Make The Call

Posted on Tuesday, December 13, 2011 by Stephen D. Marshall
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I get asked A LOT about how our trademark slogan came to be. It's a simple story actually. Since we started concentrating on personal injury claims over 25 years ago we noticed a couple of disturbing trends. One was that people were calling us a year or so after their accidents asking if we could help them re-open the claim that they had settled on their own because they were continuing to experience symptoms from the collision and were missing more time from work. As a result, they were paying more for physio and other medical treatment.

A review of the "full and final" release that these people had signed when they settled their claims led to the obvious and unfortunate conclusion that there was nothing we could do for them to "re-open" their claim. That is a tough pill to give, with no sugar.

The second trend, when speaking with these people who had settled on their own, too early and for too little compensation, was that they didn't consult a lawyer at the time they were injured as they were under the impression that they would wind up owing the lawyers more than they would eventually get from the settlement. When we told them the facts that, on most cases, we work on a percentage fee basis so that the client has a risk-free arrangement with us, it was another hard pill for them to swallow given that they had already settled their claim on their own.

So, we sat down with our advertising people to figure out the best way to deliver a short and powerful message that it costs ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to call us and get our opinions and advice on your situation and that we work FOR YOU on a percentage fee arrangement, meaning that you retain the vast majority of the settlement amounts we obtain for you. Many hours of meetings, coffees, snack breaks, and brainstorming on how to sum up our message resulted in someone in the room (we actually now forget who) saying..."Look, we just want to get people to MAKE THE CALL..." The obvious thought was that once they call us, free of charge, we could quickly analyze the situation, usually over the phone at first, and provide advice that could give assurance that they would be in good hands if they allowed us to take up the case against the insurance company for the person who caused the accident. At that moment, our slogan was born...MAKE THE CALL. Simple, concise, accurate, and helpful. End of story.