointments.
02:02 You gotta be consistent.
02:04 Don't miss the doctor's appointments.
02:05 But also, you have to be thorough
02:07 when you're describing the injuries
02:09 and give good details to the doctors.
02:12 It starts at the EMT.
02:13 EMT shows up, you gotta itemize everything that hurts.
02:16 Don't leave something out.
02:17 Don't try to sugarcoat it and say,
02:18 oh, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine.
02:19 They're not there.
02:20 It's not a casual conversation at a bar with a friend.
02:23 You're talking to your medical providers.
02:25 They need to know what's going on.
02:26 So don't be shy, let 'em know what's going on.
02:28 - So is there any other points that maybe people
02:31 in Kern County should know about this?
02:32 - Right, so the biggest one is social media, obviously.
02:35 That one's ubiquitous now.
02:38 And I'm gonna include talking to friends, family,
02:40 and everything about your claim in that one
02:42 'cause it goes hand in hand.
02:44 We live in an age where social media's everywhere.
02:47 They're gonna pull your whole history.
02:49 They're gonna pull every picture you posted,
02:51 every post you made.
02:52 They could pull archived ones sometimes.
02:54 They could pull deleted ones sometimes.
02:57 And they're gonna use it all against you.
02:58 So this happens, we've seen it, and we hear about it,
03:01 and we think it's funny,
03:02 but I actually get these calls sometimes
03:04 where the person's talking about my neck, my back.
03:06 I can't move, I can't function, I can't do this.
03:09 They're posting pictures of their ski trip
03:10 or they're posting pictures doing handstands.
03:12 You can't do that.
03:13 And talking to friends and family,
03:15 they're gonna interview your neighbors,
03:17 your coworkers, your friends.
03:19 They're gonna do whatever they can to get a hand up.
03:21 They're gonna call these people to come to trial
03:23 if they have to and testify against you.
03:25 And it's just not worth it.
03:27 Talk to your legal team, don't talk to anyone else.
03:30 But let me throw in one other thing
03:31 that I just thought of, bankruptcy.
03:34 This comes up, people don't know about it.
03:36 Bankruptcy lawyers don't even know about it sometimes.
03:38 Personal injury lawyers don't know about it sometimes.
03:41 If you're gonna file bankruptcy,
03:43 you need to let your bankruptcy lawyer
03:45 know about your accident claim.
03:47 You need to let your personal injury lawyer
03:49 know about your bankruptcy that you're thinking of filing
03:52 because there's steps they need to make
03:53 or else you waive your right to bring that claim
03:56 and pursue it any further.
03:57 You basically lost your claim before it began
03:59 because you didn't do your bankruptcy correct.
04:01 So that's the one I wanted to throw in.
04:03 (upbeat music)
04:05 (upbeat music)