The Firm
INJURY ADVOCATES FOR MORE THAN 40 YEARS
The Glenn Armentor Law Corporation has been a pre-eminent plaintiff firm in Louisiana since 1977. The firm’s mission is to help those in need due to worker’s compensation, automotive, maritime, chemical explosive, and medical malpractice accidents. Their recently expanded office “Good Hope Hall” was constructed as a pillar of hope for the community to provide the best court preparation and case analysis.
With the majority of their practice concentrating in personal injury and medical malpractice, the firm’s attorneys are in constant need of expert witness support to advocate on behalf of their clients.
The Challenge
THE WORST KIND OF TIME SPENT
In spite of their years of experience in the personal injury arena, the folks at Glenn Armentor were primarily sourcing experts in two ways: calling other lawyers for the names of experts they trusted or trying to snap up authors of industry publications.
One such attorney, John Paul Charbonnet, J.D., who has been in personal injury practice for 30+ years, and with the Glenn Armentor Law Corporation since 2008, recounts how exhausting these searches became.
“Hunting for experts is the worst kind of time spent,” recalls Mr. Charbonnet. “You’re struggling to learn such specific information so you can speak intelligently and advocate on your client’s behalf. At the same time, you’re wasting time and money trying to get experts to answer a phone call.”
The amount of time Mr. Charbonnet would spend looking for experts was highly variable, but finding the right expert would take weeks, if not months. The process was time-intensive, stressful, and most of all, very expensive.
“Having separate experts provide a first touch or impression of a case runs into the thousands of dollars, especially in document-intensive files. The time and funds you need to work with an expert are great enough without having to spend so much time and money just searching for one. Hearing about a service like Expert Institute that could outsource much of that effort and provide multiple consultations to learn about a case seemed too good to be true.”
The Solution
THE SLIP AND FALL THAT CHANGED IT ALL
Mr. Charbonnet will be the first to tell you that the Glenn Armentor firm was skeptical of consulting an expert service. That is until an unlikely outcome for an ‘unwinnable case’ turned the tables.
“I had a slip and fall case where a client sustained a significant knee injury. However, my client honestly reported she had no idea what caused her to fall. Whatsmore, she had no idea how long whatever she slipped on had been in the store aisle. There were no security cameras in the area where she fell, and the sweep and mop logs indicated routine vigilance by store employees checking for, and removing, any spills. I knew my client deserved compensation, but none of the usual evidence was available. Yet, this client was so genuine, my paralegal and I were determined to help her.”
“I knew that if I could get the surveillance footage from the other areas of the store and compare it to the sweep and mop log, it may show that store employees weren’t really routinely cleaning the aisles. However, the store manager testified no video footage from the day of the fall had been retained because none of the security cameras recorded the area where the incident occurred. I turned the case over to the Expert Institute to see if they could find us somebody who could tell us more about this surveillance system.”
“In just a matter of days, Expert Institute connected me with a former employee of the retailer who informed me that the store’s security feed is sent to a cloud-based system that retains footage longer than individual store locations do. Because of the consultation arranged by Expert Institute, my team discovered that surveillance footage really was still available. We were able to request all the data necessary to prove the logs were completely unreliable. Ultimately, the case settled for well over a million dollars. We would not have been able to help a very deserving and good client without Expert Institute locating that consultant for us.”
That result captured the attention of the other 14 lawyers at the firm. Ears finally started to perk up when Mr. Charbonnet said, ‘You really need to use this group.’
The Results
EXPANDING THE GLENN ARMENTOR FIRM, ONE EXPERT AT A TIME
These days, armed with a Partnership subscription to Expert Institute, the entire Glenn Armentor Law Corporation receives one-on-one expert support at every stage of the litigation process.
“Partnership with Expert Institute has made a great deal of difference for my practice and the practice of my partners. The product is so meritorious because it gives us the ability to better serve the good people we represent.”
But if you ask Mr. Charbonnet, having access to experts who can evaluate a case’s merit from the onset is what makes all the difference for his practice. “It can cost thousands of dollars to find out you shouldn’t even proceed with a case,” says Mr. Charbonnet. “My ability to protect the firm from losing money has been just as valuable as consulting with great experts.”
Now that the firm is putting time and resources into the right matters, they have been able to expand the number of cases they take across the board. “In the past, I may not have looked at an employment law case or a chemical burn case because it was out of my wheelhouse. Now that I can connect with someone who uses that language all the time and can explain it, I get more money out of my marketing dollars because I’m not losing cases that I should be keeping.”
This is the kind of thing that once you do it, you say to yourself, ‘Why did it take me so long to do this?’ If you let Expert Institute in the door, you allow yourself to partner with a service that understands your creativity, your fears, your concerns, your need to save money, your desire to be the best advocate for those you represent—and you will not come away disappointed.