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Motorcycle Safety and Awareness
Welcome to think bike, the podcast about all things motorcycle and the voice of motorcycle safety and awareness in Alberta. Your host is Leanne Langlois.
Liane:Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of Think Bike. This week, I am thrilled to be joined by Trent Brown from James h Brown injury lawyers. They are our newest corporate member here at the Alberta Motorcycle Safety Society, and really excited to hear more about them, where they came from, and, yeah, what tips for you guys. So welcome to the show, Trent.
Trent:Thank you very much, Leanne. One thing in our quick chat that I forgot to mention was that we have a team out at Blackjacks tonight for bike night. So go out there. James h Brown is buying the first a 100 burgers for the first bikers out there. So if anybody's listening, bike night every Tuesday night at Blackjacks.
Trent:We're out there every Tuesday. We buy the burgers, ride safe, and ride hard.
Liane:Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. Tuesday night Blackjacks is always a good time. So anybody listening in the area, Tuesday's Blackjacks, I think they start around five or 05:30, but yeah, get down there and check it out.
Liane:So let's jump into this. Who is Trent Brown?
Trent:Oh boy, who is Trent Brown? So so I'm gonna throw some stuff out at you. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm a business owner.
Trent:I'm a former professional athlete, philanthropist. I like to think that I'm just an all around good guy, but my priorities in life are certainly my my family and my business. And and I try to do those things to the best that I can. And because if I try to do any more, I think it takes away from those things. So I try to And I'm local, I'm born and raised here in Edmonton.
Trent:I've lived here my whole life. I grew up here in the sports community on the South Side, went to Strathcona Composite High School, played for the bears, played for the Eskimos for eight glorious years, got a chance to play with great players. I'm really lucky I've been surrounded by great people my whole life, my family and my community. And and and so that sort of drives my passion to give back to this great community that's given me so much. I'm just very thankful and grateful to to live in this city, the city of champions, and and to have lived the life that I've lived.
Trent:Yeah.
Liane:That's awesome. Yeah. I I know a little bit of the history on you and then in the CFL. I hate to say it. I'm born and bred Saskatchewan, so I'm a rider going through and through.
Liane:Good to use. Good to still bleed my green even though I live here, but what can you do? We're not a great team these days, but that's okay.
Trent:Like the riders though, the fans, they're like the most loyal fans in the world. Like you it's your story is not uncommon. It doesn't matter where they go, where they live. They're true blue rider fans forever, and I love that. I love the loyalty.
Trent:I love the respect. And and frankly, I when I used to play, I used to hate playing there because it was a tough place to play. The old Taylor Field Yeah. In Regina. The turf there was like concrete.
Trent:The fans were always raiding in your face, and they always had good teams back in the nineties. They've struggled recently, but I'm not gonna say anything about struggling recently because
Liane:Yeah. Let's not talk about the elves on that one. Alright. Let's let's jump change topics a little bit. So Sure.
Liane:James H. Brown injury lawyer. So my understanding is James is your father?
Trent:He is. Yeah.
Liane:And so how did James H. Brown injury lawyer start?
Trent:Okay. Well, my dad was an athlete as was I, and he won a memorial cup with the oil kings in 1963 and had a promising sports career ahead of him. Was on a team with Glenn Sather, Pat Quinn, and they won the Memorial Cup. And then he was injured. He broke his neck in a motor vehicle accident with an uninsured driver.
Trent:And it changed his life. It ended his hockey career. And there weren't a lot of resources around at that time for people that were hurt in motor vehicle accidents. And and after that, he started the business and he dedicated his life to making sure that there's resources there for people who have had life changing injuries from accidents, especially motor vehicle accidents. And he started the firm in the very early nineties.
Trent:And we've been going strong for thirty years. I was at the end of my football career at the end of the nineties, and he suggested that I see if I could get into law school. And I always say, I'm lucky they take bribes because I made it through. And so here I am, and it was the best thing that I ever did. And now I have an opportunity to continue what he started in the nineties and we just keep growing every year and things just keep getting better.
Liane:That's awesome. And I know every time I turn around, there's either a commercial on TV or there's community involvement. Like the yellow James H Brown signs are everywhere. The whole entire buses are covered. Like it's really like dynamic, not just marketing, but community involvement, which I'm gonna go out of order on here.
Liane:It was one of the things that I was really excited to have James H Brown come on board with the Alberta Motorcycle Safety Society. Why do you feel this is a good partnership?
Trent:Oh boy, so many reasons. Because I think that there's a need to increase awareness of the importance of safety, not only for people that ride motorcycles, but more importantly for the people that don't. Because we've seen over, you know, the past four decades, so many hundreds of catastrophically injured motorcyclists with life changing injuries. We have three right now that have lost limbs. And so many times it's not about what they are doing, it's about what a car that is not aware that there's a motorcycle on the road, perhaps in a blind spot, not doing the right things, not making proper safety checks, road checks that causes these accidents.
Trent:And there's no other motor vehicle that is out on the highway and on the roads on a consistent basis where the injuries are as devastating. There's not a minor injury in a motor vehicle accident. And so part of what we do is we give back to the community, but we try to find connections with the work that we do out in the community. And the philosophy of our law firm has always been the more you give, the more you get. And so we try to be involved.
Trent:We just sponsored the twentieth mad golf tournament, the title sponsor for the twentieth year. So we're involved in that. Anything to do with safety, injured people, accessibility, anything like that. There's a connection to what we do to our clients. And so we want to be involved.
Trent:We want to be part of the solution. We want to be part of the community that's finding the solutions. And with respect to motorcycle accident and and motorcycle safety, we've all know people. We've got friends. In my case, I've got hundreds of clients, but friends and family members that have been affected by somebody injured in a motorcycle accident.
Trent:And so safety in all aspects is important. Like I said, not only for the people riding, and it's important for the people riding, the awareness, knowing what to do, knowing how to do it, but it's also important for anybody that's driving on the highways and on the roads to be aware of motorcycles when they're out there. And so if you need anything, call us because we're in. Like, I can tell you right now, the answer is yes. So we're excited about our involvement now with you.
Trent:We're a little bit late to the game, but on an ongoing basis, we we wanna be involved anytime you need us.
Liane:But, you know, it's it's that better late than never philosophy. And like, I was so excited, like last minute title sponsor for our event for the love of motorcycles as well. And I was just so grateful for that because it made our day that much better. And I am honestly, our our entire board is looking forward to what we can do in this partnership and to get that awareness out there and working together to hopefully reduce, you know, these collisions and like the seriousness of these and you know, maybe not so many cases for you in the future, but then we're doing a good job with that, you know, and it's a balance, but we know that you're there to catch us if we fall. And that's the most important part.
Trent:You you know what you said is very true. There's less accidents now than there's ever been because cars are smarter. Cars are safer. Motorcycle equipment, safety equipment is safer than it was before. But but but not if you don't use it.
Trent:Right? And so people need learn how to use it, what they should be wearing, and people need to understand their vehicles, their blind spot warnings, all of that stuff is all about awareness. And and the more we're aware of the equipment and and and how to use it, the safer the roads are gonna be, the safer the highways are gonna be. There's less accidents now than there were ten years ago. And hopefully in ten years from now, there's less than there are now.
Liane:That'd be wonderful. Mean, like that's our goal is to have less and less every year. I'm in a collision and I'm injured aside from going to a hospital and getting care, how do I get involved with James H. Brown and how like, what are those steps? Let's start there.
Liane:What are the steps to connect first? And then we can go into what that process is. Cause I don't, not sure many people understand that.
Trent:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, look at the first thing that you wanna do is is is you wanna make sure that that you get any medical attention that you need. And obviously that is a no brainer.
Trent:But one thing that I always recommend too, if you can, if you're able, if you're conscious, if you're well enough to, to try to document the scene, get somebody to take some photos. A lot of times when a motorcyclist is in an accident, they're in a stretcher and they're on their way to the hospital. When they can, there's certain steps that they can take. But typically at the time of an accident when it's not serious, your adrenaline is going and you can forget to do things. So to document everything and obviously get the information from the other drivers.
Trent:If the police are on the scene, that's one thing, then they will do it. But post accident, post trauma, post accident, when you get out of the hospital, right, you're injured, you need to report it to your own insurance company. We typically advise our clients not to make a statement to the third party insurer, the other person's insurance company that may call you and want you to make a statement. Typically, we advise not to because they're adverse in interest to you. So your own insurance company has a duty of good faith and you're entitled to benefits from them, section B benefits.
Trent:And so they'll pay for your treatment, your physio and any out of pocket expenses. But you can pick up the phone and call us at any time and our lawyers will be happy to talk to you free of charge and walk you through any difficulties that you may be having dealing with the property damage, your insurance company or anything like that. But the most important thing is that you report your injuries and your ongoing symptoms to your medical professional and do what they recommend to get better. You have a duty to mitigate by law, which means if you're hurt, need to be trying to get better. So go to physio, do all of those things, report all your symptoms so they get into the medical charts.
Trent:Because with respect to a claim for personal injury damages, it all comes down to the medical evidence. So it's not rocket science. Typically, if there's any liability issues, so on serious accidents, we like to do reconstruction. So we like to get there early, get somebody on the scene, an engineer that reconstructs the accident, that documents the property damage. Because oftentimes in left hand turn situations, lane changes, liability can be in question.
Trent:And so it's important to shore that up early. Lots of times, the insurance companies will say liability is an issue, and then nothing's done about it early. And then a year or two down the road, you're in a big fight because somebody's saying it's your fault, and and you're saying, well, it's not my fault. It's yours. So, you know, those types of things are are important, and that would be one reason why you might wanna get counsel involved early.
Trent:If it's a serious accident, because you wanna shore up liability, get some engineers out there, get some photographs of the vehicle damage, maybe examine the vehicles, down, download the black boxes. There's lots of things that can happen. But from the perspective of the person that's involved in the accident is obviously get to the hospital, take care of yourself, report the accident. And if you've got any questions, you can call us anytime and we'll walk you through step by step what you should be doing. There's lots of moving parts and oftentimes, you know, it's not until a day or two later that you even realise how badly you're hurt.
Trent:What a lot of people don't realise is that soft tissue injuries can half the time be worse than broken bones. Broken bones typically will heal within four to six weeks and you'll be going about your business. Now there are compound fractures and risks, and there's lots of issues that you can have, but it's a soft tissue injuries that sometimes linger, become chronic that you don't even feel when you're in an accident that two, three days later, you start to feel, right? The clicking in your jaw, the soreness in your shoulders, the sensitivity to light from a concussion that you didn't know that you had. And when you start to get those symptoms, it's important that you attend your physician and you report all of them.
Trent:So those get in the medical charts. And then if a lawyer gets involved later, we look at them and we make sure that you get to the specialists that you need to get to to make sure that all of this stuff is diagnosed. Lot of people have anxiety while driving. And there's a lot of people that don't understand it. Anxiety, seeing somebody hurt.
Trent:A mental injury is just like a physical injury and sometimes more serious. And I find, especially men, don't want to admit that they've got anxiety while driving, that they've suffered from some trauma. You know, you look over and a car is rushing towards you and you get scared and you suffer trauma. And trauma can affect you in a lot of different ways. And there's help for that.
Trent:There's therapy for that. And it's important that people get it because that's why we have insurance to put you back in the spot that you would have been but for the accident. And a lot of the injuries that happen in motor vehicle accidents get undiagnosed, not recognized, and obviously if it's not your fault, you should be compensated for those things. So, and I could go on and on. I mean, could talk about this forever, but I'm not.
Trent:I think that that's sort of a, in a nutshell, some of the things that you need to think about. Sorry for babbling.
Liane:Oh no, no, that was perfect. So a couple of things jumped out on me on that one. One is you had mentioned that, and I'm sure some people perked up with this because you know, everybody likes free stuff, but I would imagine that the initial consult would be free, but then post that if you're taking on the case, there would be some sort of settlement with the law firm as well as your client.
Trent:Yeah, so one thing that I always tell people is we're happy to give you free advice and walk you through things. And there's some people that don't think that they need a lawyer and they wanna handle it themselves. And I always tell people that if we don't bring value to a claim that you may have, we won't charge you legal fees. But we handle things typically on a contingency fee basis.
Liane:Yeah.
Trent:So you don't pay until the end when we recover money for you. And if we don't recover money, then then you don't pay anything. But I have people that sometimes think that they want to self represent, and I say, well, call me and I'll give you advice. I'll help to walk you through it. And when you get the best settlement you can from the insurance company, If you come to me and I can't get you five times more in your pocket after my fees, then I won't charge it.
Trent:Yep. Because insurance companies are not in the business of being fair and reasonable with people. And if they were, then we would be out of business. And I don't wanna bad mouth anybody because maybe in some cases there are, but I don't know if you've ever had a claim, if you've ever been robbed, if you've ever had vehicle damage. It seems like it's pulling teeth.
Trent:What did you do by yourself? In my experience, insurance companies aren't fair and reasonable with people. And and so what they like to do is they like to meet with people early and and offer them nominal amounts of money for injuries that haven't maybe reached what we call the maximum point of recovery is. Right? Yeah.
Trent:And and so if you have an injury, let's say a soft tissue injury that goes eighteen months or twenty four months and you're still suffering symptoms, at the maximum point of recovery, which is typically around that two year mark, an expert may say that it's chronic and you may have it for the rest of your life. And at that point, the value of your claim substantially increases. Now, insurance company knows that oftentimes clients don't have a lot of money, especially after a motor vehicle accident, and they may be inclined to accept small cash offers early as opposed to waiting till the two year mark when maybe their claim is worth substantially more. And once you sign that release, it's a one time thing. There's no going back.
Trent:So I encourage people out there that if this ever happens, pick up the phone, you can call me and I'll be happy to talk to you. And if I think it's fair, then I'll tell you. Yeah, that's a fair settlement. But I also advise people, jeez, don't sign anything. Don't do anything without legal advice.
Trent:And please do not sign any settlement release for an injury that you've suffered if you're still having symptoms. You know, not without not without legal counsel. Because what people don't realize is that let's say you have a chronic soft tissue injury, it may not be affecting your ability to work now, but maybe it affects the last two years that you're gonna be working. Maybe you're gonna get maybe on a balance of probabilities, you're you may get early onset arthritis, and it may take two years off your working career. And so you won't even know that it will have that effect until maybe ten or fifteen years and all of a sudden you can't work and you settle for a nominal amount of money and now you're out two years of income.
Trent:But we get experts to write reports that factor in all of those contingencies and we bring them into the settlement negotiation and process. And that's why we've got the largest settlements in the history of Alberta in every major category, brain injury, spinal cord injury, soft tissue injury. We've got the largest motor vehicle settlements in the history of Alberta, and that includes motorcycles. We've had two multimillion dollar settlements this year because because we send people to the best experts. We make sure they get the best care.
Trent:And when you've suffered a catastrophic injury, choosing your lawyer matters. And so you need to choose somebody that cares, that cares about you and that cares about results and that cares about the community.
Liane:Yeah.
Trent:Once And again, babble.
Liane:You're allowed to babble because that's all extremely valuable information. I mean, we care about the people that we partner with because this is exactly why we're excited to be working with James H. Brown is like that approach to things and that care and that empathy for your clients. And it's not just about a settlement, it's about making sure these people are taken care of. One thing that as an HR professional, I'm well aware of that two year mark because that's the mark for the LTD for the long term disability.
Liane:And if you can't work at that point, they could deem you permanently disabled. So that absolutely makes sense to me on that. And the other thing I wanted to, that I can relate to is like the long term effects of an injury. I broke my leg in an unrelated type of incident in 2001 and this like twenty four years later, I still have issues with my left leg and and kind of arthritic in my knee. And I have to tape it up to ride my motorcycle for a long distance.
Liane:Otherwise it locks up and doesn't feel good. So yeah, all of those things are very real and I don't know if anybody really realizes that. And I feel better knowing that if something were to happen to me, knock on wood, that that I'm not involved in a collision that is so serious that I need to call you, Trent, but I will if that happens. You'll be on my speed, Dal.
Trent:Yeah. And thank you for saying that, But I can tell you that I can't count the number of referrals that we get from long term rehabilitation nurses, doctors, people that see us down at the Glen Rose getting involved and they see what we've done with their clients and how we've changed lives. Yeah, it's something that we believe in and something that we stand behind our clients and we stand behind the medical community and getting a referral from somebody at the Glen Rose, a spinal cord injury referral from a doctor and a rehab therapist that deals with people with spinal cord injuries, having them say you got to go here. It means a lot. Like, because it tells me that that the people that I've surrounded myself with, like I told you before, right, that I have working with me, for me, that we're all pulling on the rope in the same direction.
Trent:Yeah. That they believe what I believe that because you can settle a claim as quickly as you want. Right? It's it's easy to settle a claim. But making sure the person gets what they deserve, that they're taken care of, that they're gonna be okay, that's a different story.
Trent:And that doesn't happen overnight. And so it takes commitment. Takes a willingness to help clients through those difficult times sometimes, right? People need help and they want the compensation now, but you know it's in their best interest to wait, and at our law firm we'll help you. You you don't have to worry about, you know, your basic necessities.
Trent:You don't have to worry about if if you've been catastrophically injured and and we've done this many times, you know, where we'll buy the person a house because they don't have a house that they can get a wheelchair into. We'll renovate the places for them. And and and we do that because who no one else is gonna.
Liane:Yeah.
Trent:Right? And the insurance company will give them money, but they'll make them sign a release. And we're like, you can't do that yet. Let us help you here because you need to wait us in your best interest to wait. We'll buy you the house and you can pay us when you can, when we get the money, when we make them give it to us.
Trent:Because it's their responsibility to buy it, and at some point, we're gonna make them. Yeah.
Liane:That's awesome.
Trent:But those are the worst cases and the most difficult cases, but you learn about the human spirit when you present people like that too, because some of my heroes are some of my clients, you know? Yeah. You know, the 14 year old girl who suffers a brain injury and learns to walk again and starts her own movement and gets the law changed to increase the penalties for distracted driving. And she's still a good friend of mine and she started rad.
Liane:Yeah. I was gonna say I know who she is. Yeah.
Trent:Yeah. So it's like like she's like, that's a hero.
Liane:Yeah.
Trent:It's not these sports athletes that are making all this money. Those aren't the heroes, it's the people that in the face of adversity dig down and show you the strength of the human spirit, you know?
Liane:Yeah. I can't imagine, you know, being able to watch things like that. It takes me back to Aaron Moser. I got to meet him many, many years ago. And again, in the face of adversity, a freak hockey accent makes him a quadriplegic and he starts a whole spinal cord research foundation.
Liane:Those are the people that I aspire to be. And they're so much younger than me. And it's, you know, it's why I love to do what I do. It's why I'm in human resources. It's why I started AMSS.
Liane:It's all about helping the community and being better for it. Trent, I wanna thank you so much for your time today. Jameshbrown.com is the website, correct? Yep. Yep.
Liane:Awesome. I, you know, if anybody out there is looking for, obviously you can tell it's a, it's a very caring law firm. We're so happy to be involved with you guys. I can't wait for the things that we're going to do together. And I, again, just thank you so much for your time today.
Trent:Thank you. And it is a pleasure meeting you. I look forward to working with you guys and getting to know you better. And yeah, if anybody needs advice, I'm happy to talk to you personally. And if you can't get ahold of me, leave a message because I do return calls.
Trent:And I try to make time for for everybody that calls me. And so it was a pleasure talking to you today. And anytime you wanna chat, you can call me anytime, Leanne. Have a great day. Blessings to you and everybody that you're working with down there.
Liane:Thanks, Trent. And for everybody else, just hang tight for the mailbag.
Leroy:Hey. This is Leroy with another helpful tip from Moto Instincts. Awareness is the first component of the Apex safety system. The motorcyclist has many skills to master, many dangers to conquer in an ever changing environment. The way to keep track of these variables is through matured awareness.
Leroy:There are four types of awareness and are ideally developed in this order. Personal awareness. Self awareness of how your mindset and habits are the largest influence on your ability to manage risk. Motorcycle awareness, developing a strong connection with your motorcycle so it becomes a part of you. Pavement awareness, how your motorcycle connects to the road surface and navigates through its environment.
Leroy:And finally, environmental awareness, understanding how a motorcyclist interacts with and navigates through the hostile surroundings. Skipping or rushing through these stages can lead to dangerous gaps in attention. Riders may not realize these gaps until a close call or crash occurs. New riders should be disciplined in developing each form of awareness. The end goal is what we call tactical awareness, an attention capacity that allows multiple aspects of riding to be monitored at once.
Leroy:Veteran riders can shift their focus between these areas of importance quickly, allowing them to detect and respond to changing conditions efficiently. That's it for this week. Make sure you visit us at motoinstincts.com for more information. Ride smart. Ride safe.
Liane:And that's our show for today. To make sure that you don't miss out on any of our upcoming podcasts or listen to previous ones, make sure you click on subscribe or follow wherever you get yours. If there's a topic you'd like us to cover or a guest you think would be great on the show or even a question for the mailbag, let us know. You can connect with us on all the socials. Email us at info@ab-amss.org or reach out through the website at a b dash amss dot org.
Liane:Thanks for listening to Think Bike. From us, always remember to ride smart, ride safe, and think bike. See you out on the road.