“Let it all hang out. You – conceal it!”
I’m reminded of this every time I prepare my client for a deposition, or help them with interrogatories, or whatever. Of course, I grew up on the Simpsons and am constantly reminded of them to the point where the show is just part of my subconscious. Anyway, this comes from a second season episode where Homer’s new assistant, Karl takes Homer to the tailor for some new suits. Homer does what guys do and sucks in his gut. Karl yells at him to let it all hang out, and then points at the tailor and says “you – conceal it!”
That’s what we want our clients to do. We need to know the warts in the case – the 30 pounds of excess flab hanging over the belt, so we can dress it up nice and make it look presentable. If a client is complaining of low back pain, we need to know if he had low back pain ever – or had been to a chiro – or whatever. If the client was a convicted felon, we want to know. None of this stuff is the end of the world if we know about it in time and can handle it.
The worst thing a client can do is hide stuff from us out of fear that it will hurt their case. We’re pros. We can dress up Homer Simpson in nice clothes and pass him off as an executive – but only if he doesn’t suck it in.
*hat tip to Dead Homer Society for the yoinked image above*
(Howard Zimmerle is a personal injury and car accident attorney in Rock Island Illinois, practicing in the entire Quad Cities and surrounding area. He can be reached at 309-794-1660 or hzimmerle [at] mjwlaw.com)
Quad Cities Injury Lawyers 