Ep. 64 – Paralegals in Trucking Cases: Why the Right Team Matters

Carissa Swalls: Dealing with the clients, which is very heartbreaking, but you have to deal with more empathy and realizing that this is pretty much the worst day of their life, and you have to be there whenever they need you. You handle this part while they try to heal or cope or grieve.

David Craig – Host: I’m attorney David Craig, managing partner, and one of the founders of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. For over 35 years, I’ve dedicated my career to helping individuals and families who have been seriously injured or lost loved ones in devastating semi-truck, large truck, and other commercial motor vehicle accidents. When tragedy strikes, life can feel chaotic, overwhelming, and uncertain. Many people don’t even know where to begin or what questions to ask. That’s why I created After the Crash, a podcast designed to empower you with the knowledge and resources you need to navigate these challenging times. In each episode, I sit down with experts, professionals, victims, and others involved in truck wreck cases to give you insight, guidance and practical advice. Together we’ll help you understand your rights, protect your family, and move forward. This is After the Crash.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of After the Crash. This is David Craig, your host with the law firm of Craig, Kelley & Faultless. Today I’m excited to invite and have on as our guest, Carissa Swalls. Carissa is a paralegal in our law firm, Craig, Kelley, & Faultless. She is a, what we call, file manager in the litigation section. So she works in litigation. And so I thought it would be helpful for her to talk a little bit about the process and what she does. So these folks that are out there listening who have a personal injury case or have a case that involves a commercial motor vehicle, a wreck, and they’re looking at it, and they’re wondering, well, who does what? Today you’re going to find that out. So, Carissa, welcome to this episode of After the Crash.

Carissa Swalls: Thank you so much, David.

David Craig – Host: So, Carissa, let’s start off with, why don’t you tell folks a little bit about yourself?

Carissa Swalls: I’ve been with the firm for almost seven years. So I primarily handle, like you said, from litigation into to mediation. Personally, I’m a mimi to 10 grandkids. So me and my husband have been married for like 36 years, and I’m just honored to work for such a wonderful company.

David Craig – Host: How long have you been a paralegal?

Carissa Swalls: I have actually been a paralegal for probably about 15 to 20 years. The last seven have been primarily litigation. Before, it was just here and there.

David Craig – Host: Why don’t we explain to folks, because there’s some people out there who may not even know what the difference between a lawyer is, a paralegal, different people in an office, a law office? Talk us, walk us through a little bit just generally, what does a file manager do?

Carissa Swalls: A file manager is, we are the ones that hold the case together. We’re the glue that puts it together. We build this case for the attorneys so they’re prepared to do their part. So we always hit the ground running. When we get a case, not only do we worry about the case, we also have to be the go-between for clients. A lot of times that can be very difficult because a lot of the clients are very catastrophic injuries or death. So sometimes you just have to sit and listen or just cry on the phone with the clients. Sometimes you just have to answer questions.

But on the back end, what people don’t see is building that case, getting it ready, making sure we’ve done the investigation, making sure we have everything that we need for that file, and getting depo set, getting mediation set. And then having it ready so when the attorney is ready to do those depositions or ready to do that mediation, they’re in the best position possible to do that.

David Craig – Host: Yeah, I think people don’t realize, I mean how important the role is of a paralegal, a file manager in a case. I can tell you folks that if you just have an attorney and you don’t have a staff behind your attorney, then your case is going to move really slow. But if you have a good paralegal, a good file manager like Carissa, your file’s going to move a lot quicker because that person’s going to make sure that your file, make sure that the attorneys kind of coordinate all the different players on a team that are working on a case.

And in our firm, we handle a lot of semi, flatbed trucks, dump trucks, buses, farm trucks, tankers, you name it, any type of commercial motor vehicle wreck, we handle a large percentage of those cases. My partner, Scott Faultless, and I are both board-certified specialists in the area of truck accident law. And those cases are unique in and of themselves. So those are even more different than a normal personal injury case. And your paralegal has to understand that and has to have some experience. And Carissa has, like I said, she’s been with us seven years, over seven years, and she’s got that. She knows that. And maybe explain how’s a trucking case different than your normal personal injury case, because you’ve worked both.

Carissa Swalls: A huge difference, mainly because a car crash is personal, and it’s just with an insurance company, usually. Trucking cases, it’s a whole different ball field. You are looking at corporate defendants that are way ahead of us. Even if we get hired early on, they’re still way ahead of us. They usually have a response team at the scene before our client even makes it to the hospital. So on the front end, it’s very urgent to get everything. You’re looking at more money, so more defense attorneys that are well-versed in the trucking cases. You’re looking at catastrophic injuries compared to soft tissue injuries or other injuries that the insurance company doesn’t like to pay that kind of money.

So we have to get started at the very beginning of a case, and we have to just hit the ground running as soon as we get a file. Getting the preservation letters out, making sure we get requests of FOIA, and making sure we know federal motor carrier vehicle, or the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration rules. We have to know what they’re doing and look for driver information; how many times has that truck been out of service, different things like that. And we have to make sure and look at this so we can bring that to the attorney’s attention as well.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. I mean, obviously, there’s different rules that apply to a trucking, a commercial motor vehicle case. You’re dealing with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, you’re dealing with the CDL manuals, the commercial driver’s manuals, license manuals. You’re dealing with industry standards that are different. There’s so much out there. But the nice thing is it’s regulated by federal laws, if they’re involved in interstate commerce for the most part, and there’s some state laws as well that apply. Most states have adopted the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations for even intrastate travel.

So learning those and being familiar with those and understanding those. But that’s not something they teach you in paralegal school. When you go to paralegal school, they don’t have a section that’s on commercial motor vehicles. And so you come out of school and you’re a paralegal. You get licensed as a paralegal. And just like a lawyer, I went to law school and they gave me a license to practice law, and I can practice any kind of law. But there wasn’t one class on how to handle commercial motor vehicle cases. There wasn’t any case that dealt with catastrophic personal injury cases.

And so I went and trained and learned how to do that and got board-certified in that area. But I think it’s just as important to have your paralegals trained in trucking cases. And last year, I know you went to two trucking seminars, one that we sponsored and one that was a national thing. So tell the audience a little bit about how that makes a difference, how it matters that you’ve invested the time and energy to go to these seminars to learn trucking.

Carissa Swalls: So I’ve learned a lot from the seminar that we held last year, as well as the ATAA seminars. Not only are we learning more about the truck safety rules, but we’re learning more about the truck driver, the brokers, the shippers. Looking more into investigation and the telematics of a semi is a big thing. The idea of having a separate paralegal breakout at ATAA focuses on paralegals, what we’re doing on the backend. So I’ve learned a lot about trying to investigate the trucking companies, knowing exactly what we need to look for and how to find that. So it’s been a great experience learning that, but we also get to collaborate with other attorneys that are dealing with truck cases, other paralegals, that are dealing with truck cases, as well as the experts out there that are dealing with it. So collaborating with everybody has been a great honor.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And I think that’s one of the things that’s important for those folks out there who find themselves, unfortunately, they’ve been hurt or injured by a commercial motor vehicle, a semi has killed or hurt them or their family or their friends, and they’re looking, saying, “Well, what do we do? How do we pick a law firm, for example?” I think certainly you need to look and see what’s the entire team, not just one individual. You can be the best lawyer in the world, but if you don’t have a team, then that case is not going to get moved quickly and properly. And if you have a team of bad players, people who don’t understand commercial motor vehicles, don’t understand trucking, then that case is going to suffer as well, even if you have the best lawyer.

So I think having the best lawyer you can find, plus the best team you can find, helps guarantee and assure you of a good result. And these cases, again, are going to affect most people for the rest of their lives, in future medical needs, as in lost earnings, all those types of things. And so why shouldn’t you have the best team possible to work on your cases? So talk a little bit about what does a team consist of? So you’re kind of working with a whole bunch of people. So what kind of folks, somebody hires Craig, Kelley & Faultless for a trucking case, who all is going to be on that team?

Carissa Swalls: Well, from our firm, I think we’ve got a pretty amazing team. Not only do we have very talented lawyers, but we’ve got the paralegals. We’ve also got our rapid response team that, we get reservation letters out quickly. Our investigator actually goes to the scene. He hires our experts, or reconstructionist, and mechanics and things like that, and we’re out there as soon as that case hits the office. Sometimes that’s even done before I even know the case is here. So that’s amazing.

And then once it hits me, we make sure that throughout the case, what other experts do we need? Like you said, lost future earnings. Do we need to do IMEs? Do we need to get the doctor involved? Do we need different experts in different cases? Depending on the case, we have to put that team together. So I think our team is not only built of people in our firm, I think it’s also built of the people that we look to see what’s going to make this case transpire to the mediation and be ready for that mediation, which can entail a lot.

David Craig – Host: Just coordinating that on the front end, working with our rapid response team, it’s headed up by Clint Crabtree and then our investigator, Patrick. That’s a lot because that’s happening in real time, real fast. So like you said, that rapid response team, they’re the first ones that touch the file after an attorney. So attorney signs up the case, and then the file goes to my rapid response team, and then that rapid response team, then a paralegal is assigned really quickly. And then that paralegal works with my rapid response team to make sure we’re getting all the information, getting who’s all involved, finding security cameras, looking at the, where’s the vehicles? Do we need to hire security for the vehicles? Do we need to do anything special? Do we need to file suit and get a restraining order? All those kinds of things have to be determined really quickly.

And so I know you and the other paralegals have to be right on top of that case right away and dealing with that portion because that evidence can be lost. Then you have to meet the clients and then start dealing with the clients. And like you said, some of them are catastrophic injuries, so they’re still treating. They’re worried about paying bills, paying mortgages, paying car payments, supporting their families. And so that you have a lot of things going on, and especially on the front end. So I would imagine these cases are time-consuming. There’s a lot involved throughout the whole process, but I would imagine that in a commercial motor vehicle case that the work on the front end is extraordinarily heavy.

Carissa Swalls: Yes, it is. Not only are we working, like you said, with the investigation portion, we’re also working with making sure we know what medical records to request, the investigation, the police, the 911, making sure we’re getting all that in. But dealing with the clients, which is very heartbreaking, but you have to deal with that with more empathy and realizing that this is pretty much, could have been the worst day of their life. I know personally how it feels, just because my niece was hit by a semi truck when she was nine years old and killed, and I had to deal with it as an aunt, not a parent, not a wife, not a husband. I had to deal with it as an aunt, and I know how it affected me.

So just listening to them. And even if you have to answer questions 20 times about the same thing, you know it’s not because they’re just being annoying or they’re just wanting to know. It’s because this is a very difficult time. And if you have to repeat that 20 times, you have to repeat that 20 times, and you have to be there whenever they need you. So when they just want to call and talk, or they have a question, you need to be there and let them understand they are not wasting your time. That’s what you’re here for. You handle this part while they try to heal or cope or grieve. And I really don’t want the clients to worry as much about this portion, and I want to try and give them the encouragement that we can handle this part and answer any questions they have.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. Well, and then once we get rolling, there’s a lot of pleadings that, we file a complaint, which starts the lawsuit. We file summonses, we have to serve discovery, request for production interrogatories, request for admissions, non-party requests for productions. There’s so many things that we’re doing in that front end of a lawsuit. And as well as then developing, getting clients’ copies of their medical records, their past medical records, because the insurance companies or the trucking companies are going to want to know, did this person have previous problems?

And you’re still entitled to recovery even if you had previous problems, if they’re aggravated, but we need to get all those records. So you’re following up with the clients. You’re getting all their medical records. You’re getting all that stuff in. And then we’re having to get it summarized and then get it to the attorney to look at. And same way with the discovery and the complaints, you’re going to make, you’re coordinated. We have people who help you do that, but you have to make sure it gets done, and then an attorney looks at it and reviews it.

And so there’s a lot that goes on while someone is getting better or grieving that is imperative to moving a case along. So then you also coordinate. After you get all the inspections done, you nail down, you request all the stuff from the police, right, the video cam, like body cams, and most of them have body cam now, or they’ll have car cameras. There’ll be 911 calls. I mean, you’re responsible for collecting all that information as well, correct?

Carissa Swalls: Correct. Yep. And we usually send everything. Once we get it, we send it off to be transcribed. We do review it to see if there’s any pertinent information in there that we need to make sure the attorney is aware of. We also need to make sure that we have everything and we’re not missing something. So working with that and following up with discovery, once it comes in, we look. Are these people you think we need to depose, so we can let the attorney know, this is who they are, this is what they know. Is this something you want to work on? Because it’s not always just, we’re going to depose the person driving the truck. There may be others or there may be safety directors that you have to prepare for, or whatever that is. So you look at that so the attorney knows that.

David Craig – Host: Yeah. And we look at, I know when I get a case, I’ll decide early on, here are the experts I want to use. And so I may want to use a sleep deprivation expert or a sleep apnea expert, or I may want to use a shipper, a loader, how this truck was loaded, a conspicuity expert, an accident reconstructionist, a trucking industry standards expert. I mean, as a lawyer, I look at those things in the very front end. What kind of case do I have? I have one right now, for example, where I think the person may have fallen asleep. And so we immediately hired a guy, that’s actually a doctor out of Chicago, who’s on the top in that area.

And so by doing that and getting them involved early, then that gives you, my paralegal, somebody to touch base with. When I get ready to do a deposition, then you can reach out to my experts and say, “Hey, what questions do you see or what issues do you see?” What should David or one of the other lawyers, what should they be covering? What should they be looking for? And I may have done the same kind of deposition a thousand times, but every time I still like to coordinate and talk to my experts. You never should think you know everything.

That’s the worst thing for our client, is a lawyer who thinks he knows everything or she knows everything. And so what we do is, we get the experts involved and then have our paralegals reach out to them and coordinate depositions and gather information and have them help us build the best case we can possibly build that makes sure that our client gets a fair value at the end of the day. Do you enjoy working with the experts?

Carissa Swalls: I do, yeah. And knowing the different ones out there is just amazing because I never realized how important a mechanic expert was. And I was like, “Wow.” I never realized the expert for different things, like the loader or the shipper or a construction expert or an engineer, why were they that important, until you actually see it in a case and you’re like, “Yeah.”

David Craig – Host: I think, unfortunately, some law firms don’t hire them until the end, and then they say, “Here’s my depositions, and can you help us out?” And why do that? Why not pay them and get their help and advice along the way, especially like construction zones. Every year we’re hired. I just got hired this week, and I came in Sunday and met clients that were hit on I-70 in a construction zone. There’s not been a summer where I haven’t been hired on a construction case with serious injuries, brain injuries, fatalities, catastrophic injuries.

And the reality is that those cases are different and they involve different types of experts. And you have to get out and you have to do different things, and you have to look at different contracts with the government and the subcontractors and the contractors. And I see so many law firms who don’t want to spend the money to invest in their client’s case on the front end, and they’ll wait and see if they can’t settle it. But the problem is you don’t get a fair settlement if you don’t work your case up properly, if you don’t know and you don’t prepare it.

You prepare your case for trial. You hope you don’t have to go to trial. You hope your clients never want to go to trial, but you better be prepared to go to trial or you’re never going to get fair value.

What’s the most challenging thing that as a file manager, day in and day out, what’s the most challenging thing, other than working with me?

Carissa Swalls: I think the most challenging thing is just feeling for the clients because your heart literally breaks. And I think another most challenging thing is with, especially semi cases, and such low limits that they have to carry. And seeing such catastrophic injuries and it’s just limited is very difficult. And to see that client, not that, I don’t think any client we’ve ever had said, “Oh, money’s going to make it better,” but it’s just the fact of, it’s just so heartbreaking because you know it doesn’t even give a fraction of what they’ve lost. And so that’s hard.

David Craig – Host: For those people out there who don’t know, I mean, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations require you, a truck driver, a motor carrier, to carry $750,000 worth of insurance. A lot of companies will carry a million, but there are some that run with 750,000. Either one, that regulation has been the same for decades. It hasn’t changed. It hasn’t gone up. It hasn’t kept up with inflation. And so medical costs go up, cost of care goes up, but that number of 750,000 has stayed the same.

And Chris and I have worked on cases. I mean, William Card is a perfect example of a case where medical expenses were over half a million, and we’re dealing with somebody with a million-dollar policy. And there’s just no way. He was a breadwinner. He was a provider. Even just the economic part alone, his cost of his vehicle, there was another vehicle involved, it was heartbreaking. So the thing that’s most frustrating to me, and I’m sure to you as well, is that the worst trucking companies are the ones that are out there running with the least amount of insurance.

Carissa Swalls: Yes.

David Craig – Host: Because they’re the most dangerous. They’re the ones that have crappy equipment. They’re the ones that have bad drivers. And so they carry the least amount of insurance and they’re running loads. They’re competing with people and underbidding people to get loads off of the logistics from the logistic companies and their boards. And it’s just frustrating, and it’s sad. But you and I both dealt with that, and the Cards actually we did a video with them and trying to educate people, sent that information to Washington D.C. and they would love to see that change.

But that’s just one of many examples of where we’ve had horrible companies that had inadequate insurance. One of the challenges is trying to find all the… We’re really good at digging around and trying to make sure and seeing, exhausting, is it a separate trailer, is there someone controlling the load? Is there a logistics company responsible? Is there a shipper? Is there something wrong with the load? And I mean, you have to exhaust every avenue for your clients. And there’s been cases where we have found additional recoveries that we wouldn’t have first noticed on first blush. But unfortunately, still, the bad ones are the ones that are like what you’re talking about.

Carissa Swalls: I think one thing that just amazes me with Craig, Kelley & Faultless is, past firms, you get a semi-truck case or you get a high policy limit case, then it’s, “Well, let’s do a policy limits demand,” and that’s it. And they don’t look for the others or they don’t dig deeper or they don’t make sure there’s no umbrella policies or excess policies. It’s just, “Hurry up, let’s get it. Let’s get our money. And who cares about the client?” And I think that’s one thing that makes me so proud to work here, is we do care about the clients. We do dig. And there’s been times we’ve done a lot of work on a case and it’s still the same outcome, but the clients appreciate it because we did do that digging, we did try.

David Craig – Host: And there’s been times where insurance companies have lied about their limits.

Carissa Swalls: Yes.

David Craig – Host: And we found out that, in fact, there was more coverage than what they initially told us. And I’ve seen other lawyers settle in cases with multiple people hurt. I’ve seen other lawyers settle for cases, believing they were accurate, and in fact not digging or not doing anything to determine, in fact, is there more? Is there additional coverages? Is there somebody else that’s responsible for this loss? So that is something.

And I will say too, like you said, one of the hardest things is dealing with the clients. I mean, what our clients go through is unimaginable. I would hope to God that we never have to go through something like what our clients go through. It’s hard enough just being there with them and for them, but I can’t imagine what it’s like to be them. But I will say that, again, for folks who’ve never been through this process and you’re wondering how it goes, the paralegal and the lawyers you work with, it’s important that they’re caring folks, not just talk with the talk, but they walk the walk.

And I will tell you that Carissa does walk the walk. Carissa is fantastic. Carissa has gone to, been invited by me, but more importantly, the clients had wanted her, at mediations on catastrophic cases where they’ve bonded with her. They spend so much time with her, talking to her on a day-in and day-out basis. I may be in depositions, I may be in trials, I may be doing other legal things, but Carissa, the file manager, your paralegal, is the person who’s there every day, five days a week talking to you, either her or one of her team members.

And so they bond, and you do develop, if you care about people, you develop a relationship with people. And I commend you on the fact that you’re one of those people that clients feel very attached to through the process. And in some ways, it’s hard at the end when we’re done with it, we still keep in contact with a lot of clients, but you develop relationships with these folks. And that’s hard.

Carissa Swalls: Yeah. Yeah, it is. It’s like, I don’t want to be done, but I’m glad it’s done. So it’s always nice.

David Craig – Host: Well, what else do you think people should know about what a paralegal does or a file manager, what we call them, in our law firm or in other firms? What else do you think people should know that are out there who’ve never been through this process before?

Carissa Swalls: I think it’s been said by you multiple times, hire the right attorney with the right team quickly. Because like I said, it happens so fast. My favorite thing is, I think paralegals are case builders, their client’s lifeline, and I think they’re the glue that holds the case together. So when it gets presented to you, you can do your job to the best of your ability. And if that case isn’t where it needs to be, that’s my fault. And you should never let a client have to go through that because of your failure. So that’s what I look at.

David Craig – Host: And I agree wholeheartedly. I think the good thing about picking an attorney is you can check. And so, who’s board-certified? I mean, there’s four lawyers in Indiana that are board certified. It’s an easy one. We’ve been vetted. We’ve had to have a certain amount of experience. We had to pass a test, we had to do some amount of depositions and trial work and all these different things. And so it’s easy to say, okay, let’s look up, let’s go to the ABA, let’s look at board certifications. Let’s look to see who’s board-certified in truck accident law in whatever state this wreck happened at.

But it’s a little bit harder to figure out which paralegals to hire because there is a board certification they can sit for through the ATAA, but it’s only through the ATAA, and you have to be a member of the ATAA to do that. And that’s a national trucking group. But the reality is that your paralegal is important, and there are some law firms who don’t invest in their paralegals. And if I was hiring a law firm, I would start off saying, for a trucking case, a large trucking case, I’d start off by saying, is the lawyer board-certified? Okay?

Now I know at least they’ve been vetted by somebody else that knows what they’re doing and they know trucking law. But then I would want to interview the different board-certified lawyers and see which ones I’m comfortable with. But not only do I want to interview the lawyer, I would ask to interview the entire team. My advice to the victims is ask for the whole team and then talk to the paralegals. Find out, does the firm invest in you? Do they send you to trucking seminars? Do they ask you to study? Do they ask you to read things? Do they try to develop your expertise in trucking cases?

Because that will sort through a lot of people, and then you can narrow it down to a couple people, or a couple lawyers, who she or he is qualified and they have a team that’s qualified. And then you can just pick who you feel more comfortable with. If you do that, you’re going to be protected and your case is going to get full value. If you don’t do that, you could jeopardize. And I think too often people don’t realize how important that role of paralegal and file manager is.

Carissa Swalls: I agree.

David Craig – Host: Well, anything else you want to say? Parting words of advice?

Carissa Swalls: I don’t think so. I don’t have my glasses, so I can’t read my notes.

David Craig – Host: She had a glare. Now, how come they made you take your glasses off and, mine just get darker. But yours were shining through the reflection.

Carissa Swalls: Yes.

David Craig – Host: All right.

Carissa Swalls: At least I know my job, so I can do it.

David Craig – Host: Well, Carissa, thank you for everything you do for our clients, everything you do for our law firm. And I would imagine even though this is a challenging job, having 10 grandchildren is probably more challenging. So yeah.

Carissa Swalls: Yeah, it is. Thank you so much for the invite. Thanks for giving me this opportunity and giving me the opportunity to learn, because I have learned so much in seven years. So thank you so much. You’re welcome.

David Craig – Host: This is David Craig, and you’ve been listening to After the Crash. If you’d like more information about me or my law firm, please go to our website, CKFlaw.com. Or if you’d like to talk to me, you can call 1-800-ASK-DAVID. If you would like a guide on what to do after a truck wreck, then pick up my book, Semitruck Wreck: A Guide for Victims and Their Families, which is available on Amazon, or you can download it for free on our website, CKFlaw.com.