Have you ever wondered what goes through the mind of an attorney who is responding to a catastrophic accident call?
In this video, Clarke Speaks opens up about the emotional and professional challenges he faces when representing families impacted by life-altering accidents. Get a first-hand perspective at what it’s like to show up at the hospital following a catastrophic case, often before the dust has even settled. We’ll walk you through the mental and logistical balancing act our team performs when lives are changed in an instant.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
🚨 Behind the scenes of a catastrophic injury case
💔 The emotional chaos facing victims’ families
🧠 The strategic thinking required at the hospital bedside
💼 How lawyers preserve critical evidence in real time
⚖️ The human side of law and seeking justice
Featured Keyword & Other Tags
Road to recovery, catastrophic injury, attorney, timeliness, catastrophic cases
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Transcript (Click To Read)
Clark: I’m Clark Speaks, the catastrophic injury lawyer. Welcome to the verdict, Mr.
Carson Grace Toomer: Speaks. I just wanted to go ahead and ask what is going on inside your mind when you have to. Are working on a case that has occurred as a catastrophic accident.
Clark: So what comes to mind is one accident in particular. And, uh, so I get a call that something has. Bad has happened to somebody. It’s in Charlotte. And so I, uh, get in the car and I’m headed to Charlotte. As I’m pulling into Charlotte, you know, uh, it’s a little bit of a drive. And so as I’m pulling into the hospital in Charlotte, it’s raining outside. Uh, and I’m thinking about what I’m going to do and say when I’m going into the hospital. I’ve talked to the wife. I know that he’s got two little kids. I know that they’re going to have questions, right? So I know that I’m going to have to find a little place out of the way that. Where we can. We can talk. So as I’m pulling into the parking deck, it’s raining and I’m. And I’m thinking about the things that I’m going to need and the things that I’m going to need to say and the things I’m going to do. So I get in through security and get to the floor and find where. Where they are. We got to find a little place outside of the way. Way to talk. To talk to his wife. And she’s afraid that her husband, you know what’s going to happen, right? And, uh, and the kids are like, running around because they’re fearful, but they don’t really know what’s going on. And it’s a big place and there’s lots of people running around. And they’re kind of excited because it’s a big building and it’s a, you know, in a big city and all this. And they don’t really know the impact and the magnitude of what’s going on. Um, and the wife is trying to figure out, is he gonna make it? And she’s also figuring out, what are we gonna do about rent? Like, we got a car payment on the 5th. I gotta pay for Little League on the 7th. I don’t have anything lined up for dinner. You know what I mean? I’ve gotta work tomorrow. There’s a million things going through her mind at that point in time. Maybe she’s got somebody’s parents or there, a neighbor or friend from church or something is there. And so I’ve got to Be able to pull, uh, her aside and be able to sit down and talk to her about some really important things in a very short period of time under some pretty difficult circumstances. And so that’s what I’ll do. I try to find a little place out of the way, and I got to be out of the way, right? Because there’s these medical professionals that are walking around and they mean business, right? They are, they are. They are there. Uh, and they all got the same look on their face, you know what I mean? Um, and I have a great deal of respect for them, and I have worked with many of fantastic ones over the years that they’re thinking, hey, this person may die someday, but not today, not while I’m here. And so I respect that commitment and take that commitment very seriously. And so I got to find a way, uh, an out of the way place where we can sit down and have a conversation. And in that conversation, I’ve got to get certain things from them as best, you know, what happened? Where did it happen? Why did it happen? Who was there? Um, and then I’m thinking, hey, it’s raining. That affects evidence. That affects my collection of evidence, you know, and that affects, um, the preservation of evidence. If there’s tire tracks, you know, if there’s footprints, if there are, uh, if there are witnesses, witnesses, move witnesses, forget witnesses, you know, so all these things are kind of going on at the same time. So we have a very specific process that we’ll go through. And then, um, the wife wants to, wants me to tell her, hey, it’s going to be okay, right? Everything’s going to be okay. And I want to tell her everything’s okay, right? And really the reason that I want to be able to tell her everything is okay is because this is what I think God put me on the earth to do, right? Some people are good at singing or sports or whatever. And this is what I’m supposed to do, is to help injured people recover physically, financially, and emotionally. And so I want to be able to tell her, yes, I can serve my purpose, I can fulfill my purpose. And I got it. I got you. I can’t tell her that yet, right? I don’t know what happened. I don’t know whose fault it was. I don’t know if there is injury, if there is enough insurance to cover these things. Um, because medical care, you know, people hear these, you know, they hear a verdict on TV, so and so got, uh, $20 million or $30 million or $10 million or whatever,
00:05:00
Clark: and a lot of Times when they hear that, they think, what a crock. You know, that’s uh, that’s a. The justice system gone wild. And people are, are just ridiculous. Uh, and this is why you can’t trust people. I can’t tell you how wrong that is. Out of whatever money that. The only way to get that kind of money for an injury is somebody has to be hurt very, very, very badly. You would not trade places with the person who gets, has that kind of, uh, recovery. You wouldn’t do it, not for any amount of money in the world. They have experienced, ah, an injury, a loss of a magnitude that’s hard for most of us to get our head around. And they will likely have ongoing medical bills and lost wages. The only way to get that is to, is to have, have lost that in the first place. Right. And so, well, you know, you think, well, this person didn’t have $20 million or $30 million or $10 million. No, they didn’t, but they had the use of their body and they had, they, uh, didn’t need additional medical expenses. And now, like, it’s hard, it would be hard for people to understand how expensive medical care is, especially comprehensive in house medical care, if you go to the emergency room for a couple hours, what, the bill’s $5,000, $10,000. You have to live with that kind of care around the clock. The magnitude, the amount of that, how much that medical care cost is staggering. It’s absolutely staggering. And then some people have to have attendant care, people that come to their homes, people that might have to have future surgeries, people might have to have, not to mention lost wages, lost income, you know, not, uh, and then there’s another component to it also, which is, think about it from, you know, your, your grand grandfather’s point of view. We, we just talked a few minutes ago about your, your, your grandfather and he’s, uh, you know, uh, your dad is my age, roughly, and so he’s. Your dad’s probably. Granddad’s probably 80. Yep. If he had an injury or he didn’t, but if he did, God forbid, had it, had an injury when he was younger, how might that affect him when he’s 80, when he’s 82, when he’s 84, you know, and like these, uh, things have to be identified and quantified and addressed. And if there’s an insurance policy that’s sufficient to, uh, offset that loss, then we have to be able to access it. Which means for me that while I’m having this conversation, I’ve Got to be thinking about, okay, what experts am I going to need? Right? Because in order to get somebody compensated for a catastrophic injury, you have to have liability. Damage and coverage. Right? Liability was somebody else’s fault, um, unless they were hurt at work, and then they got to be hurt at work, right? Insurance coverage. You have to have an insurance policy, and that insurance policy has to be large enough, big enough to cover the damages, right? So if somebody is killed or paralyzed and all the insurance there is is $30,000, the state minimum in North Carolina be 50 in a couple of months or at the end of the year. That is all there is. Sometimes a lot of times we can go out and find additional policies, but sometimes we can’t. And that’s all there is. So then our job becomes very different. But if there is sufficient coverage, then it becomes, okay, how do we access this coverage to help this family? And then that becomes, how do we build this case? How can I build this case? First of all, I gotta preserve the evidence. So we’ve got in house investigators that can go out and get witness statements and take pictures and take videos and take photographs and collect evidence. Critical. Absolutely critical. I didn’t always have that. You know, it used to be me that would have to go out in the rain or whatever, you know what I mean? Um, and I just had to do it from. But now we’ve got people who have been law enforcement officers for years who know exactly what they’re doing, exactly how to do that. They know to ask for videos from the nearby gas station or whatever, and they can collect that evidence, which is critical. Uh, and we got other people who can look for additional policies, uh, collect witness statements and do all these things that are critical, right? But then in the room, I’ve got to be able to talk to, um, the spouse, the wife or the husband or whatever, and be able to get some information, uh, to them. I want them to understand, you know, the nature of our relationship. I’m going to go over a representation agreement which defines my responsibilities and yours. It describes how we get paid, and we don’t get paid unless you. Unless we recover. And then if we do recover, how we. How we get paid and what that percentage is, and it’s standard in the industry, but it’s still something that you’ve got to understand. And I’ve got to make you understand that even though you’re in a hospital worried about your spouse or your loved one who
00:10:00
Clark: may not, who in this case we both know, the kids are running around playing tag and Goofing off. They don’t know this, but dad’s not coming home. You know, this is a catastrophic situation. Or maybe he’s coming home, but he’s not coming home the same way that he left. This is a life changing injury. And then I’ve also got to think about it from this perspective because who I, uh, represent at that point in time is going to be the injured person in the, in the hospital bed, you know, um, who I haven’t even talked to yet. And I may not be able to talk to them right now, but that person might be different, might be, might have different interests from the person I’m talking, from the spouse that I’m talking to. Now. Some spouses, if there’s a permanent life changing injury, disfiguring injury, permanent paralysis, something like that, they might not be there in a year, they might not be there in two years, they might not be here in four years. So all those things are coming into play during this very, uh, early on conversation. And I’ve got to be able to keep my eye on all these balls and focus on what my job is, which is to be able to make sure that she understands or he understands what my role is and what their responsibilities are. And then I’ve got to be able to go through the process of collecting all the evidence that that’s going to be necessary to tell the story of this loss to this family and what it means to them in their future. 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.
