Porter, Strange Give Personal Touch to Injury Practice
REBEKAH HEARN | The Daily News
Porter & Strange PLLC has been in operation for fewer than two years, but already the partners, Matt Porter and Amanda Strange , get the comments: “I’ve seen you on the bus!”
The partners at Porter & Strange do advertise on the sides of Memphis Area Transit Authority buses, but Porter said their trick to starting and operating a successful personal injury firm in such a competitive market is to keep alive the personal aspect of every case.
Porter & Strange is a small firm, with just the two attorneys, one receptionist and three case managers/paralegals, but Porter said they decided they didn’t want to grow into a larger firm and lose the personality that helped them kick off their business.
From the beginning
Porter’s interest in personal injury litigation began long ago.
“When I was 12 years old, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, which is a form of cancer,” Porter said. “(My parents) were farmers, and they had a family health insurance plan through BlueCross BlueShield.
“And BlueCross BlueShield basically started denying claims, saying they weren’t going to pay. I was 12, and we had to get an attorney just to get the health insurance to pay what they were supposed to.”
Porter said he looks back now and can’t imagine what his parents were facing – not only having a child with cancer, but being denied claims from their health insurance company.
“Fortunately, we got an attorney … and he actually got the insurance company to pay. So ever since I was 12, I just wanted to go into law because of that,” Porter said.
He said he’s seen insurance companies offer family members who have lost a loved one a death benefit of $3,000 when they have a $100,000 insurance policy.
“It just blows my mind to see insurance companies do that,” he said.
While studying at the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law, Porter met Amanda Strange. They both graduated in 2002.
After law school, Porter moved with his wife to Bristol, Va., the area where he grew up. Five years later, they returned to Memphis, and in April 2008, he and Strange formed the firm.
Strange is a preacher’s daughter, and she comes by her desire to help others honestly.
“Through her dad, reaching out and helping people that way, that’s what got her interested in going to law school and just trying to help people that have problems,” Porter said. “She grew up in the church, and seeing her parents really reaching out and helping out. She knew she could do that through legal means as well.”
Each attorney’s individual story is unique, and they view their clients’ cases the same way.
“One of the things that we want to do is continue to give kind of a more personal touch to the kinds of cases we take. And that’s one of the things that we believe is kind of missing with personal injury,” Porter said.
Porter and Strange always meet personally with clients rather than passing off cases to a paralegal.
“I believe that that if I’m going to put myself out there, then I’m going to be the one that you’re talking to,” Porter said. “I’m going to be the one that negotiates on your case. I’m going to be the one who advises you and assists you all the way.”
It’s the personality that sets their firm apart, Porter said. In terms of logistics, he said they have “basically the same thing (the competition) has.”
“The case management software that we use to handle our caseload is top of the line on the market. You can tailor it to your specific needs in your law firm,” he said. “I know a couple of other, bigger injury firms in town use that as well. It’s just that we’re on a smaller scale, with fewer people.
“While they may have resources where they can get 40 people working on one case, ours is just more of a personal touch. We have everything at our fingertips that they have,” he said.
Not ambulance chasers
Porter said he and Strange focus on catastrophic injuries, because each of them has spent a good deal of time on those types of cases.
“Of course, we handle a lot of smaller cases as well,” he said. “But our main focus is on more catastrophic injuries … because we just really know we can help people a lot more in that area.”
Although the firm is only about a year and a half old, Porter said they’ve taken off well.
“We’ve been fortunate,” he said. “There’s no doubt luck was involved, but it was also, I truly believe, skill and competency to be able to handle those types of injury cases.”
Advertising is part of the nature of their business, Porter said, calling it a “double-edged sword.”
“When you focus only on personal injury, I believe there is a need to advertise, no matter how you do it, because even if you just go in and talk to people in social gatherings and tell them what you’re doing, that is a form of advertising yourself,” he said.
Whether a firm advertises on television or on a MATA bus, Porter said it’s important for attorneys to get their names out there.
But referrals are a huge part of their practice, an aspect of which Porter is proud.
“We actually track every single case that we take in. Every single case we track to get a referral source,” he said. “Right now … about 45 percent of our active caseload has come through referrals from friends or past/current clients who know someone who has been injured.”
Porter said nothing tells him he’s done a good job as when someone comes to him after a referral. Just like with doctors’ bedside manners, the partners at Porter & Strange keep their interactions with clients at the forefront.
“I’ve always tried to keep that in my mind, that I could get somebody a multimillion-dollar settlement, but if they go back and go, ‘You know what? I didn’t like him, he didn’t do this, he didn’t do that,’ I didn’t provide a good service to that client,” Porter said.
When it comes to choosing a personal injury lawyer, people should always do their research, Porter said.
“Go to their Web site, look at it, do as much research on your attorney as you can, ask questions when you’re meeting with them,” he said.
He emphasized the importance of ensuring you’re talking with an attorney, not a paralegal or intake counselor “who’s just filling in to get a contract signed and move that case along.”
Also, he cautioned about solicitations. It is illegal for an attorney to call somebody who’s been injured directly and offer services, but Porter said he does see that happen.
“Always think about that – how you got to that person,” he said. “We’ve had clients come in and tell us they’ve gotten phone calls from different offices, so you just have to be cautious.”
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