Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie

EP #171: Demystifying Injury Law: A Journey of Advocacy and Healing with Cassidy Loutos

• Garfield Bowen & Cassidy Loutos • Episode 171

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What makes Attorney Cassidy Loutos & Loutos Law a good neighbor?

Have you ever wondered how to choose the right injury lawyer for your case? Cassidy Loutus from Loutus Law joins us to demystify the law industry and shed light on how to select a legal representative who has the time to dedicate to your case. Cassidy, an attorney with a wealth of experience, unpacks the intricacies of personal injury services and estate planning. She debunks common misconceptions about the law industry and provides valuable insights into her field.

That's not all Cassidy has to share. Her personal battle with chronic Lyme disease led her to a unique service: hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This therapy aids clients suffering from traumatic brain injuries and other neurological illnesses, a testament to Cassidy’s dedication that goes beyond her legal practice. She also utilizes her social media platforms and YouTube videos as a resource for her clients. Whether you're tasked with navigating the complexities of personal injury law or curious about estate planning, this episode with Cassidy is both informative and inspiring.

To learn more about Loutos Law go to:
https://www.loutoslaw.com/

Loutos Law
Jensen Beach | Fort Pierce | Post St Lucie
(772) 617-0811

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, garfield Bowen.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Good Neighbor podcast. It's a pleasure introducing Good Neighbor Cassidy Lotus with Lotus Lore, how you doing today.

Speaker 3:

Good, how are you?

Speaker 2:

I am well. We're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about your company.

Speaker 3:

So I own a law firm. My law firm handles cases all over the state of Florida, but I am native to this area. So I do have an office in Martin County, in Jensen Beach, and an office in Fort Pierce and we handle most of our caseload is in the Tri-County area, so Martin County, st Lucie, new River counties and a little bit into Palm Beach. And my firm specializes in providing personal injury services and estate planning. So personal injury is a large umbrella. Essentially we handle all different types of cases. So starting from auto accident cases all the way to like burn injuries, medical malpractice cases. We handle injury cases to vulnerable adults, so individuals with special needs, and really I've been practicing now in that area for close to 10 years and not quite there, but almost there.

Speaker 3:

And naturally, as my clients started and my cases started resolving and my clients started to get money, we thought about well, ultimately there are a lot of these clients didn't have any protections in place, so they didn't have wills, they didn't have their powers of attorney, they didn't have their health care surrogates, they didn't have any of their documents together. So about five or six years ago we started offering flat fee estate planning practices. So what that means essentially is that we have a menu and we offer certain draft documents that we can draft for our clients, and we believe in flat fee. So instead of charging by the minute or hourly instead or on retainer, we say, hey, you need a will, we'll charge you X amount of dollars. So now it's kind of we've been doing that now for close to I started my practice in 2018. So once the year turns about six years, so how do you get into law profession?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I wanted to be a lawyer, I got my degree in accounting and after reading all those books I didn't want to read another book.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, I think actually accounting might be harder, I don't know. I went to school locally, so I went to Clark advance learning center and I was fortunate enough to graduate with my associates degree from high school. And I went on to the university of central Florida, so that's located in Orlando, go Knights and after I finished up my degree at UCF, I decided at that point I was 19 years old when I graduated college- so I I needed to do something.

Speaker 2:

You must be really smart.

Speaker 3:

No, I mean I'm 19. I'll say this I just I work very hard. So you know, I don't know if it's smarts or whatnot, but at the end of the day I will outwork anyone. But I graduated college early and I knew that I didn't want to be a doctor because I can't deal with, you know, blood and whatnot. And I just was really thinking about, like, well, what's my next step? So, naturally, a friend of mine indicated that he was going to go to law school. My grandfather actually was an attorney and for many years I have an uncle that's an attorney and so I thought, well, maybe that might be my next step.

Speaker 3:

So I went to law school at Berry University School of Law. I ended up graduating a little bit early as well and took the bar past the bar and then from there it's just been a learning experience, every single day's learning experience. So the one thing like you just said, like that you did accounting you're like over school. If you truly are over school, I think being a lawyer is probably the worst profession, because I try to explain it it's like writing a book report or having like 10, 20 book reports do every day at any given time. So you're a lot of reading, a lot of writing, a lot of arguing, a lot of emerging and new issues. The assignments are ever changing. There's deadlines every single day, so it's definitely a high stress job, but it also can be very rewarding.

Speaker 2:

Every now and then I still get flashbacks about a case like you tomorrow or something?

Speaker 3:

I know I have those flashbacks. At like three o'clock in the morning I'm awake. I'm like, oh my goodness, I have things due tomorrow.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, no, I'm still there, Cassidy, what are some of the misconceptions of just the law industry, the injury lawyer or well. So what are some of the myths and misconceptions of the industry?

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's kind of a tough one. Well, I think there's okay. So I'm in a lot of lawyers groups on Facebook and I think the number one misconception with, at least with injury lawyers is that the people on the billboards are the best attorneys in the area and that's just not the case or the truth. So, some of the best attorney and not to knock them, but ultimately, because I'm also going to be making a bigger presence here with my advertising soon but they're the best advertisers, right. But ultimately, with injury lawyers, there are great injury lawyers who either are solo practitioners or in small firms or in the very large firm. So, just, you know, the number one thing is that a lot of times clients will think, oh well, you know, this is a smaller firm, maybe they're not the best, and that's just not the case. It's really about the best attorney is the attorney that knows your name and knows your case in and out and has time to devote to you. Even like, think about doctors. It's like you know, if somebody's super busy, they might not be able to give you the individual attention that you need. So really, when you're trying to think about like, well, who should I hire as a lawyer, you need to hire someone that has time for you, because ultimately that lawyer will advocate harder than any other attorney that you might hire down the road. So that's number one. I think that you know finding somebody that has time to take your case and to speak with you and know your story in and out, how you were before an accident and how you've, you know, changed after an accident, because that if you have a relationship with your client, it really the jury can tell. They can tell if you just met this person right before you walked into the courtroom or if you really connect with this person. So that's number one.

Speaker 3:

The second misconception is that I think a lot of people think that ultimately, if you're a lawyer, that you just automatically have oodles of money. So all different types of lawyers are different. So depending upon what type of lawyer you are really, you know, determines whether or not your income level and how you're doing. So. That's another misconception. I think injury lawyers tend to be some of the highest paid lawyers because of, you know, these large settlements that we're procuring for our clients. But that's another big misconception. I'm trying to think about a couple others, I don't know. I might have to, I might have to get back to you on that one, but definitely.

Speaker 3:

I would say those are the two that come to mind upfront.

Speaker 2:

So, cassidy, let's look at the other side of Cassidy. Okay, when you're not busy lawyering, running your business.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

What do you like to do for fun?

Speaker 3:

So that's a good question. Thank you for asking. I have three girls, so I have a six year old. I have Anna Well, her name is Anastasia, or Greek, so we say Anastasia and then I have Genevieve, who's three she'll be four in the next week and then I have Elena, who is one. So when I am not working, I am with my three queens and they they decide what we want to do for the day. So we go to the park. This coming week we're going to go to Disney. We like to travel, they like to go to the movies I mean shopping, whatever it is. So I'm usually hanging out with those three and if I'm not doing that, I'm usually reading. Those are the two things that I do the most Like hang out with my kids, or I'm reading a book or something.

Speaker 2:

They say mom's get it done Right.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, hey, we try. I you know, like you think that you're a childhood and you think about like, well, you know, your parents always had like one saying or one thing that they always said to you, that kind of stuck with you for the rest of your life. And for my kids, like the one thing that I tell them is like, you know, no matter what, like we don't give up. So that's something that I say to them every day, like do something challenging and no matter what, no matter what it is, if it gets hard, don't give up. So you know, yeah, mom's, get it done, I'm with them every day.

Speaker 3:

Mom's can juggle a lot. My husband, I have to say, is very he's wonderful. So my husband actually is our CFO. So he does all of our billing or accounting, all of our check writing, all of our paying, all of our stuff having to do with money, and he's been such a godsend and blessing because I've needed help in building my practice and he's actually stepping out and doing or starting a separate venture which we could talk about later but, it's, it's.

Speaker 3:

we're going to be offering hyperbaric oxygen therapy to our area here soon. But I have to say I'm very fortunate. I can't just say mom's get it done, I have to say dad's get it done too, because I couldn't be here without, without him and his support throughout the whole whole journey.

Speaker 2:

So so the ludus ludus is getting it done.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, that's for sure.

Speaker 2:

Let's change gears a little bit. Life often does. It's a curveball. Let's talk about a hardship, my challenge, life challenge, something you've been through and you can look back today and say you're better and stronger because of that. What comes to mind?

Speaker 3:

Well, it actually kind of all plays into each, everything altogether. It's funny. I was reading something recently and it in this particular I don't know it was like an article in the magazine. It was telling me, or the article the guy that wrote it was talking about how when you do have like a hardship, you have to find your Dharma, which it just basically you have to find meaning in the hardship. There's a reason you're experiencing that hardship and like one thing that I think really has kind of altered my life is right.

Speaker 3:

When I finished law school I actually got pretty sick and I it's been a long journey but I have chronic Lyme disease which can affect you in many, many different ways. So when I graduated law school I got really sick and I and there was like a couple months where, like I couldn't really eat, I couldn't really walk, I couldn't, I couldn't really sleep comfortably, like I was having all kinds of neurological symptoms. I just was not doing well and thankfully I'm sitting at a wood desk, so knock on wood, like I was able to come out of it back then and you know kind of have. I was so thankful to have made it out alive of that experience that I've had the past decade now where I've been feeling pretty good. Well, this past year I got sick again. It kind of relapsed a little bit. So it's been a little bit of a hard year.

Speaker 3:

But having that difficult experience this year has helped me realize that in our area, and with my clients in particular who are hurting and need help and support, that we need to offer more services that can actually help rehabilitate people who are suffering from traumatic brain injuries or other neurological illness, which is why we have.

Speaker 3:

My husband has decided to open up the hyperbaric oxygen therapy and I plan to offer that to all of my clients who are suffering with traumatic brain injury symptoms, because I do represent a lot of clients with TBIs and, unfortunately, the medicine.

Speaker 3:

In treating clients with TBIs there's not much that you can do other than like cognitive, behavioral therapy, physical therapy, giving medications, so the insurance companies, right, don't really want to pay for stuff. So this is something that I plan to offer as a courtesy to my clients. It's because I know how I felt when I was personally affected with a neurological illness and now, thank God, I've been doing much better and I know how much better these clients can feel. So that's something that's like a hardship, but instead of turning that into something negative and, like you, know what I need to help myself and I need to help others, and this is a good platform, both in his you know with his clinic that he's opening and then with my law firm, where I deal with people who are hurting every single day and I want to give them something else for a treatment option other than just medication and cognitive therapy.

Speaker 2:

So, cassidy, I'm going to put you on the spot a little bit here.

Speaker 3:

Okay, yeah.

Speaker 2:

I want you to narrow it down to one thing. Yeah one thing you want our listeners to remember about Lutus Law.

Speaker 3:

Oh, they are put on the spot. If I had to say that, there's one thing for you, for my listeners here, to remember, is that I will say this that if you come to my firm and hire me to be your attorney, your injury lawyer, I will promise you that ultimately, at the end of the day, no matter what your case is about, that I will be with you from start, all the way to finish, and I will build a relationship with you and I will make sure that, at the end of the day, you get the justice you deserve and that the jury thoroughly understands how you've been negatively impacted by the accident that you are involved in. So I will say that, if I had to leave listeners, one thing is that I truly care about my clients and I treat them like my family and ultimately, I'd be there with them through every step of the way.

Speaker 2:

How can our listeners learn more about Lutus Law?

Speaker 3:

Well, what we're going to be doing here soon is we're going to be developing a YouTube campaign where I actually have a couple of videos up right now, but we're going to be answering a lot of commonly asked questions as it relates to injury cases, for estate planning, questions that we get all the time, and you can follow us on social media. My firm this year is really dedicated to giving back, so that's something that we're trying to increase our presence online, and we're hoping that our clients can see that through our social media and through our YouTube videos, that we're dedicated to providing not only information but resources to them.

Speaker 2:

Is there, like a website or phone number, you'd like to share?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so our website is wwwLutusLawcom. Our phone number is 772-617-0811. And you can Google us. We're local in the area. If you Google Lutus Law, we'll pop right up Our social media. Our Instagram is LutusLawpllc, so definitely follow us. I think our YouTube is the same as well. So.

Speaker 2:

Well, Cassidy, I really appreciate having you on the show. I wish you and your business the very best moving forward.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much, Garfield. I appreciate you allowing me to be here and I look forward to speaking with you again soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast Port St Lucie. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPortsStLuciecom. That's GNPPortsStLuciecom, or call 772-362-3840.