← Personal Injury Mastermind w/ Chris Dreyer
Personal Injury Mastermind w/ Chris Dreyer
401. Dominating the Commercial Trucking Industry w/ Ed Ciarimboli
00:22:24
Niching Up and Earning the Biggest Cases
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A
The offer on the case going into trial was $45,000, and the jury's verdict was 4 million.
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B
You hear about a massive verdict, and you think it's about luck or finding the perfect case. It's not. It's about being proactive, the resources to win. Seven or eight figure cases are out there, but you have to build the infrastructure before the case comes in.
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A
Sometimes I'm like, I get called in six months after they've been up and running. I'm like, all right, you know, did you do the download of the cell phone? Did we have the download of the cameras? You know, driver facing and forward facing? Where's all the ec? And they're looking at me like, yeah, we kind of didn't do any of that because it's expensive.
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If you're waiting six months to hire experts because you're worried about the cost, the evidence is already gone. To play at the highest level, you need systems in place and ready to deploy at the moment you get the call.
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We have a team now in the trucking world. We got a cell phone expert, we got a reconstructionist. We got a human factors expert. We got an investigator.
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Ed Serimboli didn't start out with an endless war chest or team of elite experts on speed dial. A decade ago, he broke into a highly competitive trucking niche by simply putting his head down and out working the defense. He had to earn his way to the top case by case. But the resources you need to land big cases are available to attorneys who know where to look. Today, we're going to look under the hood. This is personal injury mastermind. I'm Chris dreier, founder and CEO of Rankings IO, the elite performance marketing agency for personal injury law firms. Today I'm speaking with Ed Sierrambulli, a founding partner at Fellerman Sierrambulli in Pennsylvania. We talk about shifting your operations into high gear, avoiding the blind spots of cheap intake and building a firm equipped for the long haul. The first tip Ed shares is how he keeps his new clients engaged in the process. Let's get into it.
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A
I will tell you one of the things that has been a game changer. I mean, we text our clients all the time, you know, and we're telling them we're giving them, know, updates. Hey, we had a great deposition today. Or, you know, look like this didn't go so well, but, you know, here's how we're going to attack it next time. And so the clients never really feel like they're in the dark. The things that are really moving the needle in the case is we're making sure that they know about them along the way so that when we walk into a mediation or we walk into a settlement conference with the judge, they're prepared. And I think that they need to be prepared all along the way so that they have confidence in us, and even more so, we have confidence in them that they're going to want to take this forward.
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B
A lot of the audience listening is like, well, how do you get the big cases? And a lot of PI Firms try to be everything to everyone, right? But you've really carved a serious name. And trucking, auto collisions, med mal. And one of the things that caught me was, like, not just trucking, but truck drivers hit by other truck drivers. So that is a really, truly unique niche. So. So talk to me about that.
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A
This kind of came from being well respected and doing this from the other side. And I would say the first truck driver that I represented was probably a decade ago. And it was as a result of a company that we had sued. And they saw what we did in working that case up. They saw that, you know, we were respectful but aggressive. We were representing our clients and in a. In a very responsible way, and, you know, really pushing where we needed to push and making sure that we were leaving no stone unturned. And so that case resolved. And then about six months later, I get a call from the owner of that company. She says, look, one of my drivers was just killed in a wreck. I can't think of anybody that I would rather see try to help this family than you. Obviously, I've seen the work that you've done. And so, you know, that started, God, I don't even know how many over the course of the last decade or so, you know, truck drivers and their families that we've helped where they've been catastrophically injured or killed. I would say, unfortunately, the majority of those cases involve truck drivers that are killed, because when they're hit by another truck, it's just. It is an explosion. I mean, you know, it's a catastrophic incident. And not a lot of those men and women, you know, walk away from those unscathed. So that was kind of how that started. And then kind of along the way, doing battle with some of the biggest insurance companies in trucking litigation and gaining their respect, always, you know, making sure that the eyes are dotted, the T's are crossed, and, you know, doing the hard work. And, I mean, really digging. And so we've gotten a lot of referrals from Trucking companies, we've gotten referrals from insurance companies and insure truck drivers. Now it's truly been something that we are very proud of because, you know, the, those men and women that are out there on the roads every day, you know, they're working hard to provide food for their families and they need other truck drivers and other truck companies to follow the rules just as much as you and I do. Chris, if we're out on the, you know, on the roadway, one of the
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B
things I saw is you've got this live stream series called under the Hood where you, you answer questions. You know, it seems like Livestream is really picking up traction. Talk to me about that decision, what it means from a marketing perspective.
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A
And yeah, so we have a great marketing team here at the firm. You know, Jake and Kyle kind of run our, you know, run our marketing and they do a phenomenal job. And so we were talking about all the different ways that we want to touch people, right? And one of the things that we have is information to share, right? And so how do you impart that information that we have to your audience, whomever it is, potential client, whatever it may be. You know, you got Instagram, you got Facebook, you got, you know, TikTok, you got all these different platforms and you can't just pigeonhole yourself into one or the other. And so, you know, this idea, the kind of long form, if you will, live stream, we have been kicking it around. I said, God, this would be great if we could do this and we could start to, you know, kind of have a conversation online in real time. We had a ton of people on it. For the first one that we did, it was really awesome. And now, like, it's been viewed so many times and we're getting, you know, people that are emailing, people that are asking questions. And that's awesome because now, you know, the more informed they people are, especially in the trucking industry. Now, for example, the truck driver can go to his, his or her boss and say, hey, look, it's winter. Where's the equipment for me to be able to get the snow and ice off my roof, Right. Why don't I have that? You know, that's dangerous that I'm going to be driving down the road with snow and ice on my roof. It's dangerous for me, it's dangerous for the people behind me. You're the employer. You're supposed to be providing this, right? And so now it starts to, you know, some of that information starts to spark a conversation. That conversation can Turn into to safety. And that's really, I think, has been a really cool aspect of it. Look, if the days of just being in one medium are just long gone. I mean they really are. They're just long gone.
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B
I agree a thousand percent and I think you are way ahead of the, I mean I don't know of really anyone that has a successful live stream and I, you know, it's going to let you clip all the little moments and supply the short clips and all the reels and all those things too. So, so well done. I think that's a phenomenal idea. Anyone listening? I think live stream is just a fantastic idea. Ed is out there building a community with his live stream, but attention only matters if you can convert it. And it is much harder to land big cases by being a generalist. To pull the biggest cases in your market, you have to dominate a hyper specific niche. Let's hear how Ed carved out a name for himself in a truly unique space. Let's talk just a couple other things like, you know, the audience listening, like there's so much consolidation, so much competition. The, the cost to acquire an auto accident is across the country. It's 3,000 plus California might be five or six. Florida maybe 4,500. It's not 2,000 anymore. Especially these new firms. Like maybe, maybe you're a legacy firm that's been doing TV for 20 years and you're getting that thousand, $2,000 a case. How do you think about the approach of, of like the niching up and going kind of narrow for us?
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A
It kind of happened more organically. Right. So God, it's 12 or 13 years ago. Yeah, I'm trying to think it was our first like big trucking case. Right. And honestly, like we really won't know what the hell we were doing in that area. You know, we were just working hard. Right. You know, the offer on the case going into trial was $45,000. The jury's verdict was 4 million. And so after that, like we started to get some traction. People were calling us about, you know, tractor trailer cases and so from there. So like it wasn't this conscious decision like, oh my God, we're going to move into this area. It just kind of happened because we were doing good work, right. I mean we were doing good work in medical malpractice and getting results. And then all of a sudden, so that good work led to more work, if that makes any sense. And so it allowed us along the way to make very purposeful decisions about the work that we Wanted to take on. So we've been really fortunate that we've never really been chasing that volume that a lot of firms are, which, again, you hit it right on the head. That cost per case is just keep going up and up and up. So, you know, doing good work and taking on hard cases and being successful in them has allowed us to. To really grow, you know, those practices. And then, you know, Chris, the other thing is, we're very fortunate that we've been successful and we have the financial resources to put behind these cases. And I will tell you, like, I get called in on to, you know, co counsel on a lot of cases, and sometimes I'm like, I get called in six months after they've been up and running. I'm like, all right, you know, did you do the download of the cell phone? Did you do the download? You know, where's the. Do we have the download of the cameras? You know, driver facing and forward facing? Where's all the ECM data? And. And they're looking at me like, yeah, we kind of didn't do any of that. And. Because it's expensive, right? I mean, we have a team now in the trucking world. You know, we have a team that. We got a cell phone expert, we got a reconstructionist, we got a human factors expert, we got a trucking expert. You know, we got an investigator. I mean, these people are like, we get called on a case, they're mobilizing. I mean, they're out there immediately in the med Mao world. You know, we have two nurses, right? We have, you know, lawyers that. That are doing nothing but medical malpractice, right? We have one lawyer that, you know, she's a former labor and delivery nurse. And we have a team that, you know, is dedicated to that. And I think in order to be successful and not just be out there kind of chasing the next red car versus blue car case, in this day and age, you just. You gotta. You gotta do that. And so that's kind of been our journey. It's just kind of happened, you know, because we were, you know, getting great results and great results, Started to get more great results and more, you know, more people looking at us to say, can you help on our cases? And that's one of the things that, like, I co counsel with people all over the country. And right now, like, we have cases in, I think, 12 different states. And it is, if it is a pure joy to be able to work with, like, outstanding lawyers all over the country. And I. And I love it. I absolutely Absolutely love it. It has been just a terrific experience.
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When the trucking company you just sued hires you, that is proof of our promises. But getting those results requires proactive operations. Having world class experts on speed dial doesn't matter if your intake team doesn't know when to call them. To steer these massive cases to the finish line, your firm has to mobilize its resources the exact second the phone rings. Let me ask you some follow ups. Like, particularly like I think the intake side on trucking and the auto. It's kind of like they're very, there's similarities. Now once you get the case, obviously the investigation and like what you gotta do to maximize the value, like med mal is so broad, right? And you know, I heard you said that delivery, so you know, birth injury, you know, you got cerebral palsy, hie erbs palsy. It's that kind of the, the main nature. You're like, hey, it's if they deviate from the medical procedure, hey, let's rock and roll. Like how do you approach that on the intake side for people to even have the awareness that hey, here's a good case.
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A
One of the things that we've invested a ton of money into is our intake team. And so our intake team that does medical malpractice, you know, basically like a medical malpractice call comes in. It's not just a lawyer or an intake person that has no experience. Like we have a very specialized intake process for medical malpractice. We also have a very specialized process, retracted trailer cases. Right. And so obviously they're very different in terms of what happened, but they're very similar in process, which is get the people involved that are the specialists in this particular area. So if it's a stroke case, we're on the phone with our stroke expert. What do you think? Right. If it's a birth injury case, our team, you know, is vetting it and then we're on the phone with the people that are top in the field. What do you think of this? Right. And you could kind of go down the list in terms of, you know, medical malpractice areas. It's a misdiagnosis of cancer, same thing. So we're immediately going to those resources to tell us, right? We're not guessing, we're not thinking like, you know, it's, it's one of those things like we want to know immediately because we're going to put our resources fully behind this. If it's something that is worth going after.
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B
Beautiful. Love it. A lot of Complexity, but you've got your processes, you got your experts to help and surround yourself with people that understand it, and you've got the resources. So that's, that's phenomenal. Talk to me about the talent, getting the talent, keeping the talent, nurturing the talent, all the things.
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A
Yeah. So let me kind of go in reverse.
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B
Okay.
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A
You know, how do you keep your talent? I think that one, you got to give them a good quality of life, right. You got to pay them well. And then I think you gotta give them some autonomy to be able to grow and develop within the firm their own kind of little how they're going to practice. And that's one of the things that I think we've done really well with our people is giving them that opportunity. We also invest in our talent. So I do a ton of teaching all over the country. Depositions and trial skills for tlu, AJ ataa, you know, a whole bunch of different organizations. And we're always sending our people to help develop their skills. Whether it's a trial college or a deposition college or whatever it may be. We rarely ever say no in, in terms of like, if somebody wants to go and, and it's a, it's something that's gonna improve their skills, like, yeah, absolutely, do it. So I think that's one of the things, investing in your talent and then also giving them the freedom and flexibility. Look, go try cases, right? You may lose a case. That's okay, right? You know, because it's not all. The ball's always not going to bounce your way in a trial, for whatever reason it may be, it may be a judge, it may be a jury, something may go wrong. But know that we're standing behind you and we want you to do that. Right. So I think giving them those opportunities is really, really, really important. How do we get the talent that is something that we try to grow that within. I would say actually most of the lawyers here started as a law clerk and then went from a lot during law school, some even college, and then law school, and then, you know, first year, you know, associates. And so when they become a first year associate, they kind of become part of, part of the trucking team, part of the malpractice team. And so they start to kind of see how that all fits together and works. And so then they kind of come up through the ranks. But that's how we develop a lot of the talent that's here at the firm. And we got some outstanding, outstanding lawyers. I mean, really, just really outstanding lawyers. And we keep not only invest, but reinvest in them. We market them, you know, as well, so that they can start to develop kind of their own book of business within our book of business. Because that helps everybody, right? Helps the firm grow, helps them grow financially, professionally. So that's really, you know, kind of the. The cornerstone of, of what we do with our talent recruitment and retention.
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B
Ed, this has been phenomenal for our audience listening that wants to get in touch with you and learn more. Maybe they have a case, a trucking case, a med mal case that maybe they want some extra eyeballs on or. Or maybe. Maybe they want to talk shop. They want to talk about trials and strategy. What's the best way to get in touch with you?
- [18:16]
A
Yeah, so it's always funny. I always give people my cell phone. I'm like, my cell phone's 570-510-9941. Call anytime. I mean, it's the easiest way to get a hold of me. I'm out on the road a lot, you know, whether it's, you know, in trials, depositions, on, you know, speaking. So that's the easiest way to get a hold of me. Email as well. Ejclawpc.com those are the two easiest ways to get ahold of me. And gosh, we got a whole bunch of offices in Pennsylvania. Now we're opening, I'm trying to remember, because we're opening a new one. We got Philly, Wilkes Barre, Scranton. We're in Berwick, Pennsylvania. We share some space with a buddy of mine out in Pittsburgh, and we're opening an office in East Stroudsburg, down in Monroe county as well. But, you know, as I said, we. We have cases all over the place. You know, we have medical malpractice cases in other states, we have trucking cases in other states. So for the right case, we will co counsel with good people and good lawyers.
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B
Amazing. Amazing. Ed, thank you so much for coming on the show.
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A
Yeah, this has been a blast. Thank you very much, Chris.
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B
Absolutely. Ed's story proves that elite results aren't an accident. When you have the right operational systems in place, your reputation can start to do the heavy lifting. For Ed, getting hired by the people you beat in court is just the ultimate byproduct of doing the work. If you're ready to dominate your market and want a marketing partner who holds the same standard for excellence, head on over to Rankings IO. Thanks for listening to Personal Injury Mastermind. We'll catch you next time.