Valencia Personal Injury Attorney Experience

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

So this personal post is going to be another rant.  I’m sorry. But if you are interested in learning what to do after being in an vehicle accident, you will learn from this article as well.

My wife was involved in a pretty bad car accident about a month or so ago.  While she was driving to downtown Los Angeles she came to a stop on the freeway and looked up in her rear view mirror to observe a young woman driver looking down at what she can only assume was her cell phone and coming at her at about 40 miles per hour.

There was nothing she could do and the driver of the other vehicle never even looked up before hitting my wife’s car.

Okay, so that was the setup.

I work in a building on Turnberry in Valencia where there are several professional business’s. Because there is someone in our suite that is a personal injury attorney, I naturally just knocked on his door.  He said not to worry about it and he would take care of it.

Over the next couple of weeks I would check in with him every week to see what we should be doing and asking what is being done.  I assumed he was taking care of it as he stated.

Then my wife and I started noticing something.

The Chiropractor where she was going after the accident said she could not get a call back from the attorney and that several weeks had gone by.

So we went to the attorney’s office and spoke with his partner who I was told by the other attorney was handling the case.  I walked in and asked what information they needed from us for the accident.  He says, “what accident?”  I said, “you guys are handling my wife’s accident!” (my wife is standing right next to me).  Then, in the most rude manner you can think and with a disgusted look on his face, he says, ” I have no idea what you are talking about.”

This was the attorney who the chiropractor had called for weeks without any answer.

What made me mad is how rude he was.  Think of the person in your life you hate more than anything and that would be how he looked at us.  And we were supposedly their clients AND i have worked in the same building as them for 4 years.

I just couldn’t get over how rude he was.  The other attorney was in a meeting so I left a message on his phone and told them we would be looking for another personal injury attorney for our accident and explained how disgusted we were with his partners behavior.

The worst thing is that they never gave us any advice during this entire process.

So my wife contacts another personal injury attorney in Valencia and has a consultation.  During the consultation, this attorney cannot believe that we were not provided with any advice on how to handle the car accident.

Here is what was explained to us about how to handle the car accident. (none of this was told to us by the previous attorney and would have been helpful being right after the accident)

Advice Given From Valencia Personal Injury Attorney

  1. Take time off of work if needed – When my wife got in her accident she was in a lot of pain.  But she felt she needed to go back to work.  This is despite the fact that my wife had a concussion and was nauseous from the concussion.  This new attorney said she should have taken all the time off she needed because the loss of wages is recoverable.  Had we known that, my wife would have taken time off instead of going back to work the next day.  over those days and weeks immediately following the accident, she even put aside her chiropractic care for work even though she was in so much pain.
  2. Go to a real doctor – Not saying other doctors are not real, but my wife immediately went to a chiropractor right after the accident to get adjusted.  Our family is religious about chiropractic care. But she did not immediately go to our Valencia Kaiser until she began feeling super nauseous.  After encouraging her to go (where she learned she had a concussion) she was told to take time off work and that rest was needed.  The personal injury attorney said that you should always go to a MD to have your condition checked out after the accident.  So we did this part correct.
  3. Take pictures of the accident – My wife did this perfectly. She took numerous photos of both vehicles showing the damage that occurred.  The attorney said this was helpful.
  4. Get a police report – When my wife called me from the scene of the accident, she said that a police officer witnessed the accident and was handing it.  Being that I am retired LAPD I knew that a report should be taken.  It turns out that the police officer that witnessed it was off duty and did not work that area so no report was taken. What should have happened is that he should have called for the CHP to come out and take an accident report.  Fortunately, this was a rear end accident so the blame is obvious, but in other types of accidents this might not be the case.
  5. Hire a Valencia Personal Injury Attorney – It is not about being compensated for being injured is it is getting good advice on what to do immediately following an accident.  Had we had the information that was provided to us on day one, we would have handled thing differently.  My wife would have taken the time off necessary to get treatment and feel better before going back to work.

You want to know what pisses me off the most?  I provide so much free information to people going through divorce in California with all our videos, podcasts, free consultations, etc.  I explain to people everything they need to know and usually am not compensated for it and most of the time don’t even know who the people are who watch our videos, etc.

Then, when my family needs help, we don’t get it.  We hire a personal injury attorney to give us advice and take care of us and it does not happen. We trust that someone has our back, especially since we work in the same building and have known each other professionally for years.

But even without all that, common courtesy and decency dictates that these things happen anyways.

Shame on you.  You know who you are.  And when I called you out on it, you didn’t even take the time to walk to my office and apologize.  You want to pretend that everything is okay.

Wait until our paths cross in the building.  I will let you know exactly how I feel about you.

Point of story?  Don’t assume that your friends and colleagues have your back. Do your due diligence and find someone that will take care of you.  Don’t assume that everybody will do what you would do.

I treat my clients like I treat my family and anyone else for that matter.  I greet the person who cleans the toilets in our building the same way I greet anybody else.

I did not want to give names here, but if you are interested in knowing who we ended up with for our personal injury attorney in Valencia just shoot me an email.  My wife very much liked her.

End of rant.

 

 

Moving My Mom & Visiting My Brother

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Well this weekend went by fast. My middle brother, Todd, and I went up to Apple Valley to help my mom pack for her move to San Diego.  Packing and helping move someone is not my idea of a well spent weekend, but it was a good time to visit both my mom and my brother.

We made the best of it and got out there at around 11.  Todd and I had a plan to have everything packed by 5 pm so we could hang out, relax and go to dinner.

We had to hustle to get everything done by 5, but we were able to make it with no little left over things that needed to be taken care of.

Finally, we were able to sit down and relax and have a few cocktails.  Around 6 pm we decided to go have sushi.  So I told my mom and brother, I would just order up a Uber ride.  That is my go-to service when i need a ride somewhere for whatever reason.

But to my surprise there were no cars available at all!

uber

So what I had to do is just leave the Uber app on for about 15 minutes before a driver finally appeared. It then took about 20 minutes for the driver to arrive.  I guess it does not pay to be an Uber driver in the desert.  But we did eventually get a ride and I even asked the Uber driver for their phone number so we could call her when we were done with dinner, just to make sure we had a ride home.  That worked out well.

It is already Sunday late afternoon and I am home.  Just enough time to sit down with the family for dinner and write a few words on my blog here.

I think we will sit down and bing-watch our current netflix series we are watching which is Person of Interest. We started it about 2 weeks ago and are on episode 25 of 90.

Talk to you tomorrow.

3 Day Weekend, 13 Hours & Not Going To Santa Barbara

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

My 3 Day Weekend – Not

While it is a 3 day weekend for some, it certainly is not for me.  I don’t think I have had a 3 day weekend since I have started this business.  Because when you are a business owner, you are always working.  Our offices might be closed, but I am always working.

Point in fact, I am sitting here at home writing this article and earlier in the morning was recording videos and posting them on my Divorce661 Facebook page.

When I even hint at complaining about feeling like I am always working, my wife is always there to remind me of all the good things that come with owning a business. And she is right.  My wife works hard.  She is up by 5 and out the door by 6 to be in Los Angeles by 8.  She takes the Metrolink and isn’t home until 7:30 p.m.  At least my business has the flexibility for me to leave the office as necessary to take our son to his tutoring and the other activities he needs to get to.

The thing about owning a business is that it is always on your mind.  For me, I am always thinking of how to generate business.  Always thinking about marketing and much of that occurs in the evening or on the weekends since most of my Monday through Friday during business hours is spent working with clients.

13 Hours – The Secret Soldiers Of Benghazi

Today I took my wife and son to see the movie 13 Hours – The secret Soldiers of Benghazi. I really enjoy movies that are based on true stories and this one said “This is a true story” it did not say based on so I assume they stuck to much of what actually happened.  The other thing I enjoy is watching military type movies and thrillers.

This is probably from my having been in the Military.  But this movie kept you on the edge of you seat and was a great, great movie.  My wife even said she wanted to see it again and I there were no complaints from our son.  And I won’t get into my personal politics or feelings about what happened in Benghazi.

Not Going To Santa Barbara

My birthday was this past Wednesday on the 13th.  We did not do anything fancy, in fact we did nothing and was just a regular day.  So my wife said we could do whatever I wanted on the weekend.  So I booked three nights in Santa Barbara at an RV Resort names Flying Flags.  I had never been there but saw a friend post on Facebook how much they liked it there a few months ago.

I could tell that my wife was pretty exhausted from the week and decided to call it off.  I made up a story about having a lot of things to do for the business.  My wife is way tougher than me and would never say anything, especially if it was something I wanted to do.  So I knew that if I did not call it off, she would not either.  She would just go and not complain.  In fact she would just make the best of it and you wouldn’t know if she was not feeling well or not.

So we did not go to Santa Barbara for the weekend and just stayed home. She slept 10 hours and did not wake up until 9 am on Saturday which proved to me that I was on track and she needed her rest.  Right now in fact we put on a movie from Netflix and I just looked over and while I write this she has passed out and is sleeping.  It is only 5 p.m. I knew she needed to rest.

As much as feel like I am working, I do enjoy writing these personal posts.  Not so much for other people to read them, which people like you obviously do, which is great.  But I actually enjoy writing just for writing. And perhaps when I am gone one day, these articles I write can be viewed by my wife and children as sort of a diary.

My daughter who is in college now just returned from the gym at LA Fitness and went by Wal-Mart to grab a few things from the house.

Well enough of the personal posts, I have to get back to uploading videos to my blog and to Youtube.

Talk to you tomorrow.  Tim

 

My Birthday, Challenging Clients and Providing A Valuable Service

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Yesterday was my birthday, but you wouldn’t know it.  It was just a regular day. I guess that is the way it has been and is when you are in your 40’s.  Son went off to school, daughter is off to college and the wife is off to work by 6 am and does not get home until 8 pm.

For me, I just ended up working, but was trying to take it easy.  The plan was to work a half day or remotely as I did not have any clients coming into the office.  I was hoping to go for a run and hit the gym, but in the end spent my day handling clients, new clients and having to tell potential clients they were not a good fit for our company.

It was not an overly difficult day, but I had to handle clients that we have had for a while that have just been super challenging.  Clients we just can’t make happy no matter what happens and tend to complain even when things are going well for them.  I am just glad these types of clients are few and far between because I get tired of being a punching bag and just because you paid us for a service does not give you a right to speak to people that way.  I do a pretty good job of interviewing our clients to make sure they are a good fit for us, but sometimes people slip through the cracks.

I also had to tell someone who was interested in our service that he was not a good fit for our company.  It started of with free phone consultation.  I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with him and we came up with a plan to prepare a request for order for him.  He later emailed and made an appointment.

The appointment was for yesterday at 10.  Around 8:30 I received and email from him saying he was canceling the appointment. No reason, just canceling. Then around noon he emails me again and is questioning the price I quoted him for our service and said it did not make sense, “and to explain it to him so it makes sense.”

This is a red flag for me right away.  I have dealt with people in the past who do not see the value of what we do and that makes for a poor relationship and never turns out well.  Folks who are not willing to pay for our experience and knowledge in our profession are always problematic, complain and take too much of my time.

So I cut him loose by responding to his email by explaining exactly that and advising him he was not a good fit for out company.

In the Santa Clarita Valley, we are the ONLY Corporately Registered Legal Document Assistant Company. One needs to be registered as a Legal Document Assistant to perform these functions without the supervision of an attorney.

There are other “paralegals” out here, but they are not registered or licensed as we are, to do what we do.

So if you want to roll the dice and work with someone who does this part time or works out of their home to save a few bucks, go right ahead.

But don’t be surprised when the results are poor and the service bad.

Just Venting Today And New Years Resolutions

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I don’t know where I got it from or when it happened, but I have always had a thing with needing to be on time to things.  Probably from the Marine Corps and further amplified by working as a Police Officer for LAPD where you respond to calls and when you get somewhere matters.

And this translates into me thinking that everyone thinks the same way I do which can cause frustration. For instance, if I tell someone I am going to be somewhere at a certain time, I am.  And if something happens that prevents me from getting there on time, like my wife, I get frustrated, but more than that fell a sort of panic set in.  It is weird.

I think part of my New Years Resolution for 2016 will help.  I had only one new years resolution.  And that was to just try to make the best out of every situation.  When things don’t go my way or if things don’t go the way I had planned, to just make the best of it.

This has helped in many ways.  I don’t get so frustrated or panic stricken if am late or things don’t go my way.

A perfect example is right now and why I decided to write this post today.  I have an appointment with my computer guy today at 9 a.m.  I got in early to get some work done before we go offline for a few hours while he swaps out a computer.  It is 9:35 and he is still not here.  I text him and he says it will be another 30 minutes.  Keep in mind that i book morning appointments so there are no delays from previous calls.

So normally I would be pulling my hair out, and caught myself getting a little frustrated.  Thankfully, I did catch myself and took a deep breath.  How to make the best of this situation?  By realizing that nothing I do will matter. So might as well relax and realize not everyone is the same as me and the world will still go round and round, even if he shows up late.

On Another rant and just venting is in regards to where my son attends high school.  He goes to Valencia High School and we have had a terrible time with his Counselor, Ms. White.  I don’t know why people stay in jobs that they obviously don’t like.  We have had so many issues with her that when we asked for a different counselor the Principal said he would step in.  That didn’t work either as he has the same philosophy it seems.

I once went in to meet with Ms. White and she refused to even step out of her little office. Instead, while i stood 5 feet away, advised another staff member to tell me something.  I said to her, “she can’t even step out of her office 5 feet to tell me that?  So rude.

So starting the 2016 semester, we needed to have Ms. White sign a form so our son can take a class at Valencia Tutors.  When she refused to sign the form, we advised Valencia Tutors and they said, “is it Ms. White”.  Yep, she sure has a reputation for being difficult and downright worthless.

Okay, done with the ranting.  Still waiting on the computer guy.  Breath!

Talk to you tomorrow.  Tim

More Podcasts, Videos And Blog Posts To Come For 2016

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

So today is January 6, 2016 and you know what is remarkable is I did not get sick all of last year and in fact I haven’t been sick for a couple of years. But yesterday just five days into 2016 I caught a cold I don’t know what to make of this.

But I’m still plugging along, when you own your own business you can’t just not show up for work.

This year I’ve made a commitment to do a lot more marketing especially in the way of video marketing and so far this year I’ve produced on a minimum at least five videos per day which I’ve then turned into a podcast episode followed by uploading to YouTube and Facebook and any other social media platform that I’m a part of.

We’ve always done well with our our marketing but this year I think will do much better as I increase the number of videos that we make.

I know this is true especially sense yesterday I uploaded a video at about 7 AM to YouTube and by 9 AM I received a call from a potential client who watched the video and became a client because of that very video. It’s things like these that convince me to spend the extra hours every day to get this marketing up so people can learn from it, find us, and hopefully ultimately utilize her service to help them with their divorce.

So if you follow our blog podcast or YouTube channel you’re going to see tons of content being posted and uploaded every day.

Have a good day, enjoy the rain California, and we’ll talk later.

Our End Of Year San Diego Trip

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Today is Monday January 4th, 2016 and we just got back in from our little 5 day vacation to San Diego.  I tell you the weather really cooperated with us.  Very lucky.  We had 72 degree weather and one day that was 78!  Pretty good for winter.

Here is Dog Beach

 

We took our little motorhome, but we rented a little cottage at a dog friendly place. It was so much nicer than staying in a hotel because we got to use all the open space and the dog could run free… with supervision of course.  Because there were 6 cottages in total, the center became the common ground and was a great place to BBQ and have lunch in the beautiful weather.

cottage photo

We did several “touristy” things including whale watching, fishing and a dinner cruise. The rest of the time was walking the dog at the beach and riding our bikes around town.  We did see several whales and in fact the guide said it was a record day for whale sightings.

 

My 2 brothers were supposed to join us for the fishing trip and the morning of he cancelled on us so just Tyler and I went. This is the photo we sent to him for not showing up.

flip off

All in all it was a good trip. Too short if you ask me, but one of the longer trips we were able to take this year. Never really left California as we were just too busy to get out of town for more than an extended weekend.

Well, Happy New Year and let’s make it a good one. Big plans for Divorce661.com this year.

Here is another photo from our trip…

Whale Watching
Whale Watching

Veteran Status Verification Form VSD-001

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

Veteran Status Verification Form VSD-001

On Veteran’s Day 2015, (November 11, 2015) Veterans Affairs and the California DMV informed the public that as Veterans we can now have the word VETERAN placed on our California Drivers License and California Identification Cards.

UPDATE 1/4/16 – See additional video below. I received my signed VSD-001 within about 1 week of submitting it.

UPDATE 1/15/16 – For those living near the VA hospital on Sepulveda in the San Fernando Valley, Veterans are reporting you can go to building 22 room 219 at the Sepulveda VA in mission hills you can get the form validated on the spot. bring dd214 and its only 8 to 1430 Tuesday to Thursday.  It appears they now have a stamp at that location.

Click Here For Veterans Status Verification Form

In the video below I discus exactly how to obtain the Veteran Status on you Drivers License. Don’t Follow the instructions given by the DMV or even the Veterans Affairs office. Nobody seems to know what they are doing. I will also have attached the Veteran Status Verification Form attached to this article so you don’t have to travel to your local VSO office just to pick up a photocopy of the form.

 

I Received My Signed Form!!!!

 

So I drove down to the VSO (Veterans Service Office) closest to my home in Valencia, CA which happened to be in North Hills, CA off of Plummer. I called down and they said to come on by and see Joe and make sure to bring my DD-214. That made sense and I thought I would be going down there to have my form signed off so i could make an appointment with the DMV.

vso sined

What I learned is that instead of having the Veteran Status Verification Form VSD-001 signed off is all they do is give you a packet with instructions, which i explain in the video.

What I wanted to know is why the Veteran Status Verification Form VSD-001 is not anywhere on any Veteran Affairs Website or DMV website. It is not like it is useful until the County Supervisor Signs off on it.

In the packet of information (3 sheets) I received there was an instruction sheet. Basically, you have to fill it out and mail it downtown to the Veterans Affairs office where the County Supervisor works. Apparently, not just anyone can sign off on these things. Makes sense, but why make us drive down to a VA VSO just pick up a photocopy.

The instructions were a mess and all wrong. There is a phone number listed of 213-744-4828 to call and speak to either Ruth Wong or Chris Duarte. I called the number so I could provide more details to you guys and gals, but what do you know? The phone number is out of service. Nice guys..

The address they indicate to mail your signed forms to wrong as well. I have the PDF of the instructions and made the changes, but here is the correct address.

Veterans Affairs
1816 S. Figueroa St. 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90015

This is for Los Angeles County Veterans Affairs. I would assume that there are different County Supervisors for each of the Counties so make sure to check for where to mail your completed Veteran Status Verification Form VSD-001 to.

Hope this saved some Veterans some time. Please feel free to share this information on Facebook or wherever your friends are so they can get this information.

Click Here For Veterans Status Verification Form

 

Okay, so we are on to something. Veterans are starting to post county specific info with contact info. I will update on this site. Please fee free to leave content and I will post per County.  I posted on LA County, below is the county specific info as we receive it.

SAN DIEGO COUNTY

Posted by Rasheed

If you’re in San Diego County, the VSO Office the address below (8am – 4pm I think).You can take original or certified DD-214 (or military ID card it you’re retired), fill out the status form and have a VSO sign it off. Hope this helps.5560 Overland AVE Suite 310San Diego, CA 92123619-694-3222

2nd Busiest Shopping Day, Prepping for San Diego Trip & Wrapping Presents

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I was at breakfast with my daughter at Marston’s in Valencia and was reading the newspaper. It said that the Saturday before Christmas was the second busiest shopping day of the year.  I did not know this, but it makes sense. Later in the day, i was speaking to another business owner in my building and she said this Saturday will be particularly busy because in addition to being a Saturday, that because it is falling right after a payday for most folks (15th) that they will have just gotten paid and have money to burn.  I guess that might make sense.

For us, our shopping is done.  Not that we got everything we wanted to get, but that whatever we have now is what we have.  If there is something else we wanted to purchase, it can be gotten after Christmas.

For us, this weekend will be about wrapping presents. We are really trying to be prepared this year.  After this weekend, we only have 3 days before Christmas Eve and with being busy with the business, Thursday will be here quick.  My wife and i have always been bad with Christmas.  We are usually out shopping for last minute gifts, feeling the pressure to “just get something”.  Not this year, if we got something for you great, if not, that is fine too.

One thing for sure, we are going to wrap our presents this weekend. Probably open a glass of wine and watch a movie while were at it.  What we are not going to do, which is what we have done every year in the past, is wrapping presents on Christmas Eve at 1 a.m. because we put it off for so long.

We are still planing for our San Diego trip.  I can’t believe how hard it is to plan everything. We are only going for 4 nights and i am trying hard to have reservations for everything we want to do, such as dinner, whale watching and things like that.  Being that we are going during Christmas and New Years, everything is booking out quickly and we are just getting started with making reservations.

I am still doing the hiking in preparation of the Spartan on January 31st. On Sunday, I am gong to do the 2 mile loop twice and see how that goes. Have been feeling pretty good doing the single loop and need to step it up to 4 miles now.

I dragged my wife on a hike this weekend at Towsley and we saw a few deer. Check out the video.

 

I have been using an app on my phone called run tracker but am considering purchasing a FitBit. Anyone have any thoughts? I was looking at the reviews last night and it is a mixed bag. Maybe I will wait until after christmas to see if there are any deals.

Talk to you on Monday.

Spartan Race & Hiking At Towsley Canyon Trail 12/18/15

Posted by Tim Blankenship on

I recently signed up for a Spartan Race.  I am starting off easy on what they call the “Sprint” which is a 3-5 mile course with 26+ obstacles, mud, hills, etc.  You get the point.  I decided I would take down the whole family and signed us all up.  Well, not my wife, when she heard about it she said, No way.”  She is more of a Yoga person and not so much running through fire kind of person.

 

So it is just me and the kids and the race is January 31, 2015 at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA. so i have about 6 weeks to get ready.  Not enough time, but gives me the motivation to get to the gym and workout.

I called a friend who has done these races in the past and asked her advice for getting ready. Her advice was to hike.  I had not even thought about it, but apparently there are lots of hills to climb.

That’s why we headed out to Towsley Canyon yesterday to do our first hike.  We did the short loop and my plan is to try to get to the trail every day and try to improve my cardio and time on the trail.  I am starting with the short loop and plan on moving up to the larger loop just to get the time and distance in.

I have to keep checking my phone to see the date and can’t believe another year is almost behind us.  My Daughter is on college break and my son is on Winter break.  He said they don’t go back until the week of January 11th. That seems like a long time.

I have decided to totally take advantage of the business slowing down around this time.  I have written several articles about how the amount of divorce cases we handle reduces by about 50% between around Thanksgiving and the end of the year.  But really slows down when the kids are out of school.  This allows me to catch up on work, reflect on the year and spend much needed time with my family.

We are still making plans on our end of year trip to San Diego.  This will be our only real vacation of the year.  That is if you consider 5 days and 4 nights in San Diego. We usually only get away for a weekend camping trip, so this is a big deal.  This, while we watch our friends go to Jamaica and Hawaii.  That is okay.  Since my daughter has applied to 3 colleges in San Diego, we will be visiting the campuses while we are down there. Hopefully the weather continues to be nice.

Time to hit the trail this morning and get my hike in.  This time just me and the dog.  Then off to work for client meetings and then to do some marketing.  I am really going to bring the heat with videos for my business this year.  I have recorded over 700 videos at this point.  I want to do a video a day next year at least which will increase my video production quite a bit.