S4 Eps 15: Trey Barton Interview

Speaker A: Lift off, take off.

Speaker B: Let's do this.

Speaker A: Welcome back to another edition of the Dirty Verdict podcast. I'm one of your hosts, Peter Taff, joined as always by caller.

Speaker B: I love going first, baby. Let's do this.

Speaker A: And Bill Ogden.

Speaker C: Hey, pleasure to be here. Pete and I are not on drugs this time yet.

Speaker A: All right, well, we are joined by another great guest, a long time mediate mediation, uh, party of mine, Trey Barton. Thanks for coming, Trey. Thanks, Trey.

Speaker B: Did you bring the drugs for Bill and Pete?

Speaker D: No. Nope, I did not. No, they were already here when I got here.

Speaker A: Kyle likes it. Yeah, that's right. Kyle likes to start things off on

Speaker B: a. I just like to dive right in with both feet, you know, he

Speaker C: thinks everything's a roast.

Speaker B: I'm here, I'm here to honor the veterans and I think we just go right up the beach. We're right after Memorial Day for those.

Speaker A: That's right.

Speaker B: Keeping score at.

Speaker D: Huh.

Speaker A: So Trey, uh, noted to me that we apparently don't bring Aggies on the show. And so we are, we're. We have a. We actually do one per year.

Speaker D: One per year. I get to be the lucky one.

Speaker B: Is that right? We do one a year.

Speaker C: M. I feel like we've had a few.

Speaker B: I think we should do three a year to honor their points scored in the college playoff.

Speaker C: Ouch.

Speaker A: Yeah, there you go.

Speaker B: Hey, that is the kind of quick witted Aggie hate that you don't get with just any host. Yeah, like that's been stewing for a while.

Speaker D: Yeah, no, I watched a couple of shows and everyone I watched was, uh, was a. A Longhorn. Yeah, I didn't get through the full years to be able to see the one per year.

Speaker A: But you know, it's uh, meter, uh, 1, Busby, 2, 3 about it.

Speaker C: Buzby's been on twice.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. Metzger's been on multiple times.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: And now we're in year four and I get to be number one.

Speaker C: Yeah, there you go.

Speaker B: There are some other Aggies out there we could maybe have on. But it's to be fair, we've given the Baylor folks a fair shake. We've had a lot of Baylor folks. I don't you know how I feel about that.

Speaker A: How about law school, Trey? Where'd you go?

Speaker D: I went to South Texas. Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's the dominant law school by far.

Speaker B: That's a theme hands down for sure.

Speaker A: Um, okay, well, Trey, you're originally from LaGrange, Texas.

Speaker D: Banana LaGrange, Texas, born and raised.

Speaker A: Which I think I Will highly commend lagrange. Um, I went. I saw Steve Warner with one of my oldest sons at the. Whatever county that is. What is it? County fair. Yeah, county fair. Yeah. And it was a very nice county fair. Everyone was very nice, and Steve Warner was great.

Speaker B: I think the buffalo.

Speaker D: No, Leopards.

Speaker B: Gettings.

Speaker D: Buffalo. Leopards. Yeah.

Speaker B: Maybe, uh, the greatest ZZ Top song of all time.

Speaker D: La Grange.

Speaker B: Have you met those guys?

Speaker D: Uh, actually, one of them lives down. I live out in Richmond and one lives down the street. Is it like.

Speaker A: Not.

Speaker D: Not down the street. Down the street.

Speaker B: Is it Dusty Rhodes?

Speaker D: No, it's a beard that doesn't have a beard.

Speaker A: Oh, they drummer.

Speaker B: Bummer.

Speaker D: Yeah, I think.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: Well, yeah, Lagrange, the one named Beard, and he's the only one that doesn't have a beard.

Speaker B: In any event, lagrange. Leopards.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Solid stuff.

Speaker A: Giddings.

Speaker B: Buffalo.

Speaker A: Yeah, There you go.

Speaker B: I spent a night in Giddings, and I think Lagrange was the next town over.

Speaker D: Yeah, it's about 20 minutes away. Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah. If you go 290 between Austin, Houston, you hit gettings. If you go 71. LaGrange.

Speaker B: Oh, well, I was staying in Lagrange and on a pear farm.

Speaker D: I think you'd have been 77.

Speaker A: Yeah, 77 connection. There you go. Uh, it's a.

Speaker B: Kind of a long story.

Speaker C: Wouldn't it be Orchard?

Speaker A: You sure wasn't a Chicken Ranch.

Speaker B: It was not. Was there slime in the ice machine?

Speaker A: Yeah, uh, it could be.

Speaker C: Were there any small dogs do they make.

Speaker B: Do they make lagrange jokes about the Chicken Ranch? If you grow up there, like, do you know, like, you grow up knowing that story?

Speaker D: Oh, we know the story. Yeah. Yeah. It's a. It became a restaurant in Dallas. Like, they actually moved the building to Dallas.

Speaker B: What?

Speaker D: Yeah, that just.

Speaker B: That just talks a lot about the heart and soul of Dallas, right? Corrupt.

Speaker C: What heart?

Speaker B: Ugly. Corrupt.

Speaker A: Was it?

Speaker B: How far Contemptible humans.

Speaker A: How far out of town was it

Speaker D: if, you know, it was gone by the time I was born? I was born in 81, and it was. I think Zindler got rid of it in 76.

Speaker B: Okay. Sorry, Yvette.

Speaker C: Thank God. Sorry, Mom. My mom watched.

Speaker A: Kyle's got everything out of his system now.

Speaker B: I'm out. I'm good.

Speaker D: I'm okay. That's funny you say, because my mom's actually going to watch this episode.

Speaker C: 100%.

Speaker B: What's your mom's name?

Speaker D: Nani.

Speaker B: Nani.

Speaker D: Nani.

Speaker B: Uh, that's a great Nani. We're looking Forward to, uh, interviewing your son. We'll be as gentle as we can be.

Speaker C: He's doing great. He's doing great.

Speaker A: Now that Kyle's already dropped some offensive language. Yeah, did I. But all good. Okay.

Speaker D: So.

Speaker A: So Trey, um. So you moved to Lagrange at some point and then graduated from there and then went to A and M. Yeah,

Speaker D: I was born in Lagrange, lived there in the same house my whole life, and then went to A and M and spent four years in a victory lap there.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker D: Moved to Houston, uh, to do student teaching. I taught at, ah, uh, Intermediate school in Clear Lake for a year and then I was at Katy High School.

Speaker C: Which intermediate school?

Speaker D: Victory Lakes.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker D: Yeah. And then I was at Katy High School coaching basketball and teaching special ed for six years and then back to law school.

Speaker B: What subject did you teach in middle school?

Speaker D: Uh, it was, um, math, science and history on. I had sixth, seventh and eighth grade students that were on a second, third and fourth grade level.

Speaker C: Did you coach as well?

Speaker D: I coach, yeah.

Speaker C: Because that's like the. Those are the classes that coaches usually do.

Speaker D: Yeah. So I coached basketball and football in middle school and then just basketball.

Speaker C: Now I don't swat anyone with a paddle.

Speaker D: I did not.

Speaker C: I was the last one in Deer park to get one.

Speaker B: That doesn't surprise me even a little.

Speaker C: I was shout out to Coach McLaughlin. I learned a lot from it.

Speaker B: So none of us here actually believe in science and we are, uh, find math contemptible. But history is a pretty cool topic.

Speaker D: Yeah. Yeah, it was good. I mean, I had the. The ability to teach on a second, third and fourth grade level.

Speaker B: That's. I mean that. That is really commendable work, to be honest. That, I mean, it really is pretty cool.

Speaker A: So did you. So let's see. You're probably, what, by the time you start law school, you're about 28.

Speaker D: I started at 30.

Speaker A: Got, uh, it. Okay.

Speaker D: I graduated at 33.

Speaker B: Does. Did. Oh, sorry. Just say did. Educating people on a second or third grade level and like essentially a remedial rubric prepare you better to deal with judges and lawyers or law professors.

Speaker D: It helps with my patience, for sure.

Speaker B: I mean, I really do think that's got to be a pretty good lateral comparison.

Speaker C: I don't think that. I think all of the judges I've ever been in front of are amazing intellects.

Speaker B: Yeah. Honest, smart and intelligent. But I mean, but you practice mostly in a different county, so I don't know if your experience is the same as mine. And bills there.

Speaker A: It took Kyle like Five times. Asking a judge or telling a judge. Let me dumb it down for you. Finally, before he finally got the message. They don't know. That's not, that's not. You guys come up with another term.

Speaker B: Judge. I'm not a smart man.

Speaker A: Yeah. Uh, so what is there legal in your background, family background, or what made you decide to do it?

Speaker D: So I was, uh, I was coaching and teaching and I was in year three and, um, I started calculating when I could retire. And I was like, it was age 52.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah, because it's like 80 years age plus.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: Years of service.

Speaker D: Of service. And I was like, man, I don't want to spend the next 25 years counting down. And so I actually started taking MBA, uh, classes online while I was still coaching. And I realized I needed to go back and do it. And I was between getting my MBA or going to law school, and I actually chose going to law school planning to do real estate stuff. Then I got into law school and, uh.

Speaker A: Like.

Speaker B: Like real estate transactions?

Speaker D: Yeah, real estate transactions.

Speaker B: Do you have any back. Do you have any background in that or you just thought it'd be cool?

Speaker C: Yeah, I wanted to go into mergers and acquisitions. I didn't know what it was. It sounded cool.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: It turns out not cool.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: Yeah. But then I, I ended up doing. I ended up getting a. Clerking with a, uh, real estate firm and realized how boring it was. Then I clerked with a judge.

Speaker B: What firm was it?

Speaker D: I was at Varian Sewer.

Speaker B: Interesting.

Speaker D: A lot of evictions and stuff like that.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Okay. Um, then I clerked with Judge, uh, Elliott and Judge Shoemake and got to see some trials.

Speaker B: Oh, cool.

Speaker D: And I was like, yeah, that's what I want to do.

Speaker C: Judge Shoemake. Solid.

Speaker A: Did you do, uh, my trial at something?

Speaker D: I didn't. So I was, you know, got in at age 30. I was already married with two kids, so I was getting in. I got out in two and a half years.

Speaker B: You couldn't spend every night up there practicing mock trial nonsense.

Speaker C: How's that conversation go with your wife? Like, hey, I don't think we're in enough debt and I don't really want to work for the next three years. Well, I'm going to work, but I'm not going to get paid for it.

Speaker D: So I actually, uh, after I didn't work my first year, they wouldn't let us. But after my first year, I worked a full time job and took classes. I took classes on Monday and Wednesday, 18 hours of classes. And then worked 40 hours a week.

Speaker C: Well, if you want to unbox some of that trauma, now's the time.

Speaker B: Well, welcome to our lazy conversation with Mr. Barton. Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker A: So what were you working? A law firm. Those other.

Speaker D: I worked at Varian Sewer for about a year and a half and then I got on at uh, Johansson and Fairless my last semester and clerked with them.

Speaker B: So why do they only hire people from A and M and Texas Tech? Are they discriminating against the rest of the world?

Speaker D: I mean, Johansson's, Baylor and. I don't know.

Speaker C: I uh, don't, uh.

Speaker B: I'm just going to give a shout out to Chris Wolf. Yeah.

Speaker D: Volvo, my favorite.

Speaker B: Fearless. And Johansson Liar.

Speaker C: Is it Randy?

Speaker D: Parallel Randy? Uh, yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah, I've had a case, a few, couple questions. Long time ago I haven't had. I haven't seen him in probably 10 years.

Speaker B: I used to love calling Chris Wolf before he was a media. I say, chris, what's going on? He'd pick up the phone, he'd go ball. Hey, Chris, how you doing? What's up, Kyle?

Speaker A: So funny. So, uh, yeah, so that was a good group. And it back at least when you started kind of Fort Bend, that was the defense insurance defense firm. Right. They had, you guys had most of the work in Fort Bend.

Speaker D: Yeah, they had. I mean, I don't know that it was specific to Fort Bend. They had a bunch of big insurance companies. They still do. I mean they're still, they're still the same size now that they were when I was there.

Speaker A: Mhm.

Speaker D: I was there for five or six years.

Speaker C: As a lawyer or as a lawyer. Okay.

Speaker B: Yeah. Do they make you buy the Bedazzle jeans before you start?

Speaker C: Yeah. Or can you m. Can you glue those on? Or you. How's that, how they go on?

Speaker B: It sucks. You can't wear those to court anymore.

Speaker D: Uh, anymore you're talking about.

Speaker C: I don't, I don't. But it's fun.

Speaker B: Yeah. Well, I'm not going to say it.

Speaker D: Yes, I was there. I was there for about five or six years. Then I went and worked for Mike McGee at Mahaffey Weber for about a year and a half and then I opened my firm in 2020.

Speaker B: What made you decide to uh, go out on your own?

Speaker D: That was always the plan. To be on the plaintiff side, open my own firm. I just wanted to learn some of the tricks before.

Speaker C: When did you get. When did you decide I want to be a plans attorney?

Speaker D: Oh, I knew all along.

Speaker C: Even in law school or.

Speaker D: No, in law school I was still thinking about real estate stuff until I made that change. And then being on A Funny Story, actually, I was clerking for Judge, uh, Elliott, and, uh, Johansson was there trying a plaintiff's case, and I thought he was a plaintiff's attorney. And so I started talking to Johansen. I'm like, hey, man, I'd like to come clerk at your firm. Is that. Oh, well, we're not taking on any clerks right now. And this was after. I guess this was after my first year. And, uh, so then I reached out to him again after my second year. I'm like, hey, you know, I live close. I'd like to come clerk. And, uh, he finally let me come out there, and then I realized it was a defense firm, and I was like, well, you know, give you a lot of good experience.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, that's not a bad place to work.

Speaker D: I took thousands of depots in the first few years, and, I mean, it was, you know, it was a good experience. A lot of good lawyers there. Got to learn a lot from.

Speaker C: Was there. Were there any lawyers there that you didn't like that you want to put on blast right now, but let's throw some names out.

Speaker D: No, there's not.

Speaker C: All right, talk about it after.

Speaker B: It's fine.

Speaker A: Okay, so what made, you know, at the time, after the, uh, five or six years with Johansson, fearless, and then one and a half with Mike McGee.

Speaker B: What.

Speaker A: What was your mindset on? Okay, now I'm ready to go flip it over to open my own firm.

Speaker D: You know, it was just. It just felt like the right time. You know, I, uh. I had seen a whole bunch of what I thought were really good defense attorneys, and really, one of the last. One of the last trials we had, and then McGee, which I look up to, McGee's really good attorney, uh, we got whacked by Kirker and. And Jim Hart.

Speaker C: Stable do that to you? Yeah.

Speaker D: And, uh, now. And this was like August of 2019, and over the. Over Christmas verdict. Yeah. 12 million dollar verdict. It actually got overturned by the Supreme Court last year, though.

Speaker A: Oh.

Speaker C: Shots fired. Steve.

Speaker D: But was. Steve. Steve.

Speaker C: Steve was.

Speaker D: It was. It was a, uh, a Williams.

Speaker C: Kirk, John A.

Speaker D: He had already left, so I actually. I was talking to him, and I said, hey, that case is up on appeal.

Speaker A: I thought.

Speaker D: I guess it was after it got affirmed by the Court of Appeals. I said, I heard it got affirmed. He said, really? I didn't even know it was on appeal. Yeah. So. But, yeah, so I saw that. I mean, you know, I thought highly of Mike and I was like, well, if. If that can happen to Mike, I could do that to somebody. And so I, uh, decided over Christmas that year, talked to my wife. I was like, I think it's time. So I walked in into, uh, the office January 3rd. I said, hey, Mike, um, think I'm going to go open my own firm. He said, well, how long will you stay on? I said, well, you've been good to me. How long do you need me? And, uh, he's like, how about six weeks? I was like, sure. Gave me time to get everything set up.

Speaker C: That's short.

Speaker D: And, uh, during six weeks, that six weeks is when the shit hit the fan with COVID Yeah.

Speaker C: I was going to say, oh, no, man.

Speaker A: So what did you open the doors to?

Speaker D: Trey Barton. Fifteenth.

Speaker A: February 15th.

Speaker B: So you missed it by a month.

Speaker D: 2020.

Speaker C: Your poor wife. You're like, hey, you know how I'm kind of settled into a career, and we're just kind of living right now? I'm going to change it up a little bit. It's like when from high school, in

Speaker B: a world where you can't meet with any defense lawyers.

Speaker A: Right. Yeah.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: So you, um. So you open the doors. Is it just you and just me?

Speaker D: Just me. And I actually. I, uh, subleased a place, uh, from Barry and Seward. Uh, they gave me one office, and I was gonna pay rent. Rent to them. And then they had previously done some bankruptcy stuff, and they were like, uh, you know, this Covid stuff. We think bankruptcy is going to kick back up, so you can still use the office, but you can't have an office anymore. Like, you can have the conference room if you need it. I was like, okay, that's really all you need. Anyway, so I had it. I was working out of the guest room of my house, and you know where the kids are? Where the kids are at home because they can't go back to school. And I'm taking depositions up in an upstairs bedroom. They had this one contentious case. This was a little bit later. It's probably six months into it. I had a. Had a refinery, uh, case, and, you know, four defense attorneys. And I'm up there yelling at one of them on Zoom, and my kids are downstairs, and they're like, dad, what are you doing? Like, going crazy. And they're mad, too, because they.

Speaker A: They had.

Speaker D: Whenever I was on Zoom, they had to stay off the electronics because it was draining the Internet.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah. Pulling the broadband.

Speaker A: Listen.

Speaker D: Sitting just listening to me yell at somebody on Zoom. So I did that for, like, Six months. And then, uh, John Kovac reached out to me. He's got a place out in, uh, out in Richmond, and he had an open office. He was like, how you want to come?

Speaker C: John Kovac, younger guy. Yeah.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: So he.

Speaker C: Yeah, I went to law school with him. He married Courtney. Yeah, yeah, I know John. Good guy.

Speaker D: Yeah. So he was. So he actually worked for McGee, the case that we tried against Kirker.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: It had been pending for seven years, and he actually worked it up.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker D: He left and went to that firm. And then a few years later, I showed up, and it was still waiting to be tried. It had been sitting there. And then finally I started reviewing the depots, and I'm like. I look and I see it's Kovac. Like, Kovac.

Speaker B: I've had, uh. I've had two cases against John Kovac as a defense lawyer.

Speaker D: Okay.

Speaker B: And I spoke to him, like, last week on the phone for the first time in, like, 10 years.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: And he's like, I do, like, criminal work and plaintiff stuff now. And I was like, oh, really? I was like, how come we've had two cases together and you're always defending someone?

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, no, he doesn't do any.

Speaker B: Well, he doesn't do that anymore.

Speaker D: But a while ago, I think he

Speaker B: was a Tucker, Taunton, Snyder and Slade for a long time, and I had a case against him.

Speaker C: There's so many firms I've never heard of. No offense to those guys.

Speaker D: I don't.

Speaker C: I just never ran across him.

Speaker B: That's where he did defense work.

Speaker D: He was at Mahaffey Weber for a while.

Speaker C: What's he doing now?

Speaker D: He does criminal work, and then he does. He has a plaintiff's docket, too.

Speaker C: Is he? Yeah. Okay.

Speaker D: Yeah, he's one. He's one of the. I mean, he's well tied in from a criminal standpoint. He's.

Speaker C: Craig Priestmeyer is a good friend of mine. Judge Priestmeyer.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: If there's anybody that ever calls me with a criminal case in for Bend, I send them to him because I

Speaker B: had the weirdest mediation of all time with John Kovac. I don't know if it's appropriate for the podcast, but it was extremely strange.

Speaker C: It's not.

Speaker A: And Kyle thinks it's not appropriate for the podcast.

Speaker C: And if it's a mediation and it's not any questioning, then it's not.

Speaker B: It had nothing to do with John. John was a prince of a human being and did a great job on the case, but he was working for a partner, and we had, like, an opening session and just, uh, to short circuit it, he. My client was, like, a former, like, Olympic swimmer who had been in a car wreck.

Speaker C: Humble brag.

Speaker B: And I think the partner, he was pretty elderly, and he. I think he had developed, like, some strange feelings for the. For my client in the mediation.

Speaker C: And we had a homoerotic feeling.

Speaker B: We had. No, I just want to clear it

Speaker C: up, because that's how you said it.

Speaker B: My client was a FEMA former, like, Olympic swimmer.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker B: And the partner showed up. We had a general session, and the partner was, like, saying lots of, like, very strange things, and, like. Like, I was like, okay, we're not going to do an opening session. We're just going to break this off. And Kovac was like, good call, good call. Let's. Let's split this up into different rooms. And I was like, what is going on? It was very strange.

Speaker C: So you live in Fort Bend county now?

Speaker A: I do, yeah.

Speaker C: Uh, yeah. Nice.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: So, Trey, how did you grow? Because now. How many lawyers do you have of,

Speaker D: ah, me plus four.

Speaker A: Oh, yeah. So how do you.

Speaker D: I've got one that's, uh. I guess she just graduated, and she's studying for the bar right now. But if she passes the bar she's coming on to. Well, she's coming back on, and then she'll become a lawyer when she passes November 1st.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Was Fort Bend an intentional move? Like, I want to market to this group of people. This is a good place for me to try cases. Or was it just where you lived?

Speaker D: So I'm. I'm 97. Referral from other attorneys.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker D: I don't have a. I don't have a presence.

Speaker C: Who are these? I'd like to type them out. I'm always looking for sources.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: So weirdly enough, they all come from Farah and Ball. I guess they don't trust their own associates to, uh, make any money.

Speaker C: That's what we do.

Speaker D: That's what we do.

Speaker A: Yeah. That's how you grew it. You just went around to the lawyers and said, I'm here if you.

Speaker D: You know, the COVID thing, about five months into. Yeah, I say, I don't have it. I didn't do any real SEO for the first five months. I was doing SEO, trying to get cases in the door. And then about five months into it, I picked up a big referral source that started sending me a lot of volume, and I went, oh, switch from. I got to switch from acquisition to development, and I got a scale. Never going back to acquisition. Really, other than, you know, just a Little bit of SEO on a monthly basis. But, um. So, yeah, I mean, it went from, I guess from no cases to probably 50 in two months. I mean, from.

Speaker A: From your.

Speaker D: From month four to month six. Yeah, from zero to 50. And then after that, I was probably carrying about 120 cases by myself with a. With a paralegal for getting close to

Speaker C: malpractice for two years.

Speaker D: Then I brought somebody on, and I brought another person on. Another person on. So now. Yeah, now we've got four. So it's, uh, it's been. I mean, it's been a smooth transition and growth. I've got some good people that work for me.

Speaker A: Did you start kind of pitching to Houston lawyers like you're a four bend guy, or did you just say, I'll take whatever you got?

Speaker D: No, I mean, I'm actually, you know, I've. I've got a Houston address, too. I'm. I'm Houston for Ben. We're all over.

Speaker B: Where's your Houston address?

Speaker D: We're out across. It was at, uh, 4151 Southwest Freeway, and then we just moved about a block now, so. So.

Speaker B: So you're in my hood.

Speaker D: I'm in your hood, but I don't take your people.

Speaker B: Well, thanks for not stopping by and

Speaker C: saying next time you come into town, you need to check in.

Speaker D: Yeah, I got you.

Speaker A: You need.

Speaker C: You need to check in so that

Speaker A: Kyle doesn't get your license.

Speaker C: Yeah, you got. Yeah, otherwise you got to pay taxes.

Speaker B: I mean, I. I just don't understand. You seem like a reputable fellow, but I've never seen you at Graces or LTMPO or State of Grace or.

Speaker C: Well, hey, he's working. I. Well, I met him before this, and I forgotten, but I met him at the circle of Lone Star Circle. Lone Star Circle for ttla. So he.

Speaker D: We had the, uh, legislative update.

Speaker C: Yeah, Kyle, he's bonafide.

Speaker B: I was invited to that. I just couldn't. I'm. I am the current.

Speaker C: I don't think you get invited. I think you have to purchase that

Speaker B: membership and somebody's about to get kicked out, Bill.

Speaker C: Oh, yeah, See, I'm talk. I'm calling Todd.

Speaker D: You saw, I. I brought on three of my attorneys, like, months ago, and you're like, hey, next time I see. Next time you're at a TLA thing, look. Look me.

Speaker B: Well, hey.

Speaker D: Hey.

Speaker C: Here we are.

Speaker B: It's a small world. Glad to have you.

Speaker A: All right, so Trey, uh, has had some. At least four recent verdicts that, um, I'm aware of. Uh, I thought maybe you could share some.

Speaker B: He's grinning. He's grinning so wide I can feel it in my ear.

Speaker C: Smells expensive one.

Speaker A: So. Yeah, you don't always win everything, but

Speaker B: for good ones, I want to hear about it.

Speaker A: So Trey, which. Which order would you like to go? You had the one that was the. Was the death case that was in.

Speaker B: Was it in Lagrange?

Speaker D: Yeah, it was a fair county case. Happened in lagrange. Tried, uh, that one in December. I tried that one with, uh, Clint McGuire. So he was.

Speaker C: Why do I know that name? Clint McGuire.

Speaker D: McGuire. Injury lawyer. Lawyers. He's uh, he's, um, would been without, uh, around Alton Todd a lot. He's out and.

Speaker C: Oh, that's. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's okay.

Speaker D: Great trial attorney. So he was, ah, we. He had helped me out. We had another case down in, in, uh, Brazoria county where he, uh, was local counsel for me. And I was talking to him, I was like, hey, man, I've got this case coming up in, in Lagrange. Been dealing with it for, you know, three years. It's a wrongful death case. Dwi. Um, take a handle in a pro bono. Um, and the client, uh, super nice young lady, mid-30s, two young kids that are both autistic. 20, um, five year old kid crosses over the center stripe and kills her husband. She didn't get her day in court in the criminal case because he put out. Never got to, you know, look him in the eye or anything, which as it turned out, didn't that trial either because he didn't come. He was his, uh, attorney. Decided not to get a bench warrant and bring him there.

Speaker C: But can't you do that though?

Speaker D: I could, uh, we played him by video.

Speaker C: I got you.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Oh, okay.

Speaker D: Played him by video. Okay. So I. Crazy thing that, you know, the. Everything happens and he didn't go to prison until about a year and a half after the wreck, but about. He got sentenced a year after the wreck and they, and they gave him six more months because he had an unrelated, uh, knee injury that he had to have surgery for and they didn't. The, the state didn't want to pay for it. So he got to stay out of prison for six more months. But in any event, um, interesting situation being from Lagrange and trying to case in Lagrange. And um, was talking to the judge and I was like, you know, there have been any big verdicts come out of here. He's like, we haven't had a personal injury verdict in 20 years. Uh, there's not been a verdict, not been a case tried to a jury in Fayette county on a personal injury case in 20 years.

Speaker C: To be fair, I'm going out of my way to try and find a different m. Venue.

Speaker B: That sounds like a real efficient administration of justice.

Speaker C: How many people? How many. So you were born and raised there. How many people during jury selection did you know?

Speaker D: So, funny thing. So we're getting ready to try the case on Monday. The. The clerk sends us a list of 200 people that they've called for for, uh, Vordire and.

Speaker C: 200.

Speaker D: 200. Yeah.

Speaker B: And you had dated 198 of them and broke up with each one on Valentine's Day.

Speaker D: There. There were some people on the panel that I knew, but. But, uh. And there were some people on the panel that I had to get rid of because they knew me, but.

Speaker C: So we get. Never had that problem.

Speaker D: A list of 200. And it's crazy. You know, most. Most trials, you're sitting there doing vortire, and you say, does anybody know me? And nobody raises their hand. Nobody knows anybody.

Speaker B: Does anybody here know me except for you? Bridget, calm down.

Speaker D: So. So we get the list of 200 people, and, you know, I probably know 50 of them. And then come Monday, the ones that show up, it was like 105 showed up, and I was like, okay, 105 show. If he does his excuses first, gets rid of another 20, and we've got, like, 85 on the panel.

Speaker B: Um, that's a big panel.

Speaker D: It's a big panel. It's a big panel. But so I'm, um. You know, just right off the bat, you know, we're going through the who knows me, who knows my client, and you've got 30 people raising their hands. Yeah, I've got my middle school counselor on the panel at the Striker.

Speaker A: That's.

Speaker B: Yeah, I would say that's not good.

Speaker D: Um, yeah, there was. I mean, people. I mean, my family's. My family's pretty well known there. They run. My family runs the newspaper in La Grange.

Speaker C: Oh.

Speaker D: Yeah, we've been out in the community.

Speaker B: Little yellow dog press to help me out.

Speaker D: Yeah, so we, uh. We've been in the community. My. My grandfather bought it in 1976, the year after Zindler. Oh, really good time to buy to do with it.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker C: Hey, whatever you say.

Speaker B: Whose family did not shut down the chicken ranch needs your help.

Speaker D: Right. So, um, yeah, so there's all kinds of people that know me and that know my client. We had it. We had A guy on the panel that was one of the first responders to the wreck.

Speaker C: No, there's a witness.

Speaker D: Yeah. He said, he said, I, I would like to be excused from this trial because I can't live it again.

Speaker A: It was like in front of.

Speaker B: Did you say that louder for the rest of the panel?

Speaker C: Sorry, sir, can you hold your number up and say that again?

Speaker D: Well, before we got into all that stuff, we started, we started with, uh, the non economic damages, mental anguish and could you allow damages for pain and suffering?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: And, and not with them not knowing anything about the case. Not even knowing. Not even knowing if it's a fender bender or what. Not knowing the death case. And we had people on the panel flip, like they started off saying, no, we couldn't do that.

Speaker B: Can do.

Speaker C: What's this dwi. And it's like, yeah, numbers go down.

Speaker D: Yeah. And then, yeah, there was two, there was two jurors that they were, they raised. You know, at the end you're like, anybody have anything you want to tell us that you haven't told us yet? And they raise their hand. We want to change our answer. We, we can allow.

Speaker C: God, that's a tough spot for a defense attorney. You're like, I got green lights and red lights on the same people.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker A: Would they find out more about the cases? Bordeaux was going on.

Speaker D: Just a few issues.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: I mean, not, not anything specific, but, you know, we board iron. Because you allow, uh, could you allow someone to have a judgment against them if they've already served their time? You know, that's a good question. Punishment. Yeah, it's a good question. So we were getting all that out there, you know, if somebody had, had. And we had to talk, we talked about dwi. There was this one guy that, that said. When, uh, I was talking to him and you know, he's smiling as big as. You can tell me, you know, tell me how you feel about personal injury attorneys. He says, I just hate ambulance chasers.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: And that's. Well, thank you very much for sharing. Anybody else feel that way? And you get a few kids come up. Well, then we get into the DWI stuff and, uh, that same guy, he's over there, he's raising his hand, he's raising his tray, I recall. And he said, yes, sir. What do you, what would you like to say? He said, the only thing that I hate more than personal injury attorneys is drunk drivers.

Speaker C: Anybody feel the same?

Speaker D: Anybody feel the same way? Or so.

Speaker B: Uh, that's great.

Speaker D: Yeah. So we, uh, I mean, we seated a good Jury. It was very diverse. Much, um, more diverse than we anticipated. Just both age, race, education level. It was good.

Speaker C: You have like a blown Stowers issue or you just wanted to give her her day in trial.

Speaker D: So she wanted her day in trial.

Speaker C: Okay.

Speaker D: Yeah. So.

Speaker B: So no matter what they offered, she was going to trial.

Speaker C: They probably interplayed it into the.

Speaker D: I mean, they had. They had tendered before I got involved.

Speaker C: Yeah, I knew that was.

Speaker D: So it wasn't accepted. She didn't accept it, but it had been tendered. So there was a defense there. There was defense attorney just like it was live.

Speaker C: I've tried one of those. He's has the easiest job in the world. He's like, light me up. I'm good.

Speaker D: So, yeah, so we, uh, you know, and we tried it as a celebration

Speaker C: of life, for sure.

Speaker D: It was a, uh, you know, we're going to bring in all this great stuff about who this great. It was effectively their opportunity to get closure.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: And so at the end of the day, they got their closure. They got to feel good about people hearing their story and understanding their pain. And so it was, uh, it was probably one of the most fulfilling experiences I've had.

Speaker B: So how big was the verdict?

Speaker D: 6,950,000.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker A: What was it? Go ahead, sir.

Speaker D: 500, I think it was. 500,000 was punitives, which we. So we asked for. I think I asked for. So I did Vordire, Clint did opening, and then we split up the witnesses. I did closing. Clint argued or asked for, told him we were going to ask for 70 million in opening, and then I asked for the 70 million in closing. And I think we asked for, uh, $33 for punitives because it was 33 minutes before he called 911 or something like that. And so, um. And so you gave us 500k for

Speaker C: punitives, but the AV is 6. 6.4.

Speaker D: 50,000. Yeah.

Speaker C: So they. They still remind you we're still in Fayette county, right?

Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. For sure. What was the defense like?

Speaker C: How do you defend that if your client's in prison?

Speaker D: I mean, he's, uh, he's from the beginning, even in Bordeaux. You know, I'm, um. You know, I'm going to. I'm going to tell you it's our fault and, and, you know, we're sorry. And, you know, basically it was trying to minimize. Minimize here and there. It wasn't, you know, his argument. He was saying, you know, we couldn't do the per diem arguments and stuff to get the numbers like that. That was the argument to the judge, not to the jury. But. And ultimately he was, he was saying, we need a workable solution. This needs to be a workable solution. Something that he could pay off in his lifetime and the average person makes whatever and he's gonna have a felony and he's not gonna make that much money.

Speaker C: I think he argued kind of a good defense.

Speaker D: He argued for like four or five hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker C: That's not, he's, who's a defense lawyer. That's a smart defense to say that and then still offer half a million.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: You know, have millions, a lot of money, a lot of people.

Speaker B: I mean, it sure sounds like he's making a improper argument with regard to asking you to be sympathetic based your, your verdict off of sympathy.

Speaker C: Agreed. But sounds. It's effective.

Speaker A: It's also a good strategy because there's not going to be an appeal. Right, right. So, I mean, why not?

Speaker B: Yeah, Well, I mean, it's all, I mean, how much was the policy?

Speaker D: 50,000.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: So.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So it's all monopoly, so just swing for the fences.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Has Bill told you about his negligent, uh, discharge of a firearm case?

Speaker C: Yeah, it was a murder. It was a murder, but I planned as a negligent discharge of firearm within

Speaker B: city limits into another person.

Speaker C: And I went, we lost on appeal. And they said, bill, that's bad law. And I said, that's fair, you know, and it's a real niche market. Um, I asked for 50 million, jury gave me 70 million. That was in Harris County.

Speaker B: Okay, so in a situation like that, do they just give you the 50,000 bucks and you just leave the judge,

Speaker C: they plead into the court?

Speaker D: No, no. So they, after the, after the, uh, verdict. Yeah, they issued the.

Speaker C: Usually their adjuster will be there appeal.

Speaker D: But so the, the thing is, the attorney on the other side has to continue representing his client until he gets released by the insurance company. He's got to be able to give him notice that he's about to be released. So he actually filed motion for new trial and claiming he was going to file an appeal. Um, but then the money was paid and once it was kind of a delay too, because the check went directly to the client. And, uh, I was like, you need to cash the check so that he can get released from the defense. So file and appeal.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: And so she finally got around to cash in the check. And so then, you know, a couple of weeks later, he withdrew.

Speaker C: And you took no fee on that?

Speaker D: I took no fee.

Speaker A: Good for you.

Speaker D: Yeah, so.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: So both the. So she had 50, uh, K and U. I am, and 50 in the underlying. And both of those had been tendered before I got involved. And I actually. I took it on initially thinking it might be a germ shop case.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: And then turns out he was at a baby shower, and so it was social.

Speaker B: I never get invited to cool baby showers.

Speaker C: Yeah, Kyle, I, uh, know why that's a purposeful non invite.

Speaker B: Don't. We're. I mean, Bill Cosby.

Speaker C: I don't know. I thought there was gonna be. I thought there'd be more showering.

Speaker B: When are we doing the gender review?

Speaker C: She hasn't even had a baby yet.

Speaker B: You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker C: This is misleading.

Speaker B: Gender reveal.

Speaker A: Uh, okay, second one. Let's go with the, uh, one we're not mentioning names. Where you had a client who was run over in an operating, uh, room. Her foot was run over by a large piece of medical equipment by one of the techs.

Speaker D: You're familiar with that case, right?

Speaker A: I. Am. I familiar with that case.

Speaker D: So, uh, yeah, so that was in 2024. So a client was a nurse. Nurse at the Houston, uh, Methodist out in Sugar Land. They were doing the morning huddle meeting where they had about 50 doctors, nurses, all in the. In the meeting in the morning, getting ready to get their assignments to go in the OR and do all their kind of stuff. And, uh, this yahoo from a third party has. Has this lithotripsy machine that he's got to push through. He's running late. He's.

Speaker B: Bill just bought a house. He's got a lithotripsy machine in it.

Speaker C: I've got, like, five in there.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's got a tanning bed.

Speaker C: What do you guys do on Memorial?

Speaker B: Tanning bed. A dehumidifier and a lithotripsy machine in a dry.

Speaker C: In a dry stock sauna.

Speaker A: That machine helps, like, um, radiate kidney stones.

Speaker D: No, it has, like, a sonic wave. Yeah, I think it's like a sonic. But I thought it actually. Actually hits your.

Speaker C: Yeah, it's a percussion.

Speaker D: Yeah, like a percussion to hit your kidneys to break up kidney stones.

Speaker B: It sounds horrible.

Speaker C: Anyway, it's super painful.

Speaker D: Yeah, he was supposed to be in there.

Speaker C: Based on my grandfather.

Speaker B: Bill's making a face right now. Are you okay?

Speaker C: No, uh, it's just the drink that Amanda poured me.

Speaker B: A kidney stone one. Sorry.

Speaker C: I'd rather have one than the giant gulp that I took to start this.

Speaker A: The nurses are all doing prep that morning for in the or. For this whatever surgery or procedure.

Speaker D: Yeah. So they're waiting to get their assignments. I mean, there's like 12 different operating rooms, and this guy was supposed to be in one already in there. Supposed to set up his lithotripsy machine because it takes like 45 minutes to warm up and everything. And he's like 15 minutes from the start of the procedure, and he's not even in there yet. So instead of waiting for the. And it's a hectic meeting. Everybody's talking, getting their assignments and stuff. And so she's looking at the board, and this guy comes pushing this big piece of equipment through and runs over a foot.

Speaker C: It's a big machine, though, right? Yeah, it's like a fridge. It's like not a fridge, but.

Speaker D: Thousand pounds. Yeah.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: So it rolls over her foot. She goes down to the floor, ends, uh, up getting taken into the emergency room, has a crush injury on her foot.

Speaker B: Um, fortuitous that she's that close to the.

Speaker D: She was, yeah. Wheeled her in with a wheelchair. Didn't even have to get in the car.

Speaker A: Not a deglow. Just a crush injury on her.

Speaker D: Just a crush injury. There was. There was an open wound on the top that actually had to get. Um, she had to have treatment for that over the course of the next couple of months.

Speaker C: It's the worst place to have that because, like, the least amount of circulation. So your infection rate is going to skyrocket.

Speaker D: Right. So she. She did that, um, treated for like two months through workers compensation, continue having ongoing nerve pain and issues, and went back to a couple. A couple of doctors visits. Um, it was probably. It was probably close to maybe a year after it happened before she called me up. So at that point, she had just gone to some workers comp treatment and, ah, she was out of work for maybe six weeks. And then they put her back on a sedentary position. She had to get moved to be a desk nurse. A charge, uh, nurse.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: So, um, then she's, you know, telling me, I'm still having these issues. I'm like, well, you need to go get checked out. So she goes to get the ekg, emg, EMG done, and, uh, EMG comes back and says, no, no dirt. Nerve damage in the major nerves. So we end up deposing the doctor who's the orthopedic surgeon at Houston Methodist. And he's like, well, what wheel?

Speaker C: Who was it? Do you know which one? Oh, Stewie's over there.

Speaker A: He's a Retreating doctors. Like, not a litigation.

Speaker C: No, no, Stuart Wheel. Uh, he's like the one of the chiefs of. Of the extremity department. He's very good, very good doctor. But I have to pose him a couple times.

Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say I see him in litigation.

Speaker C: He's. I'd let him cut on my spine and I don't say that about very many doctors.

Speaker D: All right, sorry.

Speaker C: Go.

Speaker A: Whoever this doctor was testify. What did he say?

Speaker D: Testifies. He says you know more likely than not she has nerve damage in the smaller nerves in her feet, in her foot and the only thing she could do is take like a gabapentin for the rest of her life. However, I don't recommend that because of you know the side effects that could happen so and you know he testifies that it's more likely than not going to get worse over the course of her life and that a crush injury is worse than a broken bone. All these kind of things and so um. So we've got that testimony and clients excellent client.

Speaker C: Does she know that her treating doctor personally? Yeah. Okay.

Speaker D: I make sure. So and then um. So we get to trial. You know they offered low balled it the whole time because I mean the economic damages were not very big.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: From a lost wage and a workers. I think the medical bills for workers comp. Were like 2,500 bucks. Um and so we get to trial. They've lowballed it. And how much did they offer? 67 5.

Speaker B: 67,000American dollars.

Speaker C: 67.

Speaker D: 567.

Speaker A: Yeah they did a.

Speaker D: They did a 167 offer are.

Speaker B: Oh I like I love that now did that. Are you allowed to tell us who defended the case?

Speaker D: Uh, I don't see why not if

Speaker C: I could Name of the firm. I assume it's a Serpy Jones case.

Speaker D: No, it was out of uh. They were out of Dallas.

Speaker C: Really? I thought that. I thought that All Methodist.

Speaker D: Let's see.

Speaker C: Yeah, it does make it worse just Dallas.

Speaker A: Let's see. So curious. Do people go to do verdict search anymore? Remember those blue you guys probably too young but they used to be the

Speaker C: I don't do anymore because they come on law 360 like uh. Any of the significant ones already pop up in my mailbox.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: Or might or somebody text me.

Speaker A: It used to be you'd read the you know every week. Yeah.

Speaker D: So we started off with the uh. With two of the nurses. So they had a. They had a motion in limited that none of the nurses were qualified to talk about medical treatment. Uh did they win it?

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: No until they. Until they opened the door on it.

Speaker C: Uh, okay. I was about to say tough cross of a nurse.

Speaker D: Uh, well, no, they were fact witnesses. They were there in the. In the morning.

Speaker C: I got you.

Speaker D: So they were there to see what happened. So first. First one comes and goes. She's on the stand, testifies what she saw. Um, and then no medical testimony. And she was probably a 5050 witness. I mean, halfway good for us, halfway good for them. Nothing great. Second witness comes on, and they get about all the way through my direct examination, no medical talk. And then she does her cross examination, and the very last question she asked was a medical question. And I said, well, here we go.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Because I knew that that nurse was actually this. The orthopedic surgeon's surgery nurse that knew about crush injuries. And I just opened the door and said, tell us about crush injuries and how they're. How. How they compare to broken bones. And she just.

Speaker B: You remember what the question was that they asked?

Speaker D: Oh, I forget. I'm not. I don't.

Speaker C: And why they would ask a dumb, dumb question like that.

Speaker D: But I was like. I mean, once that. Once that question was asked, it was. Was go time.

Speaker C: Yeah. Every question you asked after that was crush, Right? Crush, crush, crush, crush.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: And so that went. That witness went great for us. And then the next witness was, um, the guy that was pushing the lithotripsy machine. And so in deposition, he had. He testified at the beginning of his deposition that he was not at fault at all. Then by the end of his deposition, he admitted he was somewhat at fault. He comes on the stand, and the first question I asked him, I said, are you at fault for this? And he said, 50. 50. And I said, because I was ready to get him whichever way he went, if he went, damn, that's a good answer. He went, 50, 50. I said, well, who's the other? Have you ever testified differently? He said, well, I don't remember. So then I, you know, play the. Play the depot of him saying not at fault, and then play the depot of him saying somewhat at fault. So I get all the way through his examination, and the last question I asked him, m. Is, are. Are you at fault for this? And he finally says yes in front of the jury. He knew he couldn't just hide from it anymore. He said, yes. So I sit down and who's your judge? Uh, we were in. In front of judge, uh, o' Neill Williams.

Speaker C: Oh, okay.

Speaker D: So, um, I sit down. She does her direct examination of him. I don't even care what. What he said. Or what? And I stood up and I asked him four questions. The fifth one was objected to, but I didn't need an answer first one. Do you remember in your deposition when you said it wasn't your fault? Yes. Do you remember at the end of your deposition when you said it was somewhat your fault? Yes. Do you remember at the beginning of your testimony today when you said it was 50? 50? Yes. Do you remember at the end of your testimony today when you said it was finally your fault? Yes. How does it feel to finally tell the truth? Objection. Withdraw it. All sins it.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker D: And then the very next witness was the corporate rep who had already testified that the only basis of any of his opinions was the information that this guy had given him. That's a. It's the first question I ask him is, sir, now, you just listened to him testify that he was at fault for this. Do you, on behalf of the company, accept responsibility for his actions? No.

Speaker C: Oh, man.

Speaker D: Like, all right, just look at the

Speaker C: jury quiet for, like, 10 long seconds.

Speaker D: Yeah. So then, uh, I don't know if it was at. I think it was that actually before the corporate ref went on at the conclusion of his.

Speaker B: Did you have, like, a big casting call for corporate villains that you had to plant inside the defense case?

Speaker C: Dude, they're all bad. All corporate reps are bad. And I think it's because m. Our topics are written in a certain way. But I've never seen a corporate witness where I'm like, that was really good job. Instead I was like, man, pretty fair. They should have picked someone else.

Speaker A: Yeah. Okay, so, Trey, you've got 2500 or so in meds that were low because comp paid them. Did you submit those to the jury or.

Speaker D: No, no, we did not put in any economics. It was, uh, past and future pain and suffering, past and future mental anguish, past and future impairment, and past and future disfigurement.

Speaker A: And what was the award by the jury?

Speaker D: 4,496,000 and some change.

Speaker B: Was this verdict before the case?

Speaker D: Yes.

Speaker C: Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, so how did you. How did you argue for the. The pain and suffering damages that got you almost 5 million bucks?

Speaker D: It was the per diem. Um, we did the per diem. Usually. I don't want to give away too much.

Speaker B: You could. You can tell us. Uh, almost no one listens to this.

Speaker C: We can order the transcript. It was all public record.

Speaker A: Say, high level per diem. Lots of people.

Speaker C: No, I'm kidding. I'm just with.

Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, it was so. And actually, I think m. It might have been after Chohan, because I think it was after Chohan, because I specifically remember asking the client, how many waking hours, how many hours do you sleep at night? And she said, uh, around eight. And so once she says eight hours, then I use a calculation based on a. 16 hour, 16 waking hours. And I did that in that case, so it must have been after Chilean. So, um, yes, but I don't do, I don't do my calculations based on hours or minutes. A lot of times it'll be seconds, because every second counts, you know, or if it's, you know, if there are a number of minutes, you know, not a minute goes by that you don't have pain. Every minute has value. Some minutes are worth a dollar, some minutes are worth a million dollars. Like in the, in the case in Lagrange, we had million dollar minutes. Like these minutes alone are worth a million dollars. The minute when the police officer comes to your front door and knocks on the door and you melt into the porch, that's a million dollar minute by itself. And so we talk about, can you do that still?

Speaker C: I'm trying because Gregory keeps changing and keeps confusing me even more. Can you still use that?

Speaker A: Uh, they haven't said you can't that.

Speaker C: Well, they will eventually. I'm just trying to. That's a very, I've never heard of it phrased like that. That's a very good way of phrasing it.

Speaker D: Yes. I mean, for that one, it was, you know, the pain and suffering of, uh, this minute. But, but I don't say because of this one minute, you need to give a million dollars.

Speaker A: Sure.

Speaker C: You're right. Right.

Speaker D: That to say, some minutes are worth a million dollars, some minutes are worth a dollar. Let's take a, a conservative estimate would be $3aminute.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker C: And no, I, I, I like that. I just have, I've never heard a phrase like that. And it sounds, I like the way it sounds. As long as it's loud.

Speaker D: We'll ask Laura.

Speaker C: She's coming. Laura Hollingsworth's next. She's our appellate counselor when we try cases.

Speaker B: That's a good question, actually. We can ask her.

Speaker A: So you can stick around. They, but that case is not being appealed because you had a high low.

Speaker D: Yeah. So after the, uh, after the guy pushing the lithotripsy came off the stand, they approached me with a high low. And, uh.

Speaker C: Is it a confidential high low?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker B: Can you whisper it in my ear? That's, that's awesome.

Speaker C: Yeah. That's so much incredible.

Speaker B: So that sounds like a high high, not a high low. Good job.

Speaker A: So I, I don't know why more people don't do high lows. I mean, I think that I do good.

Speaker C: Well, because I know a really good attorney who entered into a high low real early into trial and lit up a big number that no one, he didn't think he was going to get. And he was stuck to a real low, real low, high number that he had agreed to.

Speaker D: I won't agree to a high low unless it includes a waiver of appeal. And I think, I think once I

Speaker C: thought they all did. I've never seen one that didn't. Well, nobody's ever pitched one that didn't.

Speaker D: Yeah, I mean, but once you, I mean, once you reach that agree, I mean, you still have revert.

Speaker C: You still have reversible errors, for sure.

Speaker D: Um, but once, I mean, you do things a little different once it's. Once it's out there.

Speaker C: Once it's out there, you start shooting. You start shooting the big bullets.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker A: I think Will Moyes came out when he was a defense lawyer. He would wait until close to the end.

Speaker C: I think he said he would wait till closing.

Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker C: Which is the right time to put one in. When the jury starts talking about it, it's like, hey, we should talk about it too.

Speaker D: Right?

Speaker A: Okay, so third, let's go with the most recent one. And that's the one I don't know as much about that. Was that, was that a commercial car wreck case?

Speaker D: That was. Yeah, that was a commercial.

Speaker A: And that was in the last, what, month?

Speaker D: That was about a month ago. I actually got, uh, the notice of Super City as a bond today.

Speaker A: Ah.

Speaker B: Uh, son of a.

Speaker C: Was it a big enough verge where they had to sweat that bond?

Speaker D: It was 2.7.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker C: We're here in Houston or Fort Bend, Harris County. Okay.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker A: So what was the high level nature of that case?

Speaker D: So it was a, uh, it was a, uh, alcohol delivery van, um, beer distributor.

Speaker C: That's kind of ironic.

Speaker D: The, uh, rear ended. My, My client was stopped at a, at uh, a red light and got plowed in the back of, uh. She had a bike rack on the back of her vehicle, uh, which they. Their claim was there's no damage to the vehicle because she hit the bike rack and their vans totaled. And they tried to defy the laws of physics and say it was, it was interesting that the defendant driver testified that it was a horrible wreck for him and it was a significant impact, but it wasn't bad for her. Okay.

Speaker C: Look at the gvwrs of each vehicle.

Speaker B: Yeah, there's a case on that, actually. It's called in Ray Goose versus Gander.

Speaker A: So, uh, do your client have surgery?

Speaker D: She did not end up. She had a surgical recommendation. Um, she treated for almost three years. Um, had a bunch of physical therapy, had a bunch of injections, had a tbi, um, had, you know, brain fog, memory issues. Um, and she was a. She was a nurse as well. She actually worked at Memorial Herman, um, in one of the imaging facilities. And she. Treatment, uh, ended up stopping because she was involved in a subsequent. She had a subsequent wreck, um, in 20. This one happened in 2020. Two subsequent happened in 2025.

Speaker C: Bad subsequent.

Speaker D: No, thank God she didn't. Well, I mean, they claimed it was bad, but, um, her first treatment after the subsequent was 20 days later. So she was a. She was a passenger in a work vehicle. And it was a minor thing.

Speaker B: And it.

Speaker D: We had. As the first time I've done that is I went to the. I went to the subsequent doctor and got his testimony as to what happened, what were the exacerbations or any new injuries. And he said, uh, you know, strain sprain, no new herniations, nothing changed. Got her back to baseline what she was before. And, um, you know, she's still got all these issues. And he testified, you know, we had the subsequent doctor testifying about the imaging from the first wreck and being able to say she's got some significant herniations and, um, given causation on that.

Speaker C: Did you represent both accidents?

Speaker D: No. No. So there was no. There was no case in the same.

Speaker C: Because it was better.

Speaker D: So it was. Oh, it was comp.

Speaker B: And her.

Speaker D: The. The driver of her vehicle was at fault. So her co worker.

Speaker C: Gotcha.

Speaker D: So it was combar.

Speaker A: But she.

Speaker D: I mean, for that one, I think she had, uh, like two trigger point injections and a little bit like maybe six sessions of physical therapy. It wasn't much. Um, but yeah, no, there was no case related.

Speaker C: I had one where the subsequent accident was significantly worse than the first one. Yeah. And the first one was bad.

Speaker D: And I was. It.

Speaker C: It's. It gets real complicated at that point.

Speaker D: You, You.

Speaker C: You got to be a creative lawyer and be comfortable lying because otherwise it's not. I mean, because, I mean, it's hard to distinguish damage versus damage if they're. We have two very significant cases.

Speaker B: So what. What were the interesting facts about this case that led to a big verdict?

Speaker D: Um, I mean, I think same as the one that I had in Forben County Great client. I think, I think the client in lagrange was great too. I mean, it's. And when I say just pure, a pure client, that's not. They're not faking anything. They're not lying about anything.

Speaker C: The genuine.

Speaker D: They're a genuine person. They can sit up there and they can speak from the heart and be able to tell their story and how it's impacted. And my client in this case, she had. She was an extremely active person. She would go on all these hiking trips and would go biking. Like she had a bike rack on the back of her vehicle. She would bike, you know, 20 miles a week in around Houston just for exercise and fun. And she would go on.

Speaker A: She.

Speaker D: We had all these. We had these videos of all these hiking trips and stuff where she's hiking through the canyons and there's like these significant incline where she's pulling up on these chains and stuff and super, super active person and nothing like that after. She couldn't do any of it after. And that was one of the biggest, from my standpoint, one of the biggest things that we were able to get across. And Clint tried this case, that case with me to Clem Maguire. Um, it was one of the things, one of the stories we were able to tell related to that as well is just the impact. And I told you we had some pre existing mental anguish issues. She had prior diagnoses of anxiety, a little bit of depression.

Speaker C: Uh, she's a nurse.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: And so we approached that in closing with, we want you to give. We want you to. This is what the amount of anxiety, the value of the anxiety would be. But I'm only going to ask you to award 50% of that amount because 50% of it is pre existing. So once, you know, once we present it to them and we tell them the impairment is going to be the biggest element of damage. And they ultimately, for the impairment, her inability to do all the things she was doing before. That's where, uh, the bigger numbers came in.

Speaker C: Tell us about number four.

Speaker D: Number four verdict.

Speaker B: What court were you in?

Speaker D: That one was Judge Miller.

Speaker A: Okay.

Speaker C: Big Bo. He just got a judge, ah, of the year, I think. Uh, yeah, he, a couple days ago,

Speaker A: awarded by the Dirty Verdict podcast.

Speaker C: Ah. Also we do whatever the Houston Bar association or whichever one. Did we just do that?

Speaker A: Yeah, Fourth. What was the fourth one?

Speaker D: So that was the fourth one. The third one we skipped over, that was a auto bicyclist, uh, case that was in January.

Speaker C: Uh, was your client in the car or the bike?

Speaker D: On the Bike. I thank God I was on the bike.

Speaker C: All right, Sympathetic.

Speaker D: So, uh, and she, she was a tough client to prop up. Prop up. But, uh, we, I was able to do it. But um, so she's, I mean from a factual standpoint, she was fine, but just from presentation standpoint, she. We, uh, we tried to buy her dentures. Uh, yeah, she wouldn't wear them. Um, dentures are expensive. We bought, we didn't buy the expensive ones.

Speaker B: Was she elderly or was there drug use or just bad. Bad dentation?

Speaker D: Uh, yes, bad. Yeah, just bad dental hygiene. And smoker? There was one. One of the, the defense attorney in the trial uh, brought up one of her records, uh, that said she was a two pack a day smoker. And she, she looked him dead in the eye and said, no, that's way too much. I only smoke a pack and a half.

Speaker C: All right. 40 is a lot. 30s, much more reasonable one an hour.

Speaker D: We bought her, we bought her some clothes to wear and she worked, she worked as a pizza cook at Pizza Hut. And she decided in the days leading up to the trial she was going to wear the clothes that we bought her to work at pizza. So they had pizza stains all over them. So the clothes that we had got for to wear, the dentures, she was going to wear, neither one were in play.

Speaker C: You guys didn't give me instructions here, right? You gave me stuff, I used this stuff. Now I'm in trouble.

Speaker B: Pizza clothes. I gotta tell you, I got two teenage daughters and I have to.

Speaker D: Girls.

Speaker B: These are non pizza clothes.

Speaker D: Non pizza clothes. These are the pizza clothes. These are the non pizza clothes.

Speaker A: So that was a car hits a bike, usually that's a pro plaintiff kind of factual scenario. On liability, Was that what the jury found, liability on defense?

Speaker D: Yeah, there was 100% liability. So. So the defense came into the case trying to claim that she should have been wearing a helmet. And had she been wearing a helmet, it wouldn't have caused the cheekbone fracture. But they didn't have an expert to testify as to that. And so we were able to keep out any causation testimony related to the helmet. The fact that she didn't have a helmet on was all throughout the records. Yeah, so we couldn't hide that. Um, but they weren't allowed to argue that had she been wearing a helmet, she would not have sustained the injury because.

Speaker C: Yeah, I have a lot of experts for that argument. I've done. So I've done one helmet case and there's. Yeah, like tire cases way more complicated than you think.

Speaker B: So what was the verdict and where was it?

Speaker D: That was in Harris County, 165th. Judge Bain.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker D: Um, Bruce. 500, 000 on that one.

Speaker C: I've heard Lance attorneys say nothing but good things about Bruce.

Speaker A: Both sides.

Speaker C: Yeah. I've never. I've heard any defense lawyers.

Speaker B: And is that the one that the notice of appeal got filed on today, or is that the other.

Speaker D: No, that was the other one.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker D: Yeah, no, that one. So that one got paid. That was.

Speaker B: Was that a source situation? Did they have a lot of policy?

Speaker D: No, they had 100 and they paid the 5.

Speaker B: Nice.

Speaker C: So what's next on the horizon?

Speaker D: Uh, we've got. I'm actually number three on two trial dockets right now in Harris County. But I mean, we've got. Just with our volume, we, we have, we have our, uh, bi weekly, every other week trial meeting tomorrow, uh, with the firm going through what we have coming up. But in the next 90 days, I'd say we have anywhere from, uh, 25 to 30 cases that are on the trial docket. Not all of them at the top, you know. Well, potentially only three or four of them get reached.

Speaker C: How many case you try a year, you think?

Speaker D: Uh, last year, six. Year before that, five.

Speaker B: Okay.

Speaker D: There's a good number so far, too.

Speaker B: One a quarter.

Speaker D: Yeah.

Speaker C: How long. How long's your average trial?

Speaker D: I try to keep it under three days.

Speaker B: Yeah.

Speaker C: Really?

Speaker D: Uh, yeah, I don't, I don't like to try a case more than three days.

Speaker C: I don't either. I just can't.

Speaker D: Uh, the attention span of the jury. Yeah, the one we just tried in, in Harris county, the 2.7. That one, had I tried it how I was initially going to try it probably would have been a five day trial because we had a ton of video deposition that we were going to play. And then we get into Judge Miller's court, and he's got a rule that you can't play more than 20 minutes. Yep.

Speaker C: And I was like, garrison does too.

Speaker D: So we. Yeah, so. So we're in there in pre trial. My first two witnesses are going to be the defendant driver and the corporate rep by video deposition. I've got like an hour on one, an hour 15 on the other. He says, um, you're going to have to cut that. And, and defense says, oh, well, they're here. I look at Clint, I say, we're gonna take them live.

Speaker B: You get that one?

Speaker D: I get this.

Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.

Speaker D: Today we hit 100 and.

Speaker B: Great.

Speaker D: And went right into it. And then we had to cut the Doctors down. We had three doc. I had a mental health provider, a, uh, treater for the wreck, and then a treater for the subsequent wreck. We had to cut all those down.

Speaker C: So I actually hated it when I found that out. But I think I better. I do too, because it's just.

Speaker A: It's the.

Speaker C: It's the meat and potatoes of the depot.

Speaker D: And I think it. I think it also takes away the. If you get just an opportunity to play whatever you want, as long as you want, then they can make their arguments all day long that, oh, there wasn't sufficient evidence to support this. When you have a judge that's telling you you only get 20 minutes and you. You hit the high points, it takes a lot of. It takes away a lot of their

Speaker C: arguments, especially if your high points are way higher than theirs. I agree.

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker B: I hate to cut you off early, but we have been going a little bit more than an hour and our next group of victims is waiting in the lobby.

Speaker A: Yeah. So Trey, you are, ah, can be found at Trey T R E Y Barton law dot com.

Speaker D: That's correct.

Speaker A: All right. If any lawyers out there. Trey obviously tries a ton of cases. He had a great team of lawyers I've worked with, um, as a mediator. Uh, and obviously the results we've talked about speak for themselves.

Speaker C: Peter's just saying because Trey pays him a bunch of money.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: But anyhow.

Speaker A: Yeah. If you all have a. If you got a case you want. And obviously, Trey, we've talked a lot of lawyers about venture coventuring cases with other lawyers you're friends with. It's a lot of fun.

Speaker D: Definitely.

Speaker A: Um, split up the work and, and all that. So give Trey a call. Otherwise. Thanks, Trey. This is very informative. This is kind of a blocking and tackling.

Speaker D: Yeah, keep.

Speaker C: Keep hammering the verdicts. I like it.

Speaker D: Thank you very much, guys.

Speaker A: All right, well, thank you. And if you like this, like it. Follow us on Instagram, Tick Tock, Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple podcasts, Audible. Oh, Audible. Okay, that's new.

Speaker C: We're on Audible now.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker D: What else did I say?

Speaker A: Tick Tock.

Speaker C: You didn't say Facebook.

Speaker A: Facebook.

Speaker C: There you go.

Speaker A: Instagram.

Speaker B: I've had enough.

Speaker A: We're done.

Speaker C: YouTube.

Speaker A: Good night.

Speaker B: That was great to have you trade.

Speaker C: Yeah, man, I've had to appreciate it.

Speaker D: Getting in the bathroom.

Speaker B: I had that pee for like 20 minutes.