Episode 1302: The Insurance Coverage Most Drivers Overlook: Why “Full Coverage” May Not Protect You with Brent Couture

An accident can disrupt far more than a vehicle, and the decisions made in the first days can shape medical care, financial recovery, and a family’s future. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Brent Couture, an attorney at Couture Law P. A., who explains why listening is central to effective representation, the mistakes people make when managing a claim on their own, and the questions attorneys must ask to assess liability, causation, and damages. Brent also discusses why underinsured motorist coverage matters in Florida, what clients should expect from their attorney-client relationship, and how recent tort reform has shortened the time available to pursue certain claims. Key Takeaways: → Even a seemingly minor crash can create a ripple effect across medical care, work, family responsibilities, and finances. → Every personal injury case requires careful scrutiny of liability, causation, and damages. → Clients should be open about symptoms and prior medical conditions so that an attorney can understand the full impact of the collision. → The term “full-coverage” can be misleading because state-minimum insurance limits may not adequately protect someone following a serious crash. → Effective representation requires understanding how an injury affects a client’s routines, caregiving responsibilities, work, travel, and quality of life. Brent A. Couture earned his B. S. in Economics from the University of California, San Diego, where he also lettered for the intercollegiate volleyball team. He began his legal education at the University of West Los Angeles School of Law, then transferred to Barry University School of Law in Orlando, where he graduated. He limits his practice to plaintiff’s personal injury, wrongful death, and medical malpractice cases. Connect With Brent: Website: https://couturelawoffices.com/ X: https://x.com/couturelawpa LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brent-couture-26ba221b3/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/couture-law-pa/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Sharkpreneur Podcast with Kevin Harrington and Seth Green. Kevin Harrington is the inventor of the infomercial, one of the original sharks from the hit TV show Shark Tank, and has generated over $5 billion in TV and digital direct response sales. Seth Green is the world's first trusted authority on cutting-edge direct response marketing, a bestselling author, and the only three-time marketer of the year nominee. On the podcast, Kevin and Seth interview sharkpreneurs who share straight talk on what it takes to explode your business.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Forty-nine faces looked to him in triumph. Over the last 12 months, they had each taken turns and promoted his business for a week at a time, driving over $987,342 in revenue. What if you had a network of 50 centers of influence who promoted your business every week for a year? Grab your copy of the number one Amazon bestselling book, The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with a Podcast, at 33% off the Amazon price by going to ultimatenpodcastbook.com. Again, that website for 33% off the Amazon price is ultimatenpodcastbook.com. Welcome to the podcast. This is your host Seth Green. Today, I've got the good fortune to be interviewing Brent Cauter from Cauter Law. Brent, thanks so much for joining us.

• 1:18Speaker 02

  Hey, no problem Seth. It's a pleasure.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  Thank you so much. Let's go back in time a little bit. What inspired you to go to law school in the first place?

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Well, my wife is actually an attorney. She was an attorney when I met her. I met her just out of law school. And, you know, she was talking smack and I said, "Well, what do you know? You know, it's not so hard to be a lawyer. You've just got to fill in some bubbles on a Scantron test." And she said, "Oh, yeah? Well, why don't you put your money where your mouth is?" So, I was wrong. It's much harder than that. And, but, you know, that was kind of the inspiration. And quite honestly, we wanted to work together. And it was, I mean, that was over 20-something years ago, and I'm glad it worked out. We were able to work together, raise our kids, and put the insurance companies in their

• 2:12Speaker 02

  place.

• 2:14Speaker 01

  That is definitely the most unique how I became a lawyer story I've ever heard, and I've interviewed hundreds of attorneys.

• 2:23Speaker 01

  So putting that aside, what inspired you or how did you get to the area of practice that you're in now?

• 2:32Speaker 02

  You know, again, it's really comes down to, you know, my background. My background was really in, well, I mean, way back, I was an athlete in college. And then, obviously, as an athlete, I used to see all kinds of injuries, you know, with other athletes and my teammates and whatnot. And then my sales background as well, just kind of more of a people person and not really documents and contracts type of an attorney. So I really wanted to work with people and do what I could to help them get through

• 3:14Speaker 02

  some of the most difficult situations that they're ever going to face in their life, which are crises with your health.

• 3:23Speaker 01

  Was there an early case or an early client that kind of also cemented your idea about this area of law?

• 3:33Speaker 02

  I don't think so. It's not any particular client, it's every client. I mean, the, you know, the big cases, the small cases. I mean, the small cases where, you know, thank God, you know, they're not incredibly and permanently injured, but, you know, just the accident alone, it puts a little cannonball, I always call it like a cannonball in a pond, where it hits the pond and it just creates ripples as far as the eye can see. And that's what these kinds of things do to people's lives, even the small ones, you know, that all of our lives are busy enough, we're just busy trying to go to work and earn a living and support our families and get our kids to school and do those things.

• 4:17Speaker 02

  And all of a sudden, you know, an accident comes out of the blue and now you've got to go to the doctor three times a week. Now you've got MRIs and x-rays to take. Now you've got therapies to perform, even in the most, you know, even in the smaller accidents. So, you know, I see what people go through and they've never been through it before in their life. And, you know, we can help guide them through it. Their only other alternative is to be guided by the insurance company adjuster who's gonna, you know, guide them right into oblivion.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  You are in an area of law where law firms spend millions or tens of millions of dollars screaming from billboards and TV about their billion-dollar verdicts. What does good representation really mean to you beyond the final dollar amount?

• 5:08Speaker 02

  Well, everything I just said, I sat in my conference room today and I handed I handed out two checks to my clients, one for $100,000 and one for, I think, $51,000. And both of them said the same thing, every single one of my clients who has ever said, even my clients who I've given millions and millions of dollars to, is they said, "I would gladly give this money back if this accident would have never happened." And again, that goes for the big ones and the small ones.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  Pro Tour Law emphasizes a personal, client-centered experience. How do you make that real when someone first calls on what could be one of the worst days of their life?

• 5:56Speaker 02

  You listen. You listen. No one else will listen to them. If I got in an accident today and I tried to talk to my kids about it, they wouldn't listen. They're busy with their own lives, you know? Everybody, my family doesn't want to hear it. Nobody wants to hear your problems. I mean, in reality, but, you know, that's why they call us, because they need help and we listen and we do want to hear their problems and we want to help them get through it because that's what we do. That's why we're here.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Are there common mistakes people make immediately after an accident that can complicate or mess up their recovery?

• 6:35Speaker 02

  So many, so many. And really, the first catch-all is not getting proper representation. Again, with the person that I was just sitting with today, I was handing her a check. I was explaining to her how, well, she was lamenting about some of the mistakes that she had made in her case that we had admonished her for. And they weren't big mistakes. That's just what we do with every case. We encourage them to do the right things and help them build their case. But I was explaining how I had a lady sign up recently.

• 7:17Speaker 02

  Who had tried to handle her own case for about two years. And was being led along by the insurance company who just said, yeah, go ahead and treat and just let us know how things are going and. So they took the insurance company's word for it and and tried to work things out on their own. Two years later, they called the insurance company like they were. Like they were instructed to and let them know how things were going and. Said, hey, how about the money? And the insurance company didn't want to pay. And now this person walks into my office and.

• 7:52Speaker 02

  We're gonna do everything we can, but in the last two years where they've been trying to handle it themselves. You know, they've missed. Certain doctor's appointments, they haven't received the right treatment. Um, you know, there's, there's a lot of notifications haven't gone out to the uh, health insurance companies, it's. It's a little bit complicated, but um. First and foremost, the biggest mistake is not getting great representation right from the beginning.

• 8:21Speaker 01

  When someone comes to you with a potential claim, what are the first things you need to understand?

• 8:30Speaker 02

  Well, every case is liability, causation and damages. So, you know, we need to understand all those things. What, what happened in the accident? Were you injured? And. We need to understand whether or not those injuries were caused by this accident. Um, or they were pre-existing, or you had pre-existing conditions of some sort, like we all do. We all come, come to the table with something else going on. That's, that's. That's not, that doesn't preclude you from making a claim. Because those injuries can be exacerbated by the accident as well, so. So we need to get into.

• 9:12Speaker 02

  All of that, you know, your, your prior medical condition and what happened in the accident and. And how you're feeling. And a lot of times those, those things aren't as easy as it sounds. I mean, even just the question, how are you feeling and what's going on? If you ask almost anybody, what's going on? How are you feeling? Their first answer is always, I'm okay. Right? Because like I said before, nobody wants to hear your problems. And if we, if everybody that asked us, how are you feeling? And, and how are you doing? And we told them, we wouldn't have any friends. Right? That's, so we're, we're conditioned to say, oh, I'm okay.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Everything's fine. So it really takes some, some needling from an attorney like me to really get to the bottom of what's going on and, and what could be the cause. Because really, sometimes the most, the most valuable and the most dangerous injury that people have isn't, isn't painful. Frequently, it's, it's the opposite. It's numbness. You see, we get, we get nerve injuries where, you know, if you injure your back or your neck, you can experience numbness and tingling into your extremities and it doesn't hurt. So people blow it off. They think, oh, you know, my hand just fell asleep. Oh, my foot's just asleep.

• 10:42Speaker 02

  But really what that is are your nerves dying and potentially permanent nerve damage down the road if it's not properly treated. So, you know, you really have to dig that out of people because they focus on what really hurts. And that's not always the most important thing.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  It's definitely, that, that's, that's fascinating. And you're right, there are lots of people just answer, I'm fine, or I'm good, or I'm okay. And then there are people we all have in our lives who were like, we don't ask because we know they're gonna tell us a lot.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  Right. That's true.

• 11:14Speaker 01

  That. What do you wish more people understood about their insurance coverage before something like this happens?

• 11:22Speaker 02

  Well, especially here in Florida.

• 11:26Speaker 02

  There is no requirement in Florida for the for anybody to carry insurance for the injuries that they cause to other people.

• 11:38Speaker 01

  Wow, wow, that makes me glad I live in insurance ridiculous New York State.

• 11:42Speaker 02

  Yes, the the minimum requirement, the minimum requirement in Florida is that you carry $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage. Meaning if I crash into you and I injure you badly and I injure myself in the process, I carry $10,000 of coverage to pay for my own doctors and not for yours, even though I caused the accident.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  So, so you have to be responsible for yourself and carry your own underinsured motorist coverage. You have to, especially in Florida where, oh, and one other thing. So that minimum, that 10,000 PIP and 10,000 bodily injury, insurance agents like to call that full coverage.

• 12:39Speaker 02

  Okay, think about that. Full coverage, they they interpret for full coverage to mean the state's minimum requirement. But let me tell you, there's no such thing as full coverage. It can get more full. You can add, you can have a million dollars and have a $2 million umbrella on top of that. It can, and it can still get more full. So there's, what I wanted to know is full coverage is a lie and you need to cover yourself with underinsured motorist coverage.

• 13:12Speaker 01

  That is incredibly valuable and important to know. What questions should someone ask before hiring a personal injury attorney?

• 13:20Speaker 02

  It starts right from the beginning. Are you actually meeting with your attorney? I mean, I tell people when they when they look to hire a law firm, if their first meeting is not with their attorney, to stand up and walk out of the office. Because it's the attorney who's going to argue your case. It's the attorney who has to tell your story, who has to tell the jury, tell the insurance adjuster, tell the opposing counsel, what it is in your life that you've lost and why this is causing you, you know, the the the suffering that we're claiming. And the attorney needs to know that. And if they don't sit down with you and listen and learn who you are.

• 14:06Speaker 02

  And I I mean, I need to know my client's routine. Do they are they picking up their kids? Do they take care of their elderly parents on the weekends? Do they have to travel, you know, to see their kids, you know, in college? And now they can't travel anymore. You know, these are the things that you need to listen and learn the whole story so you can tell the story of what they've lost.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Wow, that is very in-depth and emotional. You've helped so many families through this. What's your biggest challenge now?

• 14:45Speaker 02

  Well, I I mean, we're always. I mean, we're we're going through a challenge now, which is just recently Florida has instituted a new tort reform. And it has it has really damaged the ability of of Florida residents to make claims against the insurance companies. One of those things is that they've shortened the statute of limitations, which is the time that we are allowed to file a lawsuit after an incident from four years. And they've cut it in half to two years. And why that matters is because.

• 15:27Speaker 02

  We're making claims for medical care and medical care takes time. And you know, we need to make, we only get one chance to make a claim. And it has to be for all the damages that a person has suffered. And we've, we have a hard time realizing the entire breadth of those damages within a two year limit. Meaning if you get hurt, the first thing they want to do is, you know, get some x-rays, get some MRIs and send you to physical therapy. Well, there goes three, three, four months, right there, maybe more, maybe five months. You call a specialist, they're booked up, you know, another two, three months out.

• 16:09Speaker 02

  You know, you're, you're getting close to a year before you've even seen somebody about the serious injuries that you've suffered. And then you've got a year to kind of treat for that. So it, it goes real quick and, and that's something that we're dealing with now after Ron DeSantis passed that tort reform law. It's really impacted the way we practice and, and really the way that our, our clients have to treat.

• 16:34Speaker 01

  Your passion is obvious. What do you like best about what you're doing?

• 16:38Speaker 02

  I, I just love helping people. Like I said, I, I gave two people some pretty, pretty good sized checks today. Not, not life changers, but I've given some people some real, real life changing checks. And what, what I really enjoy, I mean, even to this day, there's, there's a couple of brothers that went and were in an accident and we got them a great result. And they took that money and they started a barber shop down the street. And they are some of my best referrals. I mean, they give me some of my best referrals and those guys are great. And it's great to be able for someone to start a new life. I mean, there was a

• 17:22Speaker 02

  There was a gentleman, was a truck driver, and we got him a really good settlement. And all he wanted to do, he wanted to buy a tow truck and start his own business. And he was able to do that after our case settled. So, you know, things like that where people can really, you know, they have aspirations and they've got dreams and we can help them get there even after going through, turn something bad into something really good. I mean, those are, those are great stories.

• 17:52Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, those are beautiful. Well, we know your time's incredibly valuable. We greatly appreciate you spending some of it with us. For our folks in Florida who want to learn more, where is the best place for us to send them to learn more about you, your wife, and your wonderful firm?

• 18:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, obviously, they can give us a call anytime at 1-888-HIT-BY-CAR or visit my website at www.kouturlawoffices.com.

• 18:19Speaker 01

  All right, this has been Seth Green with Brent Couture of couturelawoffices.com. Thank you, everybody, for watching and listening. Brent, thanks again for joining us.

• 18:27Speaker 02

  You bet. Thanks, Seth.

• 18:28Speaker 01

  Thank you. Thank you, everybody.

• 18:31Speaker 03

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