How a Trial Lawyer Beats Insurance Companies
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Why do insurance companies often make unfair initial settlement offers?
They're lying to you, right? If you've been in a wreck, they're like, We'll take care of you. That is a load of crap. I've settled cases for 500 bucks and I've worked on cases that have been resolved in excess of 20 million dollars. Right. Most of my folks, you know, they they just got in a car wreck, they had a trip and fall, uh, medical malpractice. A lot of times they can't work, they don't have a car. The last thing they need to be doing is kind of come up with money to hire an attorney. We've got a specific line in our contract that says if we don't win. In your case, you don't owe us a dime.
Yeah.
So when somebody hires my firm, there is zero financial risk.
Robert Schmitgens is a trial tested, dedicated, client-focused personal injury attorney and the founder of Schmitgins injury law firm. He is known for advocating for injured clients and taking on powerful insurance companies with skill and compassion.
From my perspective, it's pretty dumb for me to say, Hey, you should you should accept an offer where you, Jay, the client, gets five grand and I'm making eight. That just seems unfair. It's your life as my client who was negatively impacted. So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna reduce my fee to make sure that you are getting more of this recovery than I am. Even if it's by a dollar, right? I'm still gonna do that.
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Hey, welcome back everyone to another episode of Living Your Legacy Podcast. Uh, we're down here in sunny, beautiful Miami Beach. And once again, I'm your host, Jay Slangan, and we got a special guest uh from uh doing the show America's Top Lawyers with us. Uh introduce yourself, what's your name, where you're from, and what kind of law you brought to Stan.
Yeah, my name uh thanks for having me, Jay. Uh my name's Rob Schmidkins. Uh I am a personal injury lawyer, practice in St. Louis, Missouri. All right. Uh I'm the owner, founder of my firm, which is called the Schmidkins Injury Law Firm. Uh we're located in downtown St. Louis and we're working on cases uh all across Missouri and uh Illinois. Uh from Chicago to Kansas City. Uh obviously a lot in St. Louis, but um, you know, any anything in those two journey. Jurisdictions uh w we we we can handle. Uh
Yeah.
Well not any case, but any personal injury case, I'll say. Well you know. Yeah. Don't call me if you get if you get arrested. I don't know anything about that.
Okay, okay. So like uh how big's a firm?
Uh we're growing. So um I uh started my firm in in August of twenty four, August first, twenty twenty four. Um uh just as me. It was just me um figuring it out. Uh added my first staff member, full-time staff member in March of last year. Uh I have a law clerk um who is uh finishing up his third year at St. Louis University. Uh hired a litigation paralegal in December. And then we actually had uh my second cousin who's uh was working on the insurance side of things, uh just join the team uh about two weeks ago.
Okay.
Uh so we got two lawyers, uh two full time staff members and a couple part-time guys. And then uh we've got a lot of uh my wife is uh an attorney as well, so she uh she's been able to help me out um off the books. Uh she already has two jobs, so I didn't want to give her a third uh a third payroll she has to deal with.
But uh And what kind of law is she practicing?
Uh so she's actually um In the Missouri Air National Guard. So she's a uh military attorney uh in uh so the I'm I'm probably gonna butcher this, but uh my understanding is is that You have active duty, right? And then you've got the reserve components. And then National Guard, whether that's Army or Air Force, is under the control of the governor of whatever state until they get activated. um in by the president. So so technically she is a uh she her Mike Kehose is the governor of Missouri is her boss, the commanding officer.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why do insurance companies often make unfair initial settlement offers?
0:00–5:29
2
How does a contingency‑fee structure remove financial risk for injured clients?
5:29–12:05
3
What is the firm’s intake and investigation process for new personal‑injury cases?
12:05–17:52
4
How are settlement offers evaluated and negotiated with insurers?
17:52–22:14
5
When does the firm decide to file a lawsuit and go to trial versus settle early?
22:14–27:35
6
Why does the attorney reduce his fee to ensure the client receives more of the recovery?
27:35–32:19
7
How does transparent communication help build long‑term trust with clients?
32:19–38:01
8
What drives the client‑first philosophy and how does it benefit the local community?
38:01–39:49
Speakers
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