I love meeting new people. For me, the more relationships we can build provides for a richer, fuller life. In these new introductions, I find my new acquaintance’s reactions to my career quite entertaining.
When I meet new people, the vast majority of my interactions always seem to go the same way. They are interested in my practice areas, and then upon hearing that I practice personal injury law, their mood changes, and I can see how turned off they are in an instant… this is EXACTLY why I developed an injury practice.
In my early attorney apprentice days, I worked for a large firm specializing in defending insurance companies against personal injury claims. I learned how to think as a defense attorney, how to strategize against plaintiff’s attorneys for injured parties, and how to give as little insurance money back to the injured parties as possible. As a bright-eyed, enthusiastic, young novice of the law, cutting my teeth in the insurance defense side of things, one thing always troubled me... a lot of the attorneys representing injured clients were terrible. I would often encounter an attorney representing an injured victim who had little to no specific personal knowledge about their client. Oftentimes, I had little to no contact with any attorney at all, typically corresponding and even negotiating with their paralegal. And don’t even get me started on how surprised I was with the number of firms that make it quite clear they have no intention of actually taking their case to trial if needed.
The aforementioned issues should not be taken as a slight towards paralegals. A good paralegal is worth the price of 3 attorneys because a good paralegal runs the train station, ensuring everyone is on time and where they need to be. In my practice, my paralegals are indeed the backbone of my firm. But my point is when a paralegal was essentially taking over a case, that was a pretty clear indication to the defense attorney and adjustor that the plaintiff’s attorney was not prioritizing this case. They were unlikely to put up much of a fight to increase what we, as defense, were offering to pay out to their client.
Another shocking thing to me was the number of times I had the authority to pay out a figure significantly higher than where we settled. I would love to say it was due to my excellent negotiating skills, but sadly for many of the injured people out there, it was because their attorney took an easy settlement without much push back. Taking this concern to my superiors at the time, they just shrugged and said this is the business model for big firms… it’s all about churn. If they are trying to get 10,000 cases in a year, they don’t have time to get into the nitty-gritty on every case. While I understood this from a business sense, it was disheartening to me to know a real person behind this case suffered an injury and was not getting all of the money they could.
So fast forward to when I joined my current firm. A firm with a solid foundation in the community known for real estate, estate planning, and business… I shared my experiences working on the defense side of injury cases. I told the Partners that I want to be a Plaintiff’s attorney and help injured people ACTUALLY maximize their claims. While a little hesitant at first to let their young attorney wander into the personal injury realm, they reluctantly allowed me to start that endeavor, and we’ve never looked back.
Today, I’m proud to say that being a personal injury attorney has given me the ability to truly HELP so many people when they’ve needed it most. Of course, I understand the stigma of being a plaintiff’s injury attorney. I know better than most people because I got to see the other side of it. I certainly saw where the greed and lack of care and compassion from attorneys come from… but I am proud to be one of the injury attorneys trying to cure this stigma one case at a time.
And if you could use our assistance, I'd be happy to talk with you to help in any way we can.
Practice areas
11 years
8 years
11 years
8 years
Languages spoken
English
Ruck & Wright Law, Ltd.
427 W College Ave
Po Box 412
Pemberville, OH, 43450-9495
Ruck & Wright Law, Ltd.
330 Louisiana Ave.
1st Floor
Perrysburg, OH, 43551
State | Status | Acquired | Updated |
---|---|---|---|
OH | Active | 2013 | 05/05/2022 |
Legal answers | 0 |
Legal guides | 0 |
Award name | Grantor | Date Granted |
---|---|---|
Million Dollar Advocate | Million Dollar Advocates Forum | 2022 |
School name | Degree | Graduated |
---|---|---|
University of Toledo College of Law | JD - Juris Doctor | 2012 |
Bowling Green State University | BS - Bachelor of Science | 2009 |
Posted by anonymous
January 17, 2022
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