I recently had the chance to sit down and talk with Scott Neal, my friend, and host of The Imperfect Leader Podcast.

Thanks first to Steve for the opportunity and for his gracious, kind spirit. I really enjoy talking to people about the law and what I’ve learned after more than two decades of courtroom experience.

DOWNLOAD PODCAST HERE

If you’ve ever wanted to know what it’s like being a lawyer, I think you’ll enjoy listening to this episode on Steve’s podcast.

We discuss a wide range of topics, including becoming a lawyer, the business of law, representing clients, and managing a law practice in North Carolina.

Feel free to contact me at: Danny Glover Law Firm

For additional information, check out my other blogs posts:

7 Questions to Ask Your Criminal Defense Lawyer Before Hiring

What can a Criminal Defense Lawyer Do for You?

Who is Responsible for a Wreck in NC?

What to do right after an Accident in North Carolina

Announcer: You are listening to The Imperfect Leader Podcast with Scott Neal, a podcast to help you lead and grow, even with imperfections and challenges. Now here’s your host, Scott Neal.

Scott Neal: All right, welcome to The Imperfect Leader Podcast. I’m Scott Neal, your host. And today, I’ve got Danny Glover with us. Danny is a well-known attorney here in our city, Elizabeth City North Carolina, and really honored to have Danny with us today.

Scott Neal: We’re gonna jump right into our interview with Danny. And I want you to get to know him, and excited about a few of the questions I’m gonna ask him, and where we go on this journey of this podcast today.

Scott Neal: Hey Danny. Welcome to the podcast. Glad you’re here.

Danny Glover: Well thank you. I was very honored to be asked until just now, I heard it was called The Imperfect Leader, so I’m a little conflicted at this point.

Scott Neal: Sorry. Well, I’m the only imperfect leader here. So it’s my show, so I figured I better be honest about it.

Scott Neal: Hey Danny, tell us a little bit about yourself, ’cause I’m sure there are many people listening who have no idea who you are, and they’d like to get to know you, just the personal side. And then we’re gonna jump into some professional questions as well. So tell us a little bit about your family, maybe how long you’ve been practicing law, and maybe what area of law do you specialize?

Danny Glover: All right. Well, I am the husband of Meredith Glover, and the father of three kids, Linc, who is at East Carolina now, Rebecca, who is a junior at the School of Science and Math, and actually is part of the worship team here. And then Dillon is an 8th grader at Victory-

Scott Neal: Awesome.

Danny Glover: … south of town.

Scott Neal: Right.

Danny Glover: I have been in Elizabeth City part of 1994, and then full-time since 1995, when Meredith and I got married and moved here. And we’ve been here ever since.

Scott Neal: Yeah. Now what kind of law do you specialize in? I know it’s a variety of different things, but what’s one area especially?

Danny Glover: I do serious personal injury cases, where people are hurt badly enough to need surgery, permanent injuries, life care plans, future care, that kind of thing.

Scott Neal: You mentioned how long you’ve been here. How long, you may have already answered this, but let me ask again. How long have you been practicing law?

Danny Glover: I’ve been practicing law since 1995, when I graduated from the UNC Chapel Hill School of Law.

Scott Neal: Okay. Did you always want to become an attorney? Was that something you had when you were a kid, just this dream to become an attorney? Or how did that work out? Talk us through a little bit of that.

Danny Glover: Well, it’s not really all that inspiring or insightful, because I frankly don’t remember when I decided to become an attorney. I seem to recall having some thoughts in high school about wanting to become an accountant. But as I got into college and started, I was a business major and a speech minor. And just decided that crunching numbers all day was not going to fulfill me. And I consider myself a problem solver, and a helper, and at some point realized that law was a good way to put both of those into practice.

Scott Neal: Mm-hmm (affirmative). Well, I’m ignorant when it comes to all the different facets of being a lawyer. I assume when you go to school you get a pretty wide spectrum of law, and then you eventually make a decision on kinda the direction you’re gonna go, and kind of specialize in an area. Is that how that works?

Danny Glover: Well, you are taught for three years in law school in a wide variety, mainly using the Socratic method, which is where the professor simply asks questions, and then critiques your answer, criticizes you, has other students do the same, but gives you basically a fact pattern, and then you have to figure out how the law would apply to those facts. And so it’s not sitting down reading, memorization, things like that.

Danny Glover: A lot of my classmates figured out during law school what kind of law they wanted to practice. But frankly, the majority of us, it was controlled by the hiring environment and the economy, and so unless you were an elite student, which I certainly was not, you took what job you could get basically.

Scott Neal: Okay.

Danny Glover: And it just so happened that mine ended up being with a lawyer here in Elizabeth City who practiced primarily criminal defense and personal injury. So that’s what I’ve been doing for decades now, is criminal defense, serious personal injury, and in the last few years, sort of evolved into a residential construction dispute litigator.

Scott Neal: Okay. What would you say if maybe we had a few young college kids here, and they’re considering going into law, and you could look at them, kinda like you were when you first started out. What are maybe a few things you would say to them, maybe in wisdom, guidance, direction, about here are a few things I want you to know. I wish I knew this when I was in school.

Danny Glover: Right.

Scott Neal: What would be a couple of those things?

Danny Glover: Well, the first thing I would say is don’t do it.

Scott Neal: Okay. Well that’s odd.

Danny Glover: The job market in North Carolina, especially, has become oversaturated with lawyers. Recently, the Charlotte School of Law was shut down for accrediting, and perhaps some tuition fraud issues. But they were pumping out 700 plus law students a year.

Scott Neal: Wow.

Danny Glover: The ELAN recently opened a law school a few years ago. They’re pumping out lawyers. Then you’ve got Central, in Durham, Duke, Wake, UNC, and so there are just more law graduates coming out than the job market can possibly handle.

Scott Neal: Now, is that unique to North Carolina, or is that our nation pretty much?

Danny Glover: I can’t answer that. All in know is North Carolina. But I know that it is a huge problem here, where law students are now coming out of law schools, state law schools, or private law schools here in North Carolina with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt, and they’re being forced to take jobs that might pay them 20 or 30 thousand dollars a year. It’s tough for them to cashflow their school debt, much less their ordinary living expenses, or trying to raise a family, or things like that. So it is reaching a crisis level, frankly, in North Carolina.

Danny Glover: Now, when I graduated, it wasn’t that bad, because law school might’ve been five to six thousand dollars a semester. And so you could come out, if you had to borrow everything, you’d come out with less than $50,000 of debt. But that’s not the case now, even with the state schools.

Scott Neal: Right. Well, today you own your own business. And that, I’m sure, is somewhat exciting, and also challenging. So what would you say to a few, ’cause I know there are people listening to this who are thinking about opening up a business. I meet people here in our church. I meet people throughout our city wanting to either start a restaurant or wanting to open up any private business. What are a few suggestions you’ve learned over the last few years about opening up your own practice, that you could share with a few young people or older people who are just starting to think about owning their own?

Danny Glover: Well I think having a real solid plan, a detailed plan, is essential. I was fortunate when I opened my business last year, that I had been here for decades, had a lot of contacts, had a lot of existing clients that transitioned with me to my new firm. So my supply side, or my demand side rather, was already in place, basically. But I see a lot of business owners get into trouble when they have a good idea, they may be very good at executing it. But they’ve not thought through all of the expenses, all the cash flow issues, all of the contingencies that are gonna happen, even with the best planning.

Danny Glover: So they don’t have a plan to account for those kinda things. And so they start up, and they’re doing what they always wanted to do, and three or four months later, they realize they don’t have the money to continue.

Scott Neal: Right.

Danny Glover: So that’s the biggest thing I would say is you’ve got to sit down, and if you’ve not been in the business before … In my old firm, I did most of the administrative stuff, so I knew what all of the different aspects of a law firm cost, from online legal research, to the insurance, to payroll, to health insurance. I already knew all of that, so it was easy for me to sit down and budget for those things.

Scott Neal: Yeah. You were walking with your eyes open. You knew what was happening.

Danny Glover: Yes. I did.

Scott Neal: You knew what to expect.

Danny Glover: I did. Still scary.

Scott Neal: Sure.

Danny Glover: Still very, very different. I came and joined a, my former partner had already been in Elizabeth City for 20 something years before I was here. He already had a very successful practice. So I was very fortunate that I was able to step into a successful practice and sort of grow up in that. But if you’re starting in a brand new business that you’ve never done before, I think it’s essential that you talk to others who have, and plan out everything you can think of, worst cast scenarios.

Scott Neal: And if you’re not financially or business minded, find someone who is.

Danny Glover: You have to, because when you go into business, it’s the business that matters.

Scott Neal: That’s right. Yeah.

Danny Glover: It’s the business that will put you out if you-

Scott Neal: Right. I think a lot of people walk in thinking, “Well, I’ve got a great product, and I’m a hard worker. So all I gotta do is put a for sale sign on whatever it is I’m selling, and everybody will just come to me, and it’ll be successful.” But that’s not true. You’ve gotta find some people who’ve got a good business sense who can help you put a plan together, because often people spend all their profits, and they don’t have anything to take them to the next month, or on to the rest of the year. So that’s good.

Danny Glover: Especially self starters who have some cash, and don’t need the bank’s involvement. I’ve seen, over the years, that even though borrowing, I’m totally against borrowing. But when you deal with the bank, they will require that kind of planning, and the business plan, the business model, the budgeting. But a lot of the failures that I see are people who didn’t have to deal with the bank, and they didn’t have that guidance and that structure in place, like a business loan would’ve done.

Scott Neal: Right. Well Danny, a lot of people, no doubt, see attorneys on TV. They watch attorneys in movies. They have a perception of what it means to be an attorney, out there battling the bad guys, or winning it for the good guys, or whatever. What are a few maybe common myths about being an attorney that the average person may not know. I’m sure your day is not filled with excitement all the time. So tell us a little about kinda the reality. What’s behind the scenes there of being an attorney every day?

Danny Glover: Sure. I hear young people come to me and say, “You know, I think I wanna be a lawyer, because I’m really good at arguing. I’m really good at arguing.” And frankly, doing the kind of law that I do, it’s agreement making, and it’s consensus building. I’m trying to reach reasonable fair settlements with insurance companies. Now, sometimes we have to fight to get to that point of agreement. But that’s my goal is to reach an agreement, and if they won’t agree, then to take it to a jury and allow the jury to agree with my client.

Danny Glover: Same in criminal defense. When 95% of all cases settle, and only 5% actually go to trial, and I think that’s a pretty fair estimate. That’s a lot of agreements.

Scott Neal: Sure is.

Danny Glover: And you have to have the relationships with the prosecutors, with the law enforcement officers, with the judges, so that there’s trust, so that there’s respect. Oftentimes, criminal defense attorneys have to point out to an officer or to a prosecutor the mistakes the officer made during the process, because it’s those mistakes that are the loophole of the technicalities that people talk about all the time.

Danny Glover: And so you have to be able to do that in such a way that the officer’s not gonna get mad, hold it against you later, hold it against your client now. So it really is, there really is a skill to getting people to agree when the agreement is based upon someone’s failure, either my client’s failure for getting in, that led him or her to get into trouble, the officer’s failure in doing exactly what he or she was trained to do during the arrest process, the prosecutor’s failure in not securing a witness or some evidence that they should have. Any number of things.

Scott Neal: Yeah.

Danny Glover: But that’s the basis of these agreements. And it takes some, there’s some delicacy involved in doing that without bruising egos and blowing the deal up.

Scott Neal: Right. So a lot of negotiating, a lot of relationship building. I think that is definitely a surprise that a lot of people might not know about, being an attorney. It’s building relationships with the people in the city, everybody involved, and just, like you said at the beginning, trust, building this trust, level of trust with people. Interesting.

Danny Glover: Yeah. It is. And I’m fortunate on the criminal side of my practice, our elected District Attorney, Andy Wamble, Andy and I went to law school together, and played intramurals against each other in law school, back when we were babies. So just through sheer luck, I happen to a law school classmate with our elected District Attorney, which is nice.

Scott Neal: Sure.

Danny Glover: It’s nice.

Scott Neal: That’s great. What do you love most about what you do? What is it that kinda gets you up and keeps you going, and this would be an awesome day if this occurs, when this occurs, just some of the things you love most.

Danny Glover: I am a competitor-

Scott Neal: Okay.

Danny Glover: … to the worst possible degree.

Scott Neal: Yeah.

Danny Glover: It’s actually a problem. And every case I have is a competition with somebody, either the other attorney or the insurance company, or the government in the criminal prosecutions. And so even when we have to settle, even when we have to reach a plea bargain, the whole build up to that is a competition. Can I outwork them? Can I outthink them? Can I outmaneuver them? Any number of things that I’m trying to do, all of which benefit my client.

Scott Neal: Sure. So that would be true of any attorney really. Again, if someone’s out there thinking about going into law, you’ve got to have this competitive edge to yourself. Wouldn’t you agree? You gotta love that.

Danny Glover: Well you do, because getting into law school itself if highly competitive. And then surviving in law school, especially the first year is highly competitive. Once you graduate, there are some areas of the law where you don’t have to be hyper-competitive. There are transactional lawyers who simply draft deeds or wills all day. And they’re not trying to beat any other side. They’re not trying to win. They’re just trying to get down on paper what their client wants, and what’s best for their client.

Danny Glover: Judges, they’re not competing with anyone. They’re the master.

Scott Neal: Right.

Danny Glover: And so what they say goes. And it’s a difficult job, no doubt, but it’s not the competitive job that being on one side of the litigation is.

Scott Neal: So if you do not enjoy competition, then getting in there and fighting it is not the area you wanna go into for your career.

Danny Glover: It’s very tough to be a successful attorney and to be a passive, non-competitive person.

Scott Neal: Sure. Well, the flip side of that question. What are a few of the things you find most challenging about what you do, some of the things you just don’t really enjoy. You gotta do it, but it’s just not something that gives you a lot of energy.

Danny Glover: Well, we don’t win every case.

Scott Neal: Right. Sure.

Danny Glover: So losing is not high up on the enjoyment factor. I think dealing with egos is one of the more challenging part. And I’ll put my ego right up there at the top of the list. I take every case thinking I’m gonna win it, and at some point, there’s a realization that I’m not gonna win this case, or I’m not gonna get my client exactly what they want. So you have to, you have to put that aside to continue to do what’s best for your client.

Danny Glover: Managing your client’s expectations is very, very difficult, especially when the more successful attorneys charge more, and when you charge more, and the client is paying more, the client expects more. And so, that becomes difficult. Why did I hire you? I could’ve achieved that myself. And so that’s a challenge.

Danny Glover: Dealing with different judges’ rules and quirks is a challenge. The personality of the judge, the belief system of the judge, the rules of the judge may vary from day to day, from judge to judge. And so, one client with a case, and another client with an identical case but a different judge, may see two entirely different processes, two entirely different outcomes. And so that becomes difficult.

Scott Neal: So this my go, not need to be said, but I’m curious. I assume, based on what you just said, that depending on the judge, you prepare differently.

Danny Glover: Absolutely.

Scott Neal: Okay, because you know going into this case, with this particular judge, these are certain things important to him or her. These are certain things he or she will maybe lean one way or the other. Is that accurate?

Danny Glover: Absolutely. And that’s one of the things that a lot of clients don’t understand. And with the economy the way it’s been lately, and the competitive environment in the legal field, attorneys are doing more than they used to. They’re traveling further than they used to. And so I have attorneys from Charlotte and Richmond advertising as Elizabeth City personal injury lawyers. I have attorneys from Raleigh trying to get Elizabeth City DWIs. Well those out of town attorneys don’t know the first thing about our judges. They don’t know our prosecutors. They don’t know our law enforcement officers.

Danny Glover: And I don’t think the clients understand exactly how important it is that you know-

Scott Neal: Well I had no idea. It’s new to me.

Danny Glover: Yeah.

Scott Neal: I would have no clue about that. So that’s good to know.

Danny Glover: So the biggest advice I would give is find a competent, well-respected, local lawyer.

Scott Neal: Right.

Danny Glover: You know, boots on the ground.

Scott Neal: So if a person’s listening to this and they, you know, obviously live in a different city, or they’re going, maybe traveling through that particular county, or whatever, get pulled over for a speeding ticket, gonna have to appear in court in that particular county, you would recommend they find someone there to represent them, if they need to do that.

Danny Glover: Absolutely. Or they call me, and I’ll find them.

Scott Neal: Okay.

Danny Glover: I’m huge into networking across the state. I have spent my entire legal career working in an organization called the North Carolina Advocates for Justice, which is basically the statewide trial lawyers organization of about 3,000 members statewide, doing all sorts of legal work, on the litigation side, representing injured people, representing the accused, worker’s comp, things like that.

Danny Glover: Went up through the ranks and was president of that organization in 2014. So I know how important it is to know attorneys all across the state. ‘Cause you don’t want me representing you in Rocky Mount.

Scott Neal: Sure.

Danny Glover: I don’t know the first thing about Rocky Mount. I know-

Scott Neal: It’s very interesting, ’cause I know anytime we’ve got a, unfortunately, would get pulled over, or get a speeding ticket, we get a flood of attorney letters at our house.

Danny Glover: I hate it.

Scott Neal: We have three kids, and we’ve got all these cars everywhere, and my kids live in different places. So if they get a ticket, wow, we get 15 different letters probably at our house. And I had no idea. I figure well, just pick one of them and if you need an attorney, they’re all the same. But that’s not true.

Danny Glover: Well, it’s not. And I hate those letters. I don’t send them, and if I have anything to do with it, I never will. But that’s part of the economics of our profession is people feel the need to do that.

Scott Neal: Sure.

Danny Glover: I’ll tell on her. My wife was one of my first clients at my new law firm-

Scott Neal: Oh yeah?

Danny Glover: … when she was late to work one day, and we got a flood of those letters, from my friends and colleagues.

Danny Glover: The tickets and the charges are public record, and you can actually subscribe to services that every morning they will send you a mail ready list of the people who got recent charges, and you just put a stamp on an envelope and send it out, and you don’t even look at it, or look at what it’s about. You just send them.

Scott Neal: Yeah. Well, it happened to us a little while back, and I got a bunch of them. So I was curious how all that worked.

Scott Neal: Well, here we are in Elizabeth City, which is a relatively small town. How do you stay current in a town like Elizabeth City? I’ve noticed recently, you have … Now, this may only because I’m more aware of it, but it seems like you have more blogs. You have some more things you’re writing, posting in social media. I’ve seen some things in Facebook and different places.

Scott Neal: I assume that’s intentional, in order to kinda keep your face in front of the people here in our town, and because of all those competition. Just give us a little rundown on that.

Danny Glover: Well, that’s obviously marketing.

Scott Neal: Right.

Danny Glover: It’s also very informative.

Scott Neal: It is. I’ve read several of the blogs. Very helpful actually.

Danny Glover: Yeah. And so, over the years, advertising in the legal profession has been problematic within the legal profession. The state bar has a ton of ethics rules about how you can and cannot advertise, and the kind of superlatives you can use when describing yourself or your practice.

Danny Glover: But TV advertising used to be the thing. For the attorneys who were gonna advertise, it was either gonna be billboards or TV. Well, TV’s really expensive, and TV is limited to this local area. And so, we’re in a tourist area, so we have people from Canada come to the Outer Banks. We have people from Nebraska come to the Outer Banks. If I advertise on TV, they’re not gonna see that.

Danny Glover: The internet is worldwide. So I get a lot of business off of the internet, and Facebook, and other social media, where those blogs are also syndicated and posted. But instead of just throwing my name out there, throwing my face out there, I think people are interested in reading short little legal tidbits. I get asked more about those than anything else I’ve ever done in terms of marketing or advertising. And it’s fun.

Danny Glover: I’ve got a buddy in Charlotte who does all my video work. So we go to his studio, and he interviews me for hours and hours and hours, and then he chops those up into little bitty 20, 30 second interviews. Then he does the animated stuff as well.

Scott Neal: Yeah. Well they’re helpful. And I find it interesting, ’cause obviously, you live in that world, so you know the lingo. You know, obviously, the laws, and what the rights of the person. But the average guy, like myself, I don’t know what I can do, can’t do, what’s right if a police officer pulls me over, what I can expect, what maybe is requested of me that I don’t necessarily have to do. So I find those little tidbits of information very helpful. In fact, I’d like to, for you to give us maybe a little taste of that.

Danny Glover: Sure.

Scott Neal: If the average person’s pulled over, whether it’s a, whether it’s a check … I don’t know what that’s called, when they’re doing a random check, just to see, I guess, if they’re trying to find someone who may be drinking and driving, or DUI testing and things. What are some of the rights that a person has that they may not know they have.

Scott Neal: I think it’s very intimidating. If you’re not in the legal field, you see the lights behind you. You get pulled over. Whatever the officer asks you to do, you do it, because you don’t wanna make it worse. And the average person just doesn’t know his or her rights.

Danny Glover: Right.

Scott Neal: So give us a little rundown, just a few of those things that might be helpful.

Danny Glover: Sure. Sure. And before I start, the preface to all of this is this is not about being dishonest or trying to trick the system, or trick the law enforcement officers.

Scott Neal: Sure.

Danny Glover: I have some very, very good friends who are law enforcement officers, and across the board, our law enforcement officers here do a great job. For years, I was the local Fraternal Order of Police attorney, and the Highway Patrol attorney here, and so …

Danny Glover: That does not eliminate the fact, though, that we have very important individual rights in America, and we should not be afraid of exercising them, and certainly should not be ignorant of them. But I think the most important right, on the criminal side, is the right to remain silent, and the right to say no.

Danny Glover: If an officer asks, “Can I search your car? Can I pat you down? Can I search your house?” You have every right to say no. That doesn’t mean you’re gonna stop the officer from doing it if that’s what he or she wants to do, but when you say no, and they do it anyway, and then you end up getting charged, and you go to court, then the burden’s on the officer to prove that they had probably cause to do that. Whereas if you say, “Yeah. Sure. I just wanna cooperate,” they don’t need probably cause. Your consent eliminates a lot of the defenses that you or your lawyer might have to helping your case.

Danny Glover: You don’t ever have to answer questions under any circumstances. And what a lot of people don’t realize is law enforcement officers have the ability, and oftentimes the right to misstate what’s going on to you, or to lead you to believe one thing, when that may or may not be true, and to put pressure on you to incriminate yourself, to confess, to tell on someone else, perhaps, to identify the location, perhaps, of something you shouldn’t have. And so that’s why it’s important that a person understand they don’t ever have to answer those questions, and it’s completely legal, and it is completely permissible, and it will not make the situation worse, if you simply say, “Thank you officer, but I’d rather not answer your questions.”

Scott Neal: That’s very interesting. So is that one of the reasons a police officer will ask, when you’re pulled over, “Do you have any idea why I pulled you over?”

Scott Neal: The reason I ask that is because I’ve talked with some people who, they had a registration that was expired, or they had something else with their car, and they just kinda admitted that in, “Do you have any idea why I pulled you over?” “Well, because my registration’s out,” which clued the officer into “I better check their tag,” when it was really, they didn’t give a turn signal, or they were speeding.

Scott Neal: I’m just wondering if that’s not kind of a baiting to get you to tell them more than what even they may know.

Danny Glover: Well, it’s that, and it’s to get you to confess to what they do know-

Scott Neal: Okay.

Danny Glover: … so that they don’t have to prove it.

Scott Neal: Got it.

Danny Glover: Certain things you are required to have been notified about, such as the revocation of a driver’s license. You know, now a common law enforcement technique is to follow you down the road with their laptop open, and they’re keying in your license plate. They’re seeing the status of your insurance, the status of your tags, who the owner is, whether that person has a valid license, and using any of that information to pull you over, maybe for those reasons, maybe to go on a fishing expedition for something else. Especially in certain parts of the state, if you meet certain racial profiles or other stereotypes.

Danny Glover: When you admit to knowing that your license was revoked, well now in court it’s real easy for them to prove that, instead of having to contact DMV, get a copy of the certified letter, whatever it is they got to do. I think it’s two-fold, the reason they ask that specific question.

Scott Neal: Yeah. That’s very interesting. I know I don’t know what I can do and can’t do. I think most of the time you’re just trying to comply and make the situation worse. There’s a level of nervousness there when someone obviously pulls you over and they’re the one in authority. I think that’s good, that’s why I enjoy those little tidbits of truth you put on Facebook.

Danny Glover: Well and on the injury side, I think there’s even more abuse of people and their … Not necessarily their rights because your constitutional rights and protections typically help you avoid prosecution, but insurance companies are in it to make a profit, and every dollar they can save on your claim is a dollar extra profit to them. They have highly specialized, highly trained adjusters to get you on the phone immediately after you’ve been hurt to try to use against you later to save a dollar. A lot of injuries don’t appear within a day of the wreck or at the scene of the wreck. So you might say, “Well I only …” They may say, “Tell me everything that you hurt.” You say, “Well I only hurt my knee.” Well lo and behold, you’ve got a blown disk in your back that you didn’t realize is from this wreck and you end up with two surgeries later.

Danny Glover: Then you try to make a claim for the back, and they play this recorded statement that, “Well you told us you only hurt your knee.” So I think it’s important that people understand that they should not be talking to an insurance company before or without a lawyer, because people who don’t work in that field day in and day out don’t see the big picture of where this thing is headed, and so they oftentimes shortchange themselves.

Scott Neal: So someone falls at work, they get an injury, I would assume if it’s filed a certain way they’re going to kind of get some of the letters sent, like you do if you get a speeding ticket, people are going, “Hey, let me help you. Let me help you.” The insurance company’s going to want to, you said highly trained people are going to call this person. The average person has no idea what’s going on, they’re just trying to be honest and answer questions. Your suggestion, immediately get an attorney, secure an attorney-

Danny Glover: Absolutely.

Scott Neal: … to protect you?

Danny Glover: Absolutely, because-

Scott Neal: Only do what he or she tells you to do.

Danny Glover: Because your ordinary Joe Blow who’s hurt has some immediate fears, you know?

Scott Neal: Right.

Danny Glover: How am I going to provide for myself and my family? Am I going to lose my job? Is my arm ever going to get better? So when the insurance company is saying, “Hey, we’re going to take care of all your bills and we’re going to pay for your time out of work.” That soothes those immediate fears. What people don’t know is unless you’re in the workers’ comp scenario, but in a car wreck, in a industrial accident, you’re entitled … The law says you’re entitled to a lot more than just your medical bills paid and your lost wages. So the insurance company preys on those fears that people have and then they get you to sign things, they get you to give away rights that you may not even have known about, and in the end, they keep that money and it goes into the profit margin.

Scott Neal: Danny, just in working obviously here at Forest Park with a lot of just common everyday people who are working who do not have an awareness of the law and their rights, what I find is there’s a sense of obviously an attorney’s expensive. “If I get an attorney involved I’m not going to have the money.” I assume they can do some level of just asking you some questions or someone who might tell them, “Yeah, you need to go further.” There’s some kind of consultation there to let the average person know if this is something they need an attorney to help them with, or is that correct for someone?

Danny Glover: It is. It is. Most consultations on the criminal side or the personal injury side are free. On the injury side, the lawyer typically only gets paid out of whatever recovery they get for you, so you’re not having to fund the attorney’s fees as you go through the case. The attorney works two or three years and then takes his fee on the backend. At least in my firm, I fund all of the litigation expenses as well. I just had a settlement a few weeks ago and I’ve got $20,000 of my own money in expenses. Now I’ll get that back out of the settlement, but if I’d put that burden on my client like some attorneys will, most clients can’t afford to pay that.

Scott Neal: No way.

Danny Glover: You have to make sure that you can afford to proceed or that your attorney can afford to proceed. You mentioned these mailers, now it’s gotten so high tech that a lot of your huge advertising firms in Charlotte, Raleigh, Richmond, they will send really high class looking DVDs and all sorts of stuff, bells and whistles, and super. They impressed me, I’m super impressed by them, but they’re not from here and they don’t know what a jury’s likely to do with a case here.

Scott Neal: The consultation as well, is not only helping the potential client to know whether or not they need to secure you, but it’s also you assessing whether or not that this is a case that you will take. In other words there’s probably some compensation at the end. If someone calls your office and gets a free consultation with you and you’re pretty confident that they need to secure you, that’s because with your experience and your years of working with hundreds of people, you know that they need help and there’s probably going to be some compensation at the end of this or you wouldn’t take it. Is that correct?

Danny Glover: That’s correct. I’m pretty selective about the cases that I take, and that’s why in the very beginning when I described my practice I said serious injuries, because quite frankly, the 4 and 5,000 dollar injury claims are just as much work as the $400,000 injury claim, and I can’t keep my doors open spending all my time for that little return. Frankly, when you’re talking about those really small cases, I can’t add much value to what my client can get for themselves. So in those scenarios, I like to educate people on how to handle those little claims themselves, how to deal with the insurance company, what tricks to expect, and-

Scott Neal: So you will assist someone even if it’s just a smaller injury, just to help them as a person?

Danny Glover: Yeah. You know, I leave the door open, “Call me if anything comes up that we’ve not discussed.” And people very rarely do. They seem to be appreciative of that. A lot of attorneys will take any case, and unfortunately unless you’re in one of the major injury firms with 50 to 100 lawyers in it, when you have attorneys taking all these small cases they get so bogged down that the little cases get pushed to the back and get neglected. I just am not comfortable working that way.

Scott Neal: That’s very helpful, Danny. Thank you for that. I’m hopeful people listening will take your advice to heart and follow the rights that they have, and make some phone calls if they need your assistance because I think that’s hugely helpful. I want to change direction just a little bit and ask you some little bit more personal questions about leadership, about growth, because obviously you’re very successful. You’ve had to go to school, get a great education, own your own business today. Looking across our landscape, some of the young people in colleges, high school, what are some of the barriers to personal growth you see? If you could stand in front of a classroom and say, “Guys, if you want to be successful, here’s some things you need to know. Here’s what I see as some of the things that slow you down.” Just some personal things that you would say to becoming the best they possibly can be.

Danny Glover: Fear.

Scott Neal: Okay.

Danny Glover: I think that’s the number one limiter to success. Being afraid to take a chance. Being afraid to succeed frankly. Especially in the legal field where every day you’re getting told you’re wrong, either by the prosecutor, and in our church here, Kim Planey’s a member. She is the chief prosecutor in Pasquotank County and an excellent felony prosecutor, but it’s her job to convict my clients. To do that she has to tell me why I’m wrong about things, or why my client was wrong. Insurance companies all day long telling me how I’m wrong about the value of this case. My clients telling me how I’m wrong because they don’t like what I’m hearing. That becomes, unless you keep it in the right perspective, that can lead to fear that maybe I am wrong, maybe I shouldn’t take that chance.

Danny Glover: When you back it up and talk about personal growth, I see a lot of people who talk about, “I have this idea,” or talk about, “I want to do this.” And they just never do because they’re scared to come out of their comfort zone. They’re scared to take a chance because they don’t want to fail. To me that’s the number one biggest limiter.

Scott Neal: Yeah. Now I would imagine, obviously correct me if I’m wrong, that it wasn’t up and to the right from the moment you went into college and to where you are today, you’ve obviously had some challenges along the way and you’ve had to face those fears and keep moving forward, correct?

Danny Glover: Well, yeah. I haven’t always done a really good job of that. Luckily my wife is one of the smartest, most intuitive people I know. She has had to kick me in the tail more than once to take steps that I was uncomfortable doing. I appreciate her for doing that. I saw both of my parents have to take hard steps. My mom had me when she was 18, my dad was 22, he was a drill instructor in the army, she was still at home in high school. They ended up getting married. I know that I interrupted my mom’s education plans and work plans, and when I was very young, three or four, my dad went into the ministry and we moved to Florida for him to go to bible school for several years. Then we moved to Texas for him to go to seminary for several years. Then we moved back to Kentucky where he had been ordained at the base town of Fort Knox.

Danny Glover: During that whole time my mom now had two kids and dad’s not working basically because he’s in school full-time, pastoring in small churches on the weekends. So she had to work and support us. Then once dad became a full-time pastor she was able to go back to school and become a nurse. By that time I’m graduating high school. So the whole time I was there I saw them making sacrifices and working hard, and they both become very, very successful. Mom ended up on the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, at the medical facility there. Dad pastored for 25 years and then went into his own business doing business leadership training, working with the John Maxwell team, doing some personality insight stuff. It was not the typical way to get there, like I did, which is graduate, four years of college, three years of law school, take a job, work non-stop. They had it much more difficult than I did.

Scott Neal: You had amazing mentors in your life. I mean just the list on that story, that’s incredible what your mom and dad overcame. That’s great.

Danny Glover: Yeah, I’m proud of them.

Scott Neal: Yeah, absolutely. Well Danny, a little bit more personal than that, do you have any hobbies?

Danny Glover: I do, some I’m even willing to share with you.

Scott Neal: Sure.

Danny Glover: I love golf. I caught the bug probably six years ago.

Scott Neal: How often do you get a chance to play?

Danny Glover: Way too often.

Scott Neal: Oh yeah. Any chance you get, right?

Danny Glover: Any chance I get. My oldest son luckily got into golf too and playing high school golf, and so he and I were able to play a little bit. My youngest son, I just can’t get him motivated yet but I’m working on it. That just sort of came out of nowhere and I can’t explain how that happened but it did. Before that I raced bicycles with a couple of guys here, and we would train a couple of hundred miles a week. Then every weekend be South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina, mountains, wherever, racing all weekend. That was 30 or 40 pounds ago.

Scott Neal: That’s great.

Danny Glover: Again, just competition.

Scott Neal: Let me ask you about golf. Do you have a particular favorite place you play golf, or maybe the best place you’ve ever played before? You’d love to go back and do it again?

Danny Glover: I love the Mid Pines and Pine Needles courses in Southern Pines. I have not traveled the world to play golf like a lot of golfers do. I’m a member here at what used to be the Pines, now it’s the YMCA facility. Just because it’s convenient and there’s a great group of guys there that we play with regularly. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I played college baseball, so to go from hitting 95 mile an hour fastballs and 90 mile an hour sliders to trying to hit a ball that’s just sitting there on a tee, it’s hard to imagine why it’s so hard.

Scott Neal: Daring you to hit it, right.

Danny Glover: Yeah.

Scott Neal: From what I, just speaking with other golfers, it’s just a constant competition with yourself, right?

Danny Glover: It is.

Scott Neal: You’re always trying to beat yourself from the last game and get the numbers down.

Danny Glover: If you keep it in perspective, yes. Unfortunately when you’re playing matches you … Poor golfers will get caught up in what their opponent’s doing and that’s about the worst thing you want to do.

Scott Neal: Right. It’s really not about the other person as much as it is you.

Danny Glover: Absolutely. You and the course.

Scott Neal: Yeah. A lot of people obviously listening … I shouldn’t say a lot, but a few people do not know you. I mean they’ve gotten to know you here in this interview, which is great, but what might be something they’d be surprised to know about you? Maybe something that you have that you enjoy? Maybe it’s reading or it’s particularly another hobby that they may just not know about. Just something interesting that they might be surprised, “Oh, I didn’t know that about Danny.”

Danny Glover: I think most people are surprised that Meredith married me. They can’t figure that out. I think people who really know me and who hang out with me a lot would be surprised at how much I do care about helping people, because I don’t come across as the soft, huggable, caring person. I’m very task oriented, I’m very into efficiency and productivity. A lot of people don’t realize that that’s, Gary Smalley would call it my love language, that’s how I serve, that’s how I help people, is by getting the things done that perhaps they can’t do themselves or don’t even know need to be done.

Scott Neal: Yeah, that’s interesting. Couple more questions on this. If you could have a meal with anybody, past or present, and just sit down with them and enjoy a meal, whether they’re living or whether they’ve passed on, who would that person be and why?

Danny Glover: You know, I would love to have eaten with Kennedy. He, despite all of the personal failures that have become the stuff of movies, he was very important to a lot of different aspects of our country when he was living. Not just the Cuba stuff, but the racial tensions that existed, and Dr. King, and there was a lot going on there that a lot of people don’t realize. I think that would’ve been very, very interesting to … Because he came from the kind of money up north, and the history of their money you wouldn’t tend to equate that with someone who was going to be so sensitive to the racial tensions in the south, but he was. You know, I hadn’t given that a whole lot of thought, but that’s the first thing that comes to mind.

Scott Neal: That’s a great answer. I would love to do the exact same thing. I find him a fascinating man, and what he did at his age and being able to confront the issues of our day at that time, a pivotal time in our nation’s history, and he handled it beautifully.

Danny Glover: Well especially with the overbearing father that he had. Joe was-

Scott Neal: To get out from underneath his shadow and be able to do his own thing, that’s amazing.

Danny Glover: Not only his shadow, but his … What drove him was not to be the helpful mender of society that President Kennedy turned out to try to be.

Scott Neal: That’s great. I didn’t ask you, you know, you may not have an answer to this, I just thought of it. Do you have a book or anything as far as Kennedy that you’ve read, or anything that you would … A documentary maybe you’ve watched that you’d encourage some other people to check out? How did you get to know about him and why is that interesting to you?

Danny Glover: I think most of my learning of him didn’t come from reading books, but came through things I have learned as part of the North Carolina Advocates for Justice. That organization has been very instrumental in helping attorneys who help the very needy, racial injustice, economic injustice, the people who can’t afford attorneys, the pro-bono work, and the public defender work. NCAJ has a bunch of attorneys who through the years have just been on the forefront of racial inequality, racial injustice, and listening to those people, reading what those people have written, I was surprised to keep seeing references to Kennedy because I had no idea.

Scott Neal: Yeah. That’s great. Well, on a much lighter note as we wrap this up, you’re a UNC fan.

Danny Glover: I am.

Scott Neal: Yeah. That was a hard game the other night.

Danny Glover: It felt like the national championship game from a couple of years ago. Of course Duke did and they just destroyed us, but the loss the game before that where we hit the last second, or was six seconds left to tie, tie in three from deep and then they went down and made almost a half court shot. That was brutal.

Scott Neal: Any thoughts on March Madness? What do you think’s going to happen?

Danny Glover: I love it. I think this year if Marvin Bagley plays the way he did against us last game, Duke’s going to be hard to handle because he is impossible to handle. If that light switch stays on for him, they’ll be a tough out. It’s hard to believe he should be in high school, you know? He reclassified and he should be a senior this year and he’s the best player in the country in my mind. Villanova is going to be a tough out. I don’t think Carolina gets past the second weekend. I don’t think we’ve-

Scott Neal: It’s hard to admit, huh?

Danny Glover: I don’t think we’ve got the big men this year necessary to do that.

Scott Neal: Kind of a rebuilding year and hopefully they’ll be back strong soon.

Danny Glover: I hope so.

Scott Neal: Yeah, good. Well Danny, how do people contact you? What do you encourage? Website, just give us a couple addresses or one. How does someone say, “Hey, I need to get some consultation here with Danny”?

Danny Glover: Sure. My website is www.dannygloverlawfirm.com. My email is more the same, danny@dannygloverlawfirm.com. Then you can message me on Facebook, or you can call me, our office is (252) 299-5300. Because of the way our voiceover IP stuff works you have to dial that area code even if you’re in town with me. Yeah, happy to talk to anyone.

Scott Neal: Even Duke fans?

Danny Glover: Even Duke fans. I’ll charge them a little bit extra.

Scott Neal: Got it. All right Danny, great to have you today. Thank you so much for being a part of this and answering all the different questions that I threw at you. It’s an honor to have you here and I’m hopeful that more people be exposed to you and you’ll be able to help some people who are facing maybe some personal injuries or whatever it is that they’re going through, so thanks again for being with us.

Danny Glover: I appreciate you having me.

Scott Neal: All right man, take care.

Speaker 3: Thank you for listening to the Imperfect Leader Podcast with Scott Neal. Remember, nothing succeeds like imperfection. Thank you for listening.

Proof of Insurance

This applies to both automobile, homeowners, business and umbrella liability insurance coverages, as well as health insurance.

Unfortunately, the fact that neither side to a lawsuit can tell the jury about how much liability or health insurance the other side has often complicates the case and/or confuses the jury.

In North Carolina evidence of insurance is typically not admissible in court – Danny Glover

Many times a jury incorrectly concludes that a plaintiff who is suing for injuries has already received all of the other person’s automobile insurance and is in court simply to try to get the other person’s personal money or assets.

Or, sometimes the jury concludes that the responsible person must have no insurance or the case would have already been settled with the insurance company.

See More: Personal Injury Cases in Eastern NC

This is almost never true, as insurance companies typically will not pay any money for injuries or losses until or unless the entire case has been resolved.

Therefore, if you are ever sitting on the jury of a personal injury case, never assume that the plaintiff has already been paid anything, because most of the time the plaintiff has not been paid anything, and never assume that the responsible person does not have insurance, because most of the time they do.

Juries also often incorrectly conclude that the plaintiff’s health insurance has already paid all of the medical bills.

See More: North Carolina Rules of Evidence

This is also often untrue, as many health insurance companies, as well as Medicare, are considered secondary payors that do not have to pay until the primary insurance company, i.e. the automobile liability insurance company, has paid what it owes.

Further, more and more medical providers, including our local hospital, are refusing to bill health insurance companies for car wreck medical treatment.

This is because the hospital or other medical provider is trying to get paid more from the car wreck settlement than it would be paid by the person’s health insurance, Medicare or Medicaid.

If you are ever sitting on the jury for a personal injury case, you should assume that none of the medical bills have been paid – Danny Glover

These things often result in a person being injured through no fault of their own but being unable to use their own health insurance while at the same time having to deal with an automobile or homeowners insurance company that will not pay a fair settlement.

In fact, is you are going to assume anything, it would be that none of the medical bills have been paid.

Besides, if some of the medical bills have already been paid by health insurance, oftentimes the plaintiff will have to reimburse the health insurance company, especially Medicare, Medicaid and other government benefit sources, from any personal injury settlement or recovery that the plaintiff receives, which is yet another thing that a jury is often not allowed to hear about.

Settlement negotiations:

In most court cases neither side is allowed to mention or present evidence of any previous settlement negotiations or previous settlement offers by either side.

The applies in both criminal and civil lawsuits.

Again, it would be a mistake to assume that one or both sides has not already tried to settle or resolve the case.

Most times, there have already been extensive settlement negotiations, but the two parties to the case, for any number of reasons, have been unable to resolve the case short of a trial.

Danny Glover, Jr.
Glover Law Firm
Danny@DannyGloverLawFirm.com
252-299-5300
Past President, North Carolina Advocates for Justice

• Because lawyers assist in making claims, preparing legal documents, and preserving legal rights, family and friends of the deceased are not further burdened
• Frankly, you may not be in the emotional condition to deal with Insurance Adjustors, Claims Agents, and others involved in the processing a claim for losses.
• Attorneys can help in the filing of an Estate
• Lawyers explain things like the Statute of Limitations, Insurance Benefits, and Loss Valuation

Customer service is very, very important, especially when you’re doing personal injury work, because you’re dealing with people who have come to you because they have a major problem – Danny Glover

Download: North Carolina Wrongful Death Statute 2016

See More: Personal Injury FAQs

Things to Consider When Preparing a Claim:

• Are there Damages associated with an injury, such as outstanding hospital bills, surgical procedures, anesthesia, EMT Ambulance and Transport Services?
• What are the Losses for Lost Work, Income, Long-Term care of family?

Calculating Damages associated with the loss of a loved one require careful consideration of a wide range of legal and personal issues. Sometimes that involves the assistance of Financial Experts. Sometimes good-old-fashioned common sense, and compassion, are necessary to help explain the true costs of a lifetime without someone whom was taken too soon – Danny Glover

Modified Transcript of What Do Attorneys Do in Wrongful Death Matters? for the Hearing Impaired

At Glover Law Firm we handle any type of criminal charge in state or federal court in northeastern North Carolina.

Traffic tickets, DWI’s as well. We also handle significant personal injury cases, including car wrecks, truck wrecks, bicycle wrecks, motorcycle wrecks, pedestrian fall-down cases, anything involving a significant, serious permanent injury.

Death cases are unique – Danny Glover

First of all, the family is going through just an absolutely terrible time, and there’s really no way that we can do anything that’s going to do anything that’s going to take the place of their lost loved one, and it’s important, and what I view our main job to be in death cases, is to fully explain the extent of the loss, by going back and looking at old family histories and videos, talking about family vacations, family reunions, family get-togethers, holidays, things that a family can no longer have with their lost loved one, and it’s difficult for the family to express those things, and so that’s what we do.

When a family loses a father and a financial supporter, we utilize economic experts to take a look at the totality of not only the loss of a father but the loss of a supporter, and that has to be quantified by a economists and projected throughout the life of that support.

That can be complicated, but we have done that for years and years with experts that we know and trust and that have been deemed credible by the North Carolina courts.

Customer service is very, very important, especially when you’re doing criminal defense or personal injury work, because you’re dealing with people who have come to you because they have a major problem.

These problems that I’m handling vastly effect my clients’ life, so it’s very important that we be responsive to not only their legal needs but to their questions about their case, to their questions about the impact of their case on their lives and families, and so customer service is very, very important to us.

Danny Glover, Jr.
Glover Law Firm
Danny@DannyGloverLawFirm.com
252-299-5300
Past President, North Carolina Advocates for Justice

According to the American Automobile Association AAA, we should expect another 1,000,000 travelers this upcoming Christmas and New Year’s Holiday from this time last year.

Travel statistics are expected to exceed, by quite a bit, those of 2015 – Danny Glover

While it’s hard to believe, approximately 48,700,000 Americans will travel fifty or more miles from home. Although not everyone will be on the roads, that is up from last year’s high and amounts to an almost 2% overall increase.

What’s up with all this driving?

The quick answer: Gas Prices.

Better said, the decrease in gas prices is one of the more significant reasons people are hitting the roads and traveling more this year.

According to AAA estimates, it looks like Americans have saved more than 28 Billion so far this year on gas prices. Yes, we double-checked that number.

To give you an idea how much money that is, take a look at all the zeroes: $28,000,000,000

AAA President and CEO Marshall Doney adds, “Most will travel on the tried and true holiday road trip, thanks to gas prices that are holding at close to $2 per gallon. Others will fly, take the bus or set off on a cruise to celebrate with their loved ones.”

What are the Three Most Dangerous Days to Drive?

It may surprise you, but the days getting to and from Grandma’s House on Christmas don’t make the cut.

So here they are:

1. Memorial Day Weekend – Yep, somewhere around 400 people die during the start of the summer holiday.
2. The Start of Daylight Savings Time – This one may surprise you. Yes, the time change literally can kill you.
3. Black Friday – With an estimated 70+ Million Shoppers hitting the roads, rear-end collisions make up 12 1/2 % of insurance claims on Black Friday. Here’s another surprise, 11% other claims involve wrecks and parked cars.

What to Do After You’ve Been In a Traffic Accident this Holiday Season

There are simple steps to make the holidays more safe for you and your family. Take you time. Be Patient. Expect Delays. Get plenty of rest and most importantly, don’t drink and drive – Danny Glover

What are the best and worst times to drive during Christmas week?

Worst Day to Leave: December 23, 2016 FRIDAY

Best Day to Leave: Wednesday following Christmas, December 28, 2016, assuming you have that much vacation left

Worst Time to Drive: 3 p.m., Traffic will be heaviest during that hour on Friday

Best Time to Leave: 6:00 a.m. or earlier

See More Google Maps TRAVEL TIPS

Looking for a cool Travel App? Check Out Waze

First and foremost, do NOT try to enter information, plot routes, and map your trip while driving.

Don’t worry, there is a passenger mode, and worst-case-scenario, just pull over for a second and enter your information.

It’ll be safer and chances are good that you won’t end up accidentally driving to the Columbia instead of the District of Columbia.

WAZE is a free App that only takes a few seconds to download.

The graphics are pretty self-explanatory and there is not a steep learning curve.

While we would never encourage speeding, Waze users regularly report things like the location of wrecks, disabled vehicles, traffic conditions, and the locations of police on the roadways.

If you get into geeky technology, you can allow Waze access to one or more of your social profiles.

It’ll track you and your Waze friends en route. If you prefer to remain anonymous, Waze works just fine without entering user information, establishing a profile, or otherwise granting socials access.

Put simply, it’s a cool App that adds a fair amount of information to the standard Google Maps overlay.

A Little About Glover Law Firm

With decades of experience serving as legal counsel in Northeastern North Carolina, we encourage you to call if you have questions about legal matters involving:

• Criminal Defense
  • Felonies and Misdemeanors
• Impaired Driving
  • DUI – Driving Under the Influence
  • DWI – Driving While Impaired
  • “Drunk Driving” – N.C.G.S. 20-138.1
• Traffic Offenses
• Car Wrecks
• Insurance Claims
• Accidental or Wrongful Death
• Trucking Fatalities
• Motorcycle Collisions
• Recovery for:
  • Personal Injuries
  • Medical Bills
  • Lost Wages
  • Property Damage

We’re all about helping people through difficult times. That’s what we do day in and day out – Danny Glover

The attorneys at Glover Law Firm provide consultations to clients in Criminal Defense and Personal Injury matters free of charge.

Everything you tell our lawyers is confidential. That means we keep your secrets secret, even if you do not ultimately chose to retain our legal services.

If you or a loved one have a question, please call now.

And we sincerely hope and pray you have a safe, enjoyable Holiday Season in 2016!

Danny Glover, Jr.
Glover Law Firm
Danny@DannyGloverLawFirm.com
252-299-5300
Past President, North Carolina Advocates for Justice

If you have begun searching for lawyers on the Internet or doing research on how insurance issues work, chances are you’ve already begun experiencing the complexities of making a claim.

If you are frustrated with the carrier or the process, that’s OK.

We wouldn’t need lawyers if the process was always simple, fair, made common sense, or was something that only took a couple seconds to do – Danny Glover

That brings up an important point: the time associated with presenting a claim, collecting, assembling, and organizing medical records, histories, and explaining the causation of a wreck, normally takes a long time and a fair amount of experience to do so in a format that insurance companies both understand and recognize as valid.

Furthermore, experienced injury attorneys have a good idea of what a fair settlement amount actually is.

A lot of people get so frustrated with the process they just give up. That’s too bad.

And that’s one reason why retaining a lawyer can help. We help explain the process.

We do the hard and sometime tedious work behind making a claim. We take on the burden of demanding a proper settlement with the insurance company or at fault party.

Lawyers take the responsibility on of making certain the law is followed, that the responsible party is held accountable, and that the insurance company pays a fair settlement.

When legally appropriate, that sometimes requires preparing a Complaint and filing suit, and as part of the Discovery process, making demands for documents, filing requests for admissions, and taking depositions of witnesses and parties.

Whether you realize it or not, that is a substantial load and responsibility. We tell clients that the most important thing for them to do is focus on getting healthy.

That is not just lip service. Taking the time to focus on things like physical therapy, scheduling appointments, making arrangements for work and childcare for all the above, can be a tremendous job in and of itself.

We have experience helping people through difficult times. That’s what we do. We help people – Danny Glover

Checklist for Making a Claim:

• Provide Notice of a Claim
  • At Fault Carrier
  • Injured Party’s Carrier
  • Employer, as appropriate
  • Employer’s Insurance Carrier
  • Employer’s Worker’s Compensation Carrier, as appropriate
• Assemble Medical Expenses Documentation
  • IMPORTANT NOTE: LIMIT DISCLOSURE OF CONFIDENTIAL AND OTHERWISE IRRELEVANT MEDICAL HISTORIES
  • Do NOT execute a Medical Authorization and Release
    • Talk to an Attorney first
    • Limit the materials that can be sought and disclosed
    • Protect and Preserve HIPAA rights
  • Making a Claim does not require unlimited access to medical histories, prior medical treatments, or disclosure of medical conditions that are not relevant to making a claim
• Assemble Expense Documentation for Lost Wages
• Assemble Expense Documentation for Personal Property Damages
  • Vehicle Repairs
  • Lost Value
  • Rental
  • Personal Items
    • Tag, Title, Registration Fees – If Vehicle Replacement Becomes Necessary

Is a Recorded Statement Necessary or Required?

The quick answer is USUALLY NOT.

In fact, many insurance adjustors just flat get this wrong. While there are certain legal requirements to properly making a claim, providing a recorded statement to any carrier is rarely one of them.

Making a claim does not require you do everything requested by an adjustor. Putting them on notice should be pretty simple. Talking about the facts of the case is often the first step in an insurance company trying to find a way NOT to pay a claim – Danny Glover

People are sometimes floored to find out that insurance companies are not necessarily looking out for the best interests of the injured party.

Make no mistake, insurance companies make money protecting their bottom line.

If they can convince you to accept a very small amount quickly in exchange for a complete release of your claim, they save money in long run. Contrary to what you may see in commercials, insurance companies are in the business of taking in premiums and limiting paying claims.

It is not always a fair system.

In fact, there are regularly lawsuits filed in North Carolina because insurance companies have proceeded in “bad faith.”

You may be surprised to find out that a good number of “bad faith” claims are filed by the insured against their own carriers.

Even if the person whom caused the wreck wants to settle, sometimes the insurance companies just refuse to settle.

They can require a lawsuit to be filed. . .despite the fact that their own “insured” has admitted to doing something wrong and wants the carrier to settle.

We’re not trying to be negative in stating this. Insurance Companies often feel people are making up claims, hoping to recover damages when they were not hurt.

Disputes arise in filing claims. It can be complicated.

What Does It Cost to Hire a Lawyer?

Well, actually, it doesn’t really “cost” anything, if you think of laying out money.

Lawyers in personal injury cases get paid if a case settles. If there is no recovery from a claim, just like the client, the attorney receives nothing.

That is what it means to be a “contingency” agreement.

Legal fees are contingent upon a successful recovery.

Now there can and often are expenses associated with presenting a claim such as:

• Filing Fees
• Service of Process
• Court Reporter – Recording & Transcriptions
• Medical Records / Copy Charges
• Private Investigator Fees
• Expert Witness Fees

While some of those costs of presenting a claim may be advanced by a law firm, ultimately they are the responsibility of the client.

Those costs are often taken from the “settlement proceeds” upon disbursement of funds.

It can be a bit confusing. Talk to us. We’re more than willing to explain how things work. In fact, we will give you a written contract, where everything is set forth in writing.

We want you to understand how things work and what it costs.

The consultation is free.

We do not charge to talk to you, to review a case, and to see if it makes sense to hire a lawyer.

Transcription of “What Are Benefits of Hiring a Lawyer?” for the Hearing Impaired

One of the big benefits of hiring an attorney is that we take all the pressure and workload off of you for everything claims or case-related. You can focus on getting healthy or helping your loved one to recover from their injuries.

We deal with the insurance company, we get all the medical records, we have them reviewed by medical experts. We negotiate with the insurance company.

Remember the insurance company is trying to low-ball you. They may be the nicest people on the phone but they’re trying to make money of off your claim by saving money on your claim.

An attorney can help you avoid making that mistake.

Danny Glover, Jr.
Glover Law Firm
Danny@DannyGloverLawFirm.com
252-299-5300
Past President, North Carolina Advocates for Justice

It is important as a parent to discuss Halloween safety with your child before he or she goes out to trick or treat. There are many steps you and your child can take to minimize his or her chance of being injured in a car accident or on a neighbor’s property. Parents typically accompany younger children when they go trick-or-treating. Older children and adolescents can keep themselves safe without parental supervision by making sure they obey traffic laws and make themselves visible at all times.

No matter how well you prepare your child for Halloween night, there is always the chance that he or she can be involved in an accident. If your child is injured because of a distracted driver’s negligence, seek prompt medical attention for his or her injury. Getting immediate medical care is key to making a full, timely recovery. Once your child has received medical treatment, consult with a personal injury attorney to determine whether compensation may be available from the at-fault driver to cover the medical bills and other expenses. Work with an experienced car accident attorney to determine whether this is an appropriate course of action for your family. If so, your attorney can file your claim and work to get you the money you need to cover your expenses related to the injury.

Texting and Driving

When drivers stop focusing on the road ahead, they have slower reactions to changes in traffic conditions in front of them. Text messaging while driving is one of the most dangerous forms of distracted driving. North Carolina makes it illegal for drivers to send text messages from a moving vehicle. Studies have shown that distracted drivers are more dangerous than drunk drivers.

Distracted driving is not limited to text messaging, however. Using a cell phone to make phone calls, navigate, browse the internet, and use social media are all other ways a driver can put others at risk. Drivers can become distracted by eating or drinking behind the wheel, applying makeup, adjusting the car radio or on-board navigation system, or managing children or pets in the car.

Protect Yourself and Others

Protect yourself, your passengers, and those with whom you share the road by pledging not to use your phone while you are driving. If you need to use your smart phone to navigate, plug in your destination and start the navigation system before you begin to drive.

If you are driving with a passenger, have him or her handle navigation duties. Opt to use a hands-free headset for phone calls. This type of headset allows you to keep your hands on the steering wheel and your eyes on the road while you use your cell phone. If you do not have a headset, ignore all text messages and phone calls until you find a place where you can safely pull off the road and park.

If you can not trust yourself to ignore your phone while you are driving, turn its sound off before you leave home so you are not tempted to respond to its notifications. Another way you can prevent yourself from using your phone is making it inaccessible while you drive by storing it in the back seat or glove compartment.

Protect Children on Halloween

It can be easy for a child to be struck by a car if he or she is walking along the edge of the road at night wearing a dark Halloween costume. Make your child’s costume more visible by adding reflective tape to the outfit and candy bag or giving him or her a reflective pendant on a necklace to wear on Halloween night. Discourage black or dark-colored costumes that can be difficult to see. In addition, give your trick-or-treaters a flashlight or glow sticks to make them more visible in the darkness. If you are accompanying a young child, carry the flashlight and hold his or her hand at all times when crossing the street.

As a driver, be extra vigilant on the roads this Halloween. Drive more slowly than you normally would and stay alert for children crossing the street. Remember to have your headlights on 30 minutes before sundown and keep them on any time you drive at night. Do not keep your radio so loud that you miss the sound of footsteps approaching or people talking in vicinity of the car.

Elizabeth City Personal Injury Attorneys

If you or your child has been injured in a collision with a distracted driver on Halloween, you could be entitled to seek monetary compensation for your losses. These losses can include medical bills, lost wages due to time spent out of work (if you are the injury victim or your adolescent has a job), and the need for disability aids like a motorized scooter during recovery. Make the personal injury claim process easier by working with an experienced Elizabeth City accident lawyer. Glover Law Firm can help you get the money you need by providing quality legal advice and representation for your claim. We can explain every step of the personal injury claim process to you and determine the most effective way to handle your claim and get you the money you deserve. Do not wait to begin working on your claim with our firm – contact us today at 252-299-5300 to schedule your free legal consultation with us.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), pedestrians are most at risk of suffering fatal injuries in urban environments. That’s where three out of four, or 73 percent, of pedestrian deaths occur. Fatal pedestrian accidents are more likely to occur at non-intersections, where speeds may be higher, and during the evening hours, when visibility is poor. Alcohol is often a contributing factor and played a role in 48 percent of the accidents in which a pedestrian was killed.

As everyone is a pedestrian at some point in their lives, it is important for you and your family members know what driver mistakes are most likely to cause an impact with a pedestrian. That knowledge could help you avoid becoming a statistic in a pedestrian accident.

Driver Mistakes Contributing to Pedestrian Crashes

Driver negligence and errors are one of the main reasons pedestrians are injured or die when hit by a car, truck, motorcycle – or even a bicycle. Pedestrians may themselves the victim of a serious or fatal accident if a driver exhibits any of this conduct:

• Aggressive driving or road rage;
• Driving while alcohol-impaired;
• Failing to back up safely;
• Using a hand-held or hands-free cell phone while driving;
• Sending or reading texts while driving;
• Becoming distracted or inattentive by in-vehicle or out-of-vehicle distractions;
• Driving without the proper experience for the conditions;
• Driving under the influence of drugs, either prescription, OTC or illegal;
• Eating or drinking while driving;
• Failure to yield the right-of-way;
• Driving while drowsy or fatigued;
• Following too close to the vehicle ahead (tailgating);
• Disregarding traffic signals and controls;
• Making improper turns;
• Unsafe lane changing; and
• Improper passing or lane usage.

Tips Pedestrians Can Use to Stay Safe

Although your risk of serious or fatal injury in a vehicle-related accident is significantly greater as a pedestrian, you can be proactive to help to keep you and those you love safe when walking along city streets, roads and highways in Gates County, Dare County, Currituck County and throughout Eastern North Carolina, including the beach roads of the Outer Banks. The following tips may help you avoid injury or death while a pedestrian:

• Cross the street at designated crosswalks or signaled intersections whenever possible.
• When walking along the side of a road, always walk on the sidewalk. If no sidewalk exists, walk along the shoulder of the road facing traffic.
• Before crossing the street, always make eye contact with drivers in approaching vehicles to be sure they see you and are coming to a stop. Never assume you will be seen.
• If you plan on walking at night, wear light or reflective clothing and carry a flashlight.
• Do not walk while texting, talking on your cell phone, listening to music or engaging in any other distracting behavior that could inhibit your ability to be alert to circumstances around you.
• Just as you should never drink and drive, you should not drink and walk either. NHTSA statistics reveal that approximately 37 percent of pedestrians killed in vehicle-related accidents in one year’s time had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher.

Sources:

• National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: Safety in Numbers: Everyone is a pedestrian
• Centers for Disease Control, Injury Prevention & Control: Motor Vehicle Safety: Pedestrian Safety