How to Use the US Chiropractic Directory to Get New Patients - Part 2
April 15, 2010230 views
How to Use the US Chiropractic Directory to Get New Personal Injury Patients – Part 2
by Mark Studin DC, FASBE(C), DAAPM, DAAMLP
As I wrote in Part 1, there are many ways to use the US Chiropractic Directory to build your practice involving the public, MD’s and lawyers for direct referrals.
There are 2 main issues that need to be considered, reality and perception, and the lines blur between the 2. You want perception to appear as reality and at the same time, you want reality to be the perception. To simplify that convoluted statement, you want everyone to not only understand that you are the “best-of-the-best” (the reality), you want them to see it (their perception).
Lawyers' Use of Your CV
In Part 1, we discussed that an admissible CV is critical for the lawyers to work with you and without a CV lawyers cannot use you, as a rule. It’s not that they “do not want to work with you,” it’s that “they cannot work with you.” In order for the courts to accept you as an expert, you need credentials in the subject matter on which you are going to speak as expert. For example, if you are going to testify on MRI’s, then the opposing counsel in trial can object to your testimony because you have no doctoral or post-doctoral training in MRI spine interpretation. The plaintiff’s counsel (your patient’s lawyer) will then point out to the judge the relevant citation on your CV and most likely the judge will allow your testimony. If not, then the MRI findings will not be allowed into testimony and they will not exist with respect to the trial and the outcome of the trial for your patient.
Although 99% of the cases are settled and do not reach court, lawyers judge you on how you will do in court because in settlement negotiations, you are their leverage to prevail. The insurance carriers usually ask the lawyer who the expert is, triggering the lawyer to send a copy of the doctor’s CV to the claims representative for the carrier. If the doctor, as expert, is well-credentialed, the carrier will usually offer money, as they do not want to go to court and lose. If the doctor has a poor CV, then the carrier will offer nothing, as a rule.
If lawyers are not asking you for your CV, they often take your patient, without your knowledge, and send them to another “better-credentialed” doctor. I know, as I have gotten hundreds of second opinion requests from lawyers without the unsuspecting treating doctor’s knowledge.
Lawyers Needs
Having lectured to over 35,000 personal injury lawyers nationwide, I can share that lawyers first look you up online, as they need to qualify you as an expert as quickly as possible. They are very information savvy and it is that information that drives their business. Law is built entirely on fact patterns that have to be verified; rhetoric comes into play once the facts have been gathered. Lawyers will often make an instant decision on whether to work with you or not based upon the initial investigation of your credentials, or lack thereof. This is where you use the directory and your listing. You need to direct the lawyers to the US Chiropractic Directory so they can find your credentials to make that instant decision to work with you.
This is also part of the reason why we do not allow you to attach your CV. First, 99.999% of the chiropractic profession has no clue about how to create an admissible CV. The worst thing you can do when working with lawyers is to send a resume with gorals, wants, desires and pictures to the lawyer. It will injure your reputation and can take years to repair.
How Lawyers Find You
The other reason we do not allow you to simply upload or attach your CV to your listing has to do with “SEO,” or Search Engine Optimization. This is a computer term that has to do with search engines, like Google or Yahoo, being able to find you. If you simply attach your CV, you will not be located through them. However, if you create your CV online, it becomes searchable, as it is in html format, and lawyers, as well as anyone else, can find you using an Internet search engine. It is the prime reason to have you create your CV online. Our goal is to force you to build your practice for the right reason, clinical excellence, and the only way to make reality perception and perception reality is to have it documented on paper so you are real to the reader, not just a name.
There are numerous ways for lawyers to find you and the best way is to get lawyers to run after you versus your running after them. There is a program by the Academy of Chiropractic called the “Lawyers PI Program” that has been around for many years and has been working nationally. Utilizing this program, doctors are getting lawyers to run after them. It is quite the paradigm shift and the best way to have a huge personal injury practice for the lifetime of your career.
To learn more on how to get lawyers to run after you go to:
The next obvious issue has to do with what lawyers will see when they go to your listing. Will it be a simple listing or a “preferred listing?” You only get one chance at a first impression; make it count. The public is no different. I urge you to dig deep (sarcasm intended) and spend $22 per month to create a first impression that says you are the best-of-the-best in every way.
In Part 3 of How to Use the US Chiropractic Directory to Get New Patients, I will continue with other ways to get new PI patients.