The Intricacies of Law: A Comprehensive Discussion with Attorney Craig Miller

In episode 9 of Tru Mentors, Derek Skubisz interviews Craig Miller, an experienced attorney with over 30 years of practice in criminal law, personal injury, and real estate. Craig emphasizes the importance of choosing one's circle wisely to ensure that the people around them align with their goals and values. They also discuss the impact of reliability in business partnerships, emphasizing the importance of having trustworthy and loyal partners who fulfill their obligations.

Tune in as we delve into the dynamic realm of business and law, uncovering awe-inspiring tales of success and overcoming challenges.

TIMESTAMPS

[00:02:10] Personal Injury and Favorite Law.

[00:04:37] Property Tax Implications Discussed.

[00:09:37] Real Estate Buyer Beware.

[00:15:00] Legal Complexities in Murder Cases.

[00:17:07] Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Impact.

[00:19:58] Marijuana DUI Laws and Testing.

[00:26:08] Criminal Setup and Tragic Outcome.

[00:30:32] The Allure of Drug Dealing.

[00:33:33] Seeking Compensation in Injury Law.

[00:37:18] Seeking Immediate Medical Attention.

[00:41:40] Importance of Education.

[00:45:35] Teaching Work Ethic to Kids.

[00:47:27] Billing Practices and Contracts.

QUOTES

• “We're seeking compensation for a number of things. We want to make sure we get the medical bills paid, any future medical bills paid, and any lost wages that you lost because you couldn't go to work because of the injury. And then you have things like pain and suffering, okay, and loss of enjoyment of life. And those intangibles are why that money gets higher. We know how to read how much money you lost from your wages.” - Craig Miller
• “Every time the guy now tries to put something over his head because of an injury or something, his back or whatever, it's pain and suffering. Pain, obviously, is what you feel. Physically, the anxiety you have is the suffering. You know, being worried about not being able to do something or doing something, finding that you're more mentally hurt that way.” - Craig Miller
• “So do things as soon as possible. The key to the whole thing is, I always tell my clients in personal injury, the key is here is your health. So try to get to where you were prior to the injury. If we can't make it, we can't make it. Some people will have that injury the rest of their lives.” - Craig Miller

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

Derek Skubisz

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/derek-skubisz-b015051a3/

Craig Miller

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CraigFMillerLawFirm/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/craigfmiller/

WEBSITE

Lifetime Restoration Inc.: https://lifetimerestorationinc.com/

Transcript

Welcome to the True Mentors Podcast. This is the ultimate destination for aspiring entrepreneurs and business enthusiasts alike. Join us as we embark on a thrilling journey into the dynamic realm of business, where we unveil awe-inspiring tales of individuals who have conquered formidable challenges to attain extraordinary success. Get ready to be inspired and empowered. And now, here's your host, Derek Skubis.

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of True Mentors Podcast. Today, we have Craig Miller, an attorney. Welcome, Craig.

Derek Skubisz

Hello, how are you today, Derek? It's a pleasure to be here.

Craig Miller

Thank you so much. What law do you practice?

Derek Skubisz

Well, I'm a general practitioner and I started this, uh, almost 30 some years ago and I started out as a criminal attorney. And then, uh, I got my trial experience and I went into personal injury because I had so many people that were buying and selling houses that would call me because I was just in my own practice and I became a real estate attorney. And now today I practice all three areas of the laws.

Did you become an attorney in real estate because of your wife or did your wife become a realtor because of you?

Totally separate.

Totally separate.

My wife is a very independent person, better already. Correct. And so I was doing real estate and she decided she wanted to be an agent. So she pursued that. Correct. Yeah. And now she's kind of progressed in that field. So now she's got people that send me even more business. And I've had a pure legal for my real estate for 30 years. So she pretty much, after I review the contract, she takes over, she schedules the closings. I only do the modifications if we need to be on the contract.

So what is your favorite? So you said you practice three different laws. What's your favorite? Personal injury. Personal injury, why is that?

because you make the most money, to be very honest. But the other thing is you do help the individual recover, get the appropriate compensation for injuries. Some people are very seriously injured and they require that type of compensation just to go along in life. Criminal law has always been fun for me because I started in that business and I have to like trial. So there's a lot of people that don't like to go into the courtroom. They give me, share with the fees and I'll do the trial work. I love trial. That's my favorite part. Now, what do I do with real estate? I used to call that my vacation practice. Well, because it was never stressful. Nowadays, I will tell you. And after doing it for 30 years, there's a lot of lawyers that don't know how to handle it, such as was a buyer. You've got to be very familiar with FERPTA, okay, which is the foreign, if there's a foreign owner who's selling property, because you got to take 15% and hold that back to make sure your client, the buyer, doesn't get stuck with that fee. So there's certain intricacies. The fee for the attorney? No, it's actually FERPTA is the for, it's when a foreigner is selling property. It's just somebody out of state. And no, and he's a foreigner.

Oh, okay. I get you.

And even if it's a corporation, you have to look into the corporation to see the percentage he owns because there would be a 15% fee. Yeah.

And then the homeowner, the new buyer stuck with that fee.

You got to make sure he doesn't get stuck with that fee.

How often does that happen?

Never in my business, but I will tell you that, uh, we also do things such as when we give a, uh, a contract, You look at it to see how they've assessed the property and what their taxes are going to be the following year, because you don't have that tax bill. In my area, Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park and those suburbs, they are all going up almost 70%.

The house is going up 70%.

Well, the value becomes that, but their taxes are almost 70% more. So a lot of lawyers you'll see, you'll say on a real estate transaction, we'll give you 110% to make sure they cover some small amount of a possible tax increase, real estate tax increase. Here, you don't provide for that 70%. That poor buyer is going to find out that he's going to have to own even more money. And he was never compensated by the seller the accurate amount.

So they put them in a massive hole.

Well, you got to make sure that you cover all these things. Fortunately, I've got a great pair of legals. As soon as I get on there, I say, take a look at the assessors, see what sure we see there's going to be this big increase that's going to come about. We either do a reproration letter, meaning that when the taxes come out, we'll reprorate it, or we have to ask them to put 70% in escrow.

Yeah. So are you seeing taxes go up more in, as in today's age, within like the last three years or have they always been going up in massive increases like this? Not like this.

This is just out of, I will tell you that this quadrennial year, they're really hitting the homeowners. So therefore, if you're selling your property, the buyer has to be aware Because if those taxes are going to go up 70% and they're only giving you 10%, you're going to be held for that 60%.

How does the tax work that you, you stated that they go up 70%, 70% of what the property value or the previous taxes?

Well, I'm just saying the previous taxes here. the assessor will then increase, as you know, the assessor's equation. It's very difficult to figure out.

So if your taxes before were a thousand and they increased it 70%, it would go up by $700. So now you're at 1,700. Yep. That's insane.

Well, now it's even greater because most people are paying most like 3,000.

Correct. Yeah.

Well, that's 3,000 is low. So if you're going to be up to 10%, you're only going to get 300. If it's 70%, you're going to get a lot more money.

So how can homeowners go about this? If their taxes go about that, how can they decrease that? Or what should they be aware of so that doesn't happen to them?

Well, a lot of times people will file, um, uh, seeking a certificate of error. They're trying to say that my taxes are too high.

Then they use tax exemption.

Correct. They try to get comparables that show that my property is worth this value. You've got to decrease the value. you that you've assessed that so that my taxes come into a situation whereby it's more compatible with what their tax should be. This year's increase in certain areas, I've never seen higher than today.

Yeah, because mine went up $2,800, my taxes, and I went into the court by my house and my accountant gave me a form. I walked in there and I told them what I had to and they put it back down to what they were before. Great. So that was really good. Yeah. When I saw that $2,800 more, that's, that's a huge increase. Sure it is. You know, for families who are struggling, they can't afford.

Well, if you have a mortgage and you're paying, you know, into the principal and the interest, and of course you have to give some type of an escrow account for the mortgage. All of a sudden they give you and say, your mortgage has increased Your payment's gonna be another two, $300 more per month. Some people are struggling just to make what their bills are now. Now you add another 300 to these poor people on a monthly basis. Well, the problem being is now they're cutting their food, they're trying to find other ways to reduce their- Just to live in a house under a roof.

Absolutely. So when every property that I buy, what I always do is I never put insurance, taxes, and mortgage together. because you pay interest on that. I always pay a mortgage alone and then I pay everything else alone. I separate everything.

But you have an interest payment with that mortgage or something. They have a rate because they have to correct.

But if my taxes go up, my monthly bill doesn't increase.

You've got something worked out so it won't so that your escrow account won't increase for the taxes.

Yeah. So what I have is I only pay mortgage, which my mortgage is 1300 because I locked it in in 2021 at 2%.

So that's the principle of interest payment per month.

Correct. And then, um, my taxes, I pay yearly once fully. Perfect. Um, and then in my insurance, I pay in full as well. I don't have all of it combined together, you know, or I pay monthly or whatever, because when I was buying my house, I looked into that and I said, Well, now if you add my mortgage, my insurance and my taxes, I pay, let's say 3% on all three of those. It's not just my mortgage.

No, you're paying for the insurance and the taxes.

Yeah. So now they make all the extra money off of whatever heading, you know, that's what they do.

And that's how they make money. Exactly. And they're going to try to make as much money as they can.

Yeah. Is there anything else you would like to educate the audience about attorneys in the real estate before we move on to the criminal one?

Well, I would say just, you know, as long as you know that the person has this practice for a while. And in my case, people know that I've done this for over 30 years. So, and they also know my secretary has been with me for 30 years. She's a paralegal. She's outstanding in everything. She handles my personal injury. She's an outstanding personal injury, uh, administrator. Criminal law is probably the easiest thing that I practice. I know that you have to be argumentative. Obviously, trials means quite a bit, but I love that type of work. But I would tell you that real estate, buyer beware. And that's what you have to make sure your clients know. And as a seller, you've got to prepare your seller for possibly a situation whereby they don't know the taxes either. You're going to have to pay a little bit more because they've increased so substantially. Like this year, in this area of like Oak Lawn, Hickory Hills, Payless Heights, Payless Hills on the Southwest suburbs, 70% is ridiculous. I mean, it's almost unconscious.

Yeah, that's insane. I mean, people could get really hurt by that, especially new homebuyers. The thing is that our real estate keeps changing nonstop and nobody really knows or stays up to education with how the real estate game really works. So homebuyers that buy houses, they get stuck with these payments and I think a lot of people probably will start losing homes after an increase of 70% once they buy homes.

Hopefully that doesn't occur. Correct. Like I say that we as attorneys, we have to continue our legal education. You have to take so many hours over a two year period.

Every two years?

Every two years, I have to show them that I have at least 30 hours of this continuing legal education. So, when I go for these seminars, I look into real estate, personal injury, criminal, and those are the areas that I'd like to be educated further on. So, I'm constantly keeping up with all those areas. And then of course I have a wife who's very much involved in real estate and she's as smart as a whip. So she's constantly helping me learn more because I don't have the time because I'm doing other practices in my practice.

Exactly. Well, that's fantastic. Let's move on to the criminal one because that's very interesting. Have you ever had a case where you knew the person was a criminal, but you still defended and you won?

See, that's a very difficult thing to do, because you're talking about ethical considerations here, okay? When I separate myself, I have my own code of ethics, and certainly what I teach my children and how I carry myself is not the way that client that comes into me, because I'm not an armed robber, I'm not a murderer, I'm not even the DUI client, okay? So you're saying, well, you know he's guilty. Well, you look at a video and you see that he's fall down drunk. He can't stand up in the video. It's not very difficult for anybody to make a decision that the guy has an inability with his physical being to handle his alcohol and be driving a car at the same time. Something that simple. So of course I represent him. But there's so many dispositions you can do. There's motions. Let's say that the arrest was not a proper arrest. Just recently, there was a case where an individual shot, you saw it on television maybe last night, a young man, where they stopped for what they said was a seatbelt violation.

The police officer was shot, right?

He shot at the police. There were 96 rounds that were shot in that incident I'm referring to. Correct. Well, when the police gave their statements, one of the people is looking into it saying, you stopped him for a seatbelt violation, and then they constructed where he was sitting, where the car was in the shade of the windows on that driver that they arrested was shot. There was no way you could see a seatbelt. So you see a person would have a motion. Okay. Because people shouldn't have been stopped. Therefore, the guy could have been fall down drunk, but if it's an improper arrest, it's a violation of your constitutional rights. So therefore the case is dismissed.

So in this case, the police was in the wrong.

Well, I don't know all the facts, this is just what's coming forward now. If I have a case whereby I have a motion where I could possibly get the case dismissed, then I'd use that motion. We also use motions in order to eliminate certain evidence, okay? Motions to suppress, motions to quash, so that you don't really go into trial with all these adverse things against you. And of course at the trial, I've done murder cases and people always say, how could you represent a guy who murdered somebody? Well, there's so many different types of murder for one. Okay. We have a felony murder whereby if a person's in the, in the act of committing a felony. Okay. And the felony might be burglary. Okay. And somebody gets shot. okay, and then killed. Why that's going on? You might not have anything to do with it. You might just be the driver of the vehicle that they're going to try to use to escape.

Oh, now they calling you a murderer.

That guy's there is accountable for their actions on the burglary and the murder. So it's a tough case for a state to prove because they have to prove one, he had the intent to be a burglar and then they have to show an intent for the murder. Okay. When you stand there, all the circumstantial evidence might point at you. So, you know, those cases, of course, we're looking at trying to get the person the best situation he can be in. Do we have to sometimes, I've had guys getting ready for the murder trial. Somebody offers 30 years. I'll never forget one guy said, damn, I'll take it. I gotta get on with my life. I looked at him, I said, 30 years in jail and you're getting on with it?

You're done for the rest of your life.

When he made the comment, he would have, he could have got life. He got to got worse. 30 years. He's going to get some good time taken off it. Maybe he'll get out in 20 years or whatever.

Yeah. Okay.

So he went on. So he'll sure he did. He pled guilty that day. In fact, my partner who I was with, I said, he'll never take a plea, never take a plea. I had just met the guy that day. I went back and I went back, talked to the state. Then we had what we call a 402 conference. 402 is a Supreme Court rule whereby the attorneys can sit down with the judge and present all kinds of different things. Not only the facts of the case, but a background of your client, things like that. And the judge can make an offer to you. And in this case, after I sat down with him in a conference, said, I'll give you one chance 30 years today. Otherwise, this guy gets convicted. He's gone for life. Well, went back to him, said, you got 30 years today, or you're going to go to trial. Look at the evidence. The other lawyers, now you got me, I can get you 30 today. That's what he said.

Well, that's his best option that he had.

Well, it really was. But these other guys were telling him, you know, they get them 35, 40 years, 50 years, whatever it was, he was stubborn. He was going to get a trial no matter what. For whatever reason, we were able to connect in our communications. And he took that 30 years. But you know what? I never knew what happened to him afterwards. A young man who came out of the military, They found him naked in the middle of the street. He had just murdered his father and his best friend. What had happened is that the young man had post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in Vietnam, and he was discharged because of this situation. The father owned a little grocery store and he had stacked up his cans in a triangle. You sometimes see that as a, as a display. The two men, the father and this friend of his kind of tussling and they knocked the cans over. That sound was so familiar to my client that he pulled out a gun and killed both his father and the gentleman that it was father's best friend. He had taken off all his clothes and they found him running naked in the street. A call came in about this naked person. They went back to the store because they recognized him to be the son of this grocery store owner. When they got there, the person was murdered. Well, he was insane. And even the state said to me, this, this guy, I agree with you, Craig, this is not a typical person, just crazy. He is typically insane. He had no idea what he did. He didn't know that he shot his father. All he heard was a noise, took off his clothes and started shooting.

When did he come back to reality?

Well, he was arrested and he was sitting in a lockup and he still didn't know that he had killed his father. So even in the lockup, when they were talking to him, I didn't see him right away. So, but he was able to, so he went to a mental institution. Um, he was actually sentenced for 20 years, but then there's a review. So, you know, with the person could actually go to somebody and this gentleman's poor case, he was, he was, his father was his only relative that would take him. So, because he, they knew that he had this disability. So myself, the prosecutor and the judge looks at, this might be the best thing we can hospitalize him for maybe 20 years at least. And he was only like 25 at the time. But then they will review it. So I don't know what happened to him, but for the first three years, I don't know how he got it. I was getting Christmas cards saying, thank you for. because he finally, whatever it was, he recognized that this was a better situation than what he had. So that's why it's interesting at times, but I will tell you that there's no two cases really alike. It's like DUI, that thing expands. Now they have, of course, if you're driving under the influence of drugs, marijuana, although it's legal. Same token, if you have a certain amount in your system, you take a test and they have a test that you can take now. And if you have a certain amount and you're found, it's just like DUI being over 08, the percentage of alcohol.

Okay. So how can you test that with like, let's say marijuana?

Marijuana, they ask for urine drops. They're usually done by blood.

What was it? Oh, urine drops?

Urine tests or blood tests.

And that could indicate how much you've smoked? Yes.

Yeah.

And of course, would that affect, let's say that you smoked the night before, would that affect your test the next day or no?

Certainly, because after, you know, as you're sleeping, it's beginning now to disperse, okay? It's getting less and less and less, okay? A person that just smokes a minute ago, he's out in his car and he's out there smoking, he's probably gonna test higher. Okay, but because it's urine and blood, it takes a while to get into your system and it takes a while to get out. It's not like a breath. Okay. Where so like, uh, you take a shot of, uh, I could say a mouthwash with 20% alcohol and rush around your mouth, take the breathalyzer. You're going to score. I is there really, they say they're taking from the contents of your calls in your system. Yeah. But trust me that which is on your surface of your mouth, It's very difficult.

I used to, I used to work for a gentleman that did decks and he had like four DUIs and he had that breathalyzer things in his car. And, um, one time he took a mouthwash that wasn't his cause he had the non-alcoholic one and he took the one with the alcohol. He could not start his vehicle at all. It would not go anywhere.

They've gotten better. These machines have gotten more sophisticated. Technology is greater. But yeah, that's what used to happen sometimes.

So. So for criminal cases, when let's say somebody comes into your office or they hire you as an attorney, And they were actual a murderer. They went in and murdered somebody. Are they supposed to state that to you or they try to act like they never did it. So you go a different route about it.

Well, I've been doing it for quite a while. It's hard to put one over on me because I've got to get, I know the police. I know the reports. And I know some police are not as credible as others. Correct. Sometimes the reports are minimizing or maximizing whichever way they want to go. So when a person comes into me, certainly I want to know the truth. I want to know what they're most comfortable with what they're saying, because if they're lying, I'll catch them in a lie. Cause I'll cross examine them right in my office. Say, I don't believe that there's no way you could have been here at the same time over there. You're 50 miles apart. That's ridiculous. And they'll sit back and say, well, maybe I was here. Oh, you know, now, you know, they start adding, changing stuff. I'm saying now here's what the police are going to say. This is what you're going to confront. They have to prove you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. I'm looking at these reports. You have four or five officers here with consistent police reports. You go in front of a jury. What do you think they're going to believe? You or the story you just told? And so you have to really delve into the person, okay? And yeah, I've had people try to tell me everything under the sun. They would never do that. They couldn't be that way. It's not part of them. And all of a sudden, when you confront them with facts, show them their inconsistencies, there's sometimes a turnaround.

Um, what is one of your favorite cases? Oh, you don't have to get really detailed about it, but like a criminal case that like was insane.

Well, I kind of, uh, touched upon one where the military one, no, this was a young man. It was really a marijuana dealer. Okay. and he hooked up with a gang, and he was of a definite ethnicity as these other people were. But they wanted him, and he wanted to be a part of a gang, and he lived in a neighborhood where mostly this group of people were. So they convinced him to sell a kilo of cocaine, OK? Which was totally out of his element. And there were specific people who happened to be of the same ethnicity that he was supposed to take it to and sell it to. He went there, handed it over, they pulled a gun, they stole it from him. So now he had to go back to the man who gave him the kilo.

Was he set up by the man that who gave him the kilo?

That's what we figured out. So we, we realized that you got set up. They wanted him to pay it and now they would, he, or he would have to work for them. Okay. Meaning also in a way of pulling him in, that's the way they were doing it. So we had to show in our case that these people set him up. Okay. This guy would never, his only thing is he showed the house where he bought the, where the, where this kilo came from. Okay. So these guys went in there and they acted like they were delivering a pizza. Well, mom said, we didn't order any pizza. And of course they're pushing their way in with this fake pizza, the pizza that they bought. Well, mom came out from the back room with a gun. started shooting, okay? They were dealers, they had weapons, and unfortunately, the father, her husband, was confronted by these other people, was shot by one of those people. Did they kill him? They killed him. Okay, so now, they're charging my guy, who happens to be playing hockey at nine o'clock at night with a bunch of his buddies, knows nothing about those guys going over there, Just all he did was point out a house, said, this is where I got that kilo from. So they wanted to go back and get more drugs from this guy. They were going to rob him. Yeah. And so that's what they tried to do. I was, I went to trial with this young man to show that not only did he know that they were going to pull a robbery or that night, he didn't know they even had weapons. He had no knowledge. He drove by with one of the guys one time says there's where the dealer is. That's all he did, because they want to know. He had no idea what they were going to do. So the judge found that way, and he was acquitted.

So did you guys go to court and trial because there was a person shot in a robbery forum, or did the person that was set up, he came to you guys for help?

Well, actually, the person who was set up came to me because I was a criminal attorney, and somebody referred him to me, OK? Actually, there was another attorney that referred it to me. And so then I began to develop the case and say to him, how long did you know these people that you were dealing with? You know, I really didn't know much, you know, that's really more of a marijuana dealer. And then all of a sudden I could make a lot more money. If I could just unload this one thing, it looked real easy. So I thought I'd do that. And, uh, next thing I know, I'm robbed. Now I'm. I'm being tooled by these people. They want me to do all kinds of deals for them. They're holding out at the time, I think it was like maybe a thousand dollars or something he owed them for this kilo of cocaine, whatever the cost was. But so we kind of developed the case from there and we realized, and actually one of the other parties and admitted to his attorney that, in fact, they were setting him up. So, fortunately for him, we were able to present that, but we went to trial because I had to get him acquitted. He was not guilty of anything.

So the people who set him up, did they go to jail?

All those other people went to jail, yes.

They did everything in their power so they never got caught, but they got caught by setting up that window.

Unfortunately, that's not the first time that has happened to me in a case. I've had numerous drug cases. In fact, at one time I represented the largest drug person in the history of the state of Illinois, and it was the first time that they had actually used wiretaps at the state level. But they did get some federal prosecutors to assist them many years ago. All those people that were involved in that other than my guy, um, had to go to jail and they got like 30, 40 years. Then I remember I had another case where the guy were. Just a kid. He came on the Greyhound station, got off the bus, met these two young girls. And they were, uh, two girls that were Caucasian. They're only about 14 years old. He brought him back to the neighborhood thinking re innocently, you know, he'd had two girlfriends. Maybe there were 15, but, uh, brought him back to the neighborhood and the gang said, they're not yours anymore. They just took the two girls and for a couple of weeks, raped them, did all kinds of bad things to them. Well, they were charging my guy because he brought them. But the girls actually testified that he never did anything other than drove. So the judge again acquitted that person. The other people were. So it's just, yeah, it's just different ways that people do things, but you know, if you had children, you have to caution them that people that have, it looks so good. You know, it can't be that good and question it because people think there's no money to easily be made unless there's something wrong.

Well, there's there's never everybody thinks that there's an easy route and everybody gets into the drug dealing business because one, it looks so cool. And two, they think that they become so rich.

It is very profitable. I made a million dollars a week that I had four million dollars a month.

Yeah, that's impressive. Yeah, it was a huge entrepreneur.

Well, they finally got him and all 19 of his guys that worked for him. They indicted him. So eventually, If you're out there that long, the police are not stupid.

No, they're not. They catch on pretty quick. They're going to find you.

Eventually, they're going to find it. And they hold back. They're not going to come running out to get the first guy. They're going to wait until they get all 19. And then they get the lower people that have the least amount of connection to the main guy who has got all the money and the drugs. And what they do is like a domino effect. Start getting them to plead to suit probations, minimum amount of time to give the testimony against the big guy to the big guy.

And that's how they catch them. That's impressive.

Well, that's what they've been doing it for years. Yeah. Just, uh, this is part of the business, but the DEA and the FBI and all those people get

Yeah. Well, did you, did you end up leaving the criminal law for injury? Was there a reason why you left or you just wanted to?

I left the public defender's office, but I still would do a case. People, if they called me today, I would take it. Depends on because I'm a little pricier than it was when I started, but I got the experience for it. So, but, uh, no, I'll do a criminal case and I love personal injuries. So I still do criminal cases. Um, DUI is even, I just, People call me, I know, I was a neighborhood lawyer and they don't find those anymore, you know. So, and although I moved out of my neighborhood, my neighborhood still knows me. In my office, I moved out just because I wanted to go to another area.

That's awesome. Now going into injury law, explain a little bit about that so the audience knows what injury lawyers do.

Well, the first thing you have to do is prove the injury.

And so you want to, but this isn't in case where a human being is injured while in a car accident, how stuff like that, then you guys come in. So they get paid for the injury.

We're seeking compensation for a number of things. We want to make sure we get the medical bills paid. any future medical bills paid, any lost wages that you lost because you couldn't go to work because of the injury. And then you have things like pain and suffering, okay, and loss of enjoyment of life. And those intangibles is why that money gets higher. We know how to read how much money you lost from your wages. The employer just gives a statement.

What if you're self-employed?

You're going to have to show income statements to prove that that's the kind of money you would have made. And if you had contracts or something that you couldn't fulfill as a result of the injury, you bring those contracts in. OK, so that's how we prove that type of case. But the pain and suffering is probably going to say, you know, I used to be able to play baseball five days a week. I can no longer throw the ball. So that's loss of enjoyment of life. Every time the guy now tries to put something over his head because of an injury or something, his back or whatever, it's pain and suffering. Pain, obviously, is what you feel. Physically, the anxiety you have is the suffering. You know, being worried about not being able to do something. or doing something, finding that you're more mentally hurt that way.

So how does it work if a person, let's say somebody gets rear-ended and when they get rear-ended, their back hurts and stuff. I've heard a lot of the times that sometimes they investigate the person so they don't go to work. What if you can't, like you have to go to work because you can't afford anything. How is that going to turn out in court for that person? Are they going to lose the case?

Never lose the case because the rear ender is the liability. So you're already winning. That's the key. How many people that get rear ended are the ones that fall unless they put their car in reverse or stop suddenly in the middle of the street. Okay. So usually it's the, as you're coming into a light or you're stopped at a light and then you get rear ended. Okay. Yeah. That's clear liability on the part of whoever started this chain reaction. Sometime it's not the guy behind you, it's the guy behind him who struck him and they come into your car, okay? So of course, to get back to the person, you're saying that the person would lose. He wouldn't lose because he had to go to work, okay? A lot of people, that happens to a lot of people. They just can't take the time off because they have their own expenses. Okay. And they're not going to get paid as much or they're going to be delayed in their payment. Some people just don't get paid unless they work. So, of course, you can't show those damages, but you certainly can say because he had to work under these conditions. He's got pain, more pain and suffering. Okay. He's got more loss of enjoyment of life. So you try to build up the damages and what they say, that's the amount of your recovery. Okay. And whatever part you are, obviously the more serious, the injury, the more money you're going to make. Of course, unless it's a repetition, some people have a bad problem to begin with. So, of course, the insurance company is going to say, he's had that problem for years. This is just so it's an aggravation of an existing situation already. So, you've had the back problem, but now you're going to the doctor again. All of a sudden, the doctor said, it's not his lower back where he was treated before. It's his middle of the back or his neck. So these are new injuries. Okay. They're not aggravation of an old injury. You just have to make sure you read the doctor's report. I always tell people the first day you get the injury, a lot of people say, I'm okay. I'm okay. The sooner you get to a doctor and you have something memorialized in writing, such as a hospital report, a care station report. You know that right after that accident, this is the injury occurred from the accident. So you definitely have to tie the two together. The injury has to tie into the accident itself.

So even if you're in a minor accident, little, um, well, it depends, um, pretty severe fender bender, you should still get examined by a medical.

I would, you know, sometimes the cars are undrivable anyway. So I would take the ambulance ride, go to the hospital and be checked out. Okay. And your insurance probably will cover it. Your auto insurance will cover it if you're one rear-ended and the other car party is going to have to cover that bill. So a lot of people are tough. You know, they just go, I don't want to deal with any of this stuff. And about three, four days later, they're like, geez, I can't even move my neck or my back. Three or four days is a bad, but if somebody waits a month, that's a tough. Now you don't have that Nexus that you want because it couldn't, what happened in the last 30 days? We know the person could have injured themselves trying to pick up their kid.

Exactly. You never know. Yeah.

So do things as soon as possible. Okay. The key to the whole thing is, I always tell my clients in personal injury, the key is here is your health. So try to get to where you were at prior to the injury. If we can't make it, we can't make it. Some people will have that injury the rest of their lives.

Too many people have the pride where it's like, no, I'm a tough guy and it's like, You have to let that pride go because health is more important than, you know, your little pride that you have.

You don't know the extent of the injuries. You're not a doctor. And certainly sometimes you're in a hurry and just want to get out of there. Certainly sometimes, Oh God, I get worse than this. Well, then all of a sudden when it starts happening and you're just like, geez, I can't even bend over today. Cause three days later, it got worse. Yeah. To the doctor right away. I always say sooner, the better.

Exactly, yeah, 100%. Going back to the criminal, do you have any advice for criminals that go to a lawyer?

when they come to the lawyer. So you're talking about people that are career criminals, because first thing you say is, don't do this ever again.

Yeah, exactly. I knew the first part of the answer.

I mean, unless you want to pay me and put my kids through college, this is what happens. Okay. So, and of course, people that are, you know, people that are successful in their crime for a long time, they're never, they're not going to quit. No. Because they've made so much money or whatever they've done has been profitable for them.

Exactly.

Everybody who comes in here says, geez, this is the first time I did it. That's the guy I'm going to question the most because If you're doing it this way and I'm seeing how you did it, this isn't your first time, okay?

Somebody knows- Oh, so you could see it by the case, how many times they've done it?

Well, you can tell a career criminal, because I'm going to get the copy of his record, see how many times he was arrested before, if he has any convictions, because that's sometimes how I have to approach it. I mean, if a person is going to be hit with being a consistent criminal, okay? It's going to be a higher felony. You're going to be looking at more time, things like that. If you just got off of probation, they're not going to put you on probation again. They're going to want jail time now. So we have to look into all those things. Like a lot of people, like, you know, when they come to me, I usually say, this is what it's going to cost you. okay and uh but we don't like that nobody likes to have to pay out yeah you know so it's uh sometimes a deterrent exactly but sometimes like i say the group of people that i had them for like 70 years you know just because they weren't getting convicted non-stop yeah when they and at the time You know, they were getting probation sometime and there's a probation for a first time user of drugs where you can actually expunge it from your record. So no one would ever know you were even arrested. So they do have those options for even people that are first time drug offenders. If it's a smaller amount.

Correct. Yeah.

If you're dealing kilos, you're a dealer. They're not going to let that go. No, the police don't want, that's the guy they want. Yeah. He's bringing it to the streets.

Awesome, that was really good. What is one piece of advice you have for the young generation? This could be in life, in business, in anything for the young generation in order to be successful.

Well, first of all, I feel as though education is very important to anybody. So read, go through school, take it seriously, and you'll do well in life. You won't have to fall back on what type of project you're doing where you think you're going to make fast money, whether it be criminal or some type of other type of business that you think you're going to. kill it in that way without education. So, I would always say, first thing I think is the most important is your education. Plus, second time, if you're hanging around with these guys and get in trouble all the time, they're going to be looking at you because you're hanging around them. You've got to stay away from those people. You've got to find a group of people that is consistent with what you want to do. If you're an athlete, go play athletics. If you're in a band, get in the band with them. Get with people that you want to go forward with and then have goals in life. You know, I have a daughter now who's 17 years old. She already knows she wants to be a pediatric dermatologist. And of course, she goes to these things at her high school. They say, what do you want to be in life? And most people say, well, I want to be a lawyer. I want to be a salesman. I want to be a doctor. My daughter goes and goes, I want to be a pediatric dermatologist. I want to attend South Alabama to get my, a lot of my credits out of the way. And then I want to graduate from Alabama. That's the way she looks at it. She loves Alabama. She's gone to these places we visited school. So I always laugh and go like, I've never had a kid like this before. I've got four other ones. So not everybody did that. The key is really, you know, parents have to be involved with their children.

They do. That's very important.

OK. You got to know what your kids are doing out there. You know, a lot of parents, well, they're just drinking. Well, just drinking can lead to a DUI, okay? And even possession of alcohol. Sometimes, so I just, parental control is very important, but with children, get some goals. Be with the people that like you to pursue your goals that are consistent with theirs, and you can help each other. If you're in a band, and that's your gig, is you want to be a musician, hang around with musicians, because you're going to help the other musicians by your work ethic. Okay. So in just anything in life, that's probably what I would want to say to kids.

That's powerful.

That's amazing. You want to, you want to be, you want to enjoy life.

Exactly.

No question. Not everybody enjoys school. Okay. So, you know, you just, you got, you got to get the grades. If you want to go to higher education, that's what they look at. And it's very competitive. Now I'm much more competitive than when I was going through school.

Yeah.

You know, because more people go to school, more people go to college. Not only that, but you've got people that, do we get those great grades? So, they're going to take that person that's got the higher grades or the higher ACT or higher LSAT, you know, whatever those scores are. But there's a lot of people that just want to really see what kind of a worker you are in school. If you're a hard worker in school and you've got a good reputation for that, they're going to know that you're going to be a good work ethic when they get hired.

That's amazing. Yeah, that's really good.

or you're a businessman, who would you look for? You want that guy that you can, you know, you're going to be there Monday through Friday. At the time you start with work throughout the day, it'll be back the following day.

A hundred percent.

Somebody that's reliable. What would you do? You got a contract with somebody, you need three workers and two don't show up.

You're screwed, you're done.

Well, you're never going to finish on time. And you've got a timetable yourself set up because you've got another job waiting for you afterwards.

And you've got to take all the responsibility.

You've got to take that guy that's really, like you say, he's loyal, and you can rely upon him. So that's what you try to teach kids, just to make sure that people know that you're worthy of your work.

That's amazing. How can people find you? What is a good phone number for you?

Well, I have my office number. I brought some cards. If you want to take these people called in by a number seven zero eight four two two one one two one. My office is a one one nine five zero South Harlem and Payless Heights. So we want to one. So if I get people call me, this is how we usually start off.

What's the name of your firm?

It's the Craig Miller law firm.

Craig Miller law firm.

I used to have a couple of people with me. Right now, I don't. We all kind of went our own ways. My last partner was a divorce attorney.

Those guys got busy over COVID.

Well, there's a couple of things. They bill their clients. I usually give a fee. So if you came to me and you said, yeah, I had a DUI with nothing in the back, I'd give you one lump sum figure. Kind of like we talked about earlier today. But my partner, he had to bill the hours. Okay. People don't, when they get that bill, you got to make sure you get that bill out on a weekly basis. So these people don't see like at the end of the month, Oh my God, I can never afford this. They see what you're charging. So then they realize maybe I shouldn't be making the phone call that I'm going to get charged $250 for if I don't need to.

Yeah. I just learned that the hard way I got an invoice last month from my lawyer, which was over $10,000. And it was, he charges hourly.

That was insane. Well, see, and how often does he give you a bill?

Oh, he's always late six weeks, seven weeks. It's ridiculous. And I have to keep asking him. So.

See, in those type of cases, you actually signed a contract. so that you know, they know exactly what you're gonna pay for. So they know that if I go to court, it's more expensive than if I'm doing work in my office, okay? So they get a contract, they sign the contract, and of course, that makes it a lot easier. But when you're billing hours like that, Just like what you found is, you know, you, you don't realize how many times you're calling there. You're getting this advice. You're busy in your business. You're just on the phone fixing, you know, you get a bill for that half hour. He's charged you $300 an hour. So $150 for that call. And you're thinking, I wouldn't have been on the phone that long if I could. I mean, some people like to talk to their lawyers about sports or other things. Well, the lawyer's billing by time. It's not going to separate. You know, you're talking about that. You're just going to get time. Yeah. So stick to your business with the lawyer.

Yeah. One thing was, um, when I would send him cases for other people, I would just get on a phone call and I would explain what it's about and connect them together. He was still charging me for that, for sending him business while we're talking about that.

Well, different lawyers. See if you're sending me business. Sometimes I make sure that you get, um, I take care of you in your case by not billing you.

Yeah, mine was the other way around. I was getting billed for other people's cases.

I don't do that. I don't think that's a good practice.

Yeah, no, no, no. Yeah, that's what I just figured out.

You live and learn.

Yeah, exactly. Awesome. Thank you so much for coming on to True Mentors. Thank you for everyone listening. Stay tuned in. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks so much for tuning into this episode of True Mentors. We sure do appreciate it. If you haven't done so already, make sure you're subscribed to the show wherever you consume podcasts. This way you'll get updates as new episodes become available. And if you feel so inclined, please leave us a review. It is how the show grows and how new people find the show. Until next time, friends.