Darrin Zehr, Director of Law Firm Business Development, Gain Servicing
In personal injury, it’s easy for plaintiffs to disappear into the void. In an instant, a real person becomes nameless. Their case becomes yet another file. And the plaintiff becomes a number. Just another spreadsheet entry to manage.
The conversation shifts from, “Help me. I was injured and I don’t know what to do next,” to approvals, volume, contracts, and workflows.
But behind every case is a real human being. Someone whose life changed in an instant. A car accident, an animal bite, a workplace fall, or whatever their injury may have been. The commonality is no plaintiff asks to be put in this position where they now have a case on their hands they’re in the middle of, possibly need to put work on hold, now have to be in and out of doctors’ offices or surgery, and so forth.
This mindset of compassion and about being in their shoes must shape how people talk about their personal injury work. It’s the plaintiffs now living with the consequences of someone else’s actions, all the while everyone else keeps discussing what can or cannot happen next.
A Case Study Impossible to Forget: Knowing 600 Plaintiff’s Phone Numbers by Heart
The 2000 film Erin Brockovich tells the real-life story of a woman who boldly managed a toxic tort personal injury lawsuit with her bare hands. Erin took on Pacific Gas & Electric in a landmark case in the 1990s over groundwater contamination in California. Her investigation uncovered that PG&E had polluted the local water supply with hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, leading to serious illnesses among hundreds of residents. The case ultimately ended in a $333 million settlement.
What’s fascinating about this movie is she treats plaintiffs like real people, which the film depicted, realistically, as being an…almost radical approach. A half century later, there’s this one scene that still holds significant relevance. In one of the most famous movie scenes, Erin, played by Julia Roberts, says to a paralegal, “I may not have a law degree, but I’ve spent 18 months on this case, and I know more about those plaintiffs than you ever will. … Whose number do you need?”
Theresa, the paralegal, is skeptical. “You don’t know six hundred plaintiffs’ numbers by heart,” she says. To test her, Theresa looks down at the first file in her hand and says, “Annabelle Daniels.”
Erin, who in real life has an exceptional photographic memory tied to dyslexia, answers without blinking: “Annabelle Daniels. 714-454-9346. 10 years old, 11 in May. Lived on the plume since birth. Wanted to be a synchronized swimmer, so she spent every minute she could in the PG&E pool. She had a tumor in her brain stem detected last November, had an operation on Thanksgiving, shrunk it with radiation after that. Her parents are Rita and Ted. … [Their] number’s 454-9445. You want their diseases?”
Roberts later won an Oscar for the role. The real Erin continues her activism work to this day.
Language is a Choice. One That Matters Greatly
What does it mean to talk about plaintiffs like real people like Erin did, for example? It means to use certain language. Why? Some phrases may act like trigger words, without anyone necessarily realizing this. On the surface, certain words may sound neutral. In practice, they change the tone of the conversation immediately.
For example, “That’s not what I’ve been told,” sounds simple enough. But, now consider that this sentence could make it feel like someone is being accused of giving false information.
The same goes for “that’s not the way it was presented to me.” It may sound polished and professional at first glance, and of course I understand the intention for this and the above phrase, but it still creates the sense that someone misled someone else. Once that happens, people stop focusing on the issue and start reacting to the implication.
That shift matters. In high stakes work, words can move a conversation away from problem solving and into blame, defensiveness, and distrust.
I for one try hard to avoid those phrases for exactly that reason. It’s not that people should avoid honesty. It’s just that language shapes mindset. If the goal is to help people, then the language around the work should support clarity, not create more friction. It’s about using language with intention.
The Right Words Drive Focus Versus Noise
That point becomes even more important in personal injury because the stakes are not abstract. These are not just business conversations. These are conversations connected to someone’s health, stability, and future. Careless phrasing can make already difficult situations harder. Neutral communication helps keep people focused on the real issue instead of getting pulled into tension that leads nowhere.
There is a real client behind every decision. Whether something is approved or delayed does not affect the company the way it affects the injured person. If a patient does not get the support they need, that changes their life first. The impact lands on them, not on the people discussing the file.
We Cannot Allow Our Systems to Remain Heartless and One-Dimensional
For example, let’s say a plaintiff is named Susan. She’s a single mother with three children. Someone in that position may not have extra time, money, or options. Perhaps Susan cannot simply absorb delays or roadblocks and move on. She is the one carrying the burden. People with resources may be able to work around barriers. More vulnerable patients often cannot.
That is where systems can become cold. It is easy for everyone involved to start thinking in numbers, targets, and business goals. A month gets measured by funding totals. Performance gets reduced to a figure on a report. But there is another way to frame the work. Not just what was funded, but who was helped. Not just the output, but the human result.
That is the real challenge in personal injury work. Process matters. Communication matters. But empathy matters too. Not as a slogan. As a standard. Because behind every personal injury case is a real human being, and the work means more when nobody forgets it.
Final Thoughts
To the Erins, the Anabelles, and the Susans out there. You are heard and seen here at Gain Servicing and as our Director of Law Firm Business Development, I make it my ongoing mission every day to spread the word about this perspective to more people to drive ongoing industry transformation. Send me a note over on LinkedIn if you’d like to connect or chat further about this.