[youtube]https://youtu.be/aUWPbnhOWow[/youtube]
Gary: Joel, when we get calls in for people and talking with them, what are some of the techniques and some of the examples you have about trying to parse out whether or not someone has a good medical malpractice case or a medical malpractice case that we would help with?
Joel: Well, the first thing that I do when I talk to a client is I try my best to empathize with their condition. We get a lot of sick clients that are sick potential clients that call, they’re hurt, they’re upset, emotionally or physically, and so they call and they want to know if they’ve got a claim, if the doctor did something wrong, so fleshing out exactly what the doctor did wrong can sometimes be tricky, and sometimes the client or prospective client doesn’t always have an answer for that.
They don’t know that the doctor actually did anything wrong, and when you asked them enough questions about their status, their condition, prior medical issues, you kind of end up finding out that, well, the real issue is the doctor was rude, and the doctor was a jerk, and the communication to the patient was not ideal, that they didn’t receive the best care, but as we all know that that doesn’t make a case for medical malpractice. It has to be more than that.
And so, I guess another example would be kind of, you start talking to the client, you ask them about the facts and circumstances, and you find out that what they’re really upset about is a condition that they had or currently have and the doctor didn’t cause that condition. That’s the condition that they had way before. It’s tough because you want to empathize, you want to let them know, “Hey, I’m sorry about how you feel and all that, but making a medical malpractice claim based on these facts and circumstances isn’t something that we could pursue.”