Kaizen Health and Wellness
Spotlight Series
Spotlight Series Topic: Navigating Personal Injury Law: Insights from Attorney Justin Reid – What to Do After a Car Accident
Guest Name: Atty. Justin Reid
Guest Credentials: JD
Discussion Details: In this episode of the Fit Moines podcast, host Bryan Ladd welcomes personal injury attorney Justin Reid to discuss the intricacies of personal injury law and the importance of having legal representation after an accident. Justin shares his unique journey from starting a welding company to becoming an attorney, emphasizing his passion for helping individuals navigate the complexities of personal injury claims. He explains the critical steps to take immediately following a car accident, including obtaining a police report and seeking medical treatment, and highlights the common misconceptions surrounding personal injury cases, such as the timeline for resolution and the role of attorneys in the process.
Throughout the conversation, Justin provides valuable insights into the personal injury landscape, including the significance of medical payments coverage and the importance of not rushing to settle with insurance companies. He stresses that clients should be cautious about accepting quick settlements, as they may not reflect the true value of their claims. The episode concludes with Justin offering practical advice for those seeking legal representation, encouraging listeners to reach out for help and emphasizing the importance of communication and accessibility in legal services.
Takeaways:
- Get a police report, it makes everything smoother.
- You only get one bite at the apple.
- Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
- The check will still be there, wait until you’re done treating.
- A good lawyer won’t take a case they can’t benefit you on.’
Benefit of Watching
In this episode of the Fit Moines podcast, host Bryan Ladd welcomes personal injury attorney Justin Reid to discuss the intricacies of personal injury law and the importance of having legal representation after an accident. Justin shares his unique journey from starting a welding company to becoming an attorney, emphasizing his passion for helping individuals navigate the complexities of personal injury claims. He explains the critical steps to take immediately following a car accident, including obtaining a police report and seeking medical treatment, and highlights the common misconceptions surrounding personal injury cases, such as the timeline for resolution and the role of attorneys in the process.
Throughout the conversation, Justin provides valuable insights into the personal injury landscape, including the significance of medical payments coverage and the importance of not rushing to settle with insurance companies. He stresses that clients should be cautious about accepting quick settlements, as they may not reflect the true value of their claims. The episode concludes with Justin offering practical advice for those seeking legal representation, encouraging listeners to reach out for help and emphasizing the importance of communication and accessibility in legal services.
Address of guest’s business:
100 Court Ave Suite 315,
Des Moines, IA 50309
Attorney Justin Reid: Thank you for the invite. Happy to be here.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah absolutely. I like I said we’re switching it up today doing something a little bit different. And the reason is um is because honestly like I’ve you know we we met a while back and I’ve learned so much from you just in a short amount of time. Like even the first time we met just I was kind of amazed with everything there is personal injury-wise that I just wasn’t aware of. And so things that like would be helpful from a provider standpoint but then like on the patient side too if I were in ever in that situation like I would have known what to do. And so we really highlighted this recently where we had a patient who was in a car accident and really didn’t didn’t know what she didn’t know type of thing. And so we referred her to you and she said a couple times like, “Oh my gosh, I’m so glad that I have someone that knows what they’re doing and can just handle it and I don’t have to worry about it.” Like she’s got enough stuff to worry about and doesn’t need one more thing. And so having someone in her corner um has been super helpful. And so like I said, not a coach, not a clinician that I’m aware of.
Attorney Justin Reid: No.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: But you provide a lot of value and I think would be really interesting for people. So let’s get started. Just Justin, let’s have you give just your background, where you’re from, what got you into this world. And I think your background is really interesting. People find it fascinating, too.
Attorney Justin Reid: Well, thank you very much. I appreciate that. So yeah, I think my background is probably a little bit different than a lot of people who got into law. I think most people it’s like from a young age like, “Oh, I want to be an attorney.” Or they they go through all this education and realize like, “Well, not sure what to do. Let’s go to law school.” I started a welding company. I did dual enrollment in high school and graduated high school with a welding degree. And I had started a small welding company while in high school, but my parents really wanted me to go to school for at least a year. And so I was like, “All right, I’ll go for an associates in business. That’ll help the uh the little welding company and it’ll be a benefit all around.” I go to law or I go to school for business. I I was just going to do an associates in business go for a year and see how things panned out. And in my second year of of school, I had to take an HR class. And in the HR class, they did a job aptitude test. And they’re like, “You scored off the charts for for for law. Have you ever considered it?” And I just started chuckling. My dad is an attorney. I loved going to work with my dad as a kid, but it was something that I never ever considered. I I think mostly I I wanted to be hands-on, but also I didn’t think I was smart enough to do it. And so that the teacher is just like, “Well, what’s your grades?” And told her my grades. And she’s like, “Yeah, you’re you’re definitely smart enough to do it.” And so that was the first time even like growing up in a house with a lawyer as, you know, my dad. That was the first time I ever considered going to well, four years of school and then to law school. So quite the quite the change from, you know, welding to law. I think what I realized is that I loved business and I loved helping people. And so that was kind of what I was solving with welding is, you know, the the love of business, but also being able to help people out and provide a service. And so I’m able to still do that through law. Um, and I think that’s kind of what drew me into it. And I love working with my dad. It’s been a lot of fun. So there’s kind of a quick summary.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. Yeah. So I take it your dad didn’t push you into law.
Attorney Justin Reid: Not at all. And that that’s kind of what’s shocked so many people is like you you’ve got someone, you know, like you have a lawyer in the family and never once did he ever consider or like push me into it. I have I’m one of 11 kids and I’m so far the only the only attorney and yeah, none of them seem too interested in it and uh but I’ve appreciated that he he just wants us to to find what we’re passionate about.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Sure. Yeah, that’s awesome. you know, like just like physical therapy and many many different healthcare careers. There’s a lot of different things you can do. And so being an attorney, being a lawyer is no different. Like there’s a lot of different fields you could go into. Why personal injury? I know your dad does that, but he wasn’t a big motivating factor to go into law. Why personal injury? Why do you why do you like that?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, I think the obviously outside of, you know, that’s what my dad did. That’s where his firm was. He has practiced personal injury from day one of his career on the plaintiff’s side. So the individual um and it’s been over 30 years now and so that was kind of obviously the easy route in but like I kind of like what I mentioned I like being able to work for the individual work for the person and kind of against the bigger the David and Goliath situation. You’ve got like the insurance on the other side you’ve got their team of lawyers and you know all the claims handlers and everything and then you’ve got the individual who’s just kind of like floating around trying to figure out you know how to make it work what they’re supposed to do and navigate the complexities of insurance. And so I think like that aspect definitely drew me in and I knew like from the very beginning uh I did not want to work in you know the typical punch in punch out big law type situation. I wanted a little bit more flexibility and I wanted to be able to grow my own practice. And so there’s that aspect of it too where, you know, if I would have gone to some big defense firm or into some, you know, one of the big big law firms, I probably wouldn’t have as much flexibility and the ability to, you know, choose my clients, choose my choose my cases and kind of grow um you know, my practice in a way that I think is beneficial to me and to our clients.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Sure. Now, I know you mentioned um you just want to be able to help people, but what would you say, you know, other than that, what’s what is it about personal injury law that you enjoy the most?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, I think the complexities of it all, like obviously no no two cases are the same. So, you’ve got like the liability, who’s at fault, how was the crash happen or how was the the accident? What was it a car accident? Was it, you know, some sort of a premises case, worker workers comp? Kind of where did the negligence happen? and then trying to figure out the injuries, learn the medicine. Obviously, I’m not a doctor, but we read lots of medical records and trying to figure out what the injury was, trying to to link that to how it happened and put all the pieces of the puzzle together, and then trying to convey all of that into a cohesive story to tell, whether it be the insurance company or if it gets to that point to jurors, tell the story of the client.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: So, let’s walk through that then. If I’m someone that’s in, let’s say, a car accident. Yeah. what steps should I take?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah. Well, the the first things that we always tell people is to get a police report. Obviously, depending on the level of urgency there, uh either call 911, call the non-emergent number, and even even if if the other party is admitting fault, we still highly recommend getting a police report. It just makes everything smoother. You know, the the other party can change their mind later. The the insurance company could convince them otherwise. is maybe the insurance company is just going to take longer to accept liability if there’s no police report. So, first up, get a police report. Makes it the whole process way easier. It’s going to have all the insurance information, who the other party is, and then obviously the officer is going to give his take on the liability, who’s at fault. And then the second thing is medical treatment. Obviously, the person who’s injured or been in the car accident, they know the extent of their injuries and they they know their body better than anyone. And so they need to assess themselves and determine whether they’re injured or not. And if they’re injured, if they’re not not doing well, then obviously they need to get the medical care. And that’s kind of becomes a big issue is when we get when we run into clients, patients who kind of want to tough it out. And then they figure out, you know, few weeks later, a couple months later, that yeah, it’s not getting better. And then we get we’re stuck in the situation of trying to prove that the injury that they haven’t been treating for, haven’t ever treated for up until a month or two later was caused by the crash. So our big recommendation is like if you’re feeling pain or even, you know, think you might have be having issues, just get it checked out and and report that, you know, that way it’s recorded. That’s our evidence, whatever’s in the medical records. So that’s definitely where I’d start.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Gotcha. That was going to be one of my big questions cuz we’ve seen that several times where people think they’re good and then weeks or months later, like you said, they start having neck pain or back pain and then they’re trying to tie it to the accident and so it becomes more difficult at that point to prove.
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, I think that’s a super common thing. It’s like the adrenaline’s pumping. And we get that all the time where you at at the scene of the crash, like you’re reading the the the police report and the officer says that no one reported any injuries, but then 3, four, five, 6 hours later, maybe the next day, you know, they wake up and like the adrenaline’s decreased and they’re kind of waking up and they realize like, hey, I’m, you know, I’m actually pretty stiff. I’m pretty sore.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah.
Attorney Justin Reid: I think it’s super common.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. Yeah. So, okay. So, we’ve we’ve got a police report, went and sought medical care. Then what?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah. So, that’s when the claim starts. So, the first thing that they want to do is open a claim. So, if you got your accident report or your driver’s exchange of information report should have the at fault parties insurance company on there and you just call them, open up an an insurance claim and kind of get the ball rolling that way. Obviously, if if if you think you need help or you want to get advice of a lawyer, which I would recommend, call a lawyer. They’ll they’ll help you through opening the claims process as far as like who to call, who to talk to, things like that. Um, and then once the claims opened up, the if you if you do hire a lawyer, I guess we’ll we’ll kind of walk down that route. The lawyer is going to order the accident report and potentially badge cam, dash cam, stuff like that if they think they need it, and talk with the insurance company, send out a letter of representation, let them know that, you know, you’re the one handling their their accident claim and that all the contact will then go to the attorney and so the the injured person doesn’t have to deal with the the stress of handling and and kind of navigating the the whole claims process. And then from there, it’s kind of a a waiting process, waiting for the client to kind of treat, get through that process. I always tell people, you only get one bite at the apple. So once once you settle the case, there’s no coming back like, you know, the next week and say, “Hey, you know, I’m injured again or I’m still injured. I’m still having pain. I’m going to need some more money.” You get one shot. So once you settle the case, it’s done. So we don’t negotiate or or try and resolve anything until the client’s done treating. they’ve kind of got some stability and we know we have a full picture of what the injury actually is and we can kind of see and assess the full value of you know what what what’s been harmed.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Can you talk about it’s common I guess for insurance companies to want to settle right away and so can you talk about that and then what your recommendation would be and maybe why they do that and and what people should look for.
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, I probably view it as kind of like the cynical insurance company. My personal opinion, my professional opinion is that sometimes they do it when they think that there’s going to be a bigger case and so they can quickly offer someone a couple thousand dollars when, you know, in all reality they’ve got a much much bigger case. We see that very very very frequently where a client will sometimes they’ll even send a check. So they they’ll send a release and then they’ll send a check a check and just state that you know if you sign and deposit the check that’s consenting to settlement of your claim. I would highly highly highly highly recommend not signing or depositing any of those checks. Like I said, you only get one you get one chance. And so if you have no idea what your injuries are going to be if you’re still treating, you don’t know whether you know whether your injuries are going to be permanent, ongoing, or or for how long. And so if you take that bite of the apple right after after the crash is done before you have that complete picture, you never know what’s going to happen after that. And we see it all the time with a lot of different insurance companies. But yeah, I would I would just shred up the check and wait. It’ll still be there. even it’s nice to get the quick money, but the check will still be there. They they rarely if ever, you know, back out of whatever they’ve offered you unless they find some crazy piece of information that, you know, would have denied liability, something crazy like that. Otherwise, that check will still be there, you know, when you’re done treating and most likely it’s going to be more money than what they’re initially off.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: I can see where people would kind of run into issues, especially if you’re if you’re hard up for money and, you know, you’ve got a couple thousand sitting on your lap. I could see where people get themselves into a tricky situation then. And that’s that’s just what insurance companies want, right? They want you to go ahead and cash that and they can wipe their hands clean and say, “Well, you did this, so we’re done here.”
Attorney Justin Reid: And that’s like the I guess the saddest part of it is like this doesn’t happen to people who could afford to take the loss. It happens to the people who the loss is going to impact the most. You know, the people the money means the most to. that’s who are most likely going to kind of feel the pressure to accept that that reduced offer that you know is not full value, not what their claim is actually worth.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: So, let’s talk about this a little bit more. I’m sure people are wondering and I would be wondering too. Say I I don’t have a lot of money. How am I going to hire an attorney to help me with this case? Because I’ve heard attorneys are expensive and how do I do that? You know what? Talk about that though because I think that’s a real concern for people is like this is this is going to cost me a lot of money. How can I hire you to help me with this? Why don’t I just take the the check that this insurance company’s sending?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah. Um, so attorney personal injuries, so car accident situations, they work on a contingent fee. That’s, you know, that’s kind of a nationwide standard, which just means that if you get in a car accident, you hire a lawyer. You’re not going to pay them anything upfront. You’re not going to, you know, you’re not going to have to front any expenses or anything like that. No retainer. the attorney is just going to get paid out of the proceeds of the settlement. So, the national average used to be like a third is what an attorney would charge for like a car accident type of a case. I think a lot of different states have increased. A lot of probably the bigger national firms that are getting an Iowa presence have increased that rate, but uh yeah, we are that’s kind of the the going rate. But it it does provide a big benefit to the client just because they don’t have to obviously come up with money that they they may or may not have. and forces the attorney to take on that the risk of of you know potentially not getting paid if there’s not a real case and to make sure that they maximize the recovery for the client.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Gotcha. Now, tell me or let’s talk a little bit about med pay because that’s something that I had never heard of until until I met you and you were explaining that whole thing. It’s very interesting. I don’t know that a lot of people know about that.
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah. So, a lot of the parts of the of your insurance are only going to work depending on like on who’s at fault type of a situation. But medical payments is is a no fault insurance benefit on your car insurance. I believe in the state of Iowa, it’s going to be on there unless you sign something stating that they can take it off, but most carriers it should be on there. But what it does is it just gives you money to treat. So, I know a lot of people have either no insurance or they’ve got expensive co-pays, deductibles, things like that. And so medical payments coverage is going to be used to reimburse where they’ve had to pay something out of pocket. So commonly chiropractic care or if you’re going to a physical therapist that doesn’t take your health insurance, you can still use that the medical payments coverage. Most of the time is somewhere around like $5,000, sometimes down to $1,000 and then we see it sometimes up to 10 $15,000. Yeah, it’s a huge benefit for clients because even if you know if they cause the crash but they still are having issues, still having injuries, they can still make a med pay claim and if they’ve got any co-pays, deductibles, or you know, insurance isn’t covering it, they’ll still be able to use that those funds to um pay for anything out of pocket.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Now, is that going to be something where that’s then a claim against your insurance and your premiums potentially going to go up or how’s that work?
Attorney Justin Reid: That’s the million-dollar question. And especially with like insurance rates right now, people are are scared to even make like an underinsured uninsured motorist claim, which an underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage claim. Those are made when the person who caused the crash doesn’t have any insurance or has not enough insurance. And so in both of those situations, the person making the claim is at no fault of the crash. Hypothetically, they’re they’re not a greater risk to the insurance company by making those claims. They didn’t they didn’t do anything to cause the crash. They were just the beneficiary of the other person’s acts. But people are still scared to make those claims cuz you know you’re still making a claim with your insurance company. Insurance is already super expensive. And so there there’s a lot of people who are scared to make those. And it’s the same with Med Pay. There’s they are nervous using any benefit of insurance what they pay for, you know, the rates going up. What I always tell people is we’re lucky that we have a free market in America and there’s a tons of insurance companies in the state of Iowa. And so if your insurance company raises your rates for you using the insurance that you pay for even though you know you didn’t cause any crash or cause any anything that should increase your rates, then just go find a new one. I guess that I whether whether the rates will increase or not, I’m not sure. We haven’t really seen that with our experience, but you know, anything’s possible, especially with the insurance game right now.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. To go back a little bit to to what you talked about, say I am the person that’s at fault for an accident. Should I still reach out to a personal injury attorney or how what would your recommendation be there?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah. So, if first off, I hope you have insurance because if you have insurance, your well, it helps the plaintiff, too. But if you have insurance, your your insurance carrier is going to handle the insurance process. If a if a lawsuit is filed against you, they’re going to hire an attorney for you. And so there’s nothing that’s not going to come out of your pocket, you know, which could get super super expensive if you didn’t have insurance and you’ve got to pay for, you know, a defense lawyer out of pocket. So I personally probably wouldn’t reach out to a lawyer if, you know, I caused caused a crash. I would just give my insurance company a call, let them know what happened, report the claim, kind of give my side of the story, and if it’s super super like a really bad crash, they might hire a lawyer right off the bat. In most cases, they’re just going to open up a claim, try and get it resolved without the other side filing a lawsuit. And if obviously, but if it gets to the point of filing a lawsuit, they’ll hire hire a law firm to represent you. So, yeah, there’s really no need to kind of retain your own counsel in most situations.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Gotcha. What are some other misconceptions about personal injury that you think people should know?
Attorney Justin Reid: Misconceptions. I think one of the big ones would be like the speed of a case. Kind of what like what we talked about earlier. I feel like some people come into it and think that, you know, they hired a lawyer, the lawyer’s going to send a letter and they’re going to resolve the case overnight type of a thing. And, you know, obviously that can’t happen if the client is still treating, if the client’s still having issues. So, I think the timeline of when a case is going to resolve. I think that’s that’s a big misconception people have. And I think probably the other big misconception would probably be that hiring a lawyer means that you’re going to trial or means that you’re going to have to file a lawsuit. It’s very rare these days. I think the national average is like 3% of these type like car accident type cases actually go to trial. Probably at least in our experience it’s like 75 to 80% of cases even you know have to file a lawsuit. And so it’s it’s very rare that the case either has to be filed and even more rare that it actually goes all the way to trial.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Interesting. All right. That’s the big misconceptions. Yeah. Yeah. No, that’s that’s really interesting stuff. Um things that I guess I would have had questions about and I I didn’t know.
Attorney Justin Reid: And it’s really changed over the years. Like my dad at the beginning of his career 30 years ago, he tried a lot of cases, but I think both sides kind of learned that, you know, if you can resolve them without filing a lawsuit, if you can resolve them without going all the way to trial, it’s kind of better for all parties. And so that’s been a huge, huge shift over the last three decades.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Absolutely. Now, what makes your law firm different than anyone else in the Des Moines metro and why should they seek out your help?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, that’s a great question that that I’ve never been asked. I think as far as like na there’s a lot of national firms that are making kind of their entrance into Iowa and we’re obviously not going to compete with them on marketing, advertising, but when you call our firm, you’re going to talk with a lawyer. I know a lot of the bigger firms, you have case managers, you have parallegals, a lot of other people other than lawyers that you’re that you’re going to be speaking with. And so sometimes getting access to the person that you’re hiring to represent you isn’t isn’t easy. But one thing that you know is going to be more unique about our firm in particular, but lots of smaller firms is that you’re going to have actual contact with your lawyer. You’re going to be able to, you know, if you need something, you can reach them. And I think that’s what one thing that we do provide or do really well compared to a lot of firms is we’re incredibly accessible. we answer the phone, which seems like kind of a the lowest of low tiers. But one of the most common bar complaints is that their attorney won’t return their calls, which is just kind of blows my mind. But yeah, we answer phone calls, we we respond to emails, and I think we we try and treat our clients like friends, like family, and you know, not just not just a file number, not just because mo when people are going through like a personal injury case, it’s deeply personal. it’s probably something they’ve never been through before and a lot of times they’re scared, overwhelmed, intimidated and so yeah, just being able to provide a level of communication that can give them peace and just let them know like, hey, this guy’s got it taken care of, I think is a big difference maker.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. I don’t like to brag. Just go look at our Google reviews. Google me. Yeah. Yeah. No, I I I can attest to that just personally in my experience with you. I don’t have any experience with your dad, but you personally like we’ve we’ve reached out. You know, you respond to emails very quickly. I’ve called, you’ve answered the phone. I think one time I called, your assistant answered, and you had me called back within an hour or so. You know, it was very quick. We’ve had experiences other places where it’s like you don’t ever hear back or you can’t get a hold of anyone. So, um, that side of things can be very frustrating just even from a provider standpoint knowing that like I can reach you and if I’ve got questions because I don’t know the ins and outs of this. So, if I’ve got questions and I I’ve got a resource I can go to and I’ve I’ve hit you up for other things too where it’s like I know this isn’t what you do but like what do I do here? Like who should I go to for this? And so, um, just been been super super helpful. And so, it’s very much appreciated. And I can see from the client side as well, you know, having someone that truly cares about them and their case and and helping them out, like you said, is is huge. And we talk about that here um, in physical therapy, too, right? Like Kaizen’s not going to compete with the big national chains. Like, I don’t have the budget that they they have. I can’t market like they they do. They you might see them on every corner, but I can I can promise you we’re going to give a level of care that’s different than than what they are. And so for sure, Google us as well.
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Look at the reviews, the proofs in the
Attorney Justin Reid: Exactly. Exactly.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: So, is there anything else that we haven’t talked about that you want people to know or want people to hear about?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, I think one I guess one big overarching thing is if you don’t know if you need a lawyer, ask someone for a recommendation. and find find someone that other people have recommended to you and give them a call. A good lawyer is not going to take a case that they can’t, you know, actually benefit you on provide value to. So, doesn’t hurt to call. Personal injury lawyers, they work on a contingent fee. They’re not going to charge you for an initial consultation. So, yeah, pick up the phone, give them give them a call, and see if there’s something that, you know, they think that you need help with or if they think it’s a case that you can handle on your own. I think a big a big percentage of the cases, the calls that we get, we we tell people like, “Hey, you know, we could we can help you if you need to help, but you’re better off just handling the claim on your own.” Um, and and I think a good law firm is going to do that.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Other than Google, how does someone know, you know, Google and word of mouth, I guess, are the big things, but other than that, like, how does someone find someone that’s reputable and is going to do the right thing? I think some some attorneys have given attorneys a bad rap. I guess I’ll put it that way.
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah, I would be careful of what you see on Google. That’s what you know, like you don’t know. You can put any you can say anything. You can doctor your own reviews. And so I guess ours could all be fake, but they’re not. Um, no, the big what I would recommend is ask people, you know, on social media, Facebook, hey, I’m in a car accident. Hey, I need a family lawyer. and see who other people recommend that you know. And you know, even if it’s not in the right practice area, if it’s a good if it’s a good lawyer in family law, they probably are going to give you a recommendation for someone like them that does personal injury or whatever whatever type of lawyer you need. So, I think that’s honestly the the the safest route to find a lawyer that you know that you’re going to actually like is find someone find a friend that’s either used them or can recommend you to any other lawyer that you know eventually will get you to someone that is the type of lawyer that you need.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: All right, I want to do some uh some lightning round questions here for you. Is there is there a book you’re reading right now?
Attorney Justin Reid: Atomic Habits. Yeah, I just started up on you’ve probably read it. It’s been around a while, but it’s a good one.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: I know we have it. That’s the hard part. Yeah, I I know Dena’s read I’m pretty sure we have it on our bookshelf. I don’t know that I’ve actually read it, though, but it’s I I should. Yeah, that uh What What’s your favorite book? You have a favorite book?
Attorney Justin Reid: Favorite book? Two favorite books that I read last year. Giftology, which is just like kind of the art of gift giving. Yep. And which is is crucial for like a referral-based business, just trying to show thankfulness and gratitude. That was a good one. And then a marketing book. What’s it called? Something. Let me grab it. It’s right here. This is Marketing.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Oh, yeah. Seth Godin. Super has he has a ton of great books. I have that one. He has like Purple Cow.
Attorney Justin Reid: Mhm.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. He has a lot of books. Those are good. Good stuff. Okay. Uh, coffee or energy drink?
Attorney Justin Reid: Coffee. Lots of it.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Love it. Uh, what’s your favorite local Des Moines restaurant?
Attorney Justin Reid: That’s a tough one. local h the mo one of the most nostalgic and one that I always like to go to is Goldie’s. It’s out in Prairie City. They just got they have big tenderloins and uh was we lived out in Reynolds so it’s kind of like a common place that we’d go.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. Love it. I’ve never been there. All right. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?
Attorney Justin Reid: Don’t be afraid to ask. I think like so so often we get like fear of what ifs. You know what if what if we get rejected? What if? Lots of whatifs. The fear of the whatifs. But yeah, don’t be afraid to ask. I think we’ve all had like my lunch with you. I asked I asked if we wanted to get lunch one day and here we are.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. That’s what I always say too. Like the worst thing you can say is no. Like just I think people are afraid of that.
Attorney Justin Reid: No. Yeah. You’re not. No one wants to be rejected.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. No one wants to be rejected. But I think if you can you can learn to take a few nos and there’s going to be some big yeses that come out of that too, I think. So for sure. Yeah. I love it. I just to tack on to that too. Like I was kind of notorious for this in the Navy uh cuz we had orthopedic surgery right next door to us. And so um during part of that time I was doing a residency and study for studying for my board certification. So I would walk over to ortho and ask just a million questions every single day. And I at first I thought, you know, they probably think I’m stupid because I’m asking so many questions. But I remember a couple years in there they they were frustrated with a case and they’re like well you know that therapist never comes and asks questions like you do like why aren’t they asking questions like no one else comes and asks questions like you ask questions all the time like I’m just trying to learn like why aren’t they like I don’t know but it’s kind of funny because I at first I thought like man these guys probably think I’m an idiot but I just wanted to get better and towards the end of my tenure there I I kind of was the go-to therapist they’re sending anyone especially the complicated cases they were they were sending to me because they could trust me and they knew I was going to take good care of people and I was always trying to improve.
Attorney Justin Reid: Mhm. Yeah. Don’t be afraid to ask, I guess. Yeah. If we’re afraid to be if we’re afraid to, you know, how we’re going to come across like if you would have if you would have been afraid to, you know, what they were going to think of you to the extent that it stopped you from doing it, you know.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah.
Attorney Justin Reid: It wouldn’t have you would have missed out on a lot of opportunities and growth.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: For sure. Right. I mean, speaking of opportunities, one thing you did that I thought I don’t know, I thought it was genius, but you sent a letter to me. No one does that anymore. And I was Yeah. I was so curious cuz I was like, “Wait a minute. Is this like spam mail?” But it was too It seemed too genuine to be spam cuz you can kind of spot that, right?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: And so I was like, “Man, I’m so curious right now. I’ve got to pick up the phone and call this guy.” And so that’s that’s kind of how we met and uh end up having lunch. And it was a great conversation, but I’ll never forget that cuz no one’s ever done it since. No one did it before. So, although it was great.
Attorney Justin Reid: I think that’s one thing that too, like some some people who are kind of mentoring me, they always say whenever to to send lots of thank you notes, handwritten, send letters. I guess kind of stand outside of the noise of the digital world.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Exactly. Yep. We were just talking about this with my uh my front desk. I I received a package for my birthday. They’re a week late, but that’s okay. The thing the moral of this story, thank you. This company, I don’t want to say what company is. They frequently send they’ll send birthday gifts. They’ll send something for Christmas, big holidays, and it’s nice. It’s nice to get something, but the thing that I I pointed out was like, yeah, they sent this gift, but like there’s this generic printed note in here. Like, yeah. So, it’s like great. like they have probably have some system that automates this and so some company gets notified and it sends it out and they don’t ever have to do anything. It’s like man I’d rather just get like a handwritten card from them that says like thanks for your business or you know something like that. And so that’s something that we we we always do with our new clients. We’ll send a handwritten thank you card and a gift card. And so I think that goes a long ways and we I mean we have people come in and say that too. They’re really appreciative of it. But I don’t know, being on the other side of that where you you get all this like automated stuff, it’s like it just doesn’t hold the same value.
Attorney Justin Reid: So, keep doing it, like you said, it’s so simple and and so easy, you know, and and not expensive to just send something that’s handwritten and take the time to do it. That’s cool.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. For sure. Awesome. Well, we’ll wrap this up. If someone wants to get a hold of you or they want to learn more about you, how can they do so?
Attorney Justin Reid: Yeah. Reid Law Firm is you can if you search that on any socials it’ll come up. I try to put out content YouTube, Tik Tok, Instagram, Facebook. My email is just [jreid@reidlawfirm.com](mailto:jreid@reidlawfirm.com). Um or you can Google us and take a look at our website.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: But thank you so much, Justin. I appreciate this. Uh learned a ton here.
Attorney Justin Reid: Thank you. No, thank you. Appreciate it.
Dr. Bryan M. Ladd: Yeah, I’m solid.