Protecting Your Assets Against Personal Injury Claims, with Marjorie Heinrich
Are your assets protected if you are sued for a personal injury claim? Worried about whether you have sufficient insurance? In this episode of I Know a Lawyer, I discuss protecting assets from personal injury claims with Marjorie Heinrich of Heinrich Law. Marjorie is an expert personal injury attorney who focuses her practice on helping those who have been injured due to the fault of another. Let me tell you, Marjorie has the stories! We discuss:
Example of not tracking your insurance portfolio as your wealth grows, which can lead to stressful situations. (03:07)
How renter's insurance can protect your assets, even if you accidentally shoot your friend in the leg at your home! (06:52)
The curious case of Bubbles the dog who bit a 3 year old girl at the park. (09:38)
Can homeowner's policies protect against dog-bite liability? (12:59)
Umbrella policies, how they work and can further protect your assets. (13:57)
Uninsured-Underinsured motorist coverage. (18:22)
Thank you to Marjorie for joining me on the show. You can find Marjorie at her website: heinrichlaw.net. Contact her if you or someone you know has been injured due to the fault of another.
This episode is brought to you by McKenna Brink Signorotti LLP.
Transcript
Ryan Lockhart (00:01):
Hello, everyone. Welcome to, I know a lawyer, as you know, my name is Ryan Lockhart. Your humble host today. Let's talk about protecting yourself and your assets from claims. Joining me today is Marjorie Heinrich of Heinrich law. Marjorie is a personal injury, trial attorney who has seen and done it all on the personal injury front. Thank you for joining me today, Marjorie. How are you,
Marjorie Heinrich (00:25):
Ryan? Thank you for having me. I'm doing great.
Ryan Lockhart (00:29):
Yeah. Thank you for coming on the show. This is going to be a great episode. Cause you, like you said, you've seen it done at all and I've heard so many stories that you've told. It, it's just great cause I love these types of episodes. So why don't we start with you telling the audience a little bit about yourself?
Marjorie Heinrich (00:44):
Sure. So, so as you just said my name is Marjorie Heinrich and I'm the owner of Heinrich law. I have been involved in personal injury related work for over 30 years. I went to law school and graduated at age 25. And for the last 30 plus years, all I have done is personal injury related work. The first 20 years I was on the defense. I was defending the people who caused terrible accidents and incidents and serious injuries and their insurance companies. And then after two decades of being on the defense, I switched over to the left side of the V and for the last 13 years I've been representing the folks that are seriously injured due to the fault of another.
Ryan Lockhart (01:32):
Yeah, I know that's good history because I'm sure you learned a lot when you're doing the defense. Now, you know how to go attack them.
Marjorie Heinrich (01:38):
Exactly. Being behind enemy lines for two decades, it has has served me well, shall we say? And it served my clients quite well.
Ryan Lockhart (01:47):
That's awesome. So I know we're going to talk about protecting yourself and assets today. So I think this is a great opportunity to use examples to illustrate what we're talking about and how people need this type of protection. I mean, I know you have many, many examples and stories, so let's start with just an initial example. What's an initial example you'd like to start with.
Marjorie Heinrich (02:06):
Sure. So as I just said, I I'm a former defense attorney turned plaintiff lawyer. And so 99% of my work is representing those folks who have been seriously injured in car accidents, motorcycle incidents, bike crashes, pedestrian events, construction site accidents, dog bites, the whole, the whole bit. But the first example I'm going to give is, is about a friend of mine. And she was actually the defendant in this case. And I helped her behind the scenes. This is a dear friend who is a nurse on the front lines of COVID-19 right now she's an emergency room nurse. And she has to worry about her her life every day when she goes to work, you would think at the, in the forefront of her mind, it would be her concern about COVID-19 and protecting herself, her husband and her two little kids and yet true story.
Marjorie Heinrich (03:07):
Over the last several months, she has been completely freaked out and worried about a motorcycle accident that she caused. She was inattentive. She, she lost her concentration. She made an ill-advised lane change on the freeway and, and she took out a motorcyclist. Here's here's the rub. Well, this woman owns a home and, and has money in the bank. Her husband has a very good job. She only had at the time of this incident, a hundred thousand dollars in automobile liability insurance coverage. Why did she have so little coverage in comparison to her assets and her portfolio? Well, it's simple. What happened to my friend happened, happens to the same, happens to people every day. And it's this, she started to drive when she was aged 16, she got a, an automobile insurance policy. It wasn't, it didn't have very high limits. And as she got older and older and older and, and went to nursing school and became a nurse, got married, bought a home, she didn't she didn't make sure that her insurance coverages tracked her portfolio.
Marjorie Heinrich (04:23):
So now suddenly she finds herself at fault for a motorcycle accident where the motorcycle is the value of his, his injuries and damages exceeds her insurance limits. And now she's personally exposed to, to, to him. And this happens every day. And so I helped her behind the scenes, even though I'm the injury lawyer, I'm the person that normally is representing the motorcyclist, as a favor of her, because I have so much respect for the work she does. I helped her get that matter resolved so that she didn't lose everything. But this is a classic example of folks out there who, who have low limits or insignificant insurance who are driving cars around and who, whose portfolio is worth a lot more. So in this instance, if you're one of those folks out there who says themselves, I don't even know how much insurance coverage I have on my car, but I know one thing I got a few extra pennies to rub together, and I own a home with a, with a fair amount of equity. It's time for you to go figure out what your coverage is and make sure you increase it. So it mirrors the, the potential loss that you could incur if, if you're unfortunate enough to cause an accident like this.
Ryan Lockhart (05:45):
That's a great takeaway. I know, I didn't think about that. So gosh, probably like eight years ago, it was kind of similar situation, right? You're getting older and your life is changing. You get into your profession like, Oh, maybe I should finally look at my car insurance because my, I have, I think I had the minimums that I had since I was 16. So that's a great example. And we definitely don't want her worrying about these types of issues when she's on, like you said, the front lines of COVID-19. I mean, emergency room nurses, definitely front lines. So kudos to you for helping her.
Marjorie Heinrich (06:14):
Yeah. Thanks for that. That's why I wanted to use the example because I thought it was so ironic that she was more worried about this motorcycle case against her than COVID-19. And that, that really hits home how how stressful these scenarios can be for folks who haven't taken the the steps to protect themselves.
Ryan Lockhart (06:37):
That's a great example to start out with. Thank you for that. So, alright. We touched on that. That's about more like auto insurance things. What about, you know, another example where we're talking to more about, I think he's mentioned like renters policies,
Marjorie Heinrich (06:52):
Right? So, so here's another example. For every renter that I run into who has renter's insurance, the next renter that I learned about doesn't I don't know why that is. I'm not an expert on the ratio between renters who have and have not insurance. But what I'll tell you is I'll give you a couple of examples here, true stories. I can't make this stuff up. I have a client who comes to me and says, I have a childhood friend that I grew up with who lives in Silicon Valley. Now he's a high wage earner works for one of the well known companies down there in the Valley. And he invites me over for dinner and drinks. I go over there, we go out, we have dinner, we have a lot of we have several adult beverages. I didn't drive. I took Uber it's the Saturday night I don't have to work the next day.
Marjorie Heinrich (07:46):
I think I'm being responsible. We go back to his place and he pulls out a gun and he's telling me about how he's purchased this gun. He felt like he needed it for for, for self protection. And you know, he's buzzed, I'm buzzed. He's playing around with the gun. I wish he hadn't pulled it out, but he did. Next thing, I know it accidentally discharges. And he shoots me in the leg. Is he responsible for this? The answer is absolutely he's responsible for this. He, he brought out the gun, it was his gun. He's the reason that it discharged. He is liable for all of your injuries and damages. Well, in this example, this man did have renter's insurance and he actually had sufficient insurance to cover all of my client's injuries and damages. But what if he had not had renter's insurance?
Marjorie Heinrich (08:40):
What would happen then? Well, he would be personally responsible for, for my client's injuries and damages. And as I said at the outset, this is a high wage earner in Silicon Valley. He had the assets to pay off my client. So he was really lucky to have renter's insurance. And this is a, this is a fair warning to all, all you folks out there who are listening, who rent and don't have insurance. You should look into getting it because it can cover all sorts of weird scenarios, like accidentally shooting your friend in the, in the leg.
Ryan Lockhart (09:19):
That's a crazy example, but I know people do crazy things when alcohol is involved and they, and this is like a best case scenario, right? At least he had the insurance to cover it. That would have been a terrible situation, getting shot in the leg and then have to go after your friend for the personally, to try to cover your expenses. So definitely have some insurance.
Marjorie Heinrich (09:38):
Exactly. And Ryan, let me jump in and give you one other example. That's classic renter's insurance example in that the person who has a dog who owns a dog, who's a renter. Because again, as, as I touched upon at the beginning, I represent people who have been severely injured by dog bites and dog knock downs. I do a lot of these cases. I'm, I'm known for them and let's say, you're a renter and you've got a dog named bubbles and you love bubbles, your dog and your dog never hurt anybody has never shown any aggression, but you go to the park one day with bubbles. And a three year old girl runs up to bubbles. Her face is at the same height as bubbles mouth. And for whatever reason, your dog gets spooked by this little kid running up to running up to it.
Marjorie Heinrich (10:29):
And bubbles lunges at the three year old's face and bites her and seriously injuring her. And you're a renter, renter's insurance most often will cover these dog bite claims in California. If you own a dog that injures somebody that bites somebody you're automatically responsible for that the, the injured person doesn't have to prove that, that your dog bit, somebody else, the injured person doesn't have to prove that you are aware that bubble's had a propensity to potentially hurt somebody. In California, if your dog bites somebody unprovoked, you're automatically responsible for it. So believe it or not, even though this happened in the park, not in your apartment renters insurance, unless it excludes your dog or excludes your breed of dog. There's some insurance policies that will exclude, for example, rottweilers, German shepherds, pit bulls, dog breeds like that. But as long as you had a renter's insurance policy that didn't exclude bubbles, or didn't exclude, exclude the type of dog bubbles is, then you're good to go.
Marjorie Heinrich (11:38):
Your renter's insurance is going to should, should cover those injuries up and up to the policy limits. So not only am I suggesting that you get renter's insurance, if you're a renter and you have a dog, but also again, part the theme of this podcast is you want your insurance coverage to generally match your portfolio. Meaning if you, if, if your portfolio, if, if your assets are say $250,000, then ideally you want your renter's insurance to be somewhere in that range and not, not far from it. So if, if, if your, if your portfolio has $250,000 in it and, and you get a renter's policy, that's only $50,000, then, then you're potentially exposed in a scenario like that. If your dog bites this little girl on the value of her injuries and damages far exceeds that $50,000 policy,
Ryan Lockhart (12:37):
I did not know that a renter's policy could cover a dog bite, especially a dog bite, not in the home. I'm going to talking about it in the park. And I remember hearing, I mean, it's always that same story we always heard in law school, right? The dog bite cases. Well, my dog's never bit anybody before. Just like you said, it doesn't matter. You're liable. That's good to know. I did not know that renters policies could cover that.
Marjorie Heinrich (12:59)
And Ryan, let me just jump into, since we're on the dog bite, dog knock down theme, homeowner's insurance, same thing. So if you're a homeowner, homeowners insurance almost always covers these dog bite dog knock down events, even though they know more often than not happen in the street or at the park, or while you're walking your dog, they don't happen in your home because strangers aren't in your home. And so the same thing you want to make sure that your homeowner's insurance covers bubbles by way of this example, doesn't exclude her because they exclude all dogs or doesn't exclude her because she's a Rottweiler and they've excluded rottweilers. So same thing. You own a home, you've got a homeowner's insurance policy and your dog bites somebody on the street in the park wherever it may be, you're, you're going to be covered.
Marjorie Heinrich (13:57):
And let me just add, we haven't talked about umbrella policies yet, but, but this is a good time to touch upon them. On top of these underlying coverages that we're discussing, whether it be automobile coverage, renter's coverage or home coverage, there's such thing as these umbrella policies that add an extra layer of protection for you. And what's weird about them is two fold. Number one, they, they normally start at a million bucks. So, so you, you buy one of these umbrella policies on top of your renter's insurance or your homeowners insurance or your automobile insurance. They'll, they'll give you an extra layer of protection to the tune of at a minimum, $1 million. You talk about peace of mind, but the other thing is in a whisper this cause I don't think insurance companies want you to know this for some reason, they're not very expensive, they're not very expensive. So if you're one of those folks that has a decent portfolio, you've worked really hard over the course of your lifetime. You've got, you know, money in the stock market and the bank account you've, you've saved money for your children's college fund. You own a home with a bunch of equity in it, get yourself an umbrella policy. And that way under all of these examples, it should kick in, if your underlying limits are not enough to cover my clients, serious injuries and damages.
Ryan Lockhart (15:34):
I'm glad you brought up umbrella because I was going to go there next. I, I have a family we're in the market for a dog, so I'm going to do two things. One, I'm gonna go look at my homeowner's policy to see what the limits are and the dog breeds that are excluded and two definitely look at umbrellas. I know other professionals who are in the insurance world who have been kind of hammering the umbrella policy options for people. So I think it's true that the, your mainline policy will kick in first, but then whatever that is exhausted, that's when the umbrella can come in and cover anything in excess of that. Correct.
Marjorie Heinrich (16:09):
Yup. And what's a wild about umbrella policies is, and again, I'm not, I don't work for insurance companies and I haven't memorized all of the language. I know generally what they cover and they cover all the things we're talking about, but they also cover some pretty innocuous issues that can, can come about in, in families. And so what's amazing about them is how much they protect you. Should you be in the unenviable position of having caused a bad car accident or bike crash or motorcycle accident, or you shoot your friend in the leg or bubbles you know, bite somebody in the face, but it also covers all sorts of other things that you couldn't even imagine. And I don't, don't quote me on this per se, but I believe you could potentially be sued for like defamation or slander, libel, things like that. And I think sometimes these umbrella policies even cover these more tangential problems that people can run into. And, and just just another reason to go ahead and, and, and invest in one.
Ryan Lockhart (17:19):
If 2020 has taught us anything, the world is a strange place and strange things can happen. Like you never I'm sure those two gentlemen never thought they were going to have a gun when they're drinking and shoot his friend in the leg accidentally, or you never think your dog is going to accidentally bite a three year old girl because the dog has been so kind and nice to everybody, but things just happen. So I think this is great, great advice for the audience to, at a minimum, take a look at what policies you have, take a look at what your limits are and what your exclusions are, and look at whether an umbrella policy can be an opportunity for you. I think you are right. That umbrella policies are not, you know, overly marketed because they are very pretty cheap. And I, you hear, I hear about it mostly from the professionals that I know, but I don't necessarily hear about them. And, you know, just roundabout other ways that the media is going to let me know about here, here's this great umbrella policy that you can have to cover you up to a million dollars or more for relatively cheap price. So thank you Margorie for bringing that up today. Any other examples you want to talk about?
Marjorie Heinrich (18:22):
I do. I do. I want to bring up an important coverage called uninsured/under insured motorist coverage. And, and I don't know how many listeners out there know what it is. If you don't know what it is you should. And I'm going to give you an example of where two mistakes were made by both parties to this incident. And again, I'm not making these fact patterns up. These are all my cases or were my cases. I've seen them over and over and over again. So here's the deal. My client is a high wage earner working for one of the ride sharing companies. He's an executive and makes a ton of dough. A works out of his house, goes to the coffee shop one day, walking back home from the coffee shop. He's in a crosswalk lawfully crossing the street against the green light.
Marjorie Heinrich (19:10):
When a vehicle comes through the vehicle, driver is inattentive and gets distracted, has too much going on in his life. At the time, he makes a left hand turn and for no reason at all, no explainable reason, he just doesn't see my client. And he runs into him. My client suffers to very severe lower extremity injuries. What do I mean? Well, I broke one leg and he broke the ankle on his other leg. He has three surgeries. He's bedridden for months. He loses a bunch of time from work. He's got huge medical bills. And, and the question becomes who's going to pay for my client's injuries and damages that have a value of hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Well, let me explain the mistake the car driver made when, when it comes to his insurance coverage, setting aside the fact that he was inattentive and caused, caused this terrible event.
Marjorie Heinrich (20:05):
This, this car driver purchased a home in Oakland 25 years ago for $300,000. Guess how much that home is worth now it's, it's worth upwards of one and a half million dollars over the 25 year period. It went from 300 to one and a half million dollars. And all of it almost is equity, but did this man, this car driver homeowner, did he track his insurance over the years to mirror his portfolio? Unfortunately he didn't. He just, nobody told him, Hey, you know, sir, the more money you earn, the more money you accumulate, you need to increase your insurance coverages. Because, should you be that person that causes somebody serious injuries and damages. You're now personally exposed to pay for them. So in this instance, this gentleman only had a $250,000 insurance policy, no umbrella. And now, now who's going to pay for the excess.
Marjorie Heinrich (21:06):
So that's where he made a mistake. And, and you know, he's not gonna do it again, but, but now he of courses is, you know, anxious and upset and worried about his life savings being at risk. Where my client made a mistake. And this is really important is when, when he purchased his automobile insurance, now you're saying, why Marjorie are you talking about automobile insurance? I thought you said your client was, was a pedestrian walking across the street. You're a good listener. And you're right. When he purchased his auto insurance, he had the, he had the right to purchase what we call uninsured, underinsured motorist coverage. And what that coverage does is that coverage protects you. If you are the victim of somebody else's wrongful act or negligence, and you're seriously injured. And that person who is injured you is uninsured or under insured, well your own uninsured under insured motorist coverage under your own auto mobile policy can cover you if you're seriously injured in a car accident or as a bicyclist or as a pedestrian.
Marjorie Heinrich (22:22):
And so in this case, my client, when he took out gobs and gobs of automobile insurance, he failed to talk to his agent about having the same amount of uninsured under insured motorist coverage apply. And, and, and as a result, he couldn't tap into his own insurance coverage to make up for the shortfall between the, the full amount of his injuries and damages and the adverse drivers coverage. So the moral of the story is look into uninsured under insured motorist coverage, to protect you as a car driver, as a pedestrian and or as a bike rider, should you be the victim and the person who caused your accident has no insurance or insufficient insurance to cover your injuries.
Ryan Lockhart (23:19):
Thank you for that Marjorie. I think you've given us a lot of good key takeaways today. So if if the listener let's just back up, so is there any, what should people do today as a takeaway? What would you say you would recommend they do after listening to this episode?
Marjorie Heinrich (23:38):
What I would recommend you do. And again, I don't work for insurance companies. I sue insurance for the most part. And I, I'm not an insurance expert. I'm not here to give coverage advice or legal advice per se. I'm on to give sage advice. And so my sage advice is figure out how much insurance coverage you have, how much liability coverage do you have on your car, on your apartment that you rent on your home on your rental property, on anything you own figure out what your coverages are, figure out if you have uninsured under insured motorist coverage. And if you don't make a, make an informed decision on how much coverage you want there and make sure that your coverages mirror your portfolio. So if your portfolio is worth $2 million, meaning you maybe have a million dollars equity in a home, and maybe you have another million dollars in bank accounts and invest in the stock market or whatever it is.
Marjorie Heinrich (24:44):
But just by way of example, if you have $2 million in your portfolio, you should make sure that your insurance coverages mirror that amount of money. So if by way of example, again, if you're walking around with automobile insurance coverage of a hundred thousand dollars and no umbrella, and you're sitting on $2 million of assets, it's kind of like that nurse friend I told you about. If God forbid you, you make a mistake, you're a, and you seriously injure somebody. You're going to have a lot of personal exposure there and you don't want that stress. So that's my advice. Talk to an agent, talk to somebody who's involved in insurance. Find somebody in the industry to help you protect yourself and protect your assets.
Ryan Lockhart (25:35):
Thank you, Marjorie. So if there was a listener who has an injury, potential case or an issue would they give you a phone call or check out your website? How can they reach you?
Marjorie Heinrich (25:45):
Sure. You're so you're so kind to ask. Absolutely. So if, if you, if you unfortunately have been seriously injured, do the fault of another, whether it's, you've been a victim of a dog by car accident, motorcycle, bike, pedestrian slip, and fall trip and fall. All of that, I would be honored to, to consult with you about that. This is, this is all I've done for 30 years. Why am, why am I doing this podcast? Because I don't want to go after anybody personally. That's the last thing I don't want to, I don't want to rub salt in the wound. You know, people already feel bad enough for injuring my clients. I don't want to have to go after people personally. I just want to go after their insurance coverage. So yes, they can. They can see me on LinkedIn website, Yelp, Google, the whole thing. And, and if we're a right fit, I would be delighted to represent you.
Ryan Lockhart (26:40):
You don't want somebody like Marjorie coming after. I can attest to that. Cause I know cases she's worked on and she's very, very good at what she does 30 years, like she said in the industry. So insurance is a key part. If you ever had that question, do I really need this insurance? This episode today is given many examples of why these insurance coverages are necessary and what they do and how they work for the most part, because Marjorie knows how to go after these insurance companies. Like she said, she doesn't work for them, but she knows them well, cause she's gone after them for so long. So thank you, Marjorie. That was a great episode. Any final comments?
Marjorie Heinrich (27:19):
I don't think so, but Ryan, thanks. Thank you so much for having me on. And if this, if this protects even one person, then it was well worth my time and I I'd be delighted to find out that that even one person was protected from this. So thanks Ryan so much for having me on
Ryan Lockhart (27:36):
My pleasure, Marjorie, thank you very much for coming on. And that's always my goal with this podcast is if one person listened to an episode and it impacts them or gives them some sort of information that can help them in their life. It's a massive success. In my opinion. Thank you, Marjorie. That was Marjorie Heinrich of Heinrich law. Check her out. If you have any questions. My name is Ryan Lockhart. This is I Know a Lawyer and thank you and take care everybody. Bye bye.