Speakers: Michael Ilyaich & Michael Levitis
Welcome back, everybody. We are here from JurisQ.com with Michael Ilyaich, a very seasoned trial attorney, a New York City personal injury attorney from the firm of Gregory Spektor and Associates and actually Michael Ilyaich is the founding partner in the firm. As promised, we’ll bring you back, Michael, and again, thank you for your time to talk a little bit more about the question of to sue or not to sue, because that frequently comes up. People, after they sustained an injury, unfortunately, they go to attorney, and most of the time, like you said in your previous session, insurance companies settle. But then there is this certain percentage that goes to trial, and you as a firm are equipped to go to trial because you actually do litigation for a living. You have a whole team of experts to do it. Michael, in your opinion, why it makes sense sometimes settle early, or it makes more sense to go to trial, which could take longer.
Michael Ilyaich 14:57
The question is what kind of injury did you sustain, how much it’s worth and how much money there is on the insurance policy of the vehicle that is responsible for the accident. Sometimes we have cases where my injury is worth, let’s say, $260,000, by the defendant only has $100,000 worth of insurance. Am I willing to litigate the case? Absolutely, if I have, a lot of times insurance company realizes that litigating is a total waste of time that they will still end up being 100,000. By early settlement, they can actually save themselves money in legal fees. …. that’s happened. So the gravity of the injury versus the policy work. So if the value of the injury outweighs the injury applicable insurance policy, in this case, this will settle much faster, as opposed to you have a hot, very serious injury that is worth a lot of money. If you have a big policy. Well, these cases most likely will need to be litigated a little bit not a trial, probably not. We have to get out to the point of trial, closer to trial, maybe if you’re looking for a very significant amount of money, what is very significant, half a million and up. Anything below that settles could be settled earlier in the game.
Michael Levitis 16:29
What do you think that even if you go to court, quite often you can settle in court, or you can settle on the eve of a trial?
Michael Ilyaich 16:38
There are cases that settle in the middle of the trial. On the first day of trial, on the last day of trial, we have cases that settled before the jury came back with a verdict. So case can settle anytime before the verdict is in. Our job is to make this a try, move when the trial at all costs. But sometimes it’s just inevitable trials are expensive, trials are unpredictable. We have a trial, our expert witnesses, the doctors and the biomechanical engineer is costing us about $60,000.
Michael Levitis 17:17
And you paying for it yourself!
Michael Ilyaich 17:19
… expert witnesses. Just the cost for the expert witness is gonna run out to 50-60 thousand, sometimes even more. So what’s at stake is the question, what is the injury? What is the insurance policy when? If it’s worth it from monetary standpoint, without a full blown trial? I would only invest if it makes sense.
Michael Levitis 17:42
Michael, you know, clients, they like transparency and clients like to know what’s at stake. When a client expresses a need to settle early, or they want to get less money? Is this decision that they make alone, or do you guide them through a process to come up with the best possible solution?
Michael Ilyaich 18:09
We don’t make decisions for clients, we help clients to make a decision. My job is to ensure client is fully informed and understands the pros and cons of the decision. My job is to express my opinion about their decision. My job is to make sure they understand the pros and cons of their decision pretty much. At the end of the day, it’s a client’s call to go to settle or not like a trial or not. We have counselors and advisors, we advise clients, we made sure they understand.
Michael Levitis 18:45
Michael, my advice to clients. Listen to what Michael Ilyaich has to say. Because Michael, you’ve been in this business over 20 years. You’ve seen it all. You do personal injury day in, day out. So I think you know what’s right for the clients.
Michael Ilyaich 19:01
Yeah, I live it, I breathe it. I started off 25 years ago as a paralegal that we are now 25 years later. So I know a couple of things about it.
Michael Levitis 19:12
Absolutely, and that’s why we always invite you back. We have valuable insights.
Michael Ilyaich 19:21
I want clients to understand that the formula is pretty simple. We as lawyers don’t get paid until after the client gets paid. You have no interest in sitting on it. You have no interest in the case on the shelf collecting dust. That’s not how we make money, we have to resolve the case. So make money as a lawyer, and obviously we get paid on the after the client is paid. So it is in our best interest that one of the clients will move the case along as fast as possible, and the other resolve for the right amount of money. But just to make sure my client gets compensated 100 cents on the dollar, every injury and leave it on out limit painted depending on what’s wrong with him as a nice staff, my job is to capture the price tag. If my client wants to settle for less than that, I’ll make sure client understands that accepting the whatever the offer is, if I’m not in agreement with the offer, I’ll express into my client, I’ll make sure my client understands. But at the end of the day, if client wants to take as an offer, as right to take the offer, don’t make sure, that what’s going to happen I have to investigate.
Michael Levitis 20:27
Perfect, and you know what, if anybody has any questions, maybe on their case, and maybe they’re not happy with their attorney who is trying to settle, not getting the maximum value, maybe it’s a good idea to contact the law firm of Gregory Spektor and Associates.
Michael Ilyaich 20:46
I don’t want to take cases from other lawyers. So before you decide to change a lawyer, call the lawyer, current lawyer and find out what’s going on, make sure you understand what’s going on. If you gave the lawyer a chance, or two, or 10, and he’s not coming through for you to tell them, call us and we’ll likely to let you know what your case is worth.
Michael Levitis 21:08
Michael, you are being very humble, and I appreciate it. But you are a true litigator, and if you see your attorney is not going that route, where he needs to go, or she needs to go, then I suggest you call the number on the bottom of the screen and get a consultation.
Michael Ilyaich 21:28
I actually insist you do just that. If you really want an army of lawyers and paralegals to find for you, we are your law firm. We literally have an army of lawyers and paralegals, it’s not a one man show, it’s not two people, we are more than properly experienced staff and research teams. That’s how I want …. more than properly staffed experienced and resourced to take our case, and in less than two the case time and might, as I said before, and trial, of course, anywhere between $50-60,000, just an expert alone,
Michael Levitis 22:14
That’s something you pay out of pocket, so not every attorney has the resources.
Michael Ilyaich 22:19
Just don’t have those types of resources to invest time. A lot of lawyers just don’t even know how to try cases. This is not ….. A lot of law firms out there are just in settlements and that’s it!
Michael Levitis 22:33
They want easy way out.
Michael Ilyaich 22:37
Yeah. Is the way for them. Usually started in the best interest of the client. Unfortunately, that’s what happens most of the time with most of the law firms, and I’ll leave it at that.
Michael Levitis 22:51
Very good.
Michael Ilyaich 22:54
Make sure the law firm is not a one man show, two men show because this … usually don’t work out well. Law firm has to have the manpower.
Michael Levitis 23:05
Michael, I’ve been through your firm. I’ve seen like you said manpower an army of attorneys and paralegals and you do not just car accidents, you do construction accidents, slip and falls and everything.
Michael Ilyaich 23:18
Anything that has to do with personal injury, whether it’s an auto accident, whether it’s a construction site accident, whether it’s slip and fall. Believe it or not, we have a case where two airplanes collided while reversing on the airport, we even though I guess plane accidents, they do happen … to pay for backing out of the gates and they just talk to one another, people on planes got injured, so we pretty much do everything that has to do with personal injury. Somebody’s responsible for it.
Michael Levitis 23:58
You’re gonna get it. Michael, thank you so much. We appreciate your time. I’m going to bring it back for more questions on personal injury. Everybody, thank you for tuning in. Have a great day. Take care
