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Whitley Law Firm - Sitting Down with Bob and Ben Whitley Celebrating 50 Years. · The Erica Show

• 0:00
  It's Erica DeLong here. I'm so excited. So I have Bob and Ben
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  Whitley in studio today and y'a are celebrating fifty years, which is a huge
• 0:08
  milestone. That's right, Erica. I'm real glad that my dad's right here
• 0:11
  with me. We've been still we're going to be celebrating this year fifty years
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  of practice of law, of representing clients all over North Carolina. Yeah.
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  I started in nineteen seventy four, so when you were born. Things have
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  really changed in those fifty years. But the one thing that has not changed
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  is the dedication and the commitment that's necessary to represent each one of our clients
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  like it's our only client, and we have a lot of clients, but
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  the principle is to treat it just like it's the only client, get the
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  best results possible, and more importantly, be respectful and courteous throughout the relationship.
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  So the Whitley advantage, well, you always hear you saying the Whitley
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  advantage. Can you explain exactly what is that? Well, it's magic and
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  it means a lot of things. It means everything. It goes back to
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  the core of our firm, which is we build our firm on client and
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  client service and getting good results and working really hard to get those results,
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  and clients know that. So I think all of that. I think you
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  walk in our office and you feel the energy and the it's like a family
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  when you come in. Everybody seems happy and just really connected to one another
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  and your your goal. So all of that is part of the Whitley advantage.
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  What makes y'all different than everybody else. What you see, what you
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  hear is what you get. You know, we are the folks that are
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  working on your case, and the folks that are working with us are sharing
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  our values, our determination to make sure that we get the best result possible,
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  and also even our marketing. We don't like to, you know,
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  yell and scream or get on cars and trucks and yell about money we've gotten
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  for different people. I think the bottom line is service experience, and and
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  you really do have that expert knowledge North Carolina born and bred, serving all
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  of North Carolina. Why is it so important you have an experienced attorney on
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  your side. You're up against a big insurance company with all the resources in
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  the world, and usually you haven't been through that before. So you need
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  someone you know, you need peace of mind, you need somebody to hold
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  your hand, but you also need a fighting gladiator, and you know,
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  we try to combine all of that into the Whitley advantage. So what is
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  the best way? Because I know you answered the call. Ben's told me
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  many times, Hey, we answer the call. What is the best way
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  to get a hold of someone over at Whitley Law Firm Erica. They can
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  call that the you know, they can call it one eight hundred number,
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  one eight hundred seven eighty five five thousand. That's again, that's one eight
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  hundred seven eight five five thousand. They can also go to our website Whitleylawfirm
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  dot com and we have live agents that you can chat with. And these
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  are real people. These aren't AI bots or anything like that. These are
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  real intake specialist who are there to chat with you. You actually can sign
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  up handle your entire case online if that's what you want to do, and
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  you can speak to an attorney online. So lots of ways to get in
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  touch. The most important thing to know that it's a free call. It's
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  a free consultation. We do not get paid anything unless we're successful in win
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  your case or selling, which is a big thing because some people are fearful
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  saying they can't afford an attorney because they don't have the funds for an unexpected
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  life event. What do you say to that, Well, our fee is
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  always on a percentage a contingency basis. If we do not recover for our
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  clients, then we don't have a fee. And that's okay. We kind
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  of know what cases we're going to take. We bond with our clients.
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  And by the way, Ben mentioned the AI people in the bots. We
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  didn't even have fax machines in nineteen seventy four, much much less AI robots,
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  and I'm not sure I know what they are anyway. Well, that's
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  all right. Well, a lot of time, a lot of firms when
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  thinks about we think about what makes us different is that we have the human
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  touch, the human feel, the big hug. And part of that is
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  the communication, you know, and a lot of firms use artificial intelligence.
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  They use folks that are outside of the country to answer to their call centers
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  and their tax the Whitley Law Firm, you've got real people that are answering
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  the call, either on the phone or online, and it's free, the
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  calls, free personal injury, things like that. You're going through a really
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  hard time in life. You don't want a robot. You need that hug,
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  You need that person to walk you through every step. This is some
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  of the most difficult times in folks lives. Their livelihood is at stake.
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  They don't know what the next day holds, much less the next week,
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  and they're often suffering horrendous medical injuries. And the expectations are fairly low.
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  I almost see client surprise when I welcome into the office, shake their hand,
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  I pat them on the back because they have such low expectations. The
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  Whitley advantage just kind of sparkles out at you and grabs you. Fifty years
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  over the last fifty years. What's something that you've noticed that's changed in a
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  good way over the fifty years. Well, technology. We used to get
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  phone messages on a red slip that would be put on the desk. We
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  didn't have fax machines in nineteen seventy four, not to my knowledge, So
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  I think technology has improved. The one thing I don't like about the technology
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  and the fast pace that's going on. I used to meet with every single
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  client, usually even before they became a client and I missed that personal touch.
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  And I really emphasize to our lawyers spend time with our clients. You
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  can't be their advocate if you don't understand completely what they're going through. And
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  they'll tell you and your staff too. They always seem very happy. And
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  just because y'all treat your staff just like family as well, well, how
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  can we expect our staff to treat our clients better than we treat our staff?
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  Right? So that's always work, okay, So what are some of
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  the cases that you're frequently picking up and working with. I know you can
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  handle everything or outsourced to the right person, Erica. A lot of times
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  we do see a lot of car crash cases that occur in the area.
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  Unfortunately, that's something that's, of course we don't like to see, but
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  that is the nature of growth. Is you have more traffic, there's more
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  distractions on the road, so there's obviously there's a lot of car crashes.
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  Sometimes there's car crashes are caused by distracted or impair drivers. You know a
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  lot of things that we also see and handle tragically, or construction accident cases.
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  Those because again and we're talking about an area of growth, there's a
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  lot of construction, so it's workers compensation cases, from car crash cases to
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  any type of a case where you may be hurt on the property of a
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  business that was negligent and caused you to fall. And one thing that I've
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  concentrated on these last ten years wrongful death claims. If you think about it,
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  that is the very worst personal injury you can have. You're actually killed
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  as a result of someone else's negligence. And I guess maybe because of my
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  family background, you get to know the families and if you think about there
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  couldn't be anything worse happen to a family to unexpectedly lose a loved one,
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  and there are various emotions. There's anger, there's a lot of times there's
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  guilt that's not justified. And I think with experience you learn to kind of
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  navigate those various feelings. And it's really never about money. They want their
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  loved one back, but that's not going to happen. And sadly, the
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  only thing we can do in order to get justice for that family and get
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  responsibility is to recover money. But that is a tragedy, it is,
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  and sow these cases can result from motorcycle crashes or large tractor trailer crashes.
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  Some folks ask me, Ben, do you need a certain type of lawyer
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  to handle a certain type of case. I see lawyers saying that they handle
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  just big truck cases. What you really need, Erica, is an experience
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  lawyer, you know. And that's one of the things that we're doing this
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  year is celebrating fifty years of experience, of trust of results with Bob Whitley.
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  And you know, we handle cases from the mountains to the coast,
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  all of these different prapas areas, but we handle it with a lot of
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  care, a lot of compassion, and we handle it with the Whitley advantage.
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  So not only do you treat your clients like family, you also give
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  back in a big way. And I know you are always very charitable.
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  What are some of the things that y'all do on a regular basis. Well,
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  you know, Dad always taught me the importance of the giving back to
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  the community that has provided you your own success. And so as this as
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  we have become a voice for this community and community has turned to us,
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  we want to always think to reinvest back in that with different various charities.
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  You know, I just did one where we gave to Gabby's, which is
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  an organization for undeveloped children that have been able to find jobs. We do
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  that through the Community Cares, partnership with WORL and various others. So that's
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  been something that has been a very big part of making sure that we invest
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  back in the communities that we live and work in. Whitleylawfirm dot com.
• 9:07
  They answer the call amazing folks. I just love being partnered with y'all,
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  and it's really nice to celebrate fifty years with you. It's nice to be here