Answers To The Top 16 New Orleans Car Accident Lawyer Questions
If you or a loved one has been in a car, truck or motorcycle accident in New Orleans, watch this in-depth, webinar-style video to get all of your most important questions answered. In the video you will learn:
» How Much Money Will I Get?
» How Long Is This Process Going To Take?
» How Much Will It Cost?
» What If I Don’t Have a Doctor Yet?
» What Are The Most Common Myths Associated With Car Accident Cases?
» What Are The Most Common Mistakes That People Make?
» How Does Having a Good Lawyer Make The Process Easier?
» Why Did You Get Into This Area of Practice?
» What Is An Auto Accident From a Legal Perspective?
» What Kind of Evidence Needs To Be Provided?
» What Are My Legal Rights In This Type of Case?
» How Do I Know If I Should Hire a Car Accident Attorney?
» How Do I Find The Right Lawyer?
» What Do I Do For My Clients?
» What Are The Typical Expenses That You Can Expect Working With Me?
» Why Should I Call An Accident Attorney Now And Not Put This Off?
Video Transcript
HOST: If you’ve been injured in an accident that wasn’t your fault in Louisiana, I have an amazing treat for you today. If you’re going through the medical bills, the lost wages or just wondering who’s going to fix your car, how you’re going to get to work– or maybe you’re dealing with doctors and you don’t necessarily understand this process, and you’re probably being contacted three times a day by your insurance company and their insurance company, and maybe bill collectors are calling, this is going to be really, really extremely valuable information.
My special guest today, Keith Magness, is a personal injury lawyer in New Orleans. He’s a former Marine. He’s helped over 1000 people do this. More importantly, Keith, you’re somebody who’s actually sat in the client’s chair. You’ve through this exact process yourself, which we’ll get into in this interview. First of all, Keith, thank you so much for being here and doing this.
KEITH: Thanks for having me. I’m happy to be here.
HOST: Keith, obviously, a lot of folks are sitting there and they’re going through this process, they’ve been injured in an accident, it isn’t really their fault. What they really want to know is how much is my claim worth? I know you can’t give an exact answer, but can you just elaborate on that for us?
KEITH: Sure. That’s probably one of the top three questions that we get when meeting with potential clients for the first time. “What is my claim worth? How long is it going to take?” And whatnot. The value of any claim really does depend upon the nature of your injuries: How long did it take for you to get better? What exactly is going on? It should seem logical that if you are– I mean, it’s an unfortunate incident being in an accident, but if your accident only resulted in neck strain and back strain that took 6 months to resolve, that case is going to be dramatically different than a case that resulted in major damage to your spine. Maybe you herniated a disc, something that requires surgery to fix, something that’s going to result in a long-term impairment to your ability to really function on a day-to-day basis. Two different things. So the value of a case really does depend.
HOST: Keith, you mentioned obviously one of the big questions a lot of people wonder is how long is this process going to take. Can you elaborate on how that works?
KEITH: Sure. The short answer, again, is it does depend. I mean, the process is very individualized. People respond to different injuries differently. For example, I’ve had clients who were 70-something years old, rear-ended by a loaded down dump truck and, you know, four months later, you’d think that they could climb the Empire State Building.
Then, I’ve had clients who were 25 years old in a much less serious, from a property damage perspective, accident that required surgery and were down and out for over a year. It’s really individualized. How your body heals is impacted by so many different factors: your own environment, your diet, whether or not you really employed the therapies prescribed by your doctors. It’s impossible on day 1 to tell somebody how long this process is going to take. The best advice we can give is go to the doctors, listen to them, follow the homework instructions, do the therapy, and allow your body to heal in the time that it takes to heal.
HOST: Keith, that is a really great answer. Let me ask you. I mean, a lot of folks obviously listening to this, their big fear in calling a lawyer is that it’s going to cost them money that they don’t have. They’re already dealing with medical bills and lost wages. Can you just kind of elaborate what it’s going to cost somebody to kind of go through this process if they decide to work with a lawyer such as yourself?
KEITH: Sure. If somebody, after an accident, decides to work with my firm, it costs them absolutely nothing, unless and until we’re able to receive compensation on their behalf. What does that mean practically? You come in, you sign up as a client of ours. We’re going to help guide you through the medical process, line you up with doctors, therapists, whatever it may be– it’s in your best interest– and you’re not going to come out of pocket anything.
If at the end of the day we’re successful and we’re able to receive compensation for your case, not only for your medical bills, but your pain and suffering and aggravation, things of that nature, at that time is when we’ll assess a percentage fee against the amount of money that we recover. So if there is no recovery, there is absolutely no fee. There’s absolutely no risk to any individual working with us after an auto accident.
HOST: Yeah, that’s really brilliant, Keith, because you guys get paid obviously directly from the insurance company if there is a settlement. You kind of hit on something that a lot of people ask, that comes up really frequently is, when you’re going through this process, you mentioned earlier when we were kind of off air, a lot of people go see their doctor and their doctor says, “Well, I don’t deal with people who have been in an accident.” How do they go about finding a doctor? How can you help somebody with this process?
KEITH: Absolutely. It is unfortunate that due to the nature of health insurance these days, many, many primary care physicians, urgent care centers, or things of that nature, will not see or treat individuals who have been involved in a motor vehicle accident claim. If you were in a car accident, you walk in and tell that doctor at the urgent care center, “I’m here because I’ve been in a wreck,” chances are they’re going to turn you around and show you the door and possibly point you to an emergency room, which may not necessarily be the right decision for you, but they just will not treat you. Many of them actually have– I’ve seen when I’ve gone to the doctor– in their lobby: “We do not treat motor vehicle accident patients”.
So when people come in to us, we’ve over the years developed a relationship with a number of different care providers, from standard internists to general practitioners to specialists: orthopedists, neurosurgeons, neurologists, orthopedists, chiropractors, physical therapists, all different types of disciplines in the medical field that we help our clients get to. Again, at no cost to them, in order to begin their path to healing after such a traumatic incident.
HOST: Great answer, Keith. Let me ask you something else that obviously comes up. A lot of people going through this process don’t necessarily know what it really entails, so let me ask you: What are some of the most common misconceptions that you see people have who are just starting in this process and haven’t really been through it before?
KEITH: Sure. One of the major misconceptions, and we already kind of touched on it, is it’s going to cost me a lot of money, I can’t afford a lawyer, so I don’t even want to embark on the process. Again, working with a firm like ours, it costs you absolutely nothing. Any potential client that would work with us, nothing, nothing out of a pocket, unless and until we’re able to receive compensation for them for their injuries.
Another thing that we commonly see is individuals who think they can go in alone because the nicer man or woman on the other end of the line, from the insurance company (State Farm, AllState, GEICO, Progressive, whoever it may be) seems so nice and friendly and it seems so cordial. Well, the fact of the matter is that they’re not your friend. They actually have bosses to answer to and their entire role in this matter is to minimize the amount of compensation that you receive, whereas a law firm like ours, our goal is to maximize that compensation. We’re your friend and we’re going to be your shield in the process.
HOST: Yeah, Keith, you mentioned that. We see that so often where people think that because they’ve known their State Farm guy for 15, 20 years that they’re going to be the one dealing with it. Obviously, insurance companies are a billion-dollar companies for a reason.
One of the things that you must see a lot is, like you mentioned, people either go in this alone or they decide to hire a lawyer who doesn’t necessarily specialize in this, they got a cousin, brother, uncle in the family, or something like that, who just finished law school and they decide to do this. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people make who either try and do this alone or neglect to hire a really experienced and knowledgeable attorney such as yourself?
KEITH: Sure. We often see “do-it-yourselfers” come to our office 6 months into the process. Some of them we’re able to help and salvage any potential damage that’s been done. Others, we just simply have to be honest with them and say, “I’m sorry.” We have to turn them away. Sometimes that’s as a result of that friendly man or woman on the other end of the line who says, “Look, I’m going to get you something to help you out. I’m going to send you this check. It’s going to have some paperwork. All you need to do is sign and send it back.” They understand that this check is a payment towards the eventual bill that should be paid, and what they don’t realize is they’re signing a complete and total release of the claim. If they accept that money, deposit that check, send that back, they’re forever barred from moving forward. That’s one mistake that do-it-yourselvers make. They just don’t operate in this arena on a day-to-day basis.
Which brings me to the second point: The big mistake is hiring that general practitioner, that cousin, brother-in-law, whoever, who one day is a divorce lawyer, the next day is a bankruptcy attorney, the next day is helping get somebody out jail, on Thursday he’s handling a car accident, and the next day is back to child custody issues. A practice like ours, between 85% and 90% of what we do is car, truck and motorcycle accident cases. It is our focus. We specialize in that– so we eat, breathe, and sleep car accidents. That allows us to really drill an inch wide and a mile deep in that area of law.
All of our continuing education is focused on car, truck and motorcycle accident claims, not only the law that applies, but the rules of evidence, latest technologies, to help us prove our clients’ cases and maximize their recovery. When you are an attorney who’s trying to do five or six different practice areas, you can’t devote your resources to developing those types of technologies and systems of procedures that benefit our clients. Every one of our staff members knows their role, understands the process and aren’t confused when one day they’re handling a divorce, and the next day they’re handling a bankruptcy. It’s certainly my opinion that it’s not best to bring an injury case to somebody who may practice injury law 10%, 15%, 20% of the time.
HOST: Yeah, I mean, the law is complicated. That’s why lawyers exist. Let me ask you, what are some of the ways that really good lawyers such as yourself can make this whole process easier on somebody going through it?
KEITH: Well, I tell people, “If you decide to work with us, your whole job is to go to the doctor and get better. Go to the doctor and get better. Don’t worry about the insurance companies, don’t worry about the doctor’s bills, don’t worry about the bill collector, don’t worry about anything but focusing on your treatment and getting better.” We focus on the client first, ensuring that they get their good customer service, ensuring that they’re getting top-notch medical care and having no individual exposure to it financially unless, again, we actually recover something on their behalf.
That’s what we’re able to do because of the nature of our practice, because we’re primarily focused on auto accident injury law. We’re able to build that network of providers and provide that level of concierge treatment to the client. Let us take care of everything. You go to the doctor, do your homework, do your stretches, get better– we’ll handle the rest.
HOST: It really is amazing what you guys do to help people through that process that otherwise they would have to sort out on their own, like doctors, car rentals, and things of that nature. Let me ask you, Keith, this is one of the things that we kind of touched on off air here. You have an amazing story of how you got into this. Let me ask you, why did you decide to become a personal injury lawyer?
KEITH: Well, I decided to go into personal injury law, and specifically motor vehicle, car, truck, and motorcycle accident law, based on my own individual experience. As I mentioned to you previously off air, I’ve sat in that client’s chair. I’ve been touched by a horrific accident that actually resulted in the loss of my mother.
The experience that I had with the attorneys– we, my brothers and I, consulted after that, and quite frankly the insurance company we were dealing with left a mark on me. It left such a mark that when I decided to do this type of work, I said “I’m going to do things differently.” Compassion and empathy are going to be a foundational value of our law firm. We are going to treat everybody with compassion and empathy, basically look at them and say, “If it’s not good for Grandma, it’s not good for them.” That applies in my office. Being truthful and honest with our clients. Simply returning a phone call or an email in a timely manner. These are things that I did not experience when I sat across the table from attorneys following the loss of my mother in a car accident that I think that every client deserves. We have a bill of rights in our office that specifically says they are entitled to it, and moreover, if they’re not getting that from me, we have a satisfaction guarantee where they can walk away from our firm, and we won’t charge them a dime because we’re not doing what we need to do to ensure that they’re receiving the service that they deserve.
So, that experience, from the loss of my mother, gave me the passion to do things differently and change the image, to the extent that I can, of the injury market of not being a group of individuals who are solely focused on what fee they can generate, but truly trying to take care of the whole person, medically, mental therapy, whatever it may be, conducting themselves with compassion and empathy, and just holding that high, high standard for customer service, which I, unfortunately, did not receive at the time I needed it.
HOST: Keith, that’s a beautiful story. Obviously, that’s near and dear to you. Thank you so much for sharing that. Let me kind of switch gears a little bit, because that was a little bit intense, to be quite honest. What is an injury case legally in Louisiana and what sort of evidence you need? How does it work? Can you elaborate on that?
KEITH: Yeah, I can. In a nutshell, any injury case is like a three-legged stool. Picture a stool that’s standing in front of you that has three legs. One of those legs would be liability. So somebody has to have an at-fault accident. Somebody has to be responsible for the accident issue. There have to be damages. You actually have to be hurt– because you can have an accident, but if you’re not hurt, there’s no case. If you have liability and damages, you also have to have an ability to recover (some ability to pay). Quite frankly, in most circumstances, that’s an insurance company, or AllState, Travelers, Progressive, GEICO, whoever it may be.
If you’re looking at that stool, and any one of those legs is shorter than the other, what happens? It becomes unstable. It’s wobbly. If you look at that stool, and you suddenly cut one of the legs off, what’s going to happen to that stool? It’s going to fall over on its side and not stand up. If you don’t have liability, if you don’t have damages, and you don’t have an ability to recover, then you probably don’t have a good injury case to pursue.
HOST: That’s interesting, Keith. I really like that stool analogy. Let me ask you, what has to be proven to win an injury case?
KEITH: Well, you’re going to have to prove that somebody– There was an accident, that somebody was responsible for, that the injuries that you claim were caused by that accident, be it a stiff neck, or stiff back, or a herniated disc in your back, were actually caused by that accident. And obviously, damages. How do we prove an injury is caused by the accident? Well, it’s medical doctors and medical teams. That’s why it’s so important when somebody gets into an accident, the first thing that they do, obviously besides retaining a competent injury attorney, is get to the doctor. Get to the doctor. It does two things: 1) It allows them to assess you, make sure there’s not something majorly wrong that needs true trauma care, but 2) it allows you to begin the path of healing and at the same time, they’re documenting your claim for you, and they can then, later on, give opinions as to whether or not the issues, the symptoms that you’re presenting with, “oh, my neck hurts, my back hurts, this broken arm”, whatever it may be, was medically, more likely than not, causally related to the accident that occurred. If you don’t have that, if you can’t prove causation, that the injury at issue was caused by the accident, well, then you don’t have a case for that particular injury.
HOST: Very interesting, Keith. So let me ask you: Say somebody’s listening to this, they have, as you put it, the three-legged stool, they kind of fit the criteria, what are their basic legal rights in going through this process?
KEITH: You know, after an accident, as a victim of that wreck, you absolutely have a right to get better, to get back to where you were before somebody came along and caused this unfortunate incident, to make those aches and pains go away. And God forbid, if it’s something that’s not a simple ache and pain that can go away after a few months of therapy and something that’s going to stick with you for the rest of your life, to be properly compensated for that; if that injury affects your ability to go out and earn a living, you can’t do the same job that you did before, to have the difference between what you were making before versus what you can now, made up. Those are certainly some of the rights that accident victims would have, and they need to be careful. Those rights need to be asserted within a very tight timeframe.
Currently in Louisiana we have one year, what we call, prescriptive period, but what some people know as a statute of limitations, meaning if you don’t file a claim against the wrongful actor, or a wrongful driver within one year of the accident, you’re out of luck! You’re just out of time. You cannot go back and sue them, or recover anything. They can ride off in the sunset and never be held responsible for the harm that they caused.
HOST: That would be really, really unfortunate. Let me ask you, Keith: A lot of folks listening to this have been injured in an accident that wasn’t their fault. How should they know whether or not they need a lawyer?
KEITH: Well, I think it’s quite simple. You need a lawyer in any accident that you’ve been involved in, that was not your fault and caused you injury. Why? Again, you got to put it in the hands of the professionals. Those people like myself, like our firm, who do this on a daily basis. We do this day in and day out. We know all the typical tricks and traps of the insurance company. I guarantee you, right after an accident occurs, again, that nice man or woman is going to call you up and they’re going to say, “Well, do you mind if take a recorded statement from you? We’d like to hear your side of the story.” This may be immediately after the accident, within 24 hours your phone is ringing. They’re catching you out of time, you may have bumped your head, you’re still recuperating mentally from it, you’re not all with it, and they will get you to say things such as, “How are you feeling today?” “Oh, I’m feeling fine.” Well, that’s going to be construed later on that there’s nothing wrong.
So you need an attorney who understands things like that to be your shield in that process, to prevent the insurance company’s adjusters from taking advantage of you, just as somebody who doesn’t deal with this on a day-to-day basis and say, “No! Not now. We may give a statement, but it’s not the right time,” and allow you to get your wits together and remember the accident appropriately as it is, and to help guide you on that path.
They’ll also try and get you to sign blanket medical records releases, where they can go out and receive records from the date of your birth forward, and try to use those records in an effort to prevent your claim from moving forward.  Again, a skilled attorney will know what truly they have a right to take a look at and what truly should be given, and you should always have somebody there who’s your advocate, looking out for your rights and interests, any time that there’s an incident like that and that insurance company gets involved in.
HOST: That’s a great answer, Keith. So, say I’m going through this process, if somebody is in Louisiana, obviously, I would highly encourage them to call you, but let me ask you, how should somebody go about finding a lawyer? What should they look for? What should they watch out for?
KEITH: Sure. I mean, I encourage people all the time. It doesn’t matter if it’s me, there’s certain questions that you should ask any attorney. As a matter of fact, on our website, we have a web page that says “11 Questions You Should Ask Any Attorney Before You Retain Them“. Obviously you want to make sure that they’re licensed. That’s a bare minimum requirement, at least in Louisiana, as I’m aware of, as in any state of this Union, that an individual, in order to give legal advice to somebody else, has to be admitted or properly licensed by that particular state’s bar association.
You’ll probably want to ask them about their experience levels. How long have they been admitted to the bar? Generally, especially when it comes to an injury claim that can have a severe impact on you for many, many years to come, you may want to avoid the greenhorn, the person that just graduated from law school and hung their shingle. I like to think 10 years is kind of a good line. Look for somebody who has 10 years or more of experience.
Then you need to focus on what type of experience that they have. We talked about this a little bit earlier. Do you want a person who’s a general practitioner and takes any warm body that comes through the door, as long as he has a checkbook, no matter what area of law? Or do you want somebody who has shown their great desire and interest in one particular area like auto accident and injury law who handles 75% or more of their cases in that field to be the one who’s working for you?
I use an example sometimes with people who challenge my decision to solely, primarily focus on car, truck and motorcycle accident claims so I say, “It’s like this: if I crushed my hand in a vice, am I going to go to my general practitioner, who treats general things about my body? Or am I going to find the guy here in New Orleans who is the hand guru, the guy who does nothing but practice on hands?” I think the obvious choice, in that scenario, is I want to go the guy who spends 90% to 100% of his time working on the hand, because obviously that experience should dictate that they’re better at treating hands.
I think the same thing goes for lawyers who choose to focus their practice. It just allows them to be well-versed in one particular area of law versus the other. I think that you should always look for the smartest guy in the room to represent you. Well, it’s no secret that coming out of law school, the top law firms use grades as a litmus test of whether or not to even look at a resume. Ask the attorney, “What was your class rank? Where did you place in your class?” Were they in the bottom quarter? Bottom half? Or were they in the top 10%? Were they on law review? Those are some things you can look at. Have they been peer-reviewed? Do they have AVVO scores? What is it? What areas of practice did they indicate on AVVO? All things, I think, one can look at to see if the person is minimally qualified, and truly is focused in one particular area that will benefit them at the end of the day.
HOST: That is some powerful, powerful advice, Keith. Let me ask you. Obviously, somebody who’s listening right now, they’ve been injured in an accident, it’s not their fault, they’re dealing with the whole overwhelm of this process with all the doctors and insurance companies, I would encourage them to call you. Let me ask you, what do you guys do for your clients? What should they expect working with you guys?
KEITH: Well, if you work with me, you should expect to be treated better than any other, by my firm, than any other lawyer in the city. That’s the bar that we set. I put my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I mentioned earlier, satisfaction guaranteed. It’s published on our website, we hand a copy to every client, every potential client, who comes through the door that it is our goal to treat you better than any other law firm in this city could, and if I fail to live up to that goal within the first 30 days of hiring us, you’re just not feeling it anymore, we’re not living up, you think, to our promise to the client, you can come in and ask for your file back and walk away and I will not assert a fee lien, an attorney lien. Many lawyers, once they sign a case, if a client tries to walk away, the first thing they do when that client lands at the other attorney’s office is send a letter, a lien letter, over to that new lawyer saying, “Hey, I worked on this case. I want part of the fee,” and it causes problems, at times, for that new lawyer. But we don’t do that if we fail to live up to our promise to give excellent client service.
Another thing we do for our clients: We guarantee that if we accept your case and at the end of the day, no matter what the medical bills are and insurance available, if we’re not able to put some net recovery of money in your pocket, we’ll either waive or reduce our fee until we’re able to. When I told that to my injury buddy friends over lunch one day that we were going to start offering that guarantee in my office, I have to tell you, it scared them. They all thought I was crazy for doing that. But, again, why not? Why should I not aspire to shoot for that?
So the 100% satisfaction guarantee, the guarantee that we will put money in our clients’ pockets no matter what the bills are at the end of the day. Also, many times people will come to us, there are some insurance companies that are very aggressive, the accident occurred, within a day or two of the accident, they get a phone call offering them, some of them, as high as $3000 to sign a general release and walk away from the claim. I guarantee to my clients that if they come to me with a written offer of settlement from the insurance company, at the end of the case, if I’m not able to put more money in their pocket than they could have already gotten on their own without hiring me, I waive my fee. I won’t charge them a dime. Why? Because I obviously haven’t an added value to the relationship if I’m not able to get them further along than they could have gotten on their own.
HOST: Keith, I love that answer. That is really incredible. Let me ask you just one more time, just to elaborate a little bit because I know this question comes up for you guys again and again. What are the typical fees and cost associated with working with you guys?
KEITH: Well, in the New Orleans market there’s kind of a– I’m not going to say there’s a set fee. There are some out there that stick to kind of the 1/3 to 40% range. It’s slowly but surely inching up.  I know of attorneys who start out at 40% of the gross recovery for a fee. Our firm is different. If I’m able to handle your case without litigating, I only charge 30%. Quite often that can result in an 8%-10% extra recovery for our clients– and why do we do that? Again, it’s based on my own individual experience of being a client, sitting in that client’s chair, what I feel is fair and best for my clients.
And how is that fee calculated? It’s based on the amount of money that we recover. So for ease of math, if somebody were to receive a $10,000 settlement, and the fee was 30%, well it’s a $3000 fee taking off of that. If they were to hire another attorney who charges closer to the market rate of 40%, they would have to pay them $4000.
HOST: Yeah, that’s incredible, Keith. A lot of things that you said that really make you guys stand out and be different, and I think that’s extremely powerful. I think it’s worth mentioning, obviously, you can’t give any guarantees, but I think it’s worth noting to folks listening to this, that the average person who calls a lawyer such as yourself (it depends on which stat you consult), usually they receive 2-3 times the money than if they try to do this on their own.
I think at this point it’s worth mentioning that obviously, on this presentation, we can’t legally give advice– so if somebody’s interested in actually getting legal advice, they have to actually pick up the phone and call you. Let me ask you. If somebody is listening to this, who should pick up the phone and give you a call right now?
KEITH: Anybody who’s been involved in an auto accident should pick up the phone and give us a call right now. Our consultations are absolutely free. There’s no charge, no risk at all to you. So if you’ve been involved in an accident, and you’ve been hurt, give us a call. Let us have a chance to take a look at it and see what we can do to help you– and you mentioned something about that we can’t give you guarantees. I would dispute that. While I can’t guarantee to a client, really, truly, in my opinion, ethically discuss what a case is worth in an initial consultation, I can guarantee something – I’ll treat you better than anybody else in this market. I will give you better customer service, and if I don’t do it, you can walk away from our relationship and I won’t charge you a dime.
HOST: Keith, honestly that’s amazing. I’ve gotten the chance to work with so many lawyers, and that’s not something you hear every day. So if you folks are listening to this, you got to pick up the phone and call this man.
One last question for you, Keith. If somebody’s listening to this, they’ve been injured in an accident, it’s not their fault, like you said, they’re dealing with lost wages, medical bills, whole lot of whirlwind with insurance companies, why should they pick up the phone and call you right now and not have that temptation to put it off until later?
KEITH: Well, an aged case is a weaker case. What I mean by that is this: People’s memories fade, evidence can disappear. Quite often, depending upon the nature of the accident somebody contacts me– I may be out there the same day of that phone call at the scene of the accident, taking photographs, taking measurements, preserving what evidence exists. If a vehicle is in a junkyard, maybe we need to get the appropriate experts. A lot of people don’t realize this, you hear about black boxes on planes all the time when there’s a crash. You know, the voice recorder and the data.
HOST: Yeah, yeah.
KEITH: Cars these days have those and there’s only certain people who have the certain qualifications and equipment that are able to preserve that data for use in a legal proceeding. If you wait too long and that car gets junked, you know, crushed and sent off to the metal plant to be recycled, that evidence is gone. That is the biggest thing. Do yourself a favor: contact a legal representative immediately. We would certainly love to help somebody, but somebody should be on your side so they can preserve that evidence– it could be witness statements, physical evidence at the scene of the accident, physical evidence from the vehicles themselves before they’re salvaged and sent off somewhere to become an aluminum can. Those are some of the reasons why individuals who have been involved in an accident should not hesitate to contact the appropriate legal professional right away to look out for their interests.
HOST: Yeah. You said a lot of great stuff there. Obviously, when it comes to the law, the key word is evidence, and evidence does not get better with time. If you guys are listening right now, Keith is an amazing guy. I would suggest you pick up the phone and call him.
Keith, I just want to say thank you so much for being here and doing this interview. I’m going to go ahead and put up your contact info so anybody who’s interested can go ahead and reach out to you directly.
KEITH: Absolutely. Feel free, definitely.