Jason Schneider With Schneider Williamson Personal Injury Law

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studio in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by Kennesaw State University’s Executive MBA program, the accelerated degree program for working professionals looking to advance their career and enhance their leadership skills. And now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: Lee Kantor here, another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to recognize our sponsor, CSU’s executive MBA program. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Jason Schneider, and he is the co-founder and managing partner with Schneider Williamson Personal Injury Law. Welcome.

Jason Schneider: Hi, Lee.

Lee Kantor: I am so excited to learn what you’re up to. Tell us about your firm. How are you serving folks?

Jason Schneider: Okay, well, thanks for having me on. It’s a pleasure to share information with you and your audience. We’re a personal injury law firm here in Atlanta. We have three attorneys and eight staff total. And we represent victims of injuries primarily that occur in auto accidents. But really, any kind of injury you’re in and we help folks navigate through the complex insurance requirements and if necessary, take their cases to court.

Lee Kantor: So what’s your backstory? How did you choose this direction to go in?

Jason Schneider: Oh, sure. Yeah. So I graduated from Emory Law School and actually went to work for a law firm in downtown Atlanta that specialized in defending the insurance companies in these kind of claims, and did that for two different firms for about five years, and then decided I’d rather be representing the folks that were injured in, in accidents. So I switched sides and came to the light or whatever phrase people use. And since that time, I’ve been practicing personal injury law on behalf of injured folks.

Lee Kantor: So how do personal injury law firms like yours compete against these huge billboard attorneys that have huge call centers, and they seem to be just bombarding every, like, carpet bombing you with their brand?

Jason Schneider: Yeah, and that’s so true, Lee. And that is something, you know, we are a small business and that is something I think that’s probably universal to any small business is is competing with the big guys. So the answer is I really don’t try. I have to go in a completely different direction. I do it through networking. Here. Here’s an example right here talking to people through your show. So really networking through other attorneys and just, you know, we do some stuff on social media, but we do not try to compete in that landscape of the billboards and the TV because the big guys just suck that up and you know, they spend a lot of money and they’re very successful at that. But there’s there’s a large market, and there are also folks that don’t want to be represented by those behemoths. So there is a there is room in this market for smaller firms that specialize in customer care and customer satisfaction and doing a good job for people.

Lee Kantor: Now, I don’t think the regular person understands that just because their pictures on the billboard doesn’t mean that that’s the person that’s representing you. A lot of times those are just call centers and they’re just funneling them through a system, and who knows who could be representing you.

Jason Schneider: That is so true. And that is why a lot of times clients do come to us because they do recognize that. Or frankly, sometimes they hire one of those firms and quickly realize that they’re not talking with forget about talking with the lawyer on the billboard. They may not even be talking with a lawyer at all, just like you say, dealing with a call center. So when you get to talk with our firm, a smaller firm, you get that kind of personal attention. You know, people reach me directly or reach other attorneys in my office. And that is something that is very valuable to have someone with my level of experience actually representing you and talking to you, giving you advice. And that is something that, of course, the bigger firms just can’t because of the scale.

Lee Kantor: So let’s try to educate our listeners a little bit about what should they do if they get in a car accident? I mean, they’re happening probably every hour of every day here in Atlanta. So I’m in the car. Somebody hits me.

Jason Schneider: I did want to talk about some tips, things you can do to protect yourself and and increase the chances of getting a good recovery in the event you have the unfortunate situation of being in a car wreck. And the number one thing you can do actually is before you’re in a car wreck, something you can do today is look, pull out your declarations page or deck sheet, the page that says what coverage you have. There’s a there’s a myth that, excuse me, there’s a myth that people have what’s called full coverage and that really what full coverage does is protects the car, because oftentimes you have a note, and the note is issued by a bank or the car dealer. And what the note means is that your car is covered. So you have collision, you have comprehensive, you have coverage in the event your car is damaged. What you don’t necessarily have is what’s known as uninsured motorist coverage. Now that is an optional coverage that you can keep or reject. And what uninsured motorist coverage does is to protect you in two situations. One, most people understand, two, they may not. So the traditional uninsured motorist coverage is if you’re hit by somebody that has no coverage. And then of course, that will not only fix your car but pay you for your personal injuries. Uh, um, as it’s known in the industry, also covers underinsured situations, which is very common because the minimum coverage in Georgia is 25,000 per person. 50,000 per occurrence. 25,000 for property damage. And many people have cars worth more than that. Many people have injuries worth more than that. So if you have, um, coverage, underinsured motorist coverage and larger limits than the 25, 50, 25, then your own company will step in and provide additional coverage to you in the event you’re hit by someone that either has no insurance or does not have adequate insurance to protect you. So that’s something somebody everybody in your audience can do today is just check their coverage. It’s not a super expensive coverage. It’s really the most valuable coverage you can have.

Lee Kantor: Now you’re talking about the insurance company. And I would imagine that a lot of, um, people maybe are just trusting their insurance person to set them up with everything they need, but it sounds like that it might be a good idea to have somebody like you or on your team, kind of at least share the other side because you’re the one dealing with them. If something goes wrong.

Jason Schneider: Yeah, it’s. You know, and this again, is a universal message. It pays to be an informed consumer. Uh, unfortunately, I’ve had situations where clients have been with the same insurance agent for many, many years and thought they had really good coverage and then were in an accident. And it turns out they don’t. So yeah, take out your deck page, review it. I think if you called your insurance agent or adjuster, they would go through it with you and you’d, you’d, you’d see what exactly you had and didn’t have, because certainly, I mean, if you want to buy more coverage, the insurance company will sell it to you. It’s kind of surprising to me that they don’t always sell it because it would be a premium to them. But but I can’t really speak to why they do or do not. But yeah. Then of course you can reach out to a law firm such as mine or any other insurance professional, and get independent advice as to what kind of coverage you have, because surprisingly enough, many people are Underinsured either, because they don’t have the, um, coverage I just mentioned, or there’s other things that they may or may not have that they really need, such as sufficient liability coverage. I mentioned earlier that you only have to carry 25,000 per person, 50,000 per occurrence. That is not enough money. If unfortunately you cause or somebody driving your car with your permission causes an accident.

Lee Kantor: So, um, so the types of insurance we should have may not be what we have. And it’s a good idea to check either with your insurance provider and or an independent person to give you kind of a, you know, maybe a less biased version of the choices that are out there and the ramifications of what happens if you try to use it. I mean.

Jason Schneider: Because, I mean, in medicine, you would call that a second opinion, right? Right. Have a second opinion on your insurance coverage.

Lee Kantor: So then every time somebody gets hit, is that something they should call a lawyer as kind of the default position. Like how do you decide what’s lawyer worthy?

Jason Schneider: Right. Another great question. And you know, I hate to kind of say something that sounds like I’m just advertising or promoting myself, but I’ve just seen so many situations where people thought that either one, the insurance company, would take care of them, or that they didn’t really think they were injured, or that the other person had accepted fault. So they went about their way, and then later on, things fell apart for them. So unfortunately, the best advice is yes, seek. Seek well, seek medical attention right away and seek legal, legal representation or legal consultation right away because you just never know. I’ve had so many clients drive away from an accident, think they were fine, and it turns out they weren’t. They had some hidden injury or injury that developed over time, and that happens a lot. And then of course, you have a situation where somebody causes a wreck and says, I’m going to cover it. Here’s my information. Please don’t call the police. You go about your way and then it turns out the claim gets denied. So I you know, I hate to even say these things because you’d like to be able to trust people to and insurance companies to treat you fairly. But but the fact of the matter is, oftentimes that’s not what happens.

Lee Kantor: So walk me through if this is a friend of yours or your kid, they get rear ended. What what are the you know, the first maybe 3 to 5 things they should do immediately after that happens. And, um, including, you know, contact an attorney.

Jason Schneider: Yeah.

Jason Schneider: Well, it’s funny you should mention that, because when my son was in high school, he was he was in a wreck, and he did call me and he said, what should I do, dad? So, uh, yeah, I said, call the police. You don’t even know. It’s minor, you know, call the police. You want to have a record of what happened? And, uh, that is the number one thing to do, uh, and make sure that if there are any witnesses. Sometimes people stop and say, are you okay? But people are busy, right? They want to go along their way. I mean, if somebody does stop and ask you if you’re okay, say, hey, can I get your phone number? You know, put it in my phone. Do you have a card? Because as I said later on, oftentimes even obvious claims are being denied. So see if there’s any witnesses. Of course, now we all have cell phones so you can snap a few photos. You know, snap a few photos of the damage to your car, the damage to the other car. So those are the immediate things you do at the scene. And then, of course, just wait for the police and share your information. Uh, only answer the questions I asked. You know, there’s two sides to it we’re talking about if somebody rear ends you. But the other side of it is, God forbid, you’ve caused an accident, right? Or maybe you’re in a situation where it’s not all that clear. Who had the red light? You know, who had the green light? Um, you know, so if you’re in a situation where somebody is blaming you for the accident, well, you want to be very careful about what you say and how you word things. So the number one thing is to just, uh, stay at the scene, provide information and get all the necessary information you can.

Lee Kantor: And you want to document whatever you can document. And, and people like you said. I mean, I’ve had personally situations that I had a thing that happened to me where at the scene the person apologized, took responsibility. But later on they concocted a whole other story that was just, you know, made up to take the blame off of them.

Jason Schneider: Right. And had you called the police?

Jason Schneider: Yes. Okay.

Jason Schneider: Did it work out okay?

Jason Schneider: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: It all worked out at the end, but it it was just just because at the moment, you know, they’re apologetic. Doesn’t mean after, you know, their spouse starts talking to them and their friends that all of a sudden they’re like, what do you might be able to get away with this, you know?

Jason Schneider: Sure. Very unfortunate, but true human nature being what it is. Uh, so yeah, that’s why witnesses are great. And now, uh, you know, that often happens. There’s somebody seeing it. And of course, now also, we have a lot of cameras, you know, which helps a lot. There’s either cameras from the from the municipalities or the cities. And then of course, many businesses have cameras. So we’ve had a lot of success when there has been a contested claim. The most common one is not a rear ender, obviously. It’s like in the traffic light who has the right of way, because if a police officer comes to a scene and there’s been an accident in the middle of the intersection, somebody turned in front of in front of you, and that person says, I had the green light, and you say you were the green light, or he had a red light. Oftentimes the officer doesn’t know who’s at fault. So this is a little different from your situation. This is a situation where you know you’re in the right. But but the person that caused the accident is not admitting it. So what do you do in that situation? Uh, you know, a lot of times you can go around to the businesses right there and there’s surveillance footage. We’ve had several cases where that kind of nailed it down. And the old picture’s worth a thousand words. You know, there’s clear video of what happened. That is so common now. Uh, law enforcement’s going to do that on a crime. They’re not necessarily going to do that on a car accident. So now we’re back to if you contact an attorney early on, you know, that’s an investigation they can do. Usually businesses will keep that. But after, say seven days or ten days, it just automatically erases and they rerecord. But if you get, uh, legal help early on, you know, perhaps that information is available to you. And it can make the difference between whether your claim is successful or not.

Lee Kantor: And can you give people an idea of how many accidents are happening in the metro area?

Jason Schneider: I believe the.

Jason Schneider: Figures are 1000 a day.

Lee Kantor: A thousand a day.

Jason Schneider: Yeah.

Lee Kantor: That’s just mind blowing.

Jason Schneider: I know.

Lee Kantor: Now, you mentioned that as part of the way that you go to market is you network and partner with other folks. Can you talk about some of the are partners that you work with in the different types of industries that they’re in, that I guess you all kind of work together and help each other, help the client get the best outcome.

Jason Schneider: Sure. Well, the number one thing, and this also relates to the second thing to do if you’re in an accident and that is to seek medical attention, right? Even if you feel like you’re not hurt or you just saw, you certainly don’t have to go to an emergency room. I’m not recommending people go to an emergency room. Emergency rooms are already very busy with very sick people, and if you’re just sore and just not sure how you’re feeling, you know, perhaps you go home, you take some Advil, see how you feel the next day. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you wake up the next day and you’re still sore, then go, you know, maybe go to an urgent care, make an appointment to see your doctor. Uh, that’s important for a couple of reasons. First of all, uh, it provides an accurate history for the insurance company because I’ve had so many clients that just wait to see how they’re doing. They continue to take the Advil. They kind of try to tough it out. And then after about a week or ten days, they say to themselves, you know, I’m just not well, I just don’t feel right. And then they call their doctor and they go see their doctor. Perhaps they have to wait another week for an appointment. So now they’re maybe two weeks out from the accident when they have their first medical appointment. And guess what the insurance company says to that? Well, gee, you couldn’t have been that hurt because you would have sought immediate medical attention so that that actually diminishes your claim. Of course, the insurance company really has an answer for anything, because if you go to the emergency room the day of, they say, well, why don’t you wait a minute to see how you were doing? So they’re always going to have an answer for you.

Jason Schneider: But the best thing to do is to seek immediate medical attention. And the reason I mention that is because you’re asking me about sources of business. If we’re not advertisers or billboard lawyers and frankly, getting to know doctors and is something that’s been successful for us, uh, because medical offices, chiropractic offices, physical therapy offices often see their patients that have been injured and want to make sure that they’re properly represented for two reasons one, just to make sure they have the right representation. And two, oftentimes people are uninsured. You know, we were talking about auto insurance, but we really haven’t talked about health insurance yet. And unfortunately, I think it’s what close to 50% of Georgians do not have health insurance. So oftentimes it’s necessary for a person to get treated on what’s known as a lien, which means that they have a lien on your settlement and that the doctor gets paid when the case settles. Just like if the roof if a roofer fixed your roof, he’d have a lien on your house. And if you didn’t pay him, then of course, when the house sold, he’d get paid. So that’s what a health insurance lien is. Hospitals file that all the time. So any medical provider files a lien to get paid at the end of a case. So they’re very interested in making sure their patient has the right representation.

Lee Kantor: So is there anything happening in from a legislative standpoint that we should be aware of? Are there any new laws or bills coming up that, um, maybe affects this industry or your firm and your clients?

Jason Schneider: There is a huge thing going on right now in the legislature. If anybody is following the news or reading the AJC, it’s been a page one article. Governor Kemp has been pushing what’s known as tort reform. There’s a bill that’s now passed. The state Senate is in the state House that’s going to very much affect, uh, injury trials in the state of Georgia. And, you know, there are some things in there that probably are worth talking about, but there are some things in there that are just not really good for average Georgians. And unfortunately, it’s being touted as a way to make Georgia a better state for business and to reduce insurance rates. But really, the truth is that it’s not doing either of those things. It’s just taking away victims rights without really any guarantee or requirement that the insurance companies raise their, lower their rates, or even keep the rates the same. So, uh, it’s unfortunate, uh, you know, we can dive into some more of the details if you like. But in general, there is definitely a law in the legislature now that’s going to affect people’s rights when it comes to injury claims and injury trials.

Jason Schneider: And is there.

Lee Kantor: Anything the listeners can do to at least learn more about this and maybe take some action?

Jason Schneider: Uh, yes. If you are interested, obviously reach out to me. I’ll be glad to talk to anybody about it. There’s been a lot in the news about it. You can Google, uh, the law that’s in the legislature. If you if you know who your legislator is, if you’re interested, you know, they’re always interested in hearing from voters. Uh, so if it is something you’re interested, I would recommend, uh, that people do educate themselves on this law and reach out to their legislator to say that we want you to protect us, the people, not necessarily the insurance companies. You know, the insurance companies manage to always make huge profits no matter how many claims they pay. They can raise their rates and adjust their claims so as to always come out fine. But oftentimes people are the ones that are hurt by by laws that take away their rights to sue, or what jury trials look like, or the amounts of money they can recover in those cases. And of course, there are always those huge one off cases that everybody wants to talk about. Remember years ago there was the McDonald’s coffee cup case, uh, and everybody said, well, why should you sue for that? Of course, that case ultimately settled for much less than what the verdict was. And when there is sometimes a very crazy verdict that makes people shake their heads and say, how could that be? Oftentimes, if you follow the story, you’ll see that, uh, the verdict was overturned or significantly reduced and taking away people’s rights to a jury trial, taking away the decision. You know, people that serve on the jury are just regular people and taking away their right to assuming that they’re not going to do the right thing and really listen to the evidence is really an insult to them, to regular Georgians and to the jury system as a whole, which of course, is guaranteed by our Constitution.

Lee Kantor: So what do you need more of? And how could we help? Are you looking for more relationships with those referrers, the chiropractors, the doctors? The physical therapists? Are you looking for more clients? Are you looking for people just to kind of reach out to you in case they are one of the 1000 people who had an accident today?

Jason Schneider: Yeah. Thank you for asking that, Lee. Sure. We’re we’re we’re very happy to represent people that have been hurt. And, you know, if you want kind of the more special attention, personal attention that you may not get from the billboard lawyers. And I didn’t mean to cast any aspersions on them. They’re great lawyers and they do great work, but it’s a very different experience. I guess it might be the difference between going to your to a Home Depot or your local hardware store, you know, and some people like the Home Depots and some would rather have, you know, the local hardware store. So if your interest is more in the personal attention and, you know, having a local lawyer represent you, then by all means you can reach out to us. And the same thing for, you know, physical therapists, chiropractors, doctors that may have a situation where they’re treating their patients and their patients may not have the adequate insurance, and they don’t want to turn that, uh, you know, what’s the first question you’re asked when you go to a doctor’s office? I think even before they ask, what’s wrong? They may be second to that is, you know, what’s your health insurance? Or do you have insurance? So so for people that don’t have insurance but need care, you know, that’s something that, uh, if a health care provider is working with a reputable law firm, they can rest assured they’ll be compensated. There will be paid at the end of the case. So, yeah, those are those are the kind of people we’re looking to talk to, either people that have the unfortunate situation of being hurt or providers that that want to make sure that their patients can get seen and get treated, and that of course, their bills get paid at the end of the case.

Lee Kantor: And if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on the team, what’s the website? What’s the best way to connect?

Jason Schneider: Sure. Thanks for asking. Our again, my name is Jason Schneider. The name of my firm is Schneider Williamson. Our website is Schneider Williamson. Com and our phone number and email is on the website. The general office number is (770) 394-0047. And my email is Jason at Schneider williamson.com.

Lee Kantor: And Schneider spelled c h e I’d e r Williamson. Com.

Jason Schneider: Correct.

Lee Kantor: Good stuff. Jason, thank you so much for sharing your story. You’re doing important work and we appreciate you.

Jason Schneider: Well thank you, Lee, and we love what you do. And thanks for taking the time to talk with me.

Lee Kantor: All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.