The Advocate Source
Welcome to The Advocate Source, where we simplify the law for life’s toughest moments. From personal injury to family disputes and business conflicts, we’re here to help you understand your rights and take action.
The Advocate Source
EP #1: Introducing The Advocate Source: Navigating Personal Injury Law with Alessandro Assanti
Picture this: You're navigating the choppy waters of personal injury law after a harrowing motorcycle accident. That's exactly what happened to host Alessandro Assanti, whose journey from opera singer to trial attorney is nothing short of remarkable. With personal experiences and a passion for litigation, Alessandro brings you The Advocate Source Podcast, where he breaks down the complex world of personal injury cases. Get ready to uncover the nitty-gritty details of cases involving used car defects and learn why TV shows often miss the mark on the reality of legal work.
Welcome to the Advocate Source, where we simplify the law for life's toughest moments, From personal injury to family disputes and business conflicts. We're here to help you understand your rights and take action.
Speaker 2:Well, welcome to the inaugural episode of the Advocate Source. I'm Charlie McDermott. I'm actually the producer and co-host of the show, but the real star here is Alessandro Asante. Alessandro, how are you, hey, charlie?
Speaker 3:Good, thank you, I'm fine, fine. Thanks very much.
Speaker 2:Congratulations on the show. I know talk about busy, oh, but you've squeezed this in and you're going to continue to make time for the podcast to help those which we'll get into that really need your help Not necessarily, obviously. You're not providing legal advice on the show, but just to give some direction and support. So I think that's really cool and I'm excited to be a part of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you very much. I'm interested to do this and I think it's going to be helpful for the public in general, and I certainly enjoy doing this kind of things, and thank you very much.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So let's start with a little bit about your background and how you got into personal injury law.
Speaker 3:Absolutely, I will be practicing. It'll be my 30th anniversary practicing law in December of this year, so it'll be 30 years. It's gone by quickly. But I started out I was in graduate school, I was doing joint business and law up in the Bay Area and I, you know, quickly finished my MBA there and went overseas and worked and I'd always wanted to be a lawyer, so it was something always in the back of my mind. But I went overseas and did financial work and eventually, you know, finished law school after that was, you know, one of the goals that I had reached and I got in personal injury law because when I first started I knew doctors and things of that nature from when I was in motorcycling and things and things. So it just kind of fell in there and I fell in love with it because it was litigation, going to court and taking depositions, and I just loved it and so there was a people aspect about it too. So no case is the same, so I liked that part of it.
Speaker 2:And so you got to meet doctors. Maybe not necessarily the way we want to meet doctors, but thank God they were there for you, right?
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, being involved in motorcycling my whole life. You know I was a racer, since I was a kid and raced motorcycles all over the country when I was in college, and you know even afterward. But yeah, you tend to fall down on those things and get hurt. Know, even afterward, um, but yeah, you tend to fall down on those things and get hurt. You meet doctors not, and exactly not not the way you want to, but unfortunately, unfortunately for my clients.
Speaker 2:I have a lot of experience with them from my, from my own personal experiences yeah, would you say, because, because there are a lot of different facets of the wall you could have gone into. Was that your inspiration, you know, having gone through those different accidents with the doctors or was there something else?
Speaker 3:You know it was one of the things you fell into.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I think I just started to like the people aspect of it more than anything, because you know you dealt with people and you know when I was doing, you know, financial work by valuation, business valuation, overseas. It was all numbers and uses a different part of your brain, but I think for the most part I was a people person and I really liked that part of it. I like dealing with people and, you know, getting a camaraderie with the clients. You know, through the whole ordeal because you know some of the clients that I have had years and years ago are still very close friends, you know. So you develop a friendship and you know, and especially if you go through trial with them, I mean you literally live with them and you have some of the most memorable moments. You know. I remember one case that I tried.
Speaker 3:It was a business litigation case and it was a doctor of all things, but we had the best time. It was the most incredible conversations just about life and about his experiences in the practice. So it led to a friendship that lasts till this very day. Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you would not expect that that is neat. So I'm sure listeners are wondering, because we see a lot of you know law shows on TV and you know the day in the life looks glamorous and all that. I mean, what's your typical day look like?
Speaker 3:Well, it's not that glamorous. You know, when I was in college, you know I used to sell gym memberships. You know, because I was into health and fitness and still am. But I would sell gym memberships and I loved the art of selling. And today I'm no different. I just sell gym memberships and I love the art of selling. And today I'm no different. I just sell different things and I tell my clients I sell evidence to juries, that's what.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 3:But it's not glamorous per se. It's hard work, it's dedication. Sometimes you're on weekends reading things because you have hearings the next week and so you know you'd like to go out with friends or things but you can't because it's a dedicated profession. You really have to love what you do and you have to really want to love what your work product is. You know you want to after you're done with the case and after your clients have had the time to experience what you did for them. You want it to stick, that you did your best, and sometimes your best isn't always great. You know, sometimes facts don't always work out, sometimes witnesses don't always work out. So it's it's's not. Nothing is a perry mason moment in this business. It just doesn't happen. It's that's that's tv, this is reality, and so that's another reason why I wanted to start the show is because I want to get people acclimated to what the real legal environment is, and it's certainly isn't TV.
Speaker 2:So you touched on the show. Yeah, let's, let's focus on that the advocate source. But what motivated you to start the show?
Speaker 3:Again. You know I hope to get out there and just get people to understand you know, whether they're going through a personal injury case or a business case or some other case that they have, or their family or their relatives or friends, just so people can understand the environment. You know, because you know you talk to jurors. You know we get a chance to vaudeer jurors before our trial. We ask them things and some of them have experience, but most of them don't. And when you meet a client, most of them don't ever have the experience. So they are completely blind, and so we try to educate them.
Speaker 3:You know we have platforms where they get on and you know we send them literature about the case, what's the steps of the case when you know, from beginning to end. And still there's nothing like telling them and trying to communicate that rather than reading it. So you know, as we go through the show, we can provide examples and talk more closely about the litigation process, and it isn't fun sometimes but it can be rewarding to me and to the litigants themselves, because everybody wants to get a sense of closure. You know everybody wants to get a sense of righteousness if they've been harmed, and so that's just our nature, and so that's why I wanted to start to show, to give people a little bit of a taste of it if they ever have to go into something like this or they are currently involved in something like litigation.
Speaker 2:That brings up another question I have, and I'm sure listeners are wondering what, and probably hard to put a number on it. But just, is there an average time, like from the time someone connects with you to the time you bring that case to closure? And I know some don't always go to court, but what generally? How long does that take?
Speaker 3:oh gosh, there are all kinds of scenarios I can give you. Um, there's not an average, you know, it depends on the case. But even even the nature of the case there's no clear window of I'm telling them this will last you. Now, if I talk to the people and I give them the scenarios, there's certain scenarios that they would have to go through. For instance, if they come to me and it's something that can be worked out informally, maybe it's a misunderstanding and you're saying okay, you have two people that are emotional, one on the other side of each other and potentially, if they get an attorney, that's reasonable. I can communicate with that person. Maybe we can calm the waters and it will be done in a matter of days or weeks. But there are things that happen Like, for instance, now I have a case that is an auto assessment case.
Speaker 3:What that is? It's a complex set of facts. My client bought a used car. The exhaust system was leaking, probably because the prior owner had it repaired and the mechanic didn't fix it correctly, or the piece was defective from the factory. But eventually he had a horrible outcome because he had inhaled carbon monoxide over the period of a year during his commute and it caused him some significant, significant harm. So you're talking about a very complicated set of facts. You're talking about a very complicated set of facts. You're talking about manufacturing defect. You're talking about negligence of a possible dealer. Now, the car was then sold. It went to another dealer who misdiagnosed the problem. So we have four dealerships and a major manufacturer involved in this and everybody's pointing fingers at everybody.
Speaker 3:So I can tell you this when I get a client like that, it is not going to settle in a week, it's not going to settle in a month and it isn't going to settle in six months. It's most likely going to go to litigation, where you're going to have experts on every side of the issue. There's a portion of the issue Okay, if there is fault, who is at fault? And if there is product liability, well then, who's in the stream of commerce? If there is, maybe there's a what they call it is a causation issue. Okay, the exhaust leaked, but did it really get into the cabin and cause him these injuries in the way he said? So there are issues, and most of this is expert driven. So we have to retain experts, and you never retain experts when you're in an informal situation. You litigate, you file lawsuits, you conduct written discovery, then you take depositions and then eventually you will and probably, but you know, at the first part of the case, you know we would, you know, retain an auto assessment expert to be able to investigate, to kind of coach us along, if you will, on what questions, to ask what issues he sees that he needs to clarify.
Speaker 3:So cases like that, you're talking two years If, if you know, so it's, it's all a function of what, when you get a trial date. So it just varies from there, you know. I mean, it can it can be weeks, it can be months, it can be years. There's really no, no set standard on when a case will resolve. It's all based on, on the individual facts of the case. And that's what I love about it, because it's not repetitive work, it's thinking. You must be curious. If you get a fact, you start to think about it, and so you don't let it down. But you're curious, you start to say, okay, well, maybe if I go talk to this mechanic or get an investigator to go talk to him, maybe he saw something. So you just don't. You need to be curious about these things to be able to uncover all you can, because if you don't, the person that's most curious may uncover something that can bite you. So you always need to turn over stones, you know. So, yeah, never set time.
Speaker 2:Wow, man, thanks for sharing that. That's like an inside glimpse. I don't know how you do it, by the way, so many pieces there, jeez.
Speaker 3:You feel a bit nice sometimes, you know. Again, that's why I want to, you know, communicate some of these war stories, you know, as much as I can to the community to let them know about the process and give them an inside. You know, look at what we do as attorneys to help our clients and I think it will make the experience with the clients much better and more understandable.
Speaker 2:So what about topics? What are you thinking, as the show progresses, some of the topics that you'll get into.
Speaker 3:You know, I think I want to you know, talk a lot about. You know the first part of what an attorney does. You know there's always these wives tales I guess you would call them. You know about some personal injury cases. You know you see commercials on TV and a fellow says he got millions. And then you know you want to know why and how and what are the circumstances behind it, because that's something you don't see. It is good for the audience because it picks up your attention saying, wow, this guy can get millions online. That's the guy I want to see.
Speaker 3:But it doesn't tell the consumer everything because there's a whole lot of things that go into those cases to be able to collect seven figures or something like this. So the better that consumers are able to understand that process before they go in, they'll make a better selection to an attorney. Sure, they'll be more, they'll be more acceptable to what the attorney is telling them and the and the and the rigors that it's going to take or the shortcomings of their case or the limitations of their case. So that's something I want to talk about. You know there's always, always an issue. You know I often hear things that. Well, you know, when you have a personal injury case and my bills are 30 grand so they should offer me a hundred. You know that's always this three times meds. You know issue. Those are things that I want to get into and say not always in fact, sometimes not not generally so things of that nature you talk about the, the, the experiences that a client could have, you know later on and then get into some you know specific stories about litigation and the courtroom. All those things I think are something that a that the public would want to know, consumers would want to know and, you know, hopefully we'll get fans of the show and we can get people on that have some insight on different types of aspects of expert witness testimony a good source for people that you know if they really have an interest in to get inside the courtroom, to get inside the process of being an attorney.
Speaker 3:It could help students, it could help. You know a lot of people, even parents of students, to say this is what my kid's going to want to do. I don't know, maybe it's not cut out, or boy, I want to get my, my daughter or my son involved in this. I think they would love this. So just the general. You know I want to do well for the legal profession because I do love it, and I want to make it so that people that don't have an access to it every day that you know this. This would be their, their access to the legal profession.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Good stuff. So let me ask you this then, you know, looking back, Alessandro, I'm going to call it a turning point moment. I mean any point where you know, was that defining moment that really shaped the way you approach your clients?
Speaker 3:You know, it's an interesting thing. I never really thought about it that way, about how I approach them, and it was probably because you know you grow up, you know I, you know you grow up, you know I grew up on the farm in southeast Colorado, you know, and it was a different world than it is today, and you know, people were much more close and friendly, and so I always want to maintain a sense of professionalism. But you also want to give people a sense that they can share things with you. You know that I am the person that they need to share things with. If there's something that they're ashamed of telling me or they don't want to, they should think twice about that, because you need to share things with your attorney, you know, especially if it's going to have an impact on your case or how I present the case. There may be something in a client's life that I thought is very relevant to the case at hand, and it will give the jury some insight on on why they're so upset about their future or why they were, you know, so adamant that I bring this case to a court of law. So I guess it was just trying to get to the person and figure out what is the best way to get them across the finish line. So I was always a bit of a natural as far as I never took things as too robotic, like my closing arguments right.
Speaker 3:I don't use notes in my closing arguments at trial, I just don't. And if I have a script, I am probably off that script in a matter of minutes because you memorize that and you know be going through school all the years that I have. You know you read a book twice and you memorize it. You know, and that's just training the mind. So by the time you get to a closing argument, you know what you're going to say. You know. So you have bullet points that you want to make sure you hit all those things. You know. So you have bullet points that you want to make sure you hit all those things. But it just flows out of me. You know, because you need to get emotionally involved in it too, not too much.
Speaker 3:But at the end of the case, when you have all the evidence that you presented and you know what you told the jury and what was admitted into evidence at that point, then it's up to the attorney to be able to tell the jury and seal that story to the jury on how they need to look at this in the perspective of what the client went through right. You hope you got the correct points across. How the client had through right. You hope you got the correct points across how the client had suffered, how the client you know what he was doing on the day of Just. All those perspectives need to be communicated to the jury so that when the jury goes back in that deliberation room, the story is in their mind.
Speaker 3:What happened. It's like, it's like a movie to them, because that's what people will remember, you know, because they can go to their notes. But the way you tell it and the way you tie all of it together, it and the way you tie all of it together is going to be so crucial in them being able to say now I understand why he was here, why she was here, what injuries they had and why they were asking for the money that they were. So like I said, it's never. It's never to me, it's not anything that I write down. As far as just spitting it out as a speech, you just don't. You know, when I was a kid, you know I was a performing artist in college. You know, I got into college, you know, because I sang opera my whole life.
Speaker 3:You know, I was professionally trained, or you know, well-trained, well-trained, and I think there was maybe one of maybe 10 students in the entire college that were able to train with private opera coaches, and I was one of them and I remember, if it was music, it was memorized. It was something that you did not want to look at, the sheet music when you performed.
Speaker 3:That was something that has long since passed, and I think that's the same way as I've always performed in front of a jury at the closing stage. Certainly you have notes and you need to get your points across and your evidence admitted, but when it comes to the argument, no that is something that is a performance and that is something that you need to tie together. It has to come come out very tight story so fascinating.
Speaker 2:So you're standing in front of the jury and closing argument. Are you in tune with each juror and and trying to dissect, diagnose their body language and who's taking in and who's like? I've already made my mind up. I mean, does that change your dynamic? What you say? You know.
Speaker 3:You know, sometimes you can read a jury very well and sometimes you just don't. But yes, you look at jurors, you communicate with them. You don't talk directly to them, but you can see their eye contact, you can see their body, the way they're looking at you during the trial. You know when you're talking to them, are they engaged? Are they, you know, receptive to what you're saying? And I'll give you an example the last trial that I had, I knew that there was one or two jurors that really were listening to me and listening to our side of the story, and it just so happened that that juror was the foreperson in the case. So I was excited about that and certainly I'm not convinced at all. But you get this feeling that I think we have a very favorable foreperson which leads good leads well, to him talking to the jury and making the ultimate decision. You know, certainly not I shouldn't say ultimate decision, but just, you know, letting know the jury, his viewpoints and how he communicates his viewpoints to the jury, because he's most, he's the most outspoken and the jurors will look at him for guidance, right, or her for guidance. And then you know, the jury was deliberating for two solid days and we lost one or two, and because it was against a County, you know they had to get authority. If they could, you know, go with a less of a jury. You know, because I think we were about used on our alternates. So if you don't have enough jurors to decide the case, it's a mistrial and you have to start over. Well, they didn't want to do that. A mistrial and you have to start over. Well, they didn't want to do that and I certainly didn't want to do that. And so we stipulated that we'll allow 10 jurors to hear the case.
Speaker 3:And then on the last day, the juror that was a four person was stuck in a small claims court and he says he wouldn't be there. You know, we were supposed to be there at 10 and it was getting close to 11. And he says, oh my gosh. He says so I don't know what you're going to do. Do you want to stipulate that we can go with another four person? And so I said, well, I wanted to keep this guy.
Speaker 3:Something told me I wanted to keep him and I said, well, I wanted to keep this guy. Something told me I wanted to keep him and I said, well, your honor. I said by the time they go through that whole process he'll probably be here and he says okay, let me call the court. I know the judge. So the judge in our court called the other judge and he said you know, put him up at the front of the line because he's a four person.
Speaker 3:He needs to get back into the jury box so they can decide this case. You know it's a pretty important case. So he got to court and then eventually we got the jury verdict later that afternoon. And don't you know, we were not happy or elated with the result. We were satisfied with it, and likewise the county wasn't happy with the result, but they were okay with it too. So it fell right in the middle of where we were arguing right the value of the case. And don't you know, when we got a chance to talk to the jurors at the end the foreperson was the one that saved the day for us, because nobody was was siding with the value of our case except the four person.
Speaker 3:He said I tried my darndest and he says we finally agreed on a number so I can tell you that on that specific time I was reading the jury and I had a feeling that that person would make the difference and it did. But again, sometimes you can and sometimes you just can't. But, that's one time where I really fought to keep that guy on the case because I knew he was listening and I could just sense that he was on our side.
Speaker 2:Wow, Is that normal that you would talk to jurors when it's over? Is that a kind of just happens?
Speaker 3:You know it is Sometimes, most times jurors don't want to be involved. They've given enough of their time. It's been a so 10 minutes more of their time they been. It's been a so 10 minutes more of their time. They want to just go home. You know, and I think a lot of them aren't very combative, you know they maybe they've had to make a difficult choice, um, so they feel like, you know, I think I just want to go home.
Speaker 3:I don't want to have to argue with anybody and yeah, yeah you know, because sometimes I've seen it happen where the jurors will stick around and they're they're wishing they hadn't, because maybe one of the clients gets involved and starts arguing with them about, about a verdict that they didn't agree with.
Speaker 3:Yeah, other times times I've been involved in cases where the jurors were actually crying alongside my clients about the verdict and how sorry they felt for my client and we, you know they're praying that the client could move on and do well with her life and she hopes that you know they made a difference in her life. You know, and this was this was a medical malpractice case that I had many years not many years ago, but some years ago and so you get, you get the gamut, and the judges always say you're welcome to stay and talk to the attorneys because it's good feedback for them, but you don't have to if you don't want and feel, don't feel obligated to do that. So if you want to leave, leave. And yeah, a lot of them stay, you know never knew that.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, okay, wow, that's interesting, okay, wow. This episode may go on for hours. This is so fascinating, but I'm going to reel it in, yes, sir. So how do you see this podcast? Helping people who are dealing with a personal injury case.
Speaker 3:Again, you know I want this to be a reference source for them and as we get going, we'll build up a catalog and maybe there'll be a topic they can search and I'll pop up and it'll be right on point to address their fears, to address their curiosity, help them be a better client and help them understand the process better. So that's what I hope to do, I hope to accomplish in this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a good point about being a better client you mentioned earlier. You know the client not sharing everything right and that's got to be, in some cases, a very difficult process for you to get all that information out.
Speaker 3:It happens a lot. Yeah, I can go on and tell you war stories of you know how we've been caught off guard.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But yeah, so it's better that the attorney know more than less.
Speaker 2:You need that tooth serum right.
Speaker 3:That or you know, a memory recall. You know, Sometimes they don't even mean to keep that stuff from you, it's just that they never thought it was important. And it could be some of the most pivotal stuff that you want, you know, so yeah, One final one is just the misconception about on the personal injury law side.
Speaker 2:You know what's, what's one that really is at the top that you can speak to.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know, I know a lot of people. You know is just generally that you know they classify us as ambulance chasers, and you know that litigation is you know the evil and I get it. But you know, most of us are helping people and most of us are litigating cases where we find merit. We're not going to litigate a case where there's no merit, and so you know we don't. As an attorney, we're not here trying to steal someone's money. We're just trying to fill up a hole that's been left by somebody else or some unfortunate circumstance. That's all we're trying to do.
Speaker 3:And so I'm trying to make us a little more friendly, because insurance companies who is generally the persons or entities that are paying us for you know the wrongs that our clients have to go through, that are paying us for the wrongs that our clients have to go through they've devoted untold fortunes to make us look bad, so it will influence juries going into the case, and so that has been there, and you're talking about some of the wealthiest wealthiest people in the world that own the most, I would say, profitable businesses in the world are insurance companies and their whole motive is they take in premiums and they don't want to pay, and so that's their prerogative.
Speaker 3:And they fight and they try to convince people that we're bad people. So don't listen to us, don't give us what we ask for, but we're only doing it under the guise of what the law allows us to do. We're not, we're not trying to do something outside of the law and that would just be impossible. So I'm hoping to get that cloud of skepticism dealt with, because it's not the case and many, many lawyers are heartfelt people. They have good hearts, they're hardworking and they're certainly hoping that they turn an unfortunate circumstance into a decent outcome so the client could move on and survive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, I mean already just some of the scenarios you've covered. This show is really going to help with that. So final thoughts, I mean this episode has been awesome. Any final message before we put this one in the can?
Speaker 3:No, I I think you know if there's. If there's ever any time that people need to get ahold of me, they are certainly welcome to contact me at the. At the website there's the. You know we're Asante and Associates. We're in Irvine, california. There's a number. Give me a call. I'd be happy to talk to anybody you know people to see if I can help them.
Speaker 2:But generally I'm looking forward to the next one and having people join in the next episode, we'll let you get back to helping folks in your neck of the woods there and again, yeah, you've got it, you've got it. Well, see you next time.
Speaker 3:All right, it's been fun. Thank you, take care Charlie.
Speaker 1:Thanks for listening to the Advocate Source. Visit asantilawcom or call us at 877-245-3911 to get the legal support you need. We're here to help.