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Dram Shop Cases in South Carolina | The Carolina Justice Report - Suing The Bars - YouTube
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hello everyone i'm attorney justin
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lovely i want to welcome you to the
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carolina justice report video and
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podcast
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i'm here again with attorney sarah
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alston and my partner and my lovely wife
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miss amy lawrence
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and we're going to talk to you today
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about a more in-depth topic in regards
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to
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auto accident litigation
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and something that we're unfortunately
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seeing a lot more of here at the beach
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with everyone
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uh with everything reopening everybody
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getting back on the road and getting
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into the bars and the restaurants here
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at the beach and now that the tourist
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season is kind of slowing down
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hopefully these kind of cases slow down
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as well but we want to educate you on
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the front end on what to look out for
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so the topic today is dram shops okay
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and that that's kind of that's a lawsuit
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that will be brought in conjunction or
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maybe stand alone when you are hit by
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someone who was driving while they were
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impaired and obviously they were over
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served at a restaurant or bar or any
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kind of establishment that serves
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alcohol
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so i kind of defined it if y'all want to
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add add to that you can but
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the law just changed in south carolina a
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couple years ago and unfortunately we
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had cases that we had early on in our
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practice what what happened amy
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before the law changed before
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the law changed and this is what like
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broke our hearts because these cases are
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always really catastrophic injuries is
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that out people who are serving alcohol
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were not required to carry insurance
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so you could serve any amount of alcohol
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somebody could come to your
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establishment a half a gallon of liquor
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and they could go and kill somebody
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and then bring their liability right and
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or
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reliability but no no requirement for
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insurance and so
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we've had it happen way too many times
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and it broke our heart because either
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they're catastrophic catastrophic
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injuries paralysis i mean you name it um
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or death and there's nothing there's no
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way to recover for that family and it
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just it breaks your heart but a couple
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years ago they enacted a law where you
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have to carry a minimum of a million
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dollar policy so that's great so right
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everybody in south carolina if they're
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an establishment serving alcohol they
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have to carry a million dollar liability
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alcohol policy which that that is great
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and our senator luke rankin was behind
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that and so it's kudos to him yeah
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that's so important because normally the
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drunk driver who hits our clients will
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have state minimum you know liability
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insurance
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on their auto policy and so that's
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twenty five thousand dollars um fifty
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thousand if you're lucky you can get the
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property damage um but
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where it really comes in is when the
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bars over serve these drunk drivers that
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adds extra value there's more insurance
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money that you normally wouldn't have
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for these catastrophic injuries
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we've talked about our investigation
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team
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in several of these episodes
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and in no other case is it more
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important than in these dram shop cases
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absolutely
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and
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we of course
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our investigator is a retired detective
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when we get a case like this we call him
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and he is on it immediately and he'll
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drop anything he's doing and he knows
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that when justin amy sarah call he's
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gonna stop what he's doing he's gonna go
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get to the bottom of this and start
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investigating this for us and the reason
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why is you gotta figure out these
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witnesses
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you've got to figure out these
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bartenders and receipts receipts but the
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bartenders down here it's a very
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transient community down here in myrtle
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beach so
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there's people who can be bartending one
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week and they're
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you know waiting tables at some other
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bar the next week and we've got to chase
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these people they're constantly moving
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and these witnesses are very very
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important if the defense is going to
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fight us on this and say oh no he didn't
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drink that last drink here or he wasn't
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over served here because that's always
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their defense their defense says hey we
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can give somebody a couple beers but
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were they properly trained was the guy
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already drinking and that's what you
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said receipts who said receipts
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so you see yeah so you can see somebody
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took three shots or drink six beers i
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mean that's that's ridiculous that's not
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believable that they weren't over served
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especially in a short amount of time but
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also the investigation is so important
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for videos because you'll have other
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businesses
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catch the accident or the person leaving
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a bar on video or the bar's own
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surveillance video but oftentimes those
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videos will overwrite themselves
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sometimes within 24 hours
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sometimes within a week and you can't
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get that footage very long after the
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accident so it's super important that
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our investigator gets on it um we send
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out our letters of preservation and we
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make sure that all the video is going to
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be there
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when we needed to litigate the clean you
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know we've also learned um it's also not
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just about the receipts because a lot of
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times the receipts lie to us because
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somebody's buying shops for their
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friends or whatever i mean we've had a
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recent case where
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the guy would pay for some of it but
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also run a tab
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um
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on the house um on a separate book put
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it on the books i mean so we're
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constantly that's what our investigator
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is figuring out he's watching he's going
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in there before he even asks questions
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and he's pretend you know nursing a
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drink and watching everything that
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happens for a couple nights just to see
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are there you know is there anything out
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of the ordinary um where are the
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security cameras placed you know what
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kind of receipt system are they doing
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how are they ringing everything up these
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are all things that go and go into play
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and they're really really so important
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in these cases and now the the law makes
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servers and bartenders they have to pass
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just the cursory
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alcohol training bare minimum yeah
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and then there's also standards that
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restaurants need to have
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to make sure that someone is not over
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served there's got to be a policy in
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place and so the problem that we see
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with covid with a lockdown is you had
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all this rush everybody would open back
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up when myrtle beach was open back up
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100
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everybody came down here and what they
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want to do they wanted to party right
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right and then we had these struggling
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restaurants and bars that needed income
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and what are they doing they don't care
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they're just getting they're they're
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letting their standards and policies and
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their training go to the win and they're
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just serving to get the money as much as
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they can and it's it's the restaurant's
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fault they need the money but it's also
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the bartender the server they want the
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tips so they're not going to cut
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somebody off right and but what's what's
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the bad part is
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you know average joe client he's driving
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down the street he gets hit head on by a
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drunk driver that's what we're talking
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about you get hit by a drunk driver okay
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which is ridiculous
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um
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other entities we've seen so we talked
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about bars restaurants can just be a bar
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it can be a restaurant but um anybody
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with an alcohol license yeah anybody has
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to have this insurance policy now and so
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anywhere that's serving alcohol you know
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one of the things um
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we were i mean i think we're all kind of
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in tune to the murdoch cases happening
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down in hampton county and uh we were
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learning about the mallory beach case
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which is a young woman who got killed in
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a boating accident because uh the driver
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was allegedly overserved and you know
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when we're listening to that podcast and
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we're learning about it um we learned
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that you know he had bought alcohol with
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a fake id at uh at a um gas station and
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they've gone through the door
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on video and so you know in my head the
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lawyer in us the dram shop attorney in
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us we're going okay we're just counting
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the ball there's the policy and then you
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know then we hear that he's drinking at
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a bar um getting shots there's a policy
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he's at a home and was there you know
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possibly served underage uh by an adult
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we're thinking homeowners personal
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liability you know these are the things
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that the average attorney is not
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thinking of um that we think we think
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about on a continuous basis yeah so you
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and you would in a situation like that
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you do a proper investigation and you
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can hit every policy down the chain and
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we're serving preservation letters on
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every one of those entities we're you
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know investigating every one of those
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entities we're trying to get security
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cameras from every um
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every angle
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along the way
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because a lot of times you have people
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drinking at multiple bars as well
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over drinking at multiple bars right
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correct and you can get every one of
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them now let's say they say well
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he might have drank drunk at our bar
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maybe let's say it's bar number one
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right and book bar and bar number three
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agrees hey he was over served bar number
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two says yeah he was over bar number one
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says no he wasn't over served
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so what happens then sir what what do we
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need to do at that point in time or what
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would we do if we had that case um we
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would litigate it and fight it um
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interview all the witnesses and it's
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really gonna determine
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how much alcohol
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the defendant had at each bar and so
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sometimes we'll even have to hire an
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expert
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to determine you know this was his blood
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alcohol level at the time of the
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accident this is his heightened weight
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or hers and how much she drank at the
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first bar and second bar and sort of
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make a timeline to show that this person
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was over served at the first bar should
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have never even had a drink at the
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second bar or the third bar um to get to
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all those policies and get our client
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compensated and the majority of the time
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these people when these accidents happen
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they're charged with a bui or a dui and
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so we've got um
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the medical records that say what the
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alcohol level is or the court records or
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the police records that show what that
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alcohol level is and so we can reverse
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engineer once we know that last number
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we can go through and and figure out
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what that alcohol level was and that's
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what those experts and toxicologists are
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able to tell us it's also that's
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something great that and sets us apart
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the lovely law firm you're able to
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leverage your contacts with law
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enforcement and the solicitor's office
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who are prosecuting those felony duis
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who are prosecuting the buis the duis
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and we let them know hey we represent
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the victim and so we work with the
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victim who's also going to be the
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plaintiff in the dram shop case but we
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also work with the victims advocates
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office who's wanted to make sure that
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this person can can be made whole if
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possible
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now and then of course we have to go
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looking because they're going to do
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their own investigation they're doing a
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criminal investigation okay we're doing
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a plaintiff's investigation that will go
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alongside and of course as we get more
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information it leads us down certain
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rabbit holes and we find out some
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information that the police department
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or the solicitor's office doesn't know
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and we share that information back and
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forth you know this witness said this
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you really should go talk to him and
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that police officer investigators out
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talking to those witnesses and it really
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makes all the difference and you know
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we have a really wonderful relationship
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with all the police departments here in
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our area and our solicitor's office um
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they really trust us
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and um and we really trust them they and
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we just have this great relationship to
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where we can help each other along the
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way because in these kind of cases
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there's no way to put our clients back
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whole again there's just not you know a
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lot of times we're looking at people who
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are paraplegics or you know broken
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spines uh
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stoma bags on the you know the outside
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of their bodies for the rest of their
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life permanently disabled people
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horrific injuries and there's not a
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number that will ever make them hold
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there's not a number of years you know
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the athlete driver can do in prison that
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will ever make them okay again and so a
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lot of times this is our only way
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to even attempt to try to get them there
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or to give them some kind of peace or
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you know help them with their daily
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lives because everything changed in an
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instant yeah and the criminal
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defendant can be punished you know in
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the criminal system but as far as these
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bars over serving people and sort of
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enabling these drivers to get drunk and
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almost kill someone or kill someone um
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the bars don't go to jail and so the
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only way to hold them accountable is to
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hold them accountable civilly i think
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the solicitor's office knows that and so
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we kind of work together to make sure
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there's accountability on all ends yeah
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we can't throw a a bar in jail you know
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we can't throw a business in jail but
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the one thing we can do to hold them
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accountable is to sue them and try to
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prevent it from happening right and
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that's it makes everybody think twice
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after that yeah the next person they
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serve they're not going to give them
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that for the four shots or whatever that
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is and go back to those policies and
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procedures that they should have been
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following all along
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the one thing i would add uh ladies is
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uh
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and i've preached this i preach this to
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everybody but it's even especially here
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while we've been talking about hey this
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is a good thing there's a million dollar
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policy there's going to be an order
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of uh
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recovery
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first we're going to go after the at
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fault driver okay
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sarah you touched on this that might be
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a minimum policy 25.50 so the only way
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that you can adequately protect yourself
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is to raise
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your under insured motorist coverage
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you have to get as much as you can
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possibly afford and that's coverage that
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steps in if there's not enough insurance
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on the front end
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again you're never going to be made
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whole but if you get
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the at fault policy you have adequate
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underinsured motorist coverage policy we
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get that policy for you then we go after
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this you have a chance
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you know we tell everybody all the time
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whether you're on a motorcycle in a car
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an rv whatever that looks like for you
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raise your you i am to as much as you
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can afford and i've been hearing this a
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lot recently that i have full coverage
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so even if you think you have full
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coverage uh make sure you look at that
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policy because full coverage means that
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your property damage is going to get
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fixed whether you cause the accident or
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someone else does and that's protecting
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the bank who you make your payments to
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that's not protecting you so under
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insured motorist coverage is the only
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insurance that you can really buy to
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protect yourself
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in case something bad happens and that's
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it's worth every penny it's not that
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much extra on your policy either and we
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tell people all the time when we meet
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people out or we do you know rallies or
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community service projects or whatever
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call us we'll look at your insurance
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send us your deck page and we'll tell
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you for free um exactly you know where
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you're lacking and what you need to up
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um and almost 100 of the time 99.9
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percent of the time i'd say justin are
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probably and syria are probably the only
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exception to this rule because we know
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it or attorneys that do this kind of
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work because we have crazy high uims on
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our own cars we have a million dollar
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policy that will cover us if something
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happens
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that you need to up your uim and um so
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if they have no insurance or they don't
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have enough to cover you you need of
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those to as much as you can afford and a
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lot of times the the difference in uh
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what you're paying and that little bit
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of extra insurance is negligible it's
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ten twenty dollars
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um you know a quarter or a whole period
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yeah so definitely call us we we'd be
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happy to do that for you especially if
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you think you have full coverage um let
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me look at it and let me know that
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you're covering yourself percent of the
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time when people say they have full
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coverage they don't really have full
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coverage they're not protected and that
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that's a rude awakening when we have
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that conversation with a client and they
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say hey i got full coverage i got full
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coverage no you got nothing breaks are
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hard especially when they have these
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catastrophic injuries
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you know or any really anything over 25
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50 000 injuries i mean you go to the
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hospital as a trauma you know a level
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one trauma that's your hospital bill in
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one shot in a two-day period
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i think that's a good place to end it
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if you don't want to do it for yourself
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do it for your family do it for your
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wife do it for your kids because that's
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who's going to be left holding the bag
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if you're hit by one of these jackasses
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driving drunk i mean let's just put it
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how it is
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guys that's another edition of the
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carolina justice report like us on
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social media
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look for us on instagram tick tock
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youtube my website if you like apple
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podcast anywhere you listen and we'll
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see you next time
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