Litigating MIST Cases

An update on buying the book

I have received several inquiries from employees at major insurance companies trying to buy my book. While I appreciate that they want to see my tips and tricks, I must be very clear about this:

I am not selling my book to insurance companies, adjusters, employees of insurance companies and defense attorneys.

I understand that they want to learn what I have learned. However, for the integrity of the book, and to keep it as a useful tool to Plaintiff's attorneys, this always has been and always will be my rule.

Low Back Pain Updates

If you have a client with low back pain from a MIST case, you should read these reports. A study from the American College of Physicians and American Pain Society and published in the Annals of Internal Medicine talks about several areas of interest:

1. Diagnosis and Treatment;
2. Nonpharmacological therapies; and
3. medications.

There is some great information here. As an attorney representing people with these injuries, you need to make sure that you understand the medicine. You need to explain it to your client and be able to explain it, most importantly, to the jury. A good adjuster will know it, and you need to know it too.

What others are saying about the book

My good friend and trial lawyer extraordinaire Ben Glass wrote a piece in his Great Legal Marketing newsletter about the book. (By the way, if you are a personal injury attorney reading this, you MUST look at Ben’s materials. They are the best on marketing a personal injury firm.) Here it is:

You know I read a lot and am constantly recommending and giving books to my Mastermind group. Mostly, though, those books are about marketing and mindset. However, the book I’m recommending here is about neither. It’s actually a valuable book that would help many of you in your law practices.

Litigating MIST Cases: A Practical Approach was written by Jonathan Stein, a personal injury lawyer who lives and practices in Elk Grove, California. Jonathan is a charter member of GLM and is a smart marketer and good lawyer. Jonathan worked as an insurance adjuster during law school and first practiced in a firm that represented insurance companies. He settled hundreds of MIST cases and truly knows insurance company secrets.

MIST stands for “minor impact soft tissue,” a phrase that was coined by the insurance industry several years ago and that has been adopted by plaintiffs’ lawyers. Typically, vehicles involved in these crashes seem to have minimal damage. The insurance industry has used “MIST” in its propaganda to convince people (who will eventually be jurors) that plaintiffs in MIST cases are not really injured since there is not much body damage to the cars.

For some reason that many of his colleagues cannot fathom, Jonathan focuses his personal injury practice on MIST cases. His colleagues don’t understand what Jonathan is doing, because MIST cases have notoriously low value and are difficult to handle. Insurance companies make very low offers and then love to make lawyers go to trial because, if you have to try the case, you will lose money. Unlike many lawyers who have quit accepting MIST cases, Jonathan has found a way to help this population and have a thriving law practice.

I have read Jonathan’s book and recommend it highly. Frankly, a personal injury lawyer who does not handle MIST cases will benefit from the strategies and information Jonathan discloses. Jonathan’s book reads like one written by an experienced trial lawyer, which he is. He “tells it like it is” about handling these cases. He bluntly tells the reader that these cases are individually of low value and difficult because the insurance company makes them so. Nevertheless, he supports the importance of representing this segment of the injured population and declares that if you do many cases – not just one – you will help many people and make money.

The book is well organized and easy to follow.  In cogent and clear fashion, Jonathan reveals strategies for negotiating this specific type of case with insurance companies. True to the kind of guy Jonathan is, though, he goes well beyond the discussion. He has given us loads of forms, including a checklist, letters to use when initially gathering information, examples of various demand letters and responses to insurance company denials (with explanations for when to use each one), complaints, discovery and motions in limine. Jonathan has developed and actually uses these forms and techniques in his practice so, basically, he is revealing in this book lessons he has learned during his years of practice.

In short, I would recommend you buy Jonathan’s book and add it to the shelf where you keep the practice manuals you frequently refer to. Better yet, buy one for each of your assistants. After all, they spend most of their time doing what this book teaches them to do and they will find the book written so a real person, not just a lawyer, can understand it.

You (and your staff) will benefit from having this litigation tool nearby. Let me know what you think of his book.

About the Author: Ben Glass is America’s premier authority on effective, ethical and outside-the-box marketing for lawyers. While Ben is a personal injury and medical malpractice attorney, he has coaching and mastermind members who practice estate planning, criminal and traffic defense, worker’s compensation, ERISA litigation, worker’s compensation and more. He is also the author of the Ultimate Personal Injury Marketing and Practice Building Toolkit. (http://www.ethical-lawyer-marketing.com)