The Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky Show – Episode 15
Joe Daughtery hosts Robert Zimmerman and Daniel Ceisler for the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky show on WWDB Talk 860.
TRANSCRIPT
Joe Daughtery
Alright ladies and gentlemen from around the Delaware Valley. Welcome to the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky hour here on WWDB talk 860. We’ve got a phenomenal show Saltz Mongeluzzi partner Bob Zimmerman’s in the house. How are you, Bob?
Robert Zimmerman
Hey Joe, how’s it going?
Joe Daughtery
I’m doing fantastic. And of course, we have Danny Sisler, who’s an associate. How are you?
Daniel Ceisler
Joe, I’m great. Thanks for having us.
Joe Daughtery
Well, I was unprepared. I didn’t know Danny was going to going to be here –
Robert Zimmerman
You get the Marquee.
Joe Daughtery
That’s right. That’s what I’m talking about. We’ve got a young successful attorney in the House with a lot of energy and a lot going on. First of all, if you will, and I’m going to Bob, first, remind our listeners a little bit about yourself and your career here at the firm.
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah, Bob Zimmerman. I grew up in northeast Philly. I’ve been with the firm since 2007 as a law clerk and since 2008 as a lawyer. So I’ve been here for God going on sixteen years. So all I do at the firm is personal injury and my focus is on workplace accidents, construction accidents, and product liability. And I know we’re going to talk a little bit about product liability and what that means later on.
Robert Zimmerman
Danny here works with me on a lot of my cases, which are a lot of our cases. He’s a phenomenal young lawyer. Danny?
Daniel Ceisler
Sure. I joined the firm in 2019. I never planned on doing this type of work. I went to law school specifically to become a prosecutor and then ended up meeting Bob Mongeluzzi, the head of our firm. Very fortuitously. And he recruited me into the firm. And I could not be happier to be able to work for victims and help people put their lives back together.
Daniel Ceisler
Every day is a remarkable opportunity and to be able to do it, surrounded by and learning from some of the best lawyers in the city and really in the country.
Joe Daughtery
And in the country.
Daniel Ceisler
Yeah. I didn’t give him enough credit there. It’s such a great opportunity.
Robert Zimmerman
Well, you know what’s interesting? And I listen to both of you, you’re both Philly guys. Yeah. And you both understand the community that you represent, although this firm and it’s a nationally acclaimed firm. You’re representing clients from all over the country. But let’s talk about that Philly, you know, pedigree, if you will. Bob, where in the Northeast did you grow up?
Robert Zimmerman
So I grew up in Long Crest and Fox Chase and yeah, I’ve lived in Philadelphia my whole life. I went away to Kings College for four years up in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. But otherwise, you know, Philadelphia is, it’s who I am. You know, for the type of work that we do, it’s just such an added benefit to be able to work in a city that you know so well, with you know, the judges and the court system that you’re really familiar with.
Robert Zimmerman
That said, you know, you’re right, we now have cases that are around the country, Danny, and I’ll talk about one in a little bit. But, you know, as our national presence continues to expand, you know, it’s great to work with local lawyers in those areas to serve as local counsel because you need to know the area where you’re practicing.
Robert Zimmerman
You need to know the courthouse, you need to know, you know, where the courtroom is and things that, you know, some people take for granted. And having people who really know the territory like we do in Philadelphia and the surrounding area, it’s critical.
Joe Daughtery
And it’s interesting also because and we’ll bring Danny in, in a second, the firm serves clients nationally but also locally that having those relationships and the track record okay you get a lot of cases here from other attorneys because you have the resources and you know, you’re so, so ingrained in the community. You know, I’ve heard often that, you know, when somebody refers a case, obviously, you know, they get a case, they got the case, it’s theirs.
Joe Daughtery
The client is trusting them. Okay. But they also understand that. Okay, well, we need a firm with all the resources to be able to represent this. Well, I’m going to go to Salt’s Mongeluzzi Bendesky, that’s important, they take that as personal as if they were doing the case themselves.
Robert Zimmerman
The majority of our clients come from referrals from other lawyers. And what that means is someone who’s been injured, they’re going to go to someone they know, someone they trust, someone they respect. And it is the highest compliment that we can get for a lawyer who could handle their case to call us, because they know that that is doing right by the client and that the client is going to get the best representation if we are the ones who are representing them.
Robert Zimmerman
I’ve had cases where I’ve gone up against defense lawyers in cases and two or three years down the road, one of their family members or one of their friends needs a lawyer in our field. And that, to me, is the highest, you know, form of respect you can give is when you are reaching out to your opponent with the need for help.
Robert Zimmerman
And, you know, we really appreciate those referrals. Some cases come in from other means, like, you know, your show, other people listening and, you know, we’re just happy to be able to represent people and not insurance companies and, you know, not big corporations, but people who are in our community.
Joe Daughtery
It’s interesting and we’ll bring Danny Sissler into the program. Danny, obviously, you know, background you’ve had, you know, you’re a young attorney but, you know, sought after. And at the same time, one of the things that I say a lot when we start the project, especially when we broadcast in this room and as an ironworker and I can’t get away from it, my father ran a union for 40 years and sent a large portion, if not an overwhelming large portion of our injured workers, you know, to Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky now that’s important okay because I’m standing right here and as ironworkers unfortunately there are catastrophic injuries.
Joe Daughtery
So when I look around this particular building, I was an ironworker. I worked on Liberty two. I loved to describe what we’re doing, you know, Joe Crause, my broadcast partner, says radio is theater of the mind. Okay, now, as somebody who’s, you know, a smart guy like yourself and you know that they built the White House to intimidate foreign heads of state.
Joe Daughtery
It was an unfair advantage. Well, look where we’re sitting, okay. We’re sitting up on the 52nd floor in a big boardroom overlooking the city of Philadelphia. And, you know, having the resources when somebody gets injured on a job, there’s a million things they don’t understand. Okay. Not just on the job, but anywhere. Catastrophic injury. But having the resources and the experience, okay.
Joe Daughtery
Okay, when you walk in here, it’s like walking into the White House. I don’t care who you are. If you’re a defense attorney, you’re going, okay, these guys aren’t rolling over really quickly. Talk about from your standpoint as a young attorney, starting really your career at a place like Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky, where the success level was through the roof, where the resources are unlimited.
Joe Daughtery
So it’s not David versus Goliath. So when somebody gets injured, they don’t have to worry about their attorney sitting there going, Well, I can’t afford the expert right here. There’s no expense spared. And the experience level in the room around this table was amazing. What has that been like since you’ve been a part of the firm?
Daniel Ceisler
Sure. So starting your career off here, a lot of people will start, you know, somewhere else. And you take the all stars from the defense side of the prosecutors. You take the best of the best and you bring them over here. Starting your career here was like going straight to the major leagues.
Joe Daughtery
Yeah.
Daniel Ceisler
Because the level of performance that’s expected of attorneys here is as high as can be. We are dealing with clients who are in the worst times in their lives who have been catastrophically injured or who have been killed. And, you know, we are the only thing standing between a family – maybe they lost the breadwinner in their family and if we win their case then the kids can go to college and they’re going to have a roof over their head for the rest of their lives.
Joe Daughtery
If you don’t destitute.
Daniel Ceisler
Exactly so, the pressure is absolutely there. The pressure to perform every single day in every single case is absolutely there. But the advantage that I’ve had is outstanding mentors. We have, it really is like an all star team here. And you have different people who are good at different things. Everyone is a good trial lawyer. We all have to be in court, but there’s different styles and as a young attorney, you get to see some people who are more out there and bombastic, and then you get to see other people who are more folksy and mild mannered.
Joe Daughtery
But by far, who’s the best?
Daniel Ceisler
Oh, by far.
Joe Daughtery
Bob Zimmerman?
Daniel Ceisler
It has to be Bob Zimmerman sitting next to me.
Robert Zimmerman
As I’m passing the $20 bill across the table.
Daniel Ceisler
And I mean, that’s an example. Bob has a very different style than, say, Bob Mongeluzzi the head of our firm. And you learn how all you have to do is really be authentic to who you are. And I think there are certain things that if Bob Zimmerman to my right tried to do some of the things that Bob Mongeluzzi did, it might not land, but Bob knows himself and he has enough practice and experience that he can connect with the jury.
Joe Daughtery
And it’s mentioned, you know, it’s amazing because the different experience levels we’ve talked about vetting cases and, you know, and the experience and the wide array of cases from the duck boat cases to the Salvation Army cases to, you know, the Tropicana collapse and construction cases. And what amazes me, the opportunity to be able to sit there and I’ve known you for 5 minutes, okay?
Joe Daughtery
And I can tell you’re a, you know, this is a good man right here and somebody who obviously, you know, is proud to be where you’re at. But also –
Daniel Ceisler
I just passed Bob Zimmerman’s $20 bill to you.
Joe Daughtery
That’s right. Well, I’m a little higher. It’s going to cost –
Joe Daughtery
But here’s the funny thing, though, what’s amazing is having that front seat to success, you know and, from the vetting process, from, you know, preparing for the trials. Typically, you know, the one thing I’m pretty sure about, you know, the practice, you know, from being here for a while myself in regards to the shows is, you know, the work ethic and the passion, but also the compassion.
Joe Daughtery
Talk about, because, you know, you went right to the major leagues. No question about it. But also there’s a work ethic. And, you know, sometimes the weekends you’re not home, you know, watching the ballgame, you’re here working overtime, but that’s the culture. And talk about how it’s rubbed off on you.
Daniel Ceisler
It absolutely is the culture and I mean, it is a 24 seven operation here.
Daniel Ceisler
You know, one of the most amazing things that I’ve experienced here is coming in as a very confident guy. I came in, you know, young guy feeling great, thinking, I knew everything.
Joe Daughtery
Hold on, young guy. Good shape, you know, feeling great. I hate him already.
Daniel Ceisler
And then you see the experience people have and the talent people have, you know, an opening statement or presentation that you’re going to give. I may prepare something and then think I know exactly what I want to do. And I’ve come up with the best possible, you know, way to do it. And then you work with – because you talked about coming right in with with more senior people and you talk to the more senior people you talk to the Bob Zimmerman and the Larry Bendeskys of the world, and they help you hone and refine and refine and refine and something that, you know, you thought might take 8 hours to write becomes a 40 hour process. And you refine and you refine and you refine because the firm doesn’t take anything less than that.
Joe Daughtery
And you’re benefiting from the experience of everybody else. You know, I’ve been there, did that, you know, and talk about Bob Zimmerman, talk about that resource.
Robert Zimmerman
Process?
Joe Daughtery
Yeah Yeah
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah. You know, and it’s funny, as I’m listening to Danny, I know what example he’s thinking about right now. So we did what’s called a focus group last week. And in a focus group, we are presenting our case to 20 random citizens of the jurisdiction where we’re ultimately going to try the case. So, you know, what we do is we put on a presentation for the plaintiff’s side and we do a presentation for the defense side.
Robert Zimmerman
We want them to understand and hear the evidence on both sides. You know, and one of the things that we as a firm really excel at is telling a story and being able to mold that story into something that a jury is going to understand and appreciate and they’re going to want to do for your client. And, you know, what Danny experienced is something that I continue to experience, which is, you know, the principles of the firm.
Robert Zimmerman
You know, Bob Mongeluzzi, Larry Bendesky, they absolutely love to hear the presentation, to see the presentation, and to offer their feedback on ways to improve. Because at the end of the day, improvement means being able to tell the story to 20 random people and them to walk away and say, I get it, you know, and they’re right.
Joe Daughtery
What’s awesome about that is the client benefits from that. How many firms can actually do that?
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah. And this is a professional, you know, outfit that they have. We hire an outside company and, you know, we get reports we will learn more in that focus group, you know, than some lawyers may learn in their entire case.
Joe Daughtery
Having said that, we’ve had this conversation. So you have a great team and the leadership, and, you know, we say this all the time,you know, leadership in any organization, leadership is the most important thing. Okay. And the passion for everybody, you know, by everybody, you know, for the leadership here, and how, you know, everything is done is unprecedented.
Joe Daughtery
But I have often said we’ve talked about it in any organization, h.r. You know, the attorneys that you bring on young people. That’s right. And what I also find is that it’s not just about looking at a resume and looking at the grade point average or their school. I’ve had conversations and maybe with you, Bob Z and talking about, you know, what do you look for in an attorney that comes on, you know.
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah. And we want someone who’s going to be able to relate to people, you know, to be able to tell a story to people. You know, to someone who, you know, when they go in front of a jury, the jury is going to look at them and say, you know what, this guy, they’re not bsing me.
Robert Zimmerman
They’re giving me the facts.They’re explaining it. They’re explaining it. You know, they’re not talking down to me. They’re not talking up to me, you know? And they’re doing what they can to, you know, get the jury, you know, on our side. And, you know, I went to law school with some phenomenally, well some very smart people who may not be talented in communicating and telling a story and being able to relate to people.
Robert Zimmerman
What we look for – We look for people who are relatable, people who maybe, you know, it’s not about, you know, how booksmart they are, although that’s extremely important in what we do. But just as important is being able to communicate and to be relatable.
Joe Daughtery
Interesting. Because you played sports La – I called you, Larry because your dad’s Larry, right. Danny, you played sports. And I’ve often you know, we’ve had the law and sports conversation as an attorney. A lot of the qualities – I love that commercial that shows the college athletes and it goes through and says 99.1% of all college athletes are going to go pro in something other than pro sports, which means you take those those benefits and those skills and what you learn, teamwork and competition, performance and all those things with you in your career every day.
Robert Zimmerman
And, you know, when you talk about first, second, third year lawyers, you know, you have to be able to do things and practice. And there are law firms out there where the first, second, third, fourth year lawyers, they do nothing other than stay at their desk. They’re not taking depositions. They’re not doing anything other than research and review.
Robert Zimmerman
They’re not going to get better. They’re not going to be able to have those skills to be able to communicate. And you know, for people at our firm, we’re out there. I mean, you know, Danny had two depositions today, probably had, what, four or five this week. And, you know, in addition to having to be really good at research and writing, you have to be able to be on your feet and doing in our business.
Joe Daughtery
COVID. How did that impact you? Danny and I asked that question because you have the opportunity to be surrounded and as mentors and individuals who you could just go into the next room and say, talk to me about this. But COVID, you know, a lot of people were, you know, they were working remote and you don’t have that I’ve heard firms say, you know, one of the things we lost the most was the ability to go in the next office and, you know, pick the brain of my partner or even though you can call somebody or whatever, how did that impact you?
Daniel Ceisler
Sure. Well, I think COVID might have impacted me somewhat uniquely just because. So I’m in the Army Reserve and one of my specialties is crisis management. And I actually got called up pretty unexpectedly right after COVID kicked off. And I spent six months at the Pentagon on the COVID crisis management team, which and the firm, by the way, did not miss a beat with my cases.
Daniel Ceisler
People stepped up, you know, it’s like if it’s a defensive line and someone goes down, it was next man up and didn’t miss a beat. And the firm was extraordinarily supportive during that time. But then when I came back, you started doing a lot more things virtually, which is actually, I think been to the significant benefit of our clients to be able to do things like take depositions –
Joe Daughtery
Absolutely
Daniel Ceisler
remotely. So if I have to take a deposition of someone in Oklahoma, I can do it by Zoom. I don’t have to charge, you know, to do the case or something like that to fly out there. You can take depositions all over the country.
Joe Daughtery
There was definitely listen, it was obviously painful, but there were some technological advancements during COVID that have been, listen I do zoom, you know, meetings and, you know, and present and even broadcasts that never would have ever happened had that technology.
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah, we were. We were forced into it. And, you know, look, obviously there were a lot of terrible aspects –
Joe Daughtery
Right. But you make the best of it.
Robert Zimmerman
You know, when you’re forced into that, you do learn some efficiencies. You do learn some ways to improve the way you’re practicing. And for our firm, you know, especially as we grow, as we get more and more cases outside of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, on a national level, it wouldn’t be possible to be able to do all these depositions and handle these cases in the right way without the technology that we now have.
Joe Daughtery
We’re going to get into some of the cases and some of the areas of law that, you know, yous practice. Okay. I do want to just talk about client expectations and what the clients can expect when they are represented by Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky. Because as big a firm as you know, the firm is, they’re still a small firm kind of, you know, sense here.
Joe Daughtery
Like, in other words, you know, when you walk around here, you know, you feel comfortable. Talk about the importance of that in relation to clients communication and all those things. Because in a sense that’s how you got so big.
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah. So when we meet a client for the first time, they have a lot of things going through their head and they just want to know that they can pass off some things to us. So that they can focus on what they need to focus on whether they’ve lost someone, whether they’ve lost their ability to work. You know what I promise to each of the clients that we represent is that we are going to find out what happened and hold those responsible for what they did so that you can focus on getting better and going to your appointments and doing everything you can to try to get as much of your life back as possible.
Robert Zimmerman
You know, I know there are lawyers out there who within 5 minutes of meeting a client will say, oh, your case is worth $1,000,000, and they don’t even know where the accident happened or who’s at fault. We’re not that firm. You know, we speak by our results, not by just our empty promises. And for us, we want to make sure that we leave no stone unturned, that we find the facts in every case that you know, is ultimately going to result in our client getting what they deserve.
Robert Zimmerman
And, you know, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had cases where, you know, there might be another firm that sends out discovery requests and get some documents and then that’s it. But we dig into those documents and then we find the second round of documents and then we file motions with the court to get the third round of documents and then the fourth round of documents that we get, that’s what breaks the case open.
Robert Zimmerman
That’s what breaks the case open. So, you know, we have a dog at pursuit. We were like a dog looking for the bone. And we want to make sure that we find in every case the documents that are going to win the day.
Joe Daughtery
And at the end of the day, you know, even though Philadelphia is a big city, when you’re walking into a courtroom or you take a case on the reputation is vitally important. Talk about how that impacts, you know, knowing that you’ll go to trial.
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah. You know, we all walk in there, and I had the same path as Danny. I started my career here. You know, we get the benefit of the reputation that our firm has created over the years, and it’s based on the work that we’ve done and frankly, the credibility that, you know, Bob Mongeluzzi, Larry Bendesky, and the others have.
Robert Zimmerman
I mean, they’ve built a career. They’ve spent decades building credibility. And they expect us to continue that. But when we walk into the courtroom, you know, the judges, they know who we are. They know what they are, you know, about to see and hear, you know, and we have kind of the elder statesman to thank. And, you know, it’s incumbent upon us to continue pushing that forward to make sure that we maintain our credibility and our respect to the court at all times.
Robert Zimmerman
And, you know, you’re right. I mean, if you have two lawyers, one that you’ve never seen or heard of before or one that comes from a firm that, you know, has a great reputation and works hard for their clients, you know, the judge is going to obviously, you know, take one, maybe a little more seriously than the other.
Joe Daughtery
And the defense, you know, they understand you’re willing to go the distance. By the way, what is that like, Danny? You know, being a part of that, you know, when you walk in the room, they know that whoever you’re representing, the case itself has been vetted and you’re taking it on and you’re willing to go the distance to represent that client. You’re not just going to sell out, you know, at the first offer.
Daniel Ceisler
Sure. I have no doubt. I have no doubt that I’ve been on cases where it hasn’t just been our performance in the case that’s gotten a better result. It has been our firm’s reputation because you have defense lawyers who come in and say, oh, you know, I know this. Your firm’s taken this on. There’s a reason you’re taking this on.
Joe Daughtery
Right. That’s awesome really.
Daniel Ceisler
You know, we had a defense, not one defense, that’s come up a number of times where we’ve had two defense attorneys tell us, you know, I don’t necessarily see what where you’re going here, but it’s your firm. And I’ve seen you do it before. And I didn’t know then. And then you whacked me then. And I know it’s going to happen.
Joe Daughtery
Yea, right.
Daniel Ceisler
And I’m actually thinking of one particular example where the defense attorney said, I have no idea where you guys could be going with this, really? But he had the exact same case with us like 12 years ago and it ended up being $17 million. And then we whacked him again this time and –
Joe Daughtery
It must be awesome. That’s a great thing.
Daniel Ceisler
It makes you feel proud. But as Bob said, it’s incumbent upon us to live up to the expectations.
Joe Daughtery
Essentially, you’re the next generation here, man.
Robert Zimmerman
Let me give you an example there. I mean, you know, we’re all sports fans. We saw the draft last night. You know, let’s say you have two players. One is coming from the University of Georgia on the defensive, National championship team, and one’s coming from, you know, TCU or they’re coming from Pitt or somewhere else. Naturally, you’re going to think that the Georgia player, national champion, they’re coming in with a higher pedigree.
Robert Zimmerman
They’re going to be a better player, you know. So, look, they’re going to get drafted earlier. They’re going to have more respect coming in. But then it’s up to that player to continue that and push it forward. You know, it’s one thing to have that credibility at the beginning of the case, but we prove time and time again in each of the cases, like Danny said, it’s not just about standing on our reputation. It’s about pushing it forward.
Joe Daughtery
Absolutely. So let’s do this. Let’s continue, one of the things about our monthly show is we rarely take a break because there’s so much to talk about. Let’s talk about the types of cases, a rundown of not the cases, but I just want the listeners to hear once again the types of personal injury cases you represent so many we clearly don’t have time. But just in general, what types of cases?
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah, I mean, we’ve been on the show with you before and we’ve talked so much about construction accidents and workplace accidents. And that is a large, large part of what we do. You know, Danny and I, you know, our practice has grown more and more in the product liability realm, meaning products that are defective on the market, that are injuring people and need to be taken off the market.
Robert Zimmerman
And I’ll give you an example. Danny and I represent 52 people who have active cases against a gun manufacturer for a defective pistol that has created devastating injuries for law enforcement officers, for federal agents and for private citizens because the gun is firing without the user’s intent. And it’s a case that’s gotten some, you know, pretty big press nationally because, you know, these are trained, experienced users who are using this gun and the gun continues to injure them when there is no intent to pull the trigger.
Robert Zimmerman
So, you know, Danny and I have cases right now in New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Oklahoma. And we are representing a set of clients who have all had very similar experiences. And it is our goal to try to get this gun changed. Now, you know, under the law, we can’t force the manufacturer, Sig Sauer, to recall the weapon.
Robert Zimmerman
What we can do is we can pursue these lawsuits that are valid and purposeful with the goal of making SIG want to change their product and make it safer for law enforcement, for cops in the community, for federal agents, for those in our community who are protecting themselves.
Joe Daughtery
What’s interesting about that, obviously, first of all, and I’m going to get into, you know, what’s the first thing you do when you get that situation? But a conversation, change happens in the courtroom. Okay? When you talk about justice, okay. How much is it obviously seeking justice and recovery for your client, but also making sure it doesn’t happen again?
Robert Zimmerman
52 out of 52 of our clients who have their cases in suit have said to us that, you know, of course, there’s a compensatory element to this where they are seeking money damages, but they want to make sure this doesn’t happen to someone else. They want to make sure that they are pursuing this to try to help out the next person.
Joe Daughtery
Danny, talk about that, because, again, we go back 15 minutes, but I know you’re a moral guy and you know you represent our country. You initially got into it to be a prosecutor, you know, to seek justice. I’m sure justice has expanded its meaning to you, obviously, especially since you’re representing those that are catastrophically injured.
Joe Daughtery
But talk about that part. Does it make you feel good not only to get that recovery for somebody or a family who lost a loved one, who, like you said, you know, it’s either, you know, we we go to the wall for these people and be able to, you know, do what we can to replace at least an income for a lost loved one or an individual who has been terribly injured or, you know, they’re potentially destitute.
Joe Daughtery
But the other part of it is you’re actually making change to make sure that people in the future don’t have this catastrophic situation happen to them. What’s that mean to you?
Daniel Ceisler
In every one of our cases, somebody did something wrong and a lesson can be learned. And how do you really teach people? You hit them in the pocketbook. That is how you get punished. That is how you get companies to start paying attention. Look, I’ll steal a line from Bob Mongeluzzi. I would love to be put out of business.
Daniel Ceisler
You know, if you never have to talk to another widow or like this morning, the depositions, I had a mother and father who lost a son. It was a pretty brutal morning.
Joe Daughtery
By the way, how do you as a young person? Okay, And Bob, you and I have had this conversation about meeting with families.You know, I was working as an ironworker. I was this job stewart. And we had a guy who reached out and a crane operator brought the piece down, you know, down a side of the street, hit the electricity guy, lost his arm.
Joe Daughtery
He was a friend of mine. He lived, but I was, man, it was unbelievable, okay? I was just – I couldn’t even handle it. You guys, although not at the scene of the crime, okay. Or the situation you guys are dealing with those situations all day long. You’re a young, young guy. You just described a situation where parents lost a child, a son or a daughter.
Joe Daughtery
How do you handle that situation emotionally and still? You know, I mean, you have great teachers, but what does that situation like when you know you’re going to go face to face with people who’ve lost a loved one because that’s what happens, you know, with the clients that you represent.
Daniel Ceisler
Sure. So I think I had an advantage coming from a military background with that. But you keep it together because you have to, because that is what they need. When you’re dealing with someone who is at the worst time in their life, they need a professional. They need somebody who is skilled and talented and ready to fight for them.
Daniel Ceisler
So, you know, that’s what I tell myself. I, I need to be a professional and I need to give these people the legal representation, the service that they need to help them put their lives back together. So you have to separate your emotions, which you obviously feel. I mean, you obviously feel from your duty and from your job, which is to fight for these people. So that is what I focus on.
Joe Daughtery
Bob, you know, you’ve been doing this a long time successfully, but does it get any easier when you’re sitting across from somebody who’s lost a loved one and their life is just torn apart or somebody who’s, you know, been ravaged by, you know..
Robert Zimmerman
No it never gets easier. But as Danny said, you know, you gotta make it. It’s not about us. You know, we chose to get into this line of work to help people. And we knew what we were getting ourselves into, which is that we are going to hear some terrible stories and meet people who have lost everything, you know.
Robert Zimmerman
But as Danny said, you know, you have to make sure that, you know, you’re going to fight for them and, you know, look, we can’t promise anything in our cases in terms of ultimate outcome. But what we can promise is we’re going to fight and we are going to do everything we can to hold those defendants accountable.
Joe Daughter
And, you know, part of that is, and I respect that is you can promise and you’ve said this to me before, that they’re going to get the best representation possible. Which is a real you know, you people can –
Robert Zimmerman
Right. And anybody can say that. I mean, anybody. It’s really the results that I think we’ve now accumulated for over 20 years that prove that, you know, time and time again we are going to go to bat for our clients like no one else.
Joe Daughter
Well, what’s awesome about it is you talk about 20 years, by the way, there’s plenty of people in business, 20 years that they got, you know, and they’re successful. But look around you, 20 years ago, you know, you guys built this from scratch.
Robert Zimmerman
And I mean, 20 years, I’m talking about my own career and it’s starting to reach that 20 year mark. Bob Mongeluzzi Larry Bendesky, they’ve been doing this for 35, 40 years, you know, and, you know, the only thing in terms of it getting easier is when you’ve handled similar cases in the past. And, you know, the first time I handled an ironworker case, the first time I handled a case involving trenching collapse, you know, you have to learn this stuff.
Robert Zimmerman
You know, you have to learn this stuff, but the second time you do it or the third time you do it, you know what you’re talking about. You know, from the beginning exactly what it is, the documents you need, the photographs, the site safety, you know, meetings and, you know, the benefit we have in terms of the ease is, you know, we get a lot of these cases, these construction, these workplaces, product liability cases, and we’re really good at them because we know what we’re looking for and we know what we’re doing.
Joe Daughter
What amazes me and I think I said this to Larry Bendesky, how do you, you know every day you saw Bob Mongeluzzi was headed out, you know, to get on a plane, to go represent somebody. He looked like he was on his first day of law school. I can’t talk. I gotta roll, you know.
Joe Daughter
And I said, where does that hunger and passion still come from? You know, every day. Because, by the way, you know, there’s nobody playing Nintendo around here. You know what I mean? Like everybody’s working like it’s their first day on the job.
Robert Zimmerman
You talk about athletes. You talk about I mean, we all love competition here. You know, we’re all competitive people and we’re competitive for our clients. You know, in terms of the lawyers here, we’re not competitive with each other. You know, there’s not something where, you know, there’s someone competing with another lawyer here. We’re competitive for each other. And, you know, if Mike Budner or if Dave Kwass, if they get a big result, I am just as happy as they are.
Robert Zimmerman
And it helps all of us because at the end of the day, you know, we want to be able to compete for our clients and frankly compete for the other lawyers here and the staff and, you know, be able – to get them the best results that we can.
Joe Daughter
Because everybody wins – including the clients.
Joe Daughter
So let’s get back to the well, first of all, I got to say this cause I want people to know it. I know first of all, you just won $1,000,000,000, you know, case in Florida in less than a year. Now, we’ve talked about this.
Joe Daughter
It just blows my mind. Urban car accident cases that settle for 7500 bucks, that have taken longer than that and there were special circumstances with the judge, being a good judge and really was passionate about it, was massive negligence. But there it was the work that got that done. You know, that middle of the night sound that, you know, the smoking gun working hard all night long. And I’ve heard that story. Larry talked about that story.
Joe Daughter
But the amount in recoveries and settlements and what are we here at the firm? I mean, you’re talking in the billions, right?
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah, it’s somewhere between 4 and 5 billion, I think, you know. But that said, we treat every single client like they are our only client and we treat every single case – At the end of the day, we resolve probably about 95 to 97% of our cases before the trial. But in order to do that and get the highest value that we can, we need to work every single file as if that’s the file that is going to go to trial.
Robert Zimmerman
Because if we say, you know what, these half of cases, we know they’re not going to trial.
Joe Daughter
We’re going to bluff them.
Robert Zimmerman
Yea and we’re not going to do a whole lot of work and we’ll get the settlement. The insurance company knows the law firms that do that and unfortunately, there are lawyers out there who won’t work up the file and just are expecting a settlement and they may get a settlement. The problem is it’s only going to be for half or three, you know, a quarter or, you know, 10% of what the client deserves, you know, so in every single case that we handle, whether it is the biggest case in our office or the smallest, you know, we want to make sure that we give that client the attention that they deserve.
Joe Daughter
So let’s get back to the gun situation. What’s the first thing you do, and I’ll ask Danny Sissler – and I want to just ID, you know, the broadcast you’re listening to the Salt Mogeluzzi Bendesky hour here on WWDB Talk 860 we have Bob Zimmerman who’s a partner here at Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky and Danny Sissler, who’s an associate at the firm.
Joe Daughter
And so we talk about the culture of the firm, and we understand that people understand, you know, what this firm is all about. But when we were talking about a case, a product liability case, and it happens to be a gun situation, where there’s an issue with the gun going off and hurting people obviously badly, when you get a case like that, what’s the first thing you know, typically when it’s a construction accident, Bob, you guys get out there right within minutes and, you know, make sure to preserve all the evidence in this type of situation. How do you proceed ahead? We’re not going to talk about any particulars of the case, but.
Robert Zimmerman
We can talk about a few.
Joe Daughter
Danny?
Daniel Ceisler
Yea sure. Yes, sure. I just want to clarify one thing about this case. This is not a pro-gun and anti-gun case. This is an anti-gun’s that go off in their holster.
Joe Daughter
It’s a negligence case.
Daniel Ceisler
Yeah. These are guns that are going off oftentimes in their holster. We have videos of it happening where the officers aren’t their hands aren’t anywhere near the gun. So no matter where you stand on guns or the Second Amendment right, I want our police officers to be protected and be safe.
Joe Daughter
Absolutely
Daniel Ceisler
We got one where another lawyer from another part of the country had something that had an incident that happened in the Philadelphia area. The case was in the Philadelphia area. And through our reputation and relationships, he reached out to us and to just kind of handle that local part of it. And then after that happened, we heard about another one and then another one.
Daniel Ceisler
And then there we did some media around it. Then there was another one, then another one, then another one, then another one that dozens and dozens and dozens. And now we get calls a few times a week on new incidents.
Joe Daughter
And now let me ask you question. Well, we’ve talked about the talcum powder cases. Right. What always amazes me, especially, I don’t have a background on this particular case, but, you know, Johnson and Johnson did this in a secret. You know, they didn’t put a disclaimer on the damn bottle. Okay. For decades, almost I don’t know exactly when that case, but my point is, they had so much money, they didn’t do anything even after they had hundreds of cases like this.Sounds like a crazy situation.
Robert Zimmerman
I mean, and, you know, go back to Danny in a moment, but This company has 2000 employees, right? Okay. And they’ve been making this gun for about ten years. We have learned through our own investigation of more incidents out there that have happened than the company has, because they don’t care to put those policies in place to understand what’s happening out in the field.
Robert Zimmerman
I mean, you know, these are their customers that are getting injured. These are people who they are selling guns to. And these people who need the guns to protect themselves. It’s the gun that is hurting them. It is the product that they are buying to protect them that is hurting them. And, you know, in two and a half years, we’ve already uncovered more incidents than the company cares to.
Joe Daughter
And that is what’s most mind boggling. And this gun is still for sale I mean, it’s still unbelievable.
Daniel Ceisler
I mean, what we are seeing is police departments around the country are pulling the gun. There are a number that still use it. But we just saw Milwaukee as an example just pull all of their P320s out of circulation.
Robert Zimmerman
SEPTA. SEPTA had this gun for a while and they no longer had confidence in it.
Joe Daughter
So you would think at this point, I’m not I’m just a regular guy having a conversation that if I own a company or if I was on a board, if I was anywhere near the company, I’d be like, Guys, you think maybe we should put some kind of disclaimer here or at the same time, you know, make some improvements here?
Daniel Ceisler
We know what the improvements are.
Joe Daughter
And they could be fixed?
Daniel Ceisler
Not only could they be fixed if this gun manufacturer put certain safety features in it that are on basically every other gun, I mean not basically every other gun, that’s of the same type, we wouldn’t have an issue. It’s a small piece of plastic. All you need. Um, it is truly mind boggling.
Joe Daughter
And as somebody who’s been in the service, okay. And understanding that, you know, it’s, you know, I mean, obviously it’s somebody, you know, protecting their lives and that of their fellow servicemen and women. And of course, you know, you protect your – that to me, you know, and by the way, this is where we talk about the change.
Joe Daughter
When was the first case? Number one. And where do we stand with this? Where is it in the process?
Robert Zimmerman
So we currently have – our first case was right here in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. So there the courthouse right in Philly, the federal courthouse. And we were supposed to try that case this month. The case got continued. We’ll be trying it hopefully in just a couple of months. But right now we have, as I said, 52 people who have lawsuits in suit against Sig Sauer.
Robert Zimmerman
And we have additional clients whose cases will be filed. You know, I’ve never had a case like this personally, where one incident, one injury, one one defective product claim has spiraled into. The number of people who have been on.
Robert Zimmerman
And we have additional clients whose cases will be filed. You know, I’ve never had a case like this personally, where one incident, one injury, one defective product claim has spiraled into. The number of people who have been –
Joe Daughter
Are they similar injuries?
Robert Zimmerman
Very, I mean yeah. Yeah I mean most of them as you can imagine, you know, with the guns going off in their holster, most of them are leg injuries. And these are people who need to be physically active to be strong. I mean, these are people who are on their feet. And you don’t want a police officer who can’t protect you if they can’t protect themselves, if they can’t run and get to what they need to get to.
Robert Zimmerman
And these are people who’ve made it their lives to, you know, protect and serve their communities. And that’s been taken away from them. And that’s what I really struggle with, you know, and as professionals, as Danny said, we have to kind of make sure that our emotions stay in check. But sometimes it’s tough for me because, you know, these are people who made a choice about what they want to do and what they wanted to do was to protect their communities. And that’s been taken away from them. And to me, that just doesn’t sit right.
Joe Daughter
Well, you said it really well. The thing that’s supposed to protect them is what’s hurting them. And so definitely, now have any of these cases going to trial at all?
Robert Zimmerman
Our firm has not tried any of these, but we will absolutely be trying these cases this year.
Joe Daughter
Awesome. Fantastic. Look forward to an update on that. Anything else on the horizon that or anything recent in regards to you know, you guys are always doing some amazing, you talked about some ironworkers. You know that you guys represented.
Daniel Ceisler
Yeah. I’ll talk about the ironworkers in a second. But one thing, a pretty interesting case that we have on the horizon, it’s something that – it’s a case that kind of combines our areas of expertise. We do a lot of workplace injuries. And then Bob and I and the firm do a lot of product liability cases. Sure. Oftentimes when you have someone get hurt at work, there’s a product involved and there’s a product that could be made better and could be made safer.
Daniel Ceisler
And oftentimes there’s no reason it’s not made better, safer, and it takes a lawsuit to make that change. So we’re representing a – mind if I go into this one? – So we’re representing a American Airlines employee who’s working at the airport. He’s a baggage loader and they have these belt loaders and the belt loaders have these railings on them.
Daniel Ceisler
But they go into the plane, the baggage loader walks on the belt loader, they load the bags and they walk off.
Robert Zimmerman
And everybody who’s been on a plane has seen them. If they look out the window, okay, this is something that you see every day in the airport.
Daniel Ceisler
And they are supposed to have these railings on the side because they’re lifted above the ground. They’re lifted, if you can imagine how high off the ground the belly of an airplane is, they’re lifted that high up and they have railings so people don’t fall off. And inexplicably, I mean, with no good reason, there is a company that makes a railing that doesn’t go to the end, which is where people are coming on and off the plane.
Daniel Ceisler
And we had somebody fall from from significant height. The height of the belly of a plane, because the railing didn’t go to the end. And we have come up with no good reason.
Joe Daughter
So they just walked off and went there probably like there was a railing there.
Daniel Ceisler
He reached for the railing and it didn’t go far enough because there was this gap at the end. And we have, again, come up with no justifiable reason why that railing was not extended far enough, where someone would be reaching for it if they got off the plane. And he had a career of safety. He was on the safety committee and fell and he ended up needing surgery and there were complications to the surgery. And he’s in very, very, very bad shape right now.
Joe Daughter
And to me, you know, it brings to mind, you know, the responsibility of being on a jury and being a part of the justice process. Okay. That to me, you just want I mean, you know, to stand in front of somebody. It must be so awesome when you get the opportunity to go to talk . 97% of cases settle okay.
Joe Daughter
But that 3% when you get the opportunity, have you had the opportunity to, you know, see the firm in action in the courtroom yet?
Daniel Ceisler
Absolutely. I got to see one of the greatest courtroom speeches I’ve ever seen or could imagine was delivered by Larry Bendesky. I would say one of the the highlights of Bob Zimmerman’s career was the – he can talk about the case.
Joe Daughter
His first radio show with me, that’s not important.
Daniel Ceisler
Top three top three. Larry Bendesky gave just such an incredible opening statement. And to be able to see that and learn from that and say, when I get the opportunity, because usually it’s the big bosses that get to do that, that type of thing, that that’s exactly what I want to do.
Joe Daughter
Well, I’ll tell you what you must be taking, I mean, notes all day long. Like in other words, what the opportunity and the experience –
Robert Zimmerman
And we never stop learning, you know, I mean, Bob Mongeluzzi, he’ll see somebody at our office do something and he’s learning from it. Larry Bendesky, me, Danny, you know, we all learn from each other, you know, you have a lot of talented people here. And as Danny said before, you know, something that Bob Mongeluzzi does may not work for me.
Robert Zimmerman
It may not work for Danny. Something Danny does may not work for Bob Mongeluzzi, you know. So we all have to be able to be ourselves and to be able to be that great storyteller that Bob Mongeluzzi is that Larry Bendesky is.
Joe Daughter
The night before we talked about sports okay the night before a trial when you get that opportunity you know and I know it happens, maybe not even the night, but the week before –
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah, it’s practice. Practice, practice, practice.
Joe Daughter
What I’m saying is that you get the butterflies. I guess like it is a game, like a football or, you know, an athletic sporting event. Like, okay, you’re going into the arena and you’re representing somebody’s life. What is that like?
Robert Zimmerman
It’s showtime. It’s time to you know, you’ve had this case for two, three years. You know, you’ve taken depositions, you’ve looked at thousands of pages of documents and the lead up to trial, those 2 to 3 weeks before trial. You know what you want to do? You know what the theme of the case is going to be.
Robert Zimmerman
But you’re really, you know, figuring out the order of documents, the order of things that you want to say and you’re practicing and you’re practicing and at the end of the day, yeah, when you’re ready to go, I mean, that’s what we do. That’s why we’re here.
Joe Daughter
And Danny, you talk about that case, you know, where the railing doesn’t go the distance. I mean, it brought that thought to mind, you know that it must be unbelievable. I mean, when you hear – you said inexplicably, you know, I can see the emotion in you. They’re going, why in the world would somebody do something like that?
Joe Daughter
I imagine that it would be fantastic to be able to meet that person and sit across them and go, What the hell were you thinking? Where, you know, not, you know, take it at two feet or a foot or wherever it is from the end where somebody could easily do that. Do you hope someday you know, I know, maybe that’s the case, but the opportunity to obviously cross-examine and be, you know, in a courtroom to do that, is that something that you’re looking forward to?
Daniel Ceisler
I mean, in terms of taking depositions, it’s something I get to do.
Joe Daughter
Okay.
Daniel Ceisler
Still, and it is because in it is a thrill and it is something that we look forward to. And it’s very rewarding because you hope then that product designer is going to go and hey, maybe for the next version you make the railing go to the end because there really isn’t a good reason. So it is absolutely one of the most rewarding parts of the job.
Daniel Ceisler
But, you know, a good cross-examination in a deposition is one of the most satisfying feelings. And you really do – you talk about kind of being athletic. You’re physically exhausted after a deposition. I mean, I take all mine standing. I have a standing desk. But you are so into it. I mean, the adrenaline, you know, when –
Joe Daughter
You’re an athlete, you’ve been playing baseball, you know, your whole life.
Daniel Ceisler
Zimmerman is an athlete, too.
Joe Daughter
Bob’s, listen, I don’t want to brag in here. You know, he’s a legendary college athlete. What sport Bob?
Robert Zimmerman
I was a one year golf player at King’s College.
Daniel Ceisler
NCAA nonetheless.
Robert Zimmerman
Exactly.
Joe Daughter
That’s on the next show but yea.
Daniel Ceisler
But the other reason that you can be exhausted is because you just are putting everything into it. And the adrenaline is up and you are so focused and you are so in the zone, you’re not seeing anything else that’s going on. And then when it ends, it’s just like this. You know, you just sit down and you sit back. You’re done. You can’t talk for an hour.
Joe Daughter
Well, that’s awesome. And by the way, I had the opportunity yesterday or two days ago to interview a mock trial team in the city of one of these schools.
Robert Zimmerman
What school?
Joe Daughter
Mathematics, Civic Sciences, Charter School. Veronica, join us. Shout out. Let me say this. They’re nationally acclaimed, incredible school up at Broad and Spring Garden. And, you know, as an athlete, we talk about the traditional sports competition at any level is an incredible thing.
Robert Zimmerman
I coached Strawberry Mansion for a number of years they’re my trial team and look, you know, as fun as it is to do it’s also great to teach and to be able to kind of share your knowledge with these kids who really, you know, they put in the work. And, you know, I’ll be honest, I’ve seen some high schoolers who put in the work and put in the time who may be better than, you know, some of the people out there.
Joe Daughter
Well, I’ll tell you what, and we only have about a minute left. I was so blown away by the students. The passion. And we were in a courtroom.
Robert Zimmerman
The preparation.
Joe Daughter
Preparation, I mean, and the coach was awesome. I mean, you know, and so just incredible stuff. So you can take that competition. You have to play basketball, football, baseball, hockey, whatever. Chess, for crying out loud, whatever. In your life. Having that opportunity to create justice is an awesome thing. And so having said that, I want to thank a really outstanding young attorney, Danny Sissler, for being our guest on the broadcast.
Joe Daughter
And of course, Bob Zimmerman, who is an outstanding attorney and somebody who really is the catalyst for this broadcast here, the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky show, if you will, contact information at the firm if anybody wants to get in touch then. So any parting words before we sign off notice?
Daniel Ceisler
Joe, thanks for having me.
Joe Daughter
Absolutely
Robert Zimmerman
Yeah. So as Joe said, you know, we have the benefit. We’ve got beautiful space in one liberty, right at 16th market in Philadelphia, the firm name Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky you can check us out online at www.smbb.com and Joe you know as always it’s a pleasure. You know, you get to talk to a lot of people and, you know, it’s an honor for us to be able to spend some time with you as well.
Robert Zimmerman
And you’re so great at you know, bringing people in and making them feel comfortable and, you know, spurring some really interesting conversations.
Joe Daughter
Well, it’s my pleasure. I love it as much as you guys do. And it’s always a pleasure to be here to see really where change happens and what you guys are doing. It’s a special place and I’m honored to be here. I want to thank everybody for tuning in to the Saltz Mongeluzzi Bendesky hour here on WWDB Talk 860.
Joe Daughter
I want to thank Bob Zimmerman obviously for being our guest and Danny Sissler, an associate at the firm. On behalf of everybody on the panel, I’m Joe Daugherty. Thanks for listening, everybody.