Gary L. Bailey Jr.

[Theme Music Plays]

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: If you wanted to sue Santa Claus, tell me where the North Pole is at. They offered us $5,000 because they thought it was the dumbest case we could even bring. His own lawyer got up during “Closing Argument”s and said, well, know, some cops make mistakes and things get… I promise you it was one of my best closings ever. You should have saw it because I was outraged.

Narrator: Welcome to “Celebrating Justice” presented by the Trial Lawyers Journal at CloudLex, the next-gen legal cloud platform built exclusively for personal injury law. Get inspired by the nation’s top trial lawyers and share in the stories that shape our pursuit of justice. Follow the podcast and join our community at triallawyersjournal.com. Now here’s your host, editor of TLJ and VP of marketing at CloudLex, Chad Sands.

Chad Sands: Welcome back friends to “Celebrating Justice”. In this episode, we welcome Philadelphia Bay’s trial lawyer, Gary Bailey. From a fourth grade reenactment of the Dred Scott case to fighting civil rights violations and tough personal injury cases, he’s built his reputation on taking the hard cases others pass on and winning. To get to the stories, I asked him, why did you want to become a trial lawyer?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: My story starts back when I was about 10 years old, fourth grade. I went to a Catholic school here in Philadelphia and my teacher, Ms. Kayette, I’ll never forget her at the time, she had us do a demonstration of a famous Supreme Court case. And I was excited to know as a kid, but I found out once we came in law, it is considered the worst opinion in Supreme Court history. It was, I believe, 1862, 63, something like that. Why is that important? was a couple years before slavery ended. It’s called the Dred Scott case. Here it was in a nutshell. It was a case to where a former slave bought his freedom with money from the owner and then on top of that moved to the North, which as most people know, slavery was outlawed. Some plantation owner went up to the North, brought him back, jailed him, basically brought him back. And the court basically said that the law was not made for former slaves, free slaves, Africans, et cetera, et cetera, and basically put this man back in bondage. As fate would have it, Lincoln took office right after a couple of years later, Civil War, slavery was outlawed. Again, think about a 10 year old going through this example, myself, one other friend of mine, and then two other people on the side and we’re doing this demonstration without any knowledge, only for the teacher to say, Mr. Bailey, you’re part of the YouTube Lose. I’m like, what? Hold on. This is what’s going on or what’s happening? Oh, I want to be a lawyer. It just stuck with me. So as I got older, I understood more and more about the profession and what it meant in terms of the amount of influence and responsibility and power in a way you could change people’s lives. And then it just so happened that my personality fits the profession and family members and friends for the past 40 some odd years are saying, you like to argue, you should be a lawyer. So it was just at that point, just confirmation bias and me sticking with it more and more. And then finally decided, all right, it’s time to go to law school. Best decision never made, never looked back.

Chad Sands: You went to temple. Yes. so tell me about your first kind of years as an attorney after graduation and what that was like.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: After graduation, I worked for two different firms, both doing personal injury. And it’s funny because even though I knew I wanted to do it, I wasn’t as sure. And even more importantly, here in Pennsylvania, and in particular Philadelphia, 99 % of the personal injury firms do not hire young lawyers, which means I had no shot of getting a job, especially with a plaintiff’s firm. And a good friend of mine knew that A firm had an opening and it was just right place, right time. And I got the job. My first year was baptism by fire. The joke I always make is, and I have the utmost respect and admiration for him now, and I didn’t so much at the time because I didn’t understand what he was doing. But my first boss took me to a couple of hearings, a deposition, showed me a few things. And then all of a sudden he was deathly allergic to court, which is to say that he never went to court again. It was me, me, me, and all of me. I spent the first eight or nine months kind of just figuring it out. But I’m so glad that’s the way he did it because it was the best way to get the most out of me and make me figure things out, get better, sharpen my ax and be unflappable because there was no safety net. was no, somebody else can do this. It was all me. And then the next place I went to, I was there for about a year. It was sort of the same thing, but more resources. But what I learned there was the other side. So the first place, it was just court, court, court, court. And I didn’t learn as much as I needed to of the motion practice and the written stuff and pleadings and the rules, because I just had to be in court and forget all the other stuff. The second place was, OK, we’re not going to court every day. We’re going to win some of this stuff on the papers and behind the scenes. So it was the perfect storm of learning both sides. At which point I said, okay, I don’t want to do this anymore. I want to go out and work for myself because I can find another job if it doesn’t work out. That was the second best decision ever made, which was going out on my own because again, never looked back. And I had two places that were diametrically opposite in terms of how they ran the businesses and what they did to move cases forward. So it was a rare situation where I had both sides of the litigation piece before I went into business for myself. And then it’s just been a blessing ever since just being able to take on the clients in the cases I want to take on and continue to do everything that I can to make a name for myself and get results here in the area.

Chad Sands: So it sounds like you were kind of put trial by fire at the first place. And then maybe the second firm was that more of like a, didn’t really go to trial. They liked to settle and not necessarily move forward with cases. And so you kind of saw the pros and cons with that. What was it like hanging your own shingle and finally going out on your own? Were the early days stressful and lean or were you able to kind of find your footing pretty quickly?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: So the benefit that I had going on my own is that my undergrad degree is in finance and I took a lot of business courses. So I was not afraid of the idea of doing all of the administrative stuff that it takes to run an office. Like I knew that and I knew that because I had a business before when I did finance straight out of undergrad. It was the most frightening thing ever. I did not just go out and do it. It took me about six months to have the heart to finally do it and then myself and my old firm, Part of Ways, they kind of helped me with a boot in the back to get out because it wasn’t working. But it was, I had no idea how I was going to make it, but something told me that failure was not an option, so I was going to figure it out. So, my first year on my own, I took anything anyone would give me if it put me in court. I did not want to sit in office typing up and doing stuff. Cause I said, that’s not going to get me paid. And I’m not going to be sitting there billing people and swarming. But if you wanted to sue Santa Claus, tell me where the North Pole is at. If you wanted me to sue city hall, welcome me up into the mayor’s. It did not matter. And I was nuts in that regard. Now, mind you, some of the places in some of those cases was like, okay, I’m not coming here again, but it helped keep the lights on and pay the bills. All that being said, I was also tremendously blessed in that I met some key individuals that helped me get personal injury cases early on. And again, it was cases that a lot of people didn’t want or they thought were beneath them as it relates to personal injury. And part of that is because even the places I worked for, of the reasons I was so frustrated and wanting to leave is because my bosses at both places, and this is where they were the same, multiple times told me, Yeah, we’re not taking this case. That’s not enough money for me. I’m like, first of all, Mr. Balls paying my check. You’re not paying me enough. And the money you’re turning down helps me pay my rent and get a cheeseburger with some fries. So I’m sorry it’s not enough money for you, but you do that three times. You essentially turn down my whole salary. So immediately I’m like, well, hold on. If I just go out and talk to a few people and smile, I can get a couple of cases and make what they’re paying me. So. The only way that doesn’t happen is if I just go home and play John Madden and sleep all day. That’s not gonna happen. That first year, I just was taking as much as I could and no one big one changed my life, but it would so happen that year too. What had happened was one of the smallest cases that anyone could take. And it was a friend who called me and said, hey, I got a person going through a divorce. They already fell out with two lawyers. I know you can help me. I don’t think myself. First of all, they already fired too. The world makes you think they’re gonna work with me. It’s not gonna get any easier, but okay, because it’s you, because you need help, and this person was a great friend to me through my first three years, I said, I’ll take it. What happened with that case, and this is one of my biggest successes, and I tell everybody this because I tell people all time, don’t look and act like you’re bigger than your client. Everyone needs help, and you should always be figuring out how you can help them, because a lot of times, if you don’t help them, nobody else will. I can tell you this part because it has clarity of story. It was a small favor for the person that was getting a divorce. And I said, well, you know what, if you’re near the end, I hope you get to the end. Just pay me $700. Now this is 2014, I believe. Right, $700 that move the earth. But it’s like, okay, it’s something, right? It just so happened that the young lady’s sister was there with her and she’s sitting there the whole time. I just taking notes. I’m thinking, ah, here But she’s looking at how I’m treating her sister. She stopped me for a second. like, do you do personal injury? I said, well, actually that’s my bread and butter. That’s mainly what I do. I said, I’m helping your sister out as a favor to her friend because I said I would and I’m going to make sure she gets through the end of this because I understand divorces are very tough. She’s like, well, I like the way you’re treating her. I’m going give you my mother’s case. Okay, no big deal. I’m thinking of my wealth. I’m paying you $700, your mom’s case profit. Probably 750, 700, whatever. No, at that point her mother’s case, and I won’t tell you the amount, but it was the biggest case I had through the first two firms and obviously with myself. A small gesture of I’m gonna help wherever I can help turns into the biggest case of my career. Now I’m like, okay, this is where I’m supposed to be. Like this is gonna be fun now. that can happen. And that doesn’t happen often, but occasionally it does. I’ve had clients to where they call me out of the blue because nobody can help them. I can’t help them either. I talk to them. You write for 45 minutes or whatever, give them some information and break some stuff down. And then I’ve had situations where they appreciate that. A year later, two years ago, I like the way you help Mr. Bailey. I got a case. OK, let’s go. OK. Yeah, let’s go. If you do good and you do good work and you try to help people. It tends to just work itself out and that’s what I’m thinking for in this profession.

Chad Sands: Since you were the guy who was taking those cases that nobody wanted early on and the $700 divorce, you who then you parlay it into this great relationship and referral. What makes you unique as a trial lawyer?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: I’m willing to get my hands dirty. I’m willing to put in the work and take these cases that a lot of my colleagues cherry pick through or not interested in really breaking down. Now, I do have a angel on my shoulder, kind of like a silent partner who when it comes to trials, right, jury trials, she’s right there with me and we are unflappable. Like we do everything we can. But a lot of times she’s not in that process of me taking the case. What are the biggest sources of bigger cases for me or from other attorneys? Because they see the value, but they can’t fathom putting in that much work to get to that result at the end. And for me, it’s all the same. I mean, yes, I know a difficult case for me, but that’s not what makes me determine whether I’m not going to take it or not. What’s going to help me determine is, someone have a legit case? Can I get to some form of a verdict that they’ll be happy with and two, is it enough to justify not putting me out, which is to say that it doesn’t have to be big or small per se, but I can’t go out of business chasing the dream of a case. I do have to tell people, yes, I see what happened. Yes, I know it’s messed up, but I can’t get to the end without taking money out of my employees pockets or my own pocket. But. That’s lesser of the time. More often than not, it is those difficult cases, especially around here. That’s what gives me the edge because my colleagues know I will take the case to trial and insurance companies also know when they don’t know, they find out. There’s no fear in that regards of picking a jury and being out of office for a couple of days. What most people don’t know is even some of the best lawyers do not try cases. And then their reputation and their unlimited resources are beneficial and that does help me. I can’t disparage them for that. But in order to compete with them and walk in the same ocean, that’s where I have to be unique, which is to say, yes, all state state farm farmers. I know you guys got millions of dollars. I know you got tons of attorneys, but we all know the same law. It’s one case. So whether you got five attorneys or not, myself and my co-counsel, we’re here. And that’s the part that gets us more business from other attorneys. And then once people start talking, it takes off on a life of its own. And that’s where I get awards like this behind me. I’ve got stuff written up in the local verdict searches. And occasionally the news picks up something. That’s why, because at the end of the day, I’m willing to go where a lot of my colleagues aren’t willing to go. And it’s because I enjoy doing it. I feel most at home and most comfortable in a courtroom. Even though it’s a lot of work and most cases settle, I do thrive on the fact that, okay, it’s game time now. We got some real people that’s going to look at us and hopefully not be bored and put some zeros at the end of that verdict sheet.

Chad Sands: talked about swimming in the ocean in Philadelphia and I actually read an article recently on the billboard wars and how personal injury lawyers took over Philly and it was pretty interesting it was out of Philadelphia magazine you’re in that ocean do you see the billboard wars that has that evolved in Philadelphia over the years?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: Yes, about a decade ago, one of the big volume attorneys had an exclusive contract with SEPTA. SEPTA is just our public transportation. So he was smart enough, kudos to him, to say to the whole organization, we’ll pay you a certain amount of money for a complete lockout of no other lawyers can go on the outside of any of your transportation vehicles. So that’s buses, trains, trial, these, et cetera. and nobody noticed it for a while. And then eventually one of the competitors tried to file suit saying he had a monopoly and on the court was like, no, he just so smart enough to get ahead of the game. Eventually that contract ran out. That’s where the wars kind of started because everybody could always be on billboards and everything else like that. But Philadelphia is the fifth biggest market. Public transportation moves a couple of million people a day. So if you have the lockout on the outside, that’s a big thing. Second thing is in the last I believe four years or so, Morgan & Morgan, the nation’s biggest firm, giving them a plug. But when he started advertising in the city, some of it was pretty janky and using slang and colloquialisms that I always say I wish I knew was in his marketing department because they really don’t know they shouldn’t be saying some of this stuff. They think somebody gave me words. It’s like, nah, it doesn’t work that way. But he started to then have people make reactionary billboards clowning him.

Chad Sands: He was paying for extra billboards to kind of poke fun at his billboards.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: No, no, no. The competitors started using their billboards, but then putting stuff down thinking, well, you’re just bringing more attention to him. Like that doesn’t make sense. So you had that and now the desk kind of took its way the last couple of years is just a big handful of people that have a ton. There’s a couple of lawyers to wear on our stretch of highway I-95, which goes from like Connecticut all the way down to Florida. There’s nothing to see one. man have three billboards in a quarter mile or four in a mile, like all on the same stretch. And it’s like, we get it, but they got the large money to spend on those billboards. And people like me, I have to be very strategic in where I advertise because it’s throwing a rock into the ocean versus a boulder. I got to find a pond and make a splash in that pond. And that’s what I’ve been doing. more so in the suburbs and some of the other areas to get some recognition. Then eventually I’ll start trying to bite off some of that back in Philly again, because I’ve done a commercial in Philly. I’ve had a couple of places where I put some stuff up. You got to have a huge war chest in the area like Philly and you got to have a bunch of locations or else you’re just hoping that you hit one neighborhood and everybody looks up and say, yeah, we’ll call it. But it didn’t work that way in Philly.

Chad Sands: What do you think about the chatter and what’s going on with the non-lawyers who are starting to have ownership in this article? I read a lot about the outside parties who are coming into Philadelphia and these non-lawyers are kind of like celebrities who are running ads. I shouldn’t say celebrities necessarily. Maybe they think they’re celebrities, but running ads saying that if you’ve got injured in a car crash, call me, but they’re actually not an attorney at all. Are you seeing some of that?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: Yeah, that’s always been around. Certainly there’s an uptick in it and there’s a huge uptick on social media, right? You go through my Instagram, there’s nothing for me to have about 40 % of it, non-attorney advertisements to help get leads. And that’s really what they’re doing to help you get leads. To be honest with you, it does not bother me so much because they don’t have the ultimate law degree and recognition as a person that can go into court. become a public figure, anything like that. You just guys offering to sell leads or like some commercials have like hotlines. So the injury hotline or the injury help, but those are things they say they got commercial with phone banks and all that. it’s a telethon or something. centers. Yeah. And it’s like really they’re set up for one of us to call them and say, Hey, give me the leads when they call in. And more often than not in the city like Philly, you’re just wasting your money because unless you swallow up most of their leads, you’re competing with everybody else to be the first one to get that person. So I don’t think it’s a big deal in that regards. Non-lawyers still can’t have any ownership whatsoever in the law firm. As big as they are, while at S.R., they can’t squeeze people like us out because they can’t actually own the business. The only thing they can own is marketing, and we all have abilities to market in this area. I’m fortunate that There are only about 100,000 African-American lawyers nationwide. In the Philadelphia area, it’s only a couple thousand. Now, when you talk about personal injury, that on the plaintiff’s side, that have any type of visibility or business, less than 10. In that regards, it doesn’t bother me because I always say my competition is myself. I just have to be more active in putting my brand out there because you’re not going to see many people looking like me in a city that 50 % do look like me. So that’s also where I’ve been able to benefit from not having to market a lot because if someone in the inner city specifically says they’re looking for a minority lawyer, African-American lawyer, it’s not a whole bunch of list of names they can go through. That list is going to be very short, regardless of what, if you say criminal defense, you’re talking about a couple. Say family, talk to a So whatever area is only a couple. I’m fortunate to be in that environment and in that class. So when I do pick opportunities to kind of blast myself out there, hits. a little bit better. So some of these other bigger people that are doing some of this other grand scale marketing, it doesn’t hurt me pretty much at all because I always have an opportunity to jump into some places that they can’t necessarily go to.

Chad Sands: running a different strategy. You mentioned the $700 divorce case that you took as a favor that led to that referral. And you’ve been doing this a long time in Philadelphia. I’m sure you’ve seen a lot of cases through the years. Could you share a story about a case that had a significant impact on you?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: So I do civil rights cases. They don’t come all the time, but when they do, it’s a special feeling. 2022. And still off of the hills, right? Of George Floyd and all the other stuff, Colin Kaepernick, like all of police brutality type stuff. Right. Yes. So I had one police misconduct. The central facts were Philadelphia police officer planted a gun

Chad Sands: Okay, post-code.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: on an ex-felon who if convicted would have went to jail basically for about 10 to 20, 23, whatever, what his previous record could have been anything. So this was a case to where it made his way through the criminal ranks. First case was a hung jury. So that means they had to do it again. Second case was not guilty. Now I had nothing to do with these. These is all before me. But now once those two things happened, it was clear, oh, he has a civil rights case for police misconduct.

Chad Sands: Because there was that not guilty verdict. Yeah. Can you talk about did the cop just like sneak a gun into his car and have him pulled over?

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: What happened with this case is my client, as a lot of times some younger guys do, especially if they grew up in the inner city, they’re friends of their family. And even though you come home and you kind of getting yourself together, these are your guys, these are your friends. You’re gonna hang out with them, talk to them, whatever. So he’s hanging out in neighborhood with some friends and a friend of a friend’s coming out and mad about it. And these guys, I just got robbed. And he’s waving a gun and like just going off. A concerned neighbor calls the cops. So, hey, this guy out here with a gun waving it around. So when the cops show up, then everybody starts to disperse. My client being the slow footed, non-squared about a guy just walking away, cops grab him up. Hey, what are you doing? Where’s the gun? I don’t know.

Chad Sands: He had nothing to worry about. Right.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: So the guy who had the gun tossed it and drove off. So when the cops grab my client, it’s, okay, well, if you’re not gonna tell us who guns it is, it’s yours. Lock him up, he’s in jail for about 18 months, waiting trial for all this to happen. The arresting officer, his story did not hold up between the two trials. That’s all to me why my client was found not guilty. What everyone missed. is something very simple because different lawyers, different cases don’t always see the same things, which is why I always make sure it’s more than one person on the trial with me. Because I see a lot, but I still miss stuff too. They forwarded on testimony. The cops testimony didn’t stand up. Jury says, oh, he’s lying or whatever. The most simplest thing that everyone missed, and I caught it during trial, because I didn’t have to file before trial. My friend called me and said, hey, you want to try this case with me? Absolutely, let’s go. It was a piece of evidence. So when Police officers seize property, they write up receipts, generally with a narrative of the condition, take a picture, et cetera, et cetera. One of the most simple things is while this cop was saying that my client had this gun and presumptively was shaking it around and et cetera, et cetera, and then tossed it, what he stated is he took a picture of it in a place on the ground before he arrested my client, logged it probably and said, and the gun was fully loaded with a magazine in it. Now that’s important because he’s a felon. It’s a gun. It’s loaded. Like it’s all these steps. So he’s basically stacking a deck. Yes. What if anyone would have just took a look at the pictures deeply, it would have been completely obvious that when you look at the picture, the gun is not loaded. It was a Glock and Glock’s have the magazine that we jut out. The reason they know that is because I own a Glock and I’m looking at it hold up. There’s no… Clip in here, you guys let him get through two trials without dealing with this? I said, no problem, we gonna get him today. And when we called him in our case, not only did he backtrack and was like, well, you know, what they do is like, okay, good. His own lawyer got up during “Closing Argument”s and said, well, you know, some cops make mistakes and things get the, I promise you, it was one of my best closings ever. You should have saw it. Cause I was outraged. I said, that’s not what his client said. So why is this lawyer now making up a fourth thing? Like it was bad. It was bad. And the only thing that saved him from a ridiculous runaway verdict is that we didn’t have any information that this cop had other misconducts for all intents and purposes, whatever he was doing over the years, he just got away with. But that’s the case that was one to where it was for everything we think about sometimes of how unfair justice is and we want to catch people red-handed and all that. That was a good one. They ended up giving my client I believe it was like 270,000 or something. Like it was a nice good amount and he was 28, 27, like he was a younger guy. It was just a great feeling of how it all turned out. Again, especially during that timeframe that we were in and prior to trial, they offered us 5,000 because they thought it was the dumbest case we could even bring and they just were looking at us like we didn’t know what we were doing. Give him five, like what you care? Give him five grand, let him go buy it. Yeah, go away.

Chad Sands: Just give them five grand. You’ll be happy with five.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: Yeah, turning five grand into 250 during that time was a good turnout, great turnout.

Chad Sands: and calling out a cop who basically took a photo.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Report. Absolutely. And stuck by it, stuck to it two times. And I can always be honest and say the takeaway is the flip side to that, which is the whole inner city idea of no snitching and all that. Could have landed my client in jail for a decade and a half. And I’m never a fan of that. It worked out in his favor, but that’s the cautionary tale about all this, that all of this could have been avoided by not taking that and just saying, it’s not mine. Here’s who it is. I’m not going to jail for you and move on. It just so happened that he was fortunate and when it all worked out, he walked away with $250,000 verdict. So, works out sometimes. And meanwhile, the officer who did this left Philly and went to a whole another district and probably raising hell over there now, but it’s not our problem.

Chad Sands: Maybe you have a story about a personal injury case that you’ve took on over the years that stuck with

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: It’s like asking a parent who their favorite child is when put on a spot is always tough. One of the more recent ones I would say is a case to where a couple months ago, this is right, happened, a car transporter, he transports vehicles like when you see on the highway, nine, 10 cars on the track, the trailers, that’s what he does for a living.

Chad Sands: I’ve always wondered about those like, man, what if you’re driving like 10 new Hondas on accident happens on one of those.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: Luckily, they normally don’t happen because the easy thing to do is to tie everything down and then they actually have regulations to where the first 50 miles, you got to stop and check again to make sure that they don’t move and all that. And then you got to check every couple of hours. If they follow those guidelines, nothing happened. And even what happened to my client is a one in a million situation. What happened is, because again, I’m nuts, somebody called me while the case was already in litigation and said, hey, I need local counsel. Can you help me out? Sure. I’ll jump into a fire with gasoline in my bottle. It was so bad. I said, hold on, I don’t think I can do this one. And I called up a bunch of colleagues who I know are money hungry that I thought in the main years would jump on it. So again, two things. Not only did everybody pass, most of them did not even read the file. So they had assumptions on what was going on with the case. And I’m like, well, hold on, all right. If I’m stuck with it now, let me figure out what’s really going on. And immediately I saw what everybody was missing. so I didn’t tell you what happened. What happened was when he got, put up the trucks and cars and the last one he picked up was in Atlanta at an auction where they just get a forklift, put it on, tie it down and you’re on your way. When he got up here in a suburb of Philly and he was taking the car off, he was in it, released the emergency brake and the car free fall down the ramp. He fell out and it ran over his leg. crush his ankle. Yeah, so imagine coming down the ramp, it’s a truck, so the lift gate hits the concrete. He falls out and while he’s falling out, the truck runs over his leg. Great damage is great injuries, but the way this happened, everybody was afraid of because the way it works in these scenarios is every car, they give you a dispatch sheet and they tell you the condition of the car. So don’t think about new cars like nine Hondas or eight Benz’s or something like that. This is just all random cars throughout particular time. He’s taking them from A to B, putting together a time like a GPS. So all right, this car is over here. So he gets a car from the auction. It says the car is operable, meaning he can turn it on, drive it down the ramp and take it out. Because if it’s not operable, he has to get special equipment or work for, I mean, set up so that somebody can pick up at the other end. Because he’s not a mechanic. He’s not going to figure out why the car doesn’t run like none of that. It’s either it works or it doesn’t. They gave him paperwork saying the car worked, excuse me, truck. So when he got in and trying to crank it, it’s not starting. All right, no big deal. It’s at the end. I’ve done this a thousand times. I can just get in it, put it on, put it in neutral and just slide down. What he didn’t know is the drive shaft was taken out. So as soon as he let go of the emergency brake, it free fell because there’s no way to stop it without a drive shaft. And that’s why he fell out and it ran over him. There was a case to where, again, they offered zero. Nothing because the attorney on the other side was boasting from day one, I’m going to get the case kicked out of court. I’m going get the judge to admit like he was nasty to hold. So like it was bad. All I say, we took it to trial, got a verdict. Now the downside is it’s in federal court in Pennsylvania. That’s a whole jury pool that is traditionally conservative and quite frankly could have just said. No, what he did wasn’t smart, which is to say when it didn’t start, he should have called for another tow truck or a forklift or something and not did it. The fact that he went through it. And that’s what my college was saying. Nah, we don’t want parts of that because it’s going to be defense verdict and set, et cetera.

Chad Sands: Right. He should have known that if the car wasn’t starting, something was off based on the paperwork that he got. But instead he was like, I’ve done this before. I’m just going to use the e-brake method.

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: Exactly. So they said some of it was his fault in that regards. We still got a verdict in money should have been more but again, that’s one things to wear. I don’t disparage wins, wins or wins. I just figure out how to do better and do more. But that was one. So again, it’s the case nobody wanted and myself and my co-counsel, my sister, we said, all right, well, it’s on us. We got to go. Let’s go. And we did. A different jewelry, different place. Maybe it was a million dollars, but. for this area, it was on par. They normally give out for cakes like that. But the biggest thing and what we live for is when it’s all said and done, I’m listening to hear when a client says you did your thing or you did your best or man, you’re awesome or amazing. That’s what I’m looking for. Money that comes from it is the icing on the cake. But I need to know. My reputation is solid. I need my client to know that I didn’t leave anything on the table. I didn’t sandbag it. I didn’t play around. Like that’s what gives me the motivation to keep doing it. And that’s the one that most recently stuck.

Narrator: At CloudLex, we understand the unique demands and opportunities that personal injury law firms face every day. That’s why we’ve built a comprehensive platform designed exclusively for personal injury law. Our seamless case management, AI engine, litigation support, and record retrieval solutions empower you at every stage, from intake through settlement and beyond, helping you stay productive, organized, and focused on achieving successful outcomes for your clients.1 Explore what’s possible at www.cloudlex.com. Now here is this episode’s “Closing Argument.”

Gary L. Bailey Jr.: There’s two professions here, especially in America, to where literally a person’s life is in your hands. That’s a doctor and a lawyer. Most doctors are here to treat people and prevent sickness and death. We as lawyers more often than not are trying to protect someone’s life from incarceration or somebody’s liberty or property. Generally comes down to some type of money or rights. When you’re looking for a lawyer, the first thing you should look for is someone that’s passionate about what they do. Again, same as a doctor. They’re not passionate about saving lives. You probably don’t want them. As a lawyer, if a lawyer is not passionate about helping people and helping you get justice for your circumstance, it’s probably not the best lawyer for you. Just think about that. Think about Who is the person most passionate and wanting to help you get the results that you need and deserve? As for myself and my firm, that’s our mission statement. We leave our ego and our attitude at the door. It’s always about the clients first, second, and last. Making sure that we do everything that is best for the client and we get the best results. To my fellow colleagues and trial lawyers out there, I would encourage you to try cases, to file, do the work, and also end up in front of a judge in the jury and get a verdict. Because our opponents and the insurance companies will not give us what we deserve unless we go get it. And once we go get it, chances are they won’t make us go get it again. So try cases. And then also try the cases that are a little bit difficult. that you may or may not want for two reasons. One, because always remember if it’s a difficult case and you don’t want it, that person may not give representation. But two, you will learn and you will do better and be better from trying those difficult cases, win, lose or draw. So don’t be afraid of that particular outcome. be encouraged by all of the outcomes afterwards because if they know you’re going to take them all the way, they’re going to think twice about bluffing you or trying to take you to the distance.

Chad Sands: That was trial lawyer Gary Bailey. Thanks for sharing your stories. To learn more about Gary and his firm, visit their website: Baileylawassociates.com. All right, I’m Chad Sands. Thanks for listening. See you next time.

Narrator: You’ve been listening to “Celebrating Justice” presented by CloudLex and the Trial Lawyers Journal. Remember, the stories don’t end here. Visit www.triallawyersjournal.com to become part of our community and keep the conversation going. And for a deeper dive into the tools that empower personal injury law firms, visit www.cloudlex.com/tlj to learn more.