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Sidebar - It Doesn't Happen Overnight (Building Your Expert Practice, Part 1) · Statutes & Stethoscopes | Trial Lessons for Medical Injury Lawyers

• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: This is Statue Two Steps.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Tracy Libertori.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Every episode I take one place where medicine and the courtroom collide and break down what actually works.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: If you're a clinician who wants this work, or an attorney who needs an expert who can hold up, you're in the right place.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Hello again, everyone.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Today we're starting something new on sidebar.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: For the next few episodes, I want to talk about the business side of being a medical expert.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Not the standard of care, not causation, not the words in your report, the practice itself, how it grows, how long does it take, and what you can do about it.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to start with the one conversation I have more than any other.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: An expert signs on, their CV is done, their profile is up, and they're excited.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And a few weeks later, sometimes a couple of months later, I get an email.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't had a case yet.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: What exactly are you doing for me?
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I understand the feeling.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I do really.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: You put yourself out there and you want to see something come back.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: But I want to walk you through what's really happening behind the scenes because once you see it, the timeline makes a lot more sense.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: So let's start with the big one.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Number one, this is a business, not a job.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: And it is not a get rich quick scheme, and there is no such thing as an overnight success.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you take a staff position, you show up and somebody hands you patients.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Medical legal work doesn't work that way.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: You're building a practice.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: And just like any practice, it starts slow and it builds over time.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: Think about how you'd open a clinic.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody signs a lease on Monday and has a full schedule by Friday.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: You get credentialed, you get known, a few people try you, and if you're good, they come back and they tell other people.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: That's exactly how this works.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: The difference is that your patients are attorneys, and attorneys are careful about who they trust with their cases.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Number two, attorneys move on their own clock, and the courts move even slower.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: Here's something a lot of new experts don't realize: an attorney may not need a nurse or a physician expert the day they take the case.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: They may sign a client, request records, and then wait months for those records to come in.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: And only then do they go looking for an expert.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: A case you'd be perfect for might be sitting in somebody's office right now, and you won't hear about it until next spring.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: And once you are retained, the work comes in waves.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: You review, you write, and then the case may go quiet for a while.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: Even a year, sometimes two, while it works through the court systems and potentially trying to settle.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Depositions then get scheduled and rescheduled.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: Trials get scheduled and continued.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Cases settle.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: None of that is in your control, and honestly, most of it isn't in mine either.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: Number three, nobody can promise you a number.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody does, run really fast in the opposite direction.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want to be really, really clear about this because it matters.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: I have never promised any expert a certain number of cases, and I never will.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: No honest firm can.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Every expert is different.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Your specialty, your credentials, your personality, where you're licensed, how available you are, how many attorneys need someone like you this year, what specialty are you in?
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: What is the case value for your specialty?
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: There are way too many moving parts for anyone to say you're gonna have five cases by June or July.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: If somebody does promise you that, as I said, be really careful.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's a sales pitch, not a plan.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Number four, here's what a good firm can do.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: What a firm like ours can do is shorten the distance between starting at the beginning and being busy.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: We can make sure your CV reads like a medical legal CV and not a hospital job application.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: We can put a profile in front of attorneys searching for your specialty.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: We can publish articles so that you show up as someone who knows something about the subject.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: We can put you on our website, we can do SEO.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: We can vet the attorney in the case before it ever reaches you, run the conflict check, collect the retainer, organize the records, and handle the billing.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: And we can help you write a report that holds up when opposing counsel goes through it line by line.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: That's real and that has significant value.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: But all of it is acceleration.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a switch that we flip.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Number five, your part matters as much as ours.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: The experts who get busy are the ones who treat this like a practice.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: They answer the phone, they turn reports around on time, they call people back, they keep learning, they write, they show up prepared for depositions, and they do good work because the best marketing in this field is an attorney who calls you again and tells a colleague about you.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to spend a whole episode on that next time.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: The things that you control.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So, what's a realistic expectation?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you how to think about it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your first year is a building year.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're laying the foundation, your profile is getting indexed, your name is getting seen, and attorneys are deciding whether they trust you.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: Some experts get a case early, some wait a little bit longer.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Both is normal.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: What isn't normal is expecting it to happen in a few weeks and giving up before the foundation is ever even set.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Building a business takes time, patience, and diligence.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: It is not a get-rich quick plan.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: And anybody who's built anything worth having knows that.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: So here's your quick cheat sheet.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: This is a practice you're building, not a job that you're starting.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: It starts slow and it builds over time.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Attorneys look for experts on their own timeline, and courts move slower than that.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: A quiet month doesn't mean nothing is happening.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: No honest firm can promise you a number of cases or a timeline.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: If someone does, be very careful and wary.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: A good firm shortens the road.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't make the road disappear.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Your effort, your responsiveness, and the quality of your work are a big part of how busy you will become.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: This is educational information, not legal advice, not financial or business advice.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: Every expert's experience is different.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's no promise or guarantee of any number of cases, hours, income, or any timeline.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: And the time and effort you put in helps determine how busy you will become.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: This episode of Statutes and Stephenscopes.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: If it was useful, follow the show so the next one finds you.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're a clinician who wants to do this work properly, start with the Expert Report Starter Kit at Nationalexpert Academy.com.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Tracy Livetori.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see you on the next episode.