Chris Dreyer:
In a truly modernized practice, AI touches every link in the chain, how prospective clients discover you in generative search, how fast you qualify leads, and how your team tears through thousands of medical records without breaking stride. Today, we're mapping the client journey inside an AI native law firm from first click to final check.
This is Personal Injury Mastermind. I'm Chris Dreyer, founder and CEO of Rankings.io, the elite performance marketing agency for personal injury law firms. Joining the conversation, Ranking.io's, John Lowe and Danny Define from PIM, and Romanucci and Blandin Partners, Gina DeBoni and Michael Cerasa. Today, we cover how AI search engines decide which law firm to recommend to an injured client using tech to instantly synthesize volumous medical records and accelerate demand letters, the essential touchpoints where trial strategy negotiations and client empathy must stay human. Let's get into it.
Danny Define:
I'm Danny Define, partnership consultant here at PIM. Joining me is John Lowe, a key account manager at Rankings.io. John has spent half of his legal marketing career in-house at a law firm, so he brings both a firm side and a marketing perspective. We're also going to be joined by two attorneys from Romanucci and Blandin. Gina DeBoni is managing and senior partner. She has led the firm's overall operations while also litigating cases since 2010. And then we have Michael Cerasa is a partner with 20 years of personal injury experience. He leads the firm's transportation and premises liability practice areas.
Welcome, guys. Thank you for being on this call today. Our goal really here, it's not to give you another list of tools. It's to give you a clear map of where AI can help a prospective client find your firm, where it can help your team do the work, and where human judgment remains essential.
I'm going to kick this over to John Lowe. So John, where does your firm use AI today? What stands out to you?
John Lowe:
Obviously, there's seven moments that we put in front of you here from the time that someone's injured and they're searching for you, they're finding you, they're contacting you, you work that case, you settle it, all the way down to the time that they give you that review for a job well done. But within that, each of them have different ways that AI can ultimately shape or enhance each touchpoint along that spectrum. But even further into that, it's how it enhances each stage of that journey.
To me, I see a pretty clear line within this spectrum here about where each of those influence, and it's really between that found and called section. That's where I see the most split with how firms are engaging AI right now. And so on the right side of that where called, signed, work, settled and reviewed, a lot of firms are taking the work that they've already been doing for a long, long time and layering AI on top of that. They're able to draft demand letters, they're able to sort through tons of medical records, and it's a way for them to enhance the work that they're already doing. Whereas on the right side, it's a completely different conversation.
For that searched and found component, AI is helping someone research which lawyer to hire. That means it needs to understand a couple of key things. It needs to understand who you are, who your firm is, what sets you apart, what do you do better than that other firm down the road, and ultimately why it should recommend you. So it is a change in how you look at things. Being found isn't just about adding a tool to your workflow. It really is a a change in your mindset and in your approach to think about the information that you're putting out. So as we follow along in this client journey, keep both of those questions in mind. Can AI understand and recommend your firm and where can your team use AI to better serve the client?
How can you put AI to work in operations and in search? Picture a firm and they have significantly more capacity because AI helps with those repeatable tasks, repeatable work. What could your attorneys and staff do with that time? Your answer should be that you can spend more time with your clients. You can spend more time enhancing that customer journey and customer experience and more time showing prospective clients who you are and what you do differently and why they should recommend you instead.
Those two opportunities really reinforce each other. This isn't a checklist saying operations has to come first. You have to really focus on the backend so you have enough time and energy to focus on the front half. That's not at all what I'm saying. It's really just a way to say that that searched and found component is a different set of rules. It's a different way that you have to approach this process, but what you do on the back end to allow you to have more time to focus on those endeavors is really what I encourage my clients to do on a day in and day out basis. So it's really a picture of what becomes possible when the work inside the firm and the way the firm is found support one another.
How can better operations bring in more clients? This really should be more of a circle rather than the line because it is something where if you do all the things right in those earlier stages, the payoff is a lot of times a review. And that review is a pretty significant data point telling AI that someone is happy with the services you provided, this is the service you provided, and this is how they were able to help me and be unique in my specific situation.
So if routine work takes less time, you have more time for the activities that used to be hard to fit in. Spending time with clients, getting attorneys involved in things like photo shoots and video shoots, contributing to though leadership, and really focusing on things to help demonstrate and explain what makes the firm different. And that's the biggest shift here. It isn't just about completing the same tasks faster. It's about having the capacity by implementing AI in these different systems to show across multiple and more places how your firm helps clients and why someone should ultimately choose you.
Where and how does AI decide who to recommend? I like to use a non-legal example for this. A lot of us don't really probably need to search for personal injury lawyers pretty often, but I can almost guarantee you that at some point, you've used some sort of AI or LLM to determine what am I getting for dinner tonight? What sounds good? And so using that restaurant example, most of the time you're going to be adding parameters to that. You're going to be saying something along the lines of, "I'm looking for this type of food," or, "I want something more fast casual or more sit-down or takeaway or at a certain price point or something nearby." Very rarely are you providing little data on that. And it's the same thing when people are searching for lawyers.
And so whether you like it or not, whether you intend it or not, AI has to work out what kind of firm you are for better or for worse and which person you're like for. Gone are the days where there's a one size fits all solution here. What AI has done is it's really taken in a lot of information about us, probably a lot more than any of us would like to admit or are comfortable with, and it's providing a very, very custom answer to that user in that query. So the question is, are you giving it a clear picture of the clients that you want to serve, what you do especially well and where you do it at? And if you're not, you're likely not going to be sourced as frequently as you can.
This is often demonstrated. I work with a lot of firms that have been around for decades. You ask anyone in the space in their city and their state, who the best in the business is? Who would you trust to work your case if you were injured? And they say this firm. But the disconnect is what happens when those experience and strengths aren't visible when someone's researching them. So they might never even encounter some of those things that truly make them unique. You can't rely on really strict reputation and word of mouth anymore. You really have to demonstrate in simple and efficient terms who you are, what you do well, and why it should choose you. So this goes way beyond a firm's website. You really have to think about it into the context of the entire digital footprint. So where your attorney's expertise show up, what other people say about the firm, and whether or not those pieces tell a consistent story. Consistency is incredibly important these days, and at the end of the day, great work still needs to be discoverable.
How do you make it easier for AI to ultimately choose your firm? I like to break it down into clarifying, validating, and connecting. Within clarifying, all you need to really do is clarify who you help, what you handle, and where you practice. It seems pretty easy, but there is a lot of ways that that information can be morphed and changed on various different sources on the web. So it's really, really crucial that especially on your own website, you very, very clearly demonstrate those three questions, who you help, what you handle, and where you practice. And it needs to be clearly defined. We all work on a contingency, we all offer free case evaluations. You really have to dig deep and understand what your ideal client is and who you can serve better than anyone else.
Say you're looking for more truck accident cases, right? First and foremost, you need that page on your website. You need to really dig into which areas you serve. It's state, not city bars. So we will take cases all over the state, but you really need to dive deep and show that these are the core areas that we serve better than anyone else, because chances are someone in a community two hours away is probably going to be better to serve that client who's searching in that area than you are, whether you'd like to admit it or not. So making sure that you have that very, very clearly defined on your site because that is going to be used as a source of truth in several other areas as well.
Then you have to validate those claims. You have to back anything up. In my day-to-day workflow, 10 times a day, I have to tell Claude or ChatGPT or whoever, "Prove what you're telling me is true. Show where you got that information. Show where you're pulling that data point." And so you really have to back that up as many ways as you can. Reviews is obviously a great way to do that. It really informs what you're all about, but things like results, attorney credentials, and any kind of recognition that you can show as a way to reinforce that you know what you're talking about, you've worked these cases, you've gotten good results from them, you are a leader in the space, you have to prove what you say.
So again, using the truck activity example, things like case results, reviews from truck crash clients, turning those into testimonials, writing about those in several different areas, putting them on your attorney bios, showing that trucking experience and participation in studies, groups, things like awards. Anymore, I think a lot of people look at rewards as a pay-to-play function that doesn't really provide much value. And in some ways, I agree, but I think these days it really is a pay-to-play award missing from your site says more in the presence of it. So you really want to make sure that you have that table stake setup set up to really accommodate those types of searches.
Then connecting. Do those proof points show consistently? More often than not, people do great work. They post them on their site, on their settlements page, and then it's done. You really need to take that further than just on your website and really place them across everywhere that a prospective client or an AI agent might find you. And so the aim is to make what sets your apart easier to find and understand. So if you find a really great result for your client, make sure that's on your website, make sure you distribute that as a press release, make sure it's posted on your business profile, make sure you're talking about it on your personal LinkedIn, on the firm social profile, legal directories, really making sure that those core items that are setting your art are blasted out to a wide variety of areas because one touchpoint versus 10 touch points is really the difference between AI source and that information or not. So really, really important.
Then back to that customer journey, what happens between the call and that signature? When a firm starts working with rankings, really the first thing that we do and for the first 90 days, six months, whatever it might be, we are taking a pretty close look on intake. We see plenty of opportunities and money being left on the table just between those two different points. So it's really, really crucial that you're looking at that picture and making sure you're capitalizing on any lead that is coming through the door. But things like speed to lead and keeping in touch with respect to clients are always worth examining. Everyone knows this, but don't leave a voicemail sitting at 9:00 PM until the next morning. Chances are they signed by someone else who have 24/7 capabilities. So make sure that you communicate with them frequently and often.
And look, we can't touch on intake in one call, that's an entirely separate kind of animal than can of worms that I won't open up today, but we do have some great tips and tricks over in our ebook from some firms that do it better than anyone in the space. So check that out if you want to learn more about some of those intake tricks.
We've looked a little bit about in this journey, how a client ultimately finds and chooses a firm, but now let's move inside the trial a little bit. So Gina and Michael, where has AI been genuinely useful once a case is underway?
Michael Cerasa:
Thanks, John. I appreciate it. I think what you're seeing in firms today... Gina and I work with Romanucci and Blandin. We are a national trial firm. Our cases are focused on clients that, in most cases, are going to trial or are going to be heavily litigated. So when we're looking at incorporating AI into our practice, there's the obvious benefits of having efficiencies that are gained on a administrative side. But where I look at it from a litigator and preparing for trial, I'm looking for what are the main benefits that AI and a program like EvenUp brings to our team. And I think the most advantageous thing is just the amount of time it saves you and frees up time for you to strategize on your cases.
I can think specifically of a case that we're working on that involves tens of thousands of pages of medical records, been in litigation for nearly a decade now, and we are in a team meeting last week and a question came up about something that may have happened back in 2017. And in a moment, without breaking stride in our meeting, we used Case Companion and EvenUp and asked the question about a specific incident in a medical appointment nearly a decade ago. And within 30 seconds, we had an exact answer hyperlinked to the actual medical record. And so we were able to keep working in real time and strategizing on our case. Our meeting wasn't disrupted. We were able to use AI to keep that session going without breaking stride. And it really enables you to keep moving on your case, not be bogged down by details and really changes the way you practice. It is like having the smartest associate you can imagine helping you on any case and helping you stay on top of things from start to finish.
Gina A. DeBoni:
I want to touch on something that Michael just said because he referenced looking at medical records, pulling something out from a decade ago in seconds. It's not just these medical quick lookups. The chronologies are incredible. I think they're super useful in preparing for depositions. Our medical records team also uses the medical function in EvenUp to compare and contrast when a medical record is missing a bill. This used to be a very labor intensive process for our medical records team. And so I like to look at this as working smarter, not harder. And in a moment's notice, we can see what bills are missing and it helps them streamline their workflow in obtaining medical records. It helps our paralegals and that team focus their follow-up on what's outstanding specifically.
What should stay human? I am one of the dinosaurs in our office and I was resistant to AI. I think a lot of things should stay human, but now I'm a true believer in AI and what it can do for us. But what do I think should stay human? Well, the slide goes through case strategy and negotiations. I'm going to talk about negotiations for a minute. You can negotiate pre-suit, you can negotiate obviously via mediation and through a conversation with opposing counsel. I look at this as being a plus one. It's an added benefit, a cherry on top, and it really helps our attorneys prepare for those conversations. It identifies your key strengths in your case, some of the hurdles that you're going to need to overcome and help streamline that though. And so as your opposition is coming up with their counter arguments, you can put that in there and it'll pull data from the file that will counter that in a pretty quick moment. So I find that to be pretty useful.
Drafting demand letters, we can work through demand letters paragraph by paragraph. You can make language firmer in one part. You can soften the language in another, but the lawyer makes those choices. That's the human piece of this. And the lawyer reviews the result. I think there's no substitute for empathy. There's no substitute for human interaction with the clients. Most of us in the plaintiff's world really are meeting with clients at their worst. Our firm goes through trauma-informed training. It's incredibly essential dealing with the clients that we deal with. And to me, that's human. I don't think it's something that we should hand off to AI. It's helpful in depositions. I can drill down on depositions a little bit too. It helps you prepare for depositions, looking if you're deposing a particular treater. You can summarize those records, those gaps in treatments in a minute.
Michael Cerasa:
Yeah. I think the biggest thing is what do your attorneys in your office and what do your staff get back by implementing AI? I think the biggest thing is that the nuts and bolts administrative tasks that used to take paralegals and assistants and attorneys so much time to complete in order to do it right is just done so much more efficiently using AI. The ability to synthesize and process medical records, discovery responses, pleadings that are received, anything that you're getting in terms of an intake of data or data that you're putting out from your firm, everything you do is able to be done and synthesized in a much more efficient way than before we had these AI tools.
I look at AI as something that just makes me better and more efficient at my job. It allows me to spend more time of my day doing the strategy and the work to advance my client's cause and get their case resolved as opposed to spending more time doing things that are underlying things that are still very important, but that don't advance the case in a meaningful way. And so you're able to be much more efficient, remove repetitive tasks and mundane tasks out of the attorney's and paralegal's hands to give them more time to look at the big picture and things that can really spend their time on getting your case either to resolution or to a trial. Having that extra time in your day to spend more time on strategy is so worthwhile and really enables you to practice so much more efficiently.
Gina A. DeBoni:
Michael, you're right. I think it is a huge time saver and it goes across all jobs within the firm. It certainly is a time saver for administrative staff and preparing discovery responses and some of the day-to-day subpoenas, that type of thing. But you're right, our lawyers really benefit from AI quite a bit as it relates to case strategy. In our firm, our lawyers often read their own records. And when you have a voluminous case or cases that are decades old, the case that Michael was referring to earlier, it was an incident that took place in 2016, litigation's still pending in New York right now, and we have banker's boxes of files. And so being able to synthesize all that data allows us to focus on what's really needed, strategizing what experts are we going to be retaining, that type of thing. I think AI can be useful whether you're a volume shop or whether you're a single event boutique type firm, because the type of time is needed regardless of the size of the case.
I want to talk briefly again about depositions because I think that can't be underestimated at all. Being able to summarize depositions as you're preparing for trial down the line, knowing your strength of arguments when you're presenting them to a jury and having that bucketed in a summary format is something that's incredibly useful. I think it's helpful in pre-suit cases as well. I know Michael and his team, Michael is the team lead for our MVA and premises cases. He utilizes AI and EvenUp quite a bit in his pre-suit settlement. So Michael, I don't know if you want to talk a little bit more about pre-suit demands.
Michael Cerasa:
Yeah, I think the biggest thing that we see from a pre-suit perspective in terms of a real benefit is with a program like EvenUp, as your team is gathering medical records, evidence to support a case, I'll take for example, a motor vehicle accident, you're going to get witness statements, the police report, medical records, photographs of damages, all the stuff that you would normally put into a demand, and you might put that together at the end while you're preparing everything for your demand letter to the insurance company. The AI tools, if you're putting these things in as you receive them, it is analyzing all of that data for you and preparing it for your demand letter. So by the time you're ready to draft that demand letter, all of that information has already been analyzed, organized, and put into a summary format for you. So the case is almost ready to move forward before you even are.
And so having that work being done as the information is coming in, it can help you with gain insights to maybe redirecting your client for additional treatment or different types of treatment, or it can spot problems before they arise so that you're not dealing with things on the back end and slowing down your claim. If you're highlighting potential issues in treatment gaps or issues of liability, if that analysis is ongoing throughout the process, you're able to identify and deal with those problems on the front end, saving you time in the process as it goes forward.
That's where I really think that AI is adding leverage to the attorney's practice. I view AI as the perfect compliment to my practice. You hear a lot of people concerned that AI is going to replace attorneys or replace other professionals or take people's jobs. Is that always a possibility down the road? Maybe. I don't know if that's the worst case scenario, but the way I look at it in our practice today and how we use it is it really is the ultimate complimentary tool to our practice. Using the tools to make you better at your job, to give you additional insights that you may not otherwise have noticed or seen, see trends in your cases, able to test theories of liability or legal arguments to be able to use the data in a way that you haven't been able to before because of the ease and access to that analysis. If you view the AI tools as a compliment to your own judgment, your own experience, and your own ways of litigating a case, it really unlocks a level of efficiency and insight that we didn't have available to us before.
And so I think if you use it and you view it as something that can only enhance what you're already doing, it really is a powerful and positive tool to add to your practice.
Gina A. DeBoni:
That's the distinction that we'd leave you with. AI can take on different roles in the work, but it doesn't replace the human eyes that are reviewing it, the lawyer who's arguing the case or the relationship that we build with our clients. It gives our people, our employees, more time to work well, to work smarter and not harder. For our firm, the value is being able to work through substantial cases more efficiently while still remaining hands-on lawyers. We still read, review, decide, and advocate for our clients both in and outside the courtroom. AI helps us put more time into those responsibilities.
Danny Define:
Well, Gina, Michael, thank you so much. Appreciate it. That was a wealth of knowledge. And hey, anybody tuning in today, if you'd like to see how EvenUp could support your firm's casework, you can scan this QR code here to schedule a demo. Gina, Michael, John, greatly appreciate the time today. It was a wealth of knowledge. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone.
Chris Dreyer:
AI isn't going to replace trial attorneys, but attorneys who know how to use AI will run circles around those who don't. When you build a clean digital footprint so AI models can easily find and recommend your firm and back it up with operational tools that eliminate administrative drag, you give your team the time to do what actually wins, advocate, strategize, and deliver big wins for clients.
That's it for today's episode. Personal Injury Mastermind is powered by Rankings.io, a legal marketing agency for elite law firms specializing in personal injury law. If you want more auto and truck accident cases, choosing you instead of the competition, book a complimentary growth audit at rankings.io.
