When you see headlines about multi-million-dollar injury settlements, it’s easy to assume that money is just handed over like a lottery check. Clarke Speaks explains what catastrophic injury cases actually involve and the long-term impact of injuries throughout a person’s life. When someone’s life is permanently altered because of another party’s negligence, who should bear that cost? Because in civil law, the goal isn’t punishment. It’s responsibility.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
⚖️ Role of a Catastrophic Injury Lawyer: Quantifying lifetime financial impact
🏥 Daily Life Impact: Ongoing care and physical challenges
🧾 Responsibility & Justice: Civil accountability vs criminal punishment
0:00 – How Claims Work (Medical Expenses)
1:07 – Impact of Severe Injuries on Daily Life
3:39 – Responsibility and Justice in Catastrophic Injury Cases
Featured Keyword & Other Tags
catastrophic injury, medical bills, lost wages, future medical treatment, artificial leg, pain and suffering, justice system, insurance, civil perspective, delivery driver, physical therapy
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Transcript (Click To Read)
Speaker 1 00:00
I’m Clark, speaks the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict, right?
Speaker 2 00:05
So what it sounds like you’re kind of painting this picture is a lot of that money, and that, you know, large sum of money that we see on advertisements and stuff is exactly that is a lot of times in advertisement, I think, to the extent that a lot of that money I might never even see it comes to me and I pay my medical bills, or for whatever reason, and this money gets kind of divvied up. And it’s not necessarily just cash in my pocket that I can go, you know, to Bermuda with kind of thing
Clarke Speaks 00:32
100% so, for example, well, so let’s, let’s look at it like this, right? Okay, let’s say there’s a $10 million claim. Let’s say there’s $3 million in medical bills, and let’s say there’s a lost wage claim for $500,000 because you got a 40 year old person who would have worked for the rest of her life, for his life, and then it’s discounted for present value. So you’ve got, you know, a $3.5 million claim, then you’ve got future medical bills anticipated. You’re going to have to have additional surgeries, you have to have hardware replaced, you’re going to have to have, you know, other medical treatment. And then, you know, a lot of times what will happen is, say, a person loses a leg and has an artificial leg. A lot of times, walking becomes challenging, and that will cause problems in other areas of their body. You’re a college athlete, so if you hurt, maybe you’ve ever had this experience, tell me if you have you, maybe you sprain and knee, and so you have to overcompensate and you kind of, you’re or you, maybe you, you know you’re not talking about if you
Speaker 2 01:50
ever know, I spray my ankle, and it gave me hip problems because I’m limping and in a boot.
Clarke Speaks 01:53
And so imagine, you know, God forbid, if somebody loses a leg, you know, or both legs, what that does to your hips, what that does to your arms, when you’re having to do like this, are those going to wear out, you know? And so we can get medical. So my job is to tell that story completely, not to just say that person needs a no, no artificial leg. Also that artificial leg is was going to how long is going to last? Is going to wear out? You’re gonna have to get another one. Guess how much artificial legs cost. So this is something that comes up when I talk about this subject. My mom is 86 years old. What happens when somebody is 86 years old, you know, and they don’t have any legs now, their spouse may have died, their parents are certainly dead. Who’s gonna come take care of them? Are their kids gonna come take care of them? Their kids have they have their own kids. How are they gonna get groceries? How are they going to get so it’s important to think about all these things, you know. So this, how are they going to, how are they going to unload their groceries? How are they going to do their dishes? How are they going to clean their house? How are they going to, you know? And they’re going to be able to do some of those things, but there are some of those things that they can’t do. And so it’s my job to quantify those things with experts who say they can’t do this and they can’t do this, and this is how much it’s going to cost to do this in the year 2052, or whatever, you know. And we have experts, so it’s and we have the ability to do those things. So I have to be able to prove that to a jury, you know. So now you’ve got, you know, $3 million in future and past medical bills, $500,000 in lost wages, how much in future medical treatment? I don’t know how much in future, but we would have a report that says this. How much in future economic loss? We would have a report that said this. Then there might be, you know, pain and suffering. What’s it worth, you know, to to have lost your legs in isolation? It’s like, well, nothing, okay, but what if you’re a eight year old little girl who is riding her bike on the sidewalk where she’s supposed to be, and a delivery driver cuts a corner and the in the back tires run over, and he keeps going, you know? You know. Now it’s like this is a giant corporation, shouldn’t who should bear that cost? Somebody’s bearing that cost, like somebody’s bearing that cost, she’s bearing the cost no matter what right she’s the one that’s not going to be able to walk or play volleyball or walk down the aisle or play with her children quite the same way now that with technology and with with physical therapy and with different therapies, people can have amazing, rich, productive lives. We’ve had them on our catastrophic comeback podcast, just unbelievable people who are just incredible, amazing, you know, people and have overcome all these things, but it’s still that it’s a difficult situation, and it’s not their fault. If it was their fault, I wouldn’t have a claim, like at least one of these cases I was telling you about what we talked to this week. I think we got a problem because it was our guy’s fault, and I don’t and I don’t think they’re going to be able to recover anything, because they played a part, not the whole thing, but they would played a part in the in contributing to. Their own injuries, so they get nothing, zero, goose egg, nada. However, when it’s somebody else’s fault and they have the ability to pay, they have insurance, or it’s a big corporation, or whatever, it only makes sense that they would be responsible for paying the damage. Like, what? What they cause, right? Like, I mean, so we’re not asking for if a, if a delivery, if a Amazon truck or whatever runs over kid or whatever. I’m not trying to put that person in jail. That’s not my job. Now, if they’ve, they’re, if they’re driving under the influence, or if they’re, you know, speeding or whatever, the A’s office will prosecute that and and they will deal with that from a criminal perspective, and we’ll get those records, and we’ll use those to our advantage if we can, and all that. But if it’s a from a civil perspective, my job is not to put that person in jail or penalize that person at all. My job is to seek justice. Which is someone’s going to bear the cost of this? Who should it be? Should it be my eight year old girl, or should it be the person who is responsible for causing this problem? And in my opinion, in the history of the United States and the justice system that we have, the person who is responsible for the damage is the one who has to pay for it, and that’s the reason we all have insurance, right? You’re required to have insurance before you operate a vehicle. If you have a commercial vehicle, you’re required to have more insurance. Thanks for joining us. Don’t forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We’ll see you next time you.
