Settlement Videos: The Power of the Client's Story

Bobby Craig: There’s a difference between telling a sad story and telling that story built around a personal injury case. These are some of the most important stories to tell in the world, I truly think that. What it can do for a case and how it can help people – I’ve never thought about doing anything else since.

David Craig – Host: I’m David Craig, a board-certified truck accident attorney who’s dedicated over 40 years to helping the victims of devastating semi-truck, large truck, and other commercial motor vehicle wrecks. When the stakes are high, you need the information to make the right decision. After tragedy strikes, many people don’t know where to begin or what questions to ask. It is my goal to empower you with the knowledge and resources you need to help you understand your rights and to protect you and your family. This is, After the Crash.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. This is another episode of After the Crash. I’m your host, Attorney Dave Craig, board-certified in truck accident law. And today we’re interviewing Bobby Craig, who is one of the owners of Impact Video. Welcome, Bobby, to the episode.

Bobby Craig: Thanks for having me. It’s been four or five years since I’ve been a guest.

David Craig – Host: It has been, and so-

Bobby Craig: Hasn’t been that long.

David Craig – Host: And since that time, I mean, this podcast is now over five years, or close to maybe six years old. And so you were one of our earlier guests. And so what we’re going to talk about today are settlement videos. So, Bobby has a company that’s called Impact Video, and they do settlement videos for not only our law firm, Craig, Kelley & Faultless, but they do them for other law firms all over the country. And since we initially talked, you certainly have done hundreds more videos and you’ve had an opportunity to work with a lot of different lawyers. Who’s your favorite lawyer?

Bobby Craig: It’s hard to pick.

David Craig – Host: Wait, what do you mean? I’m your dad!

Bobby Craig: Yeah, no-

David Craig – Host: No, just kidding.

Bobby Craig: Well, I got my start here, so.

David Craig – Host: And so, for people that don’t know what a settlement video is, so in our business, unfortunately we do a lot of catastrophic injuries, wrongful death cases. And so we’re always challenged to try to communicate that story, or what’s the loss, what’s the harm that our families have gone through. And so, back in the old days when I first started 40 years ago, we would give them reports. We would give them doctor’s reports. We’d give them coroner’s reports. We would give them lost earnings reports and lost future earnings, future medical care reports. We would give them a lot of paper. And that was kind of inconsistent with my knowledge of what made juries come back and take care and hold the defendants responsible and take care of all the harm. And what that was, was people. When we go to jury trial, we bring witnesses in, we put them on the stand, we put exhibits in and we make it interesting and we tell a story. And that story, sometimes a trial takes weeks, sometimes it just takes days.

But certainly, I’ve always felt like when we were making demands 40 years ago and we were just giving paper that a lot was being lost. And so, we decided to start doing settlement videos. I will say that your settlement videos are some of the best I’ve seen in the whole country, and I’ve seen videos by other folks. I’m not saying it just because you’re my son, but I guess why don’t you talk with the juror or with the audience and explain what is a settlement video? What’s the goal? I mean, what’s your goal? When you do a settlement video, what are you trying to do?

Bobby Craig: So, settlement video is a tool for an attorney. The goal is to be able to communicate damages in the case in the most effective way possible. What we do is settlement documentaries, and they’re literally documentaries about the personal injury case. What we do is we interview anybody that knows a client before and after the wreck or whatever happened and can talk about how this has truly impacted their lives. And again, our goal is to communicate those damages in the most effective way possible and more effectively than tools you already have.

David Craig – Host: And I think this podcast is certainly designed for just the average everyday folks that are sitting there going … That don’t have any idea what is involved in for prosecuting a wrongful death or a truck wreck serious injury case. But the challenge always is, is you folks have gone through it, you’re going through it. And what you feel is something completely different than what an insurance adjuster or a trucking adjuster, claims person, defense lawyer, what they’ve experienced. Some of them may have never experienced anything like what you’re going through. And so, telling that story in a way that people can understand and they kind of get a glimpse, a little bit, about what’s going to happen at trial if the case doesn’t settle. And so, I think those are extraordinarily important, and focus certainly on damages is a big part of it. Tell me like with damages, what type of people … So you said some folks that know somebody before and some people who know people after or both. What other kind of people do you find yourself interviewing?

Bobby Craig: We’ll interview experts, is a big one. You have a lot of people talking about the difference between before and after with the client, how it’s impacted their lives. You bring in an expert, whether it’s a doctor, psychologist, or whoever to kind of validate what everybody’s saying.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And I like to include the experts as well. And I think one of the things that it does is it shows … So, maybe the defense lawyer and the claims people have never seen this particular doctor. And so, having the doctor kind of give a quick summary of what the injuries are, what the impact is. I find it gives the defense kind of a glimpse of what would happen at trial. I mean, who is this witness? And some of the doctors are very articulate and very passionate about … You and I shot one here recently that jumps to my mind is that, I mean, this doctor was really proud of, this was a very rare surgery, very rare injury. And I think he said most people die from that. And I mean, you can speak to it, but I think having him on there, somebody who is very passionate about what he did to save this young man’s life.

Bobby Craig: Right. I mean, getting him on video, talking about what he actually did for the client and having him be very persuasive and comes across well and likable, I mean, that’s very beneficial. What about from the attorney perspective? How helpful is that? I mean, you mentioned experts being kind of a sneak peek at what you’d expect at trial. What about the people in the videos?

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And I think same way. I mean, so obviously, unfortunately in a lot of cases the defense never deposes those, what we call before and after witnesses. And so they have no idea. They know what they’re going to say because we’ve answered interrogatories and we’ve provided answers to questions that the defense asks us, and says, “Who are your witnesses and what are they going to say?” But again, that’s just purely something in writing. And some of these witnesses, my experience has been witnesses can make or break your case. And so, unfortunately there are some folks out there who maybe their witnesses are people who just aren’t very articulate, or they don’t testify well, or they just can’t tell a story, or they’re afraid to walk in a courtroom or whatever. And then you could have somebody else has the exact same case, same injuries, but they have witnesses that are fantastic, that are great storytellers, that are just kind of people who you’re attracted to as a juror or an audience.

And so, when you have those people and the defense hasn’t never seen them, the settlement video is really the only way, unless you depose them yourself, it’s the only way that the defense can see how powerful your case is. And so, I think they’re extraordinarily powerful. I think the doctors are, I think the doctor we talked about, I mean, if you would have read his report, you could read his report and he would say, “Here was the injury your client has, and here’s the condition and here’s what prognosis is.” But when you actually put him on video, when we interviewed him, you could see the passion, you could see that, “Hey, look, this is a very rare. This was a long all-day surgery. We saved his life.” And I’ve done this several times and he was a specialist and hardly anybody across the country had ever done it.

And so, it was just so much more powerful than reading the report. And so you hope that if the defense sees that, they actually recognize that when that doctor talks in front of a jury, the jury is going to be mesmerized by this guy, and they’re going to see what he has to say, and he’s very passionate. I love settlement videos, your before/after witnesses, your experts. I think it’s more important than ever to tell a good story. When you walk into a video like, so we hire you or you’ve been hired by other lawyers all over the country, and do you go in thinking, “Okay, this is what the story is.” Or how do you-

Bobby Craig: No.

David Craig – Host: Does this story kind of develop? How do you figure that out?

Bobby Craig: There’s tons of planning we do, but you never know how interviews are going to go until you go do them. I mean, you’re never going to have the perfect outline. You’re never going to have the perfect interview questions. You’re never going to have it truly figured out. You can plan as much as you want. I mean, we’ve had plenty of times where I get told by the attorneys we’re working with that this person we’re about to interview is going to be able to talk about this, this and this and this. It’s going to be a really great interview. And it turns out to not be. Maybe they don’t know as much as what we thought they knew. Even on the flip side, we’ve had people that have walked in, they’re like, “I’ve literally been told we can probably cut this one short.” And then they end up being throughout the video and a very credible witness. So you never know, you have to be able to think on your feet. There’s no plan that’s going to be perfect.

David Craig – Host: And that reminds me. So, my daughter, your sister, Samantha, she’s an attorney here in our office and she also is involved in settlement videos, and so it’s usually, in our firm it’s either her or me that are involved in settlement videos and we work with your company. And so, here recently a paralegal told her that the before/after witnesses that we had in this case were, none of them were very good. But we don’t just go by that. Samantha talked to them before that you guys interviewed them, and she’s like, “No, these people are extraordinarily good.” And so, not everybody’s good at reading, and also when you just read something and here’s what they have to say versus actually talking to them, meeting them.

Bobby Craig: And sometimes they come off differently on the phone. And sometimes maybe they take it more seriously when they’re in front of a camera, or you never really know.

David Craig – Host: Well, I’ll vouch for you here. Certainly, you’re my son, I love you, but I wouldn’t use you if you weren’t good because I have a responsibility and duty to my clients. I will say for you folks listening, if your case involves a settlement video, any significant case I believe should have a settlement video, but I’ve seen … And last year, for example, I resolved a case for over 27 million, and that case was because in a large part it was a catastrophic injury case.

But on the other hand, the defense lawyer told me afterwards, after this case settled, how powerful your settlement video was. That that made a huge difference in how they looked at the case, because of the before/after witnesses, because of the story that was told in the video. I mean, I’m so convinced with it that we look at it in every case, we meet with the paralegals, we meet with our team of lawyers and say, “Okay, is this one of the cases that we use?” And they’re not cheap. So, if you’re listening to this and you’ve got a case that’s involved that needs a settlement video, they’re not inexpensive, whether you’re using Impact Video or you’re using one of the other companies, but they’re far worth it, because they add value to a case because it shows the story.

Bobby Craig: And always great hearing. Usually when we do a video for a case, you don’t get … I’m not in the mediation. I don’t get to see how it plays out or any of that stuff. All we get is, it was really effective. But in that case specifically you got some really direct feedback and seemed like it played a very specific role in making a difference.

David Craig – Host: And I had another defense lawyer who came here recently, and so it was a serious injury case, but not a catastrophic injury case. And I was talking to him, and he indicated that one of the things that makes our firms different is that we utilize settlement videos in a lot of cases, and he said that there’s only a few law firms that are doing that. And he told me, he said, off the record, you need to keep doing it, because it definitely makes a difference in his claims people when they look at the case. It does a couple of things. One, it tells them the story, which is what the video does. Two, it tells them that the law firm is serious and they’re putting the time and effort into it. Third is if there’s doctors involved in it and are interviewed in it, that we’re paying the doctors, we’re interviewing the doctors before a deposition in order to put them into the video, and that we recognize and we’re willing to invest in a case and that if they don’t settle, we’ll do the same thing at trial.

So, I’ve heard it from multiple defense lawyers how powerful these videos are. I mean, obviously some of these cases have long stories. I mean, their lives are turned upside down, their lives are devastated, they’ve lost a loved one. How do you decide how long a settlement video should be?

Bobby Craig: I mean, normally the sweet spot’s 12 minutes, but that varies depending on the case. I mean, there’s certain cases, especially the bigger ones, the bigger it gets, usually there’s more tragedy involved, there’s more moving pieces, there’s more points of the story that we can get across that will be helpful for the attorneys. Sometimes that it’s going to go longer. If there’s more clients involved, you have more stories interweaving, you’re going to go longer. There’s a lot of different factors, but usually around that 12 minutes for a normal video is probably the sweet spot.

David Craig – Host: And what kind of stuff? So, we have clients that are listening to this, or we have … And they may not be clients of our firm, but they may be clients of other firms. And so, what kind of stuff is helpful for them to provide to your company or to their law firm in order to make a powerful video?

Bobby Craig: A lot of photos. Family photos is a huge thing, pictures, a lot of stuff beforehand. A very important part of these videos is we want to show the person, who is this person that got hurt? Who’s the person behind this video? We want to humanize them. And so, being able to show family photos that reference what we’re talking about in the video is huge. Also, if there’s wreck photos or injury photos, I mean, obviously we’ll use those and then photos of them afterwards if they have them.

David Craig – Host: Let’s say a family has videos in addition to photos where they show, “Hey, before this, I liked to spend time with my family at the beach” or something, and now they can’t.

Bobby Craig: Yeah, videos is even more powerful. Obviously, I run a video company. If you have videos, that’s even better than photos, but a lot of people just have tons of photos, but people that take videos, I’ll take the videos.

David Craig – Host: And then obviously, if they’re going through therapy or things like that, do you guys shoot videos of that or do other people go shoot the videos, and I would assume you use day in the life. Well, I know you do from cases we have, you use day in the life or type of video… we call day in the life, which are videos basically that show somebody from the time they get up in the morning until when they go to bed what their life is like now.

Bobby Craig: Yeah. We use those, day in the life videos, a lot of times they’re going through therapy after a horrific wreck and their life’s about to be changed forever, and sometimes that therapy is the first time they’re out of the hospital post-wreck. So, it’s important footage to have, but a lot of times we’ll have people telling that story of what that person was going through while they’re in that rehab facility. They’re not there to get better in a lot of these big cases. They’re kind of having to accept, “This is the rest of my life. This is kind of the first glimpse at what this looks like.” And trying to have to accept that is a really tough thing to do. These people are going through a lot mentally, so we try to touch on that part of the story, as well as not just showing the physical side.

David Craig – Host: Well, and I know you and I have gone and shot video before of rehab and I can remember one case where the lady was, I mean, just she had to stop. I mean, she was in tears. I mean, it was so painful for her physically, and her husband was with us and that just, I remember how dramatic that was. And I think again, you can tell somebody, “Okay, my client is injured, in a lot of pain when she goes through therapy.” And that’s not nearly as powerful as showing them the video of her trying so hard to do better, but yet she couldn’t do it because the pain was so bad.

I’m very hands on. When we have a rapid response team, when there’s a semi wreck, oftentimes I’ve been the one that goes with my rapid response team to the inspection. A lot of times I go to the scene of the accident. I just want to see it myself. I always do that before I do the deposition. I want to see it. I like to be involved in it. It helps me do depositions. It helps me understand. It helps me make sure I don’t miss something. In settlement videos I like to make sure that I’m involved in them, but I assume and I know that some lawyers aren’t nearly as involved. Some lawyers would … Is there different ways that the lawyers do these things? Do they always want to be there? Do they not always want to be there? Do they ask questions? Do they not ask questions? I mean, how does it work?

Bobby Craig: Well, I mean, as far as them being there or not, usually, I mean, a lot of the cases we’re handling are some of the bigger cases. So, most of the time, the attorneys want to be there or have somebody there that’s handling the case or helping with the case. I think it’s a beneficial thing to have, because I mean, there’s been plenty of times where something new comes up or kind of like I mentioned, like where somebody just doesn’t know certain pieces of information, or maybe it’s just not the way that the attorneys thought it was. Being able to bounce ideas with them on the spot is a key part of that kind of thinking on your feet while you’re doing the interviews. But we do the interviews and then obviously we let the attorneys chime in if they want to, if they have extra things or if they think we missed something, but I think it’s a helpful thing. And like I said, most of the videos that we do are bigger cases, so attorneys usually want to show up for those.

David Craig – Host: And interviews, how long is a normal interview and kind of just give me a ballpark, like how many before/after witnesses on average do you think are appropriate?

Bobby Craig: Again, it kind of varies by case, but a normal one with just one client with who are they before, this is the wreck, here’s them afterwards. Usually between four and six, kind of in that area of before and after witnesses, you might throw in an expert and those interviews are usually probably 45 minutes to an hour.

David Craig – Host: Okay. And do you record these typically, your preference to do them in-person-

Bobby Craig: Yeah.

David Craig – Host: … rather than doing them by Zoom?

Bobby Craig: Absolutely.

David Craig – Host: A lot of people do by Zoom nowadays, but …

Bobby Craig: I mean, when you’re talking about trying to capture the emotion and communicating emotion and communicating these damages, you want to be able to capture the most emotion you can. With these high-quality cameras nowadays, you can really feel it when somebody’s talking, and that’s kind of the most important thing. It’s less about the words that are said sometimes. Sometimes language is limiting, but being able to feel what they say. A lot of the best clips I’ve ever used, you would never, if you’re looking at a transcript of these interviews and trying to pull out the best clips, you would never highlight these ones. It’s about how they deliver it and how you’re presenting the information. So, filming in-person would be definitely ideal. But there’s times where people are all over the country. A friend lives out in California, we’re already filming in-person, maybe there’s a tough deadline, or whatever happens, we’ve done Zoom calls before.

David Craig – Host: So, you’ve got four to six people, you got some experts potentially, you got to take a lot of photographs, you got to take a lot of videos that people have given you. You got to sort all through all that. You obviously come up with a storyline through the interview process. I mean, what’s involved in, after you do the shooting and you’ve got all that, kind of walk us through. I mean, just behind the scenes, what happens next?

Bobby Craig: Yeah. So, the first thing you do is put together your outline, and that’s based on your meetings with the firm, what are their goals? I mean, there’s a difference between telling a sad story and telling that story built around a personal injury case. A part of the meetings with the attorneys, you’re learning what’s the focal points, what are the important things to focus on? What do you not focus on? What things are being disputed? That all plays a role in just kind of condensing this video into this short documentary for the case.

David Craig – Host: And so, kind of ballpark, just roughly how long does this process take from the minute you’re, “Okay, hey, we’re going to hire you,” or a law firm’s going to hire you, to-

Bobby Craig: You gonna make me put promises out there?

David Craig – Host: Yeah. Well, I think people should know, because I mean, I think I’m constantly battling my paralegals, because we’re constantly putting you guys under the gun, and I think if you’re a client out there, you’re paying attention, you’re listening, or we do have attorneys who listen. And so, it’s kind of like, well, in a perfect world, which obviously we don’t all work in a perfect world, but in a perfect world, how much time do you need?

Bobby Craig: I think it’s just like any other expert or service that you guys use for a case, the earlier, the better. I mean, the one thing that gets overlooked is that we’re having to work with the attorney and the file manager or paralegal or whoever to help plan these interviews and see who are we going to interview. And then the process of actually booking those interviews might take longer than what we think. We have to have all this stuff, all the interviews, all of our assets with the photos and all the stuff we talked about earlier, and then we have to edit it. So, if you start the planning process a month out and then you end up with all your assets a week out, you got problems. If this is a huge case, we want to be able to spend the time needed to be able to tell the story correctly, and that helps the attorney in the best way possible. So, making sure that we have all of our assets at least a couple of months out would be a safe plan.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And I think the timing is important. And I think what’s important is you’re talking about some of these cases are worth millions, tens of millions, hundreds of thousands. And so, the most important thing is not just doing a video. The most important thing is doing a video that’s impactful, and why would you not want to spend the time doing it right?

And I think telling the story, understanding what the story is, story sometimes changes when you talk to people, when you interview with people. There’s been times when, that I’ve been in with you and there was a fact come out that I didn’t even know about. Somebody that’s a neighbor or something talks about it, and they say this and it’s like, “Holy cow, I didn’t even see that as such an important part of the story.” And I didn’t hear it until we did those. I mean, some clients are better at telling you and some spouses are good at telling you, but sometimes they just don’t see it or they don’t know it. And you may have a client who, the neighbors, who is the person who everybody turns to who helps them fix their equipment, who goes in their house or takes care of an elderly person and visits them.

I had one here recently where this guy would go visit this elderly person that had Alzheimer’s, but he knew him and that was the one person he identified and he recognized. And the folks at the nursing home or the facility, they said how happy this person is to see him, and then that person died. And just the devastation it had because the person didn’t understand why he wasn’t being visited anymore.

And so, when you interview the staff, and so you may not even understand that, they may tell you, “Well, he visited somebody.” And the family may never have gone and they may have no idea what impact that had. And so, what a great, nice person this is that takes time out of their own lives to go visit somebody who is a friend and be that regular person once a week, and all of a sudden that’s gone. And so, sometimes we don’t see it, we don’t hear it. Lawyers oftentimes and paralegals focus on injuries, effect of the injury, how it’s impacting them physically, mentally, but they don’t necessarily know the impact it has on the whole community.

So, one of the things that I think that is, some people talk to me about or ask me about is music in videos. And I know I was talking to one of my paralegals the other day and she said she didn’t even realize there was music in the settlement video, this is the one that she was talking about. And she goes, then she went back and watched it and she goes, because she was cutting it up, or we were having to send part of it out. And it’s like, oh, there was music, because at trial we’re not going to play the music. And so, if we have a video at trial, it’s not going to have music in it. And if we have a day in the life, for example, so we’re showing somebody going through therapy, we’re going to have no music with that.

However, settlement video is different. We’re telling a story, we’re communicating a story, and so we’re going to use visuals, you’re going to use lighting, you’re going to use sound, you’re going to do all those things. I assume all those things, I know from your videos, that those can be powerful.

Bobby Craig: Yeah. I mean, you’re communicating that emotion and all these things that you mentioned are tools that a videographer has to communicate that emotion. Kind of like you said, if music’s done right in a video, you shouldn’t really even notice it. You can’t put music in to make something more interesting. You can’t just put music in to make something more sad. If you understand these tools good enough, you’re able to communicate the emotion that these people are going through and get that across with your edit. Kind of like I said, words can be limiting. It’s how you present the information.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And I’ve seen some horrible videos that I will say the defense have put together, and I’ve seen them and they just have horrific music and horrific B-roll footage. B-roll footage meaning just footage of, let’s say a house or a barn or they had nothing to do with the story that they’re telling. I had one was a cornfield or something and the wind was blowing and it’s just like-

Bobby Craig: A little artistic with it.

David Craig – Host: Yeah, it was a little too artistic. It’s like, this is not the purpose of this.

Bobby Craig: And so anything you put on screen or anything you hear has to have a purpose. I mean, even something as simple as, did you cut to a photo, or did you fade into the photo? Those two things, even though they’re very simple, they communicate two different things. What font are you using for the lower third? What’s your color grading look like on your video? What shots are you using? What music? What sound effects? How did you put together this story? It’s all communicating emotion, and that’s what we’re trying to do with these videos. So, it has to be done the right way. You don’t want to come off like you’re exaggerating or else you’re going to quickly lose credibility in your video. You got to know your tools.

David Craig – Host: Well, and I guess speaking of tools, different type of tool is the equipment you use to capture the video – cameras, the lighting, all that type of things. And you have a partner, Aaron Sherman and Aaron and you helped us build this podcast room, along with my nephew Justin Rock. And Justin physically built it all out and you guys put the equipment in and figured out what kind of equipment to use. I know Aaron was instrumental in all that, but I think that’s important too. I think a company that invests in top-notch new equipment, because things are changing, and your company has been willing to invest in and have top-notch equipment as well.

Bobby Craig: For sure.

David Craig – Host: I can remember when we first started, you didn’t have as much.

Bobby Craig: Yeah, no. I mean, I think when we first started, when I didn’t have as much, I think it’s very nice having the good equipment and all that stuff. But I mean, the fact that I started here at a law firm and kind of got to work side by side with you of just building that foundation without all the fancy equipment was the most important thing. I mean, trial and error, going through these videos saying, what is important? Who are we talking to? What things do we focus on? Before you have all these fancy cameras and lights and know how to use all these tools, build that foundation and then grow from there, I think has just been a massive part of my career.

I mean, I got my start doing settlement videos, got a taste of what it can do for a case and how it can help people. I’ve never thought about doing anything else since. But point being, the fancy stuff helps. The nice equipment helps, but you have to have that foundation or the expertise to know what we’re even doing here for a settlement video. What’s the purpose and who are we talking to?

David Craig – Host: Yeah. Well, and like a lot of professional videographers, your education is in this area, your college degree is in this area, but until you actually work with a story, I mean, it’s like a law. I mean, I graduated with a law degree, which gives me a certificate. I can do anything. I can draft your contract. I can draft your will. You don’t want me drafting your will; I would be horrible. You don’t want me drafting your contract. I mean, what I do is personal injury. What I do is truck wrecks, serious injuries, wrongful death cases. And the reality is, you started, you got your education, you got the degree, you learned to use the equipment, but you grew up with us in a personal injury [firm].

You grew up in a family where we’re constantly telling stories; we’re talking about cases. And then you’re, like you said, you started doing settlement videos. And same reason why I don’t do other type of law. I mean, you meet these people and you think, “My God, if I can make a difference in their lives, this is a good way to make a living.”

Bobby Craig: Oh yeah. Yeah, there’s not a lot of video jobs where you get to directly impact people’s lives. So, I think these are some of the most important stories to tell in the world. I truly think that. Never considered anything else.

David Craig – Host: How do people reach Impact Video?

Bobby Craig: Just go to impactvideogroup.com, or you can email me at bobby@impactvideogroup.com, and we can chat.

David Craig – Host: Well, ladies and gentlemen, that’s another episode of After the Crash. I hope you enjoyed it. I know I did, and I’m always learning something. And I think that if you have an opportunity, if I’m your lawyer and my law firm’s your lawyer, you should be asking, “Are we doing a settlement video on my case?” Because they are powerful and they increase the value of your case, and they’re far worth the investment of the money that we put into it. If you have someone else as a lawyer, then I would encourage you to reach out to your lawyers and say, “Hey, what about a settlement video? Could we do something like that?” Because we find it very effective.

I will say that a really good defense lawyer, a guy that I considered a friend, John Trimble, who’s since passed away, John came to me and said, “Dave, you would be better off if you would give these videos 30 days in advance. If you would give these people …” The decision makers need time to look at the videos and understand it and then evaluate it. And so, we now try to give these videos 30 days ahead of time to the defense, because I respected John and I respected his opinion. And he worked on the defense side, so he understood what was necessary to get value out of a case. And so, I’ve kind of changed the way we’ve done it, which puts more pressure on your team, your lawyers, your staff and the videographers to kind of back it up.

There are other people that do videos all over the country, and I think that I’m biased, none of them are as good as Impact Video, but the reality is, you got to have somebody consider doing that. So, hope you all learned something. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to another episode of After The Crash. If you or someone you know has been involved in a semi-truck wreck and you want to talk, go to ckflaw.com or give me a call at 1-800-AskDavid. If you want additional information about semi-truck wrecks or how to pick the right attorney, check out my two books, Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families, or It’s Never Been Easier to Hire the Wrong Attorney. Both of them are available on Amazon, or you can download them for free on our website, ckflaw.com.