B&D Law Group | KERN LIVING - video Dailymotion

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Join Kern Living host Ryan Nelson as he chats with Daniel Geoulla, a Managing Partner at B&amp;D Law Group, about personal injury lawsuits.

Transcript

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)

B&D Law Group | KERN LIVING

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