Empowering Personal Injury Clients With Sahm Manouchehri
April 12, 2023 | Written by Gladiator Law Marketing
Sahm Manouchehri is a Partner at LyfeLaw, a personal injury law firm. With experience at prestigious firms, including Tharpe & Howell LLP and Wilson, Kenna & Borys LLP, Sahm gained insight into the world of personal injury litigation and the tactics used by insurance companies. His background representing insurance companies has equipped him with the perspective needed to advocate for the injured clients he now represents. Beyond his work in the courtroom, Sahm is an active member of the legal community, serving as a Board Member of CAOC’s Board of Directors and frequently speaking at conferences and continuing education events.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
What LyfeLaw does — and the main goals set for every client
Sahm Manouchehri’s role at the firm and why he chose to specialize in injury law
How does LyfeLaw stand apart from competing personal injury law firms?
LyfeLaw’s promotion and marketing strategies
Sahm’s words of advice for up-and-coming attorneys
The first thing you need to do when you’ve been in an accident: call an injury lawyer
In this episode…
In the world of personal injury law, ensuring your clients make a full recovery and receive fair financial compensation is your biggest priority. But how can personal injury attorneys empower and guide their clients through the complex legal process?
Sahm Manouchehri emphasizes the importance of caring for clients, educating them about their rights, and maintaining open communication throughout the legal process. At the core of LyfeLaw’s approach is a focus on helping clients regain their health and achieve financial compensation. By maintaining a client-centered philosophy and innovative approach, LyfeLaw is a powerful advocate in personal injury law.
In this episode of 15 Minutes, Bela Musits sits down with Sahm Manouchehri, Partner at LyfeLaw, to discuss the firm’s unique approach to personal injury cases. Sahm shares his insights on the importance of caring for clients, the firm’s goals, and how they stand out from competing personal injury law firms. He also offers valuable advice to young attorneys and shares crucial legal advice for those who have been injured.
This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, where we deliver tailor-made services to help you accomplish your objectives and maximize your growth potential.
To have a successful marketing campaign and make sure you’re getting the best ROI, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. At Gladiator Law Marketing, we use artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decades of experience to outperform the competition.
To learn more, go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com or schedule a free marketing consultation. You can also send an email to adam@gladiatorlawmarketing.com.
Episode Transcript
Intro 0:01
You’re listening to 15 Minutes, where we feature community leaders sharing what the rest of us should know, but likely don’t.
Bela Musits 0:12
Hello, listeners, I’m Bela Musits, the host of the Share Your Voice podcast, where we talk with top notch law firms and attorneys about what it takes to grow a successful law practice. This episode is brought to you by Gladiator Law Marketing, delivering tailor made services to help your law firm accomplish its objectives and maximize your growth potential. To have a successful marketing campaign, and to make sure you’re getting the best return on your investment, your firm needs to have a better website and better content. Gladiator Law Marketing uses artificial intelligence, machine learning, and decades of experience to outperform the competition. To learn more, go to gladiatorlawmarketing.com where you can schedule a free marketing consultation. Today’s guest on the podcast is attorney Sahm Manouchehri. He is a partner at LyfeLaw. When it comes to challenging high stakes personal injury cases, Sahm is a vigorous advocate for his clients. He is a highly recognized Injury Lawyer, public speaker and legal commentator. Welcome to the podcast, Sahm.
Sahm Manouchehri 1:24
Thank you, Bela. Thanks for having me, really.
Bela Musits 1:27
You’re very welcome. So tell us a little bit about the firm and what it does.
Sahm Manouchehri 1:32
Sure, well, the name of the firm is LyfeLaw, Life with a ‘Y’. And the reasoning behind the name is that we help our clients get their life back. And what we mean by that is that on every injury case, there are two very simple goals that we have for every single one of our clients. They’re not always achievable based on different things. But the two goals are simple. The primary goal, the initial goal is to monitor our clients medical treatment to ensure that they understand what their injuries are, that they understand what the recommendation is to get them back to health are and to ultimately assist them in getting back to health by informing them of their injuries and explaining to them what is being recommended of them. That is the first goal is to help them get back to full health, second goal, money. Money not just to pay their bills, but more importantly, money for what is commonly referred to as pain and suffering. And Bela. What that means is, is that you’re entitled to money for every little inconvenience, all the way through injuries, and the fact that you have to deal with it, the fact that you’re living in pain. And the reason why you’re entitled to money. And this is every state has the same law is that the person that caused your injury, they can’t just make things right. The way we explain it to our clients and to insurance companies and ultimately to a jury, if it goes to trial, is that the person that caused these injuries, they’re not God. They can’t go back in time and stop the accident from happening. Similarly, they’re not God, and they can’t just tap our clients on their foreheads and make them all better again, rather, the way the law works is if you cause someone to be injured because of your negligence, you have to give that person money. And it’s literally the only thing that you could give to somebody. You know, another example is, God forbid, you get in a car accident and you kill somebody, God forbid. Giving that family money is not going to bring the person back. But they are entitled to money because of your mistake. And it’s kind of a two sided thing. One is to compensate the injured for all their bills and their pain and suffering again, just as importantly, is to dissuade people from acting negligently in general. If there is no liability laws, if there is no laws regarding how to drive on the road, and no ramifications for driving negligently people are gonna drive like Wild Wild West. And you need to make sure that people understand that if you act this way and cause injury, you’re gonna pay money. So it kind of stops us from running red lights. Because otherwise, just think about it. There’s no laws and no liability. Everybody’s just going to do what they want. It’s going to be true chaos. So the name life comes with the understanding that we help our clients get their quality of life back. And it’s our number one goal, and everything else just flows from that singular goal of helping to get their life back.
Bela Musits 4:21
Yeah, very nice. Very nice. So what’s your specific role at the firm?
Sahm Manouchehri 4:25
I’m one of the founding partners of LyfeLaw and I’ve been an injury lawyer for 20 years now. And I have no idea how old I look anymore, but I’ve been doing this for half my life. And I’m a USC Law graduate. And upon graduating from law school, I always knew it. I was gonna do Injury Law. I actually have a medical background from college, where I was a biology major and then I switched to pre law in the middle of my junior year with the understanding that I was going to help injured people in a different way than as a doctor rather as an injury lawyer. So when I first graduated from law school, I did what’s called insurance defense. And I did it for three very long years, Bela. And what insurance defense is, is I represented the negligent people through their insurance coverage, defending them against people that were hurt. And I did it for three very long years. And I came to one singular understanding regarding any insurance company. I don’t care if it’s car insurance, you know, liability insurance, health insurance, life insurance. What I learned is that insurance companies are not in the business of helping people. They’re in the business of making money. So anytime you need an insurance company, their singular goal is hoping to pay out as little as possible. So you’re not Bela Musits to any insurance company, Bela. You are initially a policy number. Once you need their help you get converted to a claim number, and ultimately, your a dollar amount to them. So I used to represent Geico, Geico was my largest client. I also represented a lot of Big Box stores through their self insurance, like IKEA and Lowe’s. And so what we specialize at at LyfeLaw is injury law, but with an emphasis in auto trucking, and what it’s called premises liability, which is the legal word for slip and fall. And we also have a work comp department, which is similar to injury law in that your work comp is injured while you’re on the job. And there’s different rules when you’re injured when on the job versus if you’re injured from somebody other than your employer’s negligence. Work Comp doesn’t even require negligence, it can be your fault that you fell. But if you’re on the job, there is compensation for it. It’s very different than personal injury, different entitlements, different damages you’re entitled to. But they both have the same purpose of helping our clients get their life back after an injury. And those are two types of law that we practice. And we are based throughout California with our central office in Los Angeles, which is where I am today.
Bela Musits 7:00
Yeah. So how many offices do you have and when was the firm founded?
Sahm Manouchehri 7:05
We have two offices, but we have satellite offices throughout California with two offices with staffed personnel. And this is the thing century, we used to be named Century Park Law Group, which was founded in 2013, by my partner, Sam and I, and in June of this year, in June of 2022, we renamed and rebranded as LyfeLaw. And so very simple reason: we wanted to better explain what we do for our clients. And again, getting back to helping our clients get their life back, so that it was much more memorable name to be quite sure.
Bela Musits 7:39
Yeah. And so, you know, the personal injury space is pretty crowded space. Oh, yes. So how do you sort of stand apart from from all of the other firms?
Sahm Manouchehri 7:53
Very simply, like I was saying earlier, how an insurance company looks at our clients as a number. So do unfortunately, a lot of these larger injury firms where you’re a number to them. So I’m not going to, you know, say any names about our competitors. But there’s a lot out there that let’s say your case is worth 100,000. Bela, that’s just a simple, clean number. The goal of your lawyer should be to get 100% of that value of that case, should not leave any money on the table, because that is the client’s money. But if you’re a mill, where the client has a number, they will settle your case for less than full value, because they care about their bottom line. So if I don’t have to do any work, and I could get a third of 90,000, versus having to sue and do work to get 100,000. It is in my client’s best interest, but not in the law firms best interest to prosecute that case. A big firm, they’ll say no, we should settle that 90,000. Because again, they would rather get a third of 90 than a third of 100 without doing any work because of overhead. So what makes LyfeLaw different than honestly any other law firm that I’m aware of, and I know pretty much most every California injury law firm is that we care about our clients net settlement more than our attorneys fees, because we are risky business, even though we have billboards, and, and buses and different types of media to market. Ultimately, we care about our name, or reputation, because the only thing that we know you leave this earth with is your reputation. So our goal is for every client or anybody that ever deals with life law, to say, you know, they’re they’re good people, they’re not the average lawyer that has all these, you know, bad reputation, where they will go the extra mile to get the full value of your case, regardless if it’s not to the best monetary benefit of the law firm itself. Because again, I want you to come back if God forbid you need our help, or family member or friend, I want you to refer us with the understanding that we care about your singular case and want to obtain full value on your behalf. Yeah, but again, after you get full medical recovery, that’s what also makes us different. A lot of other law firms will say, Go get your treatment, come back, and when you’re done treating will, will help get the money. The issue with that is, if your client is going through health insurance, or if your client is not particularly well informed of their injuries, they’re gonna delay their treatment, they might have gaps in treatment. And what that does, it allows the insurance company for the at fault person to say, okay, you know, the accident is our fault. But you delayed in getting your treatment, or you didn’t do what the doctors recommended, because maybe health insurance didn’t authorize it. And that will devalue your case, because they’ll say, Okay, it’s our fault, the accident happened, but you didn’t do ABC that the doctors recommended, therefore, you’re not truly as hurt as you’re arguing you are. So we don’t want to pay you as much as you’re demanding. So what makes us different is we monitor your treatment inform you of the recommendations so that you understand what is being advised so that the insurance doesn’t have that bullet in their gun of arguing that you didn’t do was recommended, where a lot of times the clients simply didn’t get fully informed by their doctor of what is recommended. Yeah.
Bela Musits 11:07
Yeah. Very nice. Very nice, a great explanation. So what sort of percentage just out of curiosity, what sort of percentage of cases go to litigation?
Sahm Manouchehri 11:15
All right. So your question, I want to preface it with this, it could go to litigation, it doesn’t mean it’s gonna go to trial. Right? So to answer your question, 5% of cases are cases that are in litigation, go to trial, a very low number, only 5%. And that is simply because the way to avoid going to trial is to prepare to go to trial. If the defense lawyers are see that we are doing everything necessary to present this to a jury, that’s going to dissuade them from wanting to go to trial. Similarly, imagine if you want to avoid going to war, you show your adversary that you’re ready to go to war. And that says, well, we don’t want to go to war with LyfeLaw. The amount of cases that go to litigation is a different number, I would percentage wise, say around maximum 20% of our cases. And that’s only a higher number than normal. Because we specialize in premises liability cases slip and falls, which much more often go into litigation, simply because of the insurance companies we’re dealing with on a slip and fall is very different than a car insurance. In a car accident, we all drive cars, we all generally understand who’s at fault for an accident, I’m sitting at a red light, I get rear ended. So obviously, the car behind me is fault. On a slip and fall. We don’t know for sure 100% whether we’re going to be able to win the case initially. Because we don’t know if the store has what is called notice. Notice is a legal term, which simply means did the store know about the dangerous condition? Or should they have known to reasonable inspection of the dangerous condition. So there’s actually two types of notice when they actually knew it’s called actual notice, for example, somebody complained about there’s something on the floor and employee did nothing about it. That’s called actual notice, constructive notice is the other type were through reasonable inspection, they should have discovered it. So a store employees cannot walk around with their eyes closed saying I don’t see anything on the ground. Therefore I don’t have notice. No, they have a duty to look around and inspect continuously. While a store customer like myself who’s in the store, I don’t have the duty to look down to make sure it’s free and clear. My eyes are on the on the shelves for the product to buy, there is an expectation that it is free and clear of all dangerous conditions. So on a slip and fall, we are highly, highly aggressive from day one, and trying to get the insurance for the store to view the video and to make a liability determination. But sometimes they’re either overworked or the adjuster is simply doesn’t do their job. And we need to know whether or not we have a strong case. So we’ll end up having to sue immediately simply to get that video. Because again, if the spill occurred, let’s say you know, a minute before the person fell on it, there is no notice. It’s not the store’s fault. Yeah. So to answer your question, the short 20% of our case is going to litigation only, again, because most of the time it’s a premises liability case. And of the cases that do go to litigation, only 5% I would estimate go to trial. Because again, you have to be ultra aggressive Bela in order to prevent litigation and ultimately to prevent go to trial. And that’s where we are different is that we overstaffed at our office. Another example of where we’re different male is that we purposefully overstaffed our staff on cases. And it’s not to the benefit of the firm again, that means I have higher overhead, but it is to the benefit of the client because it allows us to be auto regressive, where on any average case, there are four people doing different things, every single case where at another injury law firm, you have one person doing everything And they’re human, they’re not going to be able to get around to doing all the things necessary to be ultra aggressive. On any case, where again, where the insurance sees life law, they know we’re ultra aggressive, which means that they know we’re going to ultimately go to trial if we need to, which means to them, okay, we’re not going to spend $100,000 on lawyer fees, and then pay LyfeLaw full value to their client, again, they’re in the business of making money, the insurance, they’re gonna say, Okay, we don’t want to go against life law, and spend 100 grand and still pay the full amount, right, we’ll cut our attorneys fees and pay the full amount, because we understand that LyfeLaw is not some Mickey Mouse law firm that will settle for less, right and not to be verbose. Bela insurance companies have analytics on the law firms and the lawyers themselves. So that they’ll know that John Doe law firm never goes to trial, which means that they can pay less, because that means that they’re not prepared to go to trial. And that means that the law firm will take a discount, which is not fair to the client, because that is the clients one case, that has a closed one opportunity to be made whole. And it’s not the way we conduct our law firm.
Bela Musits 16:09
Yeah, very compelling, very compelling. So you mentioned earlier that, you know, you have billboards, you have signs on buses. You know, one of the challenges these days is that the advertising space is very noisy. There’s all these different outlets, it used to be just a newspaper in yellow pages back when I was younger, and now there’s all of these different channels. How do you sort of think about that? And how do you get that word out about your firm? That wonderful explanation you just gave me about how LyfeLaw is different? You know, how do you communicate that out to potential clients?
Sahm Manouchehri 16:45
We are very, very involved in social media. To be quite honest, I guess we are at the forefront of social media. And that is a direct to consumer conversation. Yes. Where I have discussions just like this on video explaining to clients these different things to educate them. That’s number one. Number two, we are we’re a law firm meets tech, meaning we have Case Manager software programs that allow us to communicate with both clients and potential clients in a very different way than simply on the phone. We direct market all of our clients with education. Okay, our marketing is not all get you 1.2 million. And that ridiculous advertising was just stuck in the 80s. Our advertising is that we inform and educate everybody. So that you understand that, let me put it another way, Baylor, I have clients that are homeless, I have clients that are billionaires, I have clients all in between that socio economic spectrum. So the way we do it is you could be a potential client in the future. Anybody could be a potential client of life law in the future, simply because anybody could get into an accident. And if you’re a billionaire, and you’ve been injured, and it affects your your ability to make income, you’re entitled to money for that just like a homeless person would be entitled to money for their pain and suffering. Yeah, so the way we do it is through education. And we have our billboards is a very different marketing campaign than any other law firm, to be quite honest. I’m not sure if you’ve seen us or not. But our marketing is not the fight for you type thing, which we do. But that is not our marketing, our marketing is we educate the client, so they help us help them. So literally, when a new client is, is signed up, even before they’re signed up, either myself or another one of the attorneys will provide a full consultation to the client, explaining the good and the bad about their case. No case is perfect. Okay. And the goal is to educate the client on the good and the bad, so that they understand why we can’t possibly do something. I’ll give you an example. Rather than talking in hypotheticals. There’s something called policy limits. And what policy limits means is the maximum the insurance company will pay on behalf of the wrongdoer. And the higher insurance coverage you have, the more expensive is you get what you pay for. Most people have what is called the minimum policy limits to drive a car $15,000 Despite California having the most cars on the road by far than any other state, it has literally the lowest policy limits. It’s called the 1530 15,000 30,000 to 15,000 is the maximum to pay to anyone person 30,000 is the maximum to pay for per accident, assuming there’s more than one injured claimant. If you have three people in the car, the rear end and you’re a 1530 The maximum your insurance will pay for your wrongdoings. 30,000 So the three of them let’s say you have a 1530 and you catastrophically injured Your people in a car in front of you, you hit him really hard, run a red light and you cheekbone, the hell out of it. Okay, and then all have to have surgery, God forbid, if you have a $30,000 policy, and presuming that you personally don’t have any assets, do you live in an apartment, you have an hourly job, you have no real savings, I have to have to have a very, very, very difficult conversation with all three of my clients, that we cannot achieve the two goals of full recovery and full in full monetary compensation. There’s just not enough money. Yeah, I can sue the person that caused the accident. And I get a million dollar judgment, that judgment proof defendant files bankruptcy, it all goes away except the 30,000. So to answer your question, we are continuously from intake through pre litigation through settlement, educating our client in the processes of the case, not only by telephone, but again, through technology, text, email, you know, auto tax where things happen, where it triggers our systems to contact the client. And that is the key is to somewhat automate the mundane aspects of your case. So things cracks, which will ultimately devalue the case. If things are not done promptly. The way we describe it is, time is never on the side of the injury, any delays in anything allows the insurance to argue that the case is not worth as much, because they can’t argue fault, which is called liability. They will argue value. They’re not in the business just given our checks. Oh, yeah, it’s our fault. You want 20,000? Here’s 20,000. Sure, yeah, their goal is to devalue it with any argument they can make, literally just throw things on the wall to see what sticks. And if you have a novice attorney, we call it a Mickey Mouse attorney, they might get fooled by the insurance company, right? Because that adjusters job is literally to try to pay as little as possible. If they can’t dispute fault or dispute the severity of the injuries, if they can’t dispute the severity of the injuries, they’ll try to argue that some of the treatment was unnecessary, or that the lawyers and the doctors are running it. That’s not how we do things at LyfeLaw. The doctors treat the client, we ensure that there’s money to pay the doctors and money to pay the client for their pain and suffering there.
Bela Musits 22:23
I have a curious question. Are there times when given your expertise in the field, are there times when other law firms reach out to you and say, Hey, can you help us on this case?
Sahm Manouchehri 22:34
Oh, yes, we have about 25 law firms that refer cases to us need a younger personal injury attorney that might not understand premises liability law, because again, it’s very different than auto, or it’s another type of attorney, not an injury lawyer, maybe like a bankruptcy lawyer or a criminal defense lawyer, where they came across a client, and we move around, turn the lights back on. And they’ll contact us to say, Listen, I don’t know how to handle this case. And under California law, fortunately, we’re able to give that law firm a referral fee that comes out of our fees. You’re not paying for two lawyers, you’re paying for one lawyer, and we’re just allowed to give a referral fee. And we do again, we have about 25 law firms on average, we give 20 to 30% referral fees. And I know plenty, plenty of lawyers, that their sole income is referring cases to people, choosers they know they got a criminal lawyer, they’ll go to a criminal defendant or go to a criminal lawyer, they got a personal injury case, they’ll come to us potential client as a tax issue about a tax lawyer, and literally their whole way of making money is by getting referral fees. But yeah, Bela to answer your question, we not only market directly to potential clients, but we mark it to law firms as well, by educating them as well. Because the way again, that we look at it is our reputation is everything. If we had a bad reputation, then yeah, billboards will get us new clients, but we wouldn’t get repeat clients. And there’s plenty of law firms, mostly law firms with billboards, actually, they do not get repeat clients, because they don’t get full value. And that client, you know, understands that I didn’t get made whole. And if they get hurt again, or if their family member gets hurt, they’re not going to refer that billboard law firm, because they learned the hard way from their own experience. Yeah, so the reason we do billboards is a post COVID thing. And it’s largely because me myself is one of the founding partners. I had an epiphany during COVID that I want to help small person against these big corporations. So I don’t care if it’s Geico, Bank of America, Amazon, Walmart, these big corporations look at all consumers as a number. Yeah. And these pay millions of dollars in defending themselves every year. And the reason why we work on it contingency basis meaning a percentage of the recovery is because most people can’t afford to pay a lawyer hourly. And if they, if I did charge hourly, it might bankrupt my client. Because I know that the defense lawyers are going to try to paper us, meaning if they know I’m getting paid hourly, they’re going to bombard me with motions and discovery, which will take time with their understanding that my client is going to come out of pocket all this out of the money, my client, at some point is gonna say, you know, mercy, I can’t afford to pay for this setup, or whatever you can get, because I can’t afford to pay the lawyer fees. So the reason why injury lawyers work on a contingency basis, is because it’s the only way that the client can afford to prosecute their case is through an aligned interests with the lawyers and the client. So the beautiful thing about Injury Law and the contingency basis, it is my goal to get my client full value on their case, because my compensation comes from a percentage. So there’s never a situation where we want to settle for less. Unless, of course, like I said earlier, you’re an injury law firm that cares more about your overhead, and your your own personal bottom line, then your clients bottom line.
Bela Musits 26:13
Yeah. Yeah, this is very nice. So Sahm, you had mentioned, you’ve been practicing law for 20 years. So let’s, let’s say I’m a, I’m listening to this podcast, and I’m in law school, or I’m about ready to graduate. What what words of advice would you have for that, you know, young, budding attorney?
Sahm Manouchehri 26:35
Care about what you do. And I mean it. And I emphasize this to all of our teams, right, I have what are called life lessons. Every week, I spend about eight hours of my time with different members of our different teams. And I implore them, that you have to care. If you don’t care, and you’re doing it just for money, you’re gonna have a miserable existence. Why? In any job, you should care, because you’re spending at least eight hours every day doing it. If you’re doing it just for money, again, you’re doing it for the wrong reason. If you care, and you care about achieving the two goals for the client, the money comes automatically. Alright, so I believe in energy, I believe in giving good energy, I believe in giving forward is a term that I’ve come to know very well in the last few years, I just give give give, today, I have no expectations bailiff from this, my goal is to just get the word out there that you have helped if you’ve been injured, do not think that you can do it alone. You can’t insurance companies, again, they’ve done this a lot longer than even me. They’ve been doing it for decades, right? So they understand how to devalue your case. So you need somebody on your side, who knows how to not devalue your case. So what I tell all my staff is, if you just care about getting the client back to health, and making them whole financially, I will reward you with promotions and bonuses and increases in salary. I will do all that for you. Because the firm is going to do better. So I’m not the type of lawyer and neither is my partner where we hoard all the money. Alright, quite the contrary. All right, again, we overstaffed so that we ensure that the client is made whole. And yeah, we might not make, you know, maybe my profit is 10%. While another law firm is 15%. Yeah, I don’t care about that. Balan, I care because again, this is the clients want opportunity, to me may hold because especially in a big accident type case where they’re seriously injured. That client is not only scared about being hurt, but they’re scared about the hospital bills, collection agencies, who’s going to pay for my car, how am I going to get to work? Am I going to lose my job because I have to go to physical therapy. They’re scared out of their minds. And to be further blonds, most of these people have been beaten down by these big corporations throughout their life. So they’re used to losing. So we come in and we say no, you’re not going to lose your job. You’re not going to have to pay for that rental car, you’re not going to have to pay for the body shop, you’re not going to have to pay those medical bills. That person that caused the accident and their insurance have to make you whole. Yeah. And if they won’t do it, we will go to a jury to make them whole because again, it’s not the clients fault. So they shouldn’t have fear, pain, anxiety, distress, if they’re scoring disfigurement, anything. They’re entitled to be made fully whole. Because again, it was not their fault that they were put in the situation. And that’s what the law is, like I said at the very beginning, it’s meant to compensate you to just make you back to health. If you had an back bad back before the accident, you’re not entitled to be made perfectly holy, and you’re supposed to just get back to the way you were before the accident. Yeah. So that’s what we do is that we impress upon all of our staff to care And if you do that, the monetary rewards, the emotional rewards come with that where you live everyday happy what you do? Yeah. And being a former defense lawyer where I used to represent the devil, and truly insurance companies are the devil, but they are necessary evil. I understand how they look at my client is the opposite. They look at every client as Oh, they think they hit a lottery ticket. And I promise you, I swear to you Bela it. 100% of my clients would give all the money back if they could go back in time. Sure. There’s no matter what money I get, if I get you a million dollars male, that means you’re messed up. Yeah, that means you’re hurt. That means that you’re constantly walking around. I have a two year old and a pregnant wife. If God forbid, I get into an accident. And I can’t take care of my two year old I can’t bend over. I can’t get on the floor with him. I can’t help my wife because you know, she’s seven months pregnant, the son easy. What can I get to compensate me for all I’m going through, and it’s only money. It’s not a perfect system. Right. But again, it’s literally the only thing a person can receive. And the only thing a person can give to right situation.
Bela Musits 31:09
Yeah, very well said, Sahm. Hey, I want to start wrapping this up. So I have two more questions for you. Absolutely. So if people want to reach out to LyfeLaw, and to reach out to you what’s the best way for people to do that?
Sahm Manouchehri 31:23
You can email us. If you’re a new potential client intake@lyfe.com. Go to our website lyfe.com. Lyfe with a ‘Y”. lyfe.com. Our phone number is 1-800-LyfeLaw. That again, goes directly to our intake department that is open 24/7 365. Because New Year’s Eve at midnight will pick up the phone. And we’ll provide a full free consultation. So to answer your question, phone number is 1-800-LyfeLaw. Website is lyfe.com. And the best email is intake@lyfe.com. Or email me sahm@lyfe.com. Sahm spelled Sahm@lyfe.com. That’s the easier way, you won’t forget our name. That’s the nice thing about our name.
Bela Musits 32:08
Yeah, it’s very nice. So my last question, is there something that I have? I have not asked you that you would like to share with our listeners?
Sahm Manouchehri 32:17
Yes. And Bela, your questions are actually very onpoint. I’m very impressed with with your background on injury law in general. The simplest thing I want to tell any client is, is that if you’ve been injured, number one, do not talk to either insurance company, your own insurance or the other sides. Because again, they’re going to try to get things out of you that are going to disadvantage you. The simplest one is imagine I got in a car accident. And I call up the other drivers insurance to say I was involved in an accident with your driver. I’m gonna say Oh, hi, how are you? I’m fine. How are you? It’s just cordial. They’re gonna write down spoke to Sam at Cherry on December 13. At 12 4pm. He said he’s fine. Yeah, no, I’m just being cordial with. Number one. Don’t ever speak to either insurance company. Because even your own insurance is trying to figure out ways to not pay anybody. All right. If you have full coverage, that means they might get involved at some point. They don’t want to pay anybody. They just want to collect premiums every month. The second thing, I implore all my clients is contact, you don’t have to contact us contact an injury lawyer. It’s free. Learn your rights, in particular to your particular case. You know, I’ve been giving, you know, general advice here. But if Bela let’s say you get into slip and fall or dog attack or a car accident, there’s different analysis, there’s different advice that a good injury lawyer will provide you immediately. And again, it’s free. So why would you not want to get the best lawyer to give you free advice? Sure. Yeah. Just get educated. You might decide, You know what, I’m not really hurt. I just want my car fix. That’s fine. Yeah. On the on the in the opposite. I’ll give you one quick example. We had a trip and fall on the sidewalk. And the woman will show you the pictures of aliens. There’s terrible pictures. Her leg looks like Frankenstein. She had numerous fractures in her and she was older. She has numerous fractures in her leg and she’s got Frankenstein scars going up and down her leg. And the way it works in the city of Los Angeles is that not only is the city liable for a trip and fall on the sidewalk, but potentially the homeowner, because most of the time the reason you trip and fall on the sidewalk is an uplifted sidewalk from a tree root from the property owners tree. So there’s two different liable parties, the city that owns the sidewalk and the property owner that owns the adjacent tree to that sidewalk in this particular circumstance, she knows the neighbor and she doesn’t want to bring a claim against the neighbor. Yeah, and that’s fine but I explained to her that we’re not going after the neighbor we’re not going to go after we’re not going to take away their home they have insurance to pay for this exactly. And to be quite blunt, we’re the primary defendant is the city anyways. So that coastal dictation informed her to not worry about bankrupting her neighbor. Right? Because again, she she was smart enough to understand before she called us that the tree owner is the reason why the uplifted sidewalk so they have liability. She’s very smart lady. And I explained to her that you don’t have to bring a claim, but you only have six months to bring it against the city. Because of the statute limitations against the government is much less than against a private person. Yeah. And that time is not on your side. So don’t call me in seven months, because I’m going to tell you, you know, my name is Eunice. Eunice. I can’t help anymore. It’s too late. Yeah. So what I tell everybody is, don’t talk to the insurance until you’ve talked to a lawyer.
Bela Musits 35:42
Great advice, Sahm. Great advice. Wonderful way to wrap this up. Hey, Sahm, thank you very much for being a guest on the podcast. I’ve really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you.
Sahm Manouchehri 35:51
It’s truly a pleasure. Bela, thank you for having me.
Outro 35:56
Thanks for listening to 15 Minutes. Be sure to subscribe and we’ll see you next time.
Sahm Manouchehri is a Partner at LyfeLaw, a personal injury law firm. With experience at prestigious firms, including Tharpe & Howell LLP and Wilson, Kenna & Borys LLP, Sahm gained insight into the world of personal injury litigation and the tactics used by insurance companies. His background representing insurance companies has equipped him with the perspective needed to advocate for the injured clients he now represents. Beyond his work in the courtroom, Sahm is an active member of the legal community, serving as a Board Member of CAOC’s Board of Directors and frequently speaking at conferences and continuing education events.
