Law Have Mercy!
Law Have Mercy! isn’t just about the law anymore—it’s about life, business, health, and everything that sparks curiosity. Join Personal Injury Attorney Chaz Roberts as he dives into candid conversations that mix legal insights with lifestyle tips, entrepreneurial wisdom, and personal growth. From breaking down complex legal issues in simple terms to exploring the challenges and triumphs of health, business, and beyond, Chaz brings his unique perspective and passion to every episode.
Whether you're here to learn, laugh, or find inspiration, Law Have Mercy! has something for everyone. Just remember: the opinions of our guests are their own, and nothing on this podcast is legal advice or creates an attorney-client relationship—it’s all about entertainment, exploration, and empowerment. Let’s make it fun!
Law Have Mercy!
Chaz Roberts: What I Look For in a Car Accident Case + Marine Corps Marathon Recap
The weekend started with crisp air, packed streets, and a start line by the Pentagon. I take you mile by mile through the Marine Corps Marathon’s 50th anniversary—stunning monuments, a roaring crowd, and the moment my right calf seized at mile 21. From there it became a mental chess match: heel striking, stretching on the fly, bargaining with the next street sign, then finding a last kick up the infamous finishing hill to the Iwo Jima Memorial. After the medal and the chaos of a dead escalator, we still carved out a nighttime scooter loop for the kids through the Capitol and monuments—because some promises are worth the extra pain.
That endurance story isn’t just about running. It’s a blueprint for resilience you can use at work and at home: consistent training, smart fueling, and showing up when you don’t feel ready. The same mindset powers my legal work, where clarity beats chaos. I break down the exact three-part test we use to decide whether a case is worth pursuing: fault, damages, and insurance. We unpack why a left-turn with a solid green can destroy liability, how documented medical care anchors damages, and why uninsured motorist coverage is often the difference between recovery and an empty judgment. Real examples bring each element to life, so you can spot red flags early and protect your rights before mistakes pile up.
If you’ve wondered whether your claim stands a chance, this is your checklist and your map. You’ll learn what evidence matters, when to push, and when to pivot—just like deciding to surge at mile 25. Subscribe for more practical legal insights and real-world stories, share this with someone who needs clarity after a crash, and leave a review to tell me what you want next.
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This show is co-produced by Carter Simoneaux of AcadianaCasts Network, Chaz H. Roberts of Chaz Roberts Law and Kayli Guidry Bonin of Beau The Agency, and Laith Alferahin.
Hey guys, Chaz back with another episode of Law Have Mercy. On today's episode, I'm going to tell you how the demons were calling my name this weekend. And I'm going to tell you the framework with which we select a case, the three elements of a case. And this is how you will know if you have a case. Stick around, it's going to be a great episode. So this weekend, uh, we went to Washington, D.C. as a family, and I ran the Marine Corps Marathon. It is a big marathon. It was actually the 50th anniversary. It's the coolest medal I've ever received. Uh it's very cool. Very it's a big, it has like a feature where it opens up. It's actually been going on for 50 years. It's a beautiful run all around DC. We hit all the monuments. It actually ends at the Iwo Jima Marine Corps Monument, which was super cool. Uh the scenery was beautiful. I think, look, I've run some beautiful marathons in Berlin, New York, Chicago, Louisiana, all these great spots, but I think the Marine Corps Marathon was probably the most beautiful. It could be because of the fall foliage. We go through Georgetown and Washington, D.C., run around the Capitol, near the White House, uh, Jefferson Memorial, Lincoln Memorial. Um, I I had no idea it was so beautiful in Virginia and D.C. It was just breathtaking. I've never run in a marathon that has been so packed with people. I tell people, like, if I saw like 20 feet ahead, like 20, maybe 20 yards ahead, and I said, I want to get in that position. There was no way of me angling to that position because I literally had people in the front of me, the side of me, behind me. It was just, I even had to use my old Sicilia football moves a couple times to like move elbow my way into certain spots. I give it a 9.5 out of 10. Look, it started, we we arrived Thursday afternoon, and I'm sorry, Thursday evening late, uh, which was cool because the boys got to go to half day of school. I got to work that morning. We took a flight from New Orleans to DC. Reagan Airport's only about 12 to 15 minutes away from the hotel. By the way, that's something you should know about Washington, D.C. is the the um airport is closer to the city center than most places. Um, so that was really cool. We stayed at the JW Marriott right near the White House, so we were all in the action. DC is super safe right now. Um, there were not a lot of people, I guess, because of the government shut down, but the National Guard is posted pretty much on every block. You see, two or three um National Guard members. It was super clean, super safe. I never the kids ran around and I never feared um for their safety. It was beautiful. Um we went to uh a famous spot, old Ebbett Grill, it's been around since the 1800s. Um it was fairly priced. It had American Fair, Italian fare, but people, I mean, we didn't get there till probably 10 p.m. When we were leaving, there were still people in suits showing up at 11, 1115. It was insane. The kitchen doesn't close till two o'clock in the morning. So that's kind of a famous spot for uh a lot of government workers to come in and out, get deals done, beautiful bar, mahogany, beautiful paintings. Look it up, old Debit Grill. I highly recommend it if you're ever in DC. Friday, we uh we were supposed to tour the Capitol, that was shut down because of the government shutdown. So we didn't get to go in the Capitol, but we did go to the spy museum. Uh, we hopped on these lime scooters, which I had grown to love in my trip in Berlin, and me and Beth and the boys just hopped on them, and we covered so much ground. We did all the the Washington Monument, the Jefferson um monument, the Lincoln Memorial. We took a picture with the Einstein statue. Uh, it was really a good time. We had to take an Uber to the Gay Lord, which is on the uh lakefront, which was um probably about a$40 Uber ride. We went to the Gay Lord, and that's um a village inside of a building. Um I had been to the Gay Lord in San Antonio, but that's where the packet pickup was. Everyone uh that volunteers the Marine Corps marathon is are Marines, and so um you talk about a safe place to be is be around hundreds of Marines. And they were so kind, a bunch of young, strong men and women uh who were so nice and helpful, and it was just a good feeling um being around the Marines. I mean, America is in good hands, I promise you. Um, so got our gear, got our bib, had dinner, and um it was just a great, great time. We got in probably 9 p.m., slept in the next day on Saturday. The boy I started the day with a little shakeout run. You always want to run before a marathon to kind of get the nerves out, get the blood flowing. I did about a three, four-mile run around the Washington Monument. I took a post on social media, you might have seen it, where I said, Look, this is this is beautiful, this is gorgeous. And it took everything I had not to make a forest gump reference with the big um, you've seen the big body of water next to the Lincoln Memorial between Lincoln Memorial and Um the Washington Monument. It's classic. That's where Martin Luther King made his famous speech, I Have a Dream. Uh lots of protests and rallies are held there. Um boys ran a fun run in the Pentagon parking lot. So we took a sub uh subway there. I say subway, it's the Metro. Metro is super safe, super convenient, only costs like a dollar, two dollars to ride. Uh, I think the Metro is probably the finest example of public transportation in America. It reminded me of Europe because it's so efficient and clean. And um the boys ran the mile. They both did super well and they took pictures, they got cool shirts, they felt part of that. Uh, like my buddy Jerome said this morning when I talked to him and I was telling him by the race, he said, those boys will never ever forget that as long as they live. Took pictures with the Marines, and just it was a cool way of making the kids part of the bigger event that was to happen the next day. And um let's see, what else did we do on Saturday? We had dinner with some of Beth's family. On the way back from the Pentagon, we stopped at the Arlington National Muse uh uh Cemetery. We saw we went to the tomb of the unknown uh soldier, we saw the changing of the guard, which is something that everyone should see if they're an American in their lifetime. Very cool, um, very solemn event. And um I think just seeing the substantial nature of um all these great um um medal of honor recipients and all these uh brave soldiers that have given the ultimate sacrifice. I think that was something that the kids uh really enjoyed seeing and struck home. Sunday morning, woke up probably at about 5 a.m. Walked to the metro, which was about two-block walk from the hotel, and went to the Pentagon. That was the start of the race. By the time I got to the starting corral, by the way, I forgot to eat breakfast. I think I had an apple. I thought there was gonna be food at the race. That's my bad. That ended up biting me in the ass, as I as you'll hear later. But I had two and a half miles already on my feet by the time the race started. Like I said, it was a beautiful run. It was super packed. I was rolling. I I had not prepared as well as I should. The longest run I had done was probably 17 miles. You really want to go into a marathon with an 18, 20 mile run. Some of the weekends I had stuff that come had came up, like uh I had some friends that came into town. I didn't get a long run in. One time we ran the attack-a-pause race in Lafayette. That was only about four or five miles that we had run. I should have been running 12, 14 miles. I wasn't consistent with my weekday run, so I felt undertrained, but I knew I had the mental fortitude to finish it because I've done this. It was my ninth marathon. I get going, the weather's beautiful, it's cold. Um, I'm used to running in the hot humidity here. So I felt good. I was rolling. I saw my family at mile 17, took off my long sleeve shirt, uh, posted that on social media. I don't know if you saw it. And then uh on mile 19, I saw them as well. And I told my wife, I said, I'm I'm running hot. I'm running, I'm I hope I don't know how this is gonna end. Sure enough, mile 21, 22, I felt a little jolt in my calf muscle, and I said, Uh-oh, I felt this before. And that's the beginning of the wall. I had experienced that on my first run where I actually hit the wall where my muscles stopped working. I felt it coming on in mile 21. I started taking some salt pills, and um about a half mile later, my calf muscle, my right calf, just stopped working. It just locked up on me completely. I tried to start walking and it didn't release. And so I just stopped, I stretched, I stretched it out, and it it released, and I said, I'm gonna run on my heels. That's what I'm gonna do. After you've been running for 21 miles, 22 miles, and you still have four or five miles left. That is not fun. That is not fun. So I started running on my heels, and then my thigh locked up. And I'm just in the pain, in the pain cave at that point, and I have the demons in my head. I can't believe, Chaz, you're gonna quit. You can't quit. You can't do this, you can't run four more miles. No, Chaz, you run four miles in your sleep. You run five miles. This is only from Reds to River Ranch and back. You're good. Keep it going, keep it going. And I'm and I'm I have all these head movies going on in my head. It's the craziest thing. It's the loneliest feeling in the world because you're surrounded by 40,000 people, but you are by yourself. Your family is God knows where. Your mama is way in Sicilia, your business, none of that matters. You are just you are facing demons. You are in a dark place, and all you could do is just keep moving forward, but your body isn't really working. So I would just, I was getting through it. I continue to run. The thing is, I tried to stop myself and say, well, Chaz, you're still gonna break four hours, which is insane. I never thought I would be in that spot with how little I trained. If you just drop down in 10 minutes, 10 30, you're gonna make it. But your body has already been running like a sub-9 pace for 22 miles, and your body just refuses to slow down. So either you walk and sprint or you or or nothing, because you can't just reduce your speed and just jog. And so I just kept moving and I would see a sign, I'd say, I just need to run to that sign. I would see a curve, I'd say, I just need to run to that curve. And before you knew it, I was at mile 25. And people are dropping out left and right, just stopping in front of you because their body can't go anymore, walking on the side. And every time you see someone drop out, it it messes with you mentally. And I just kept moving, kept moving. And before you know it, I was at 26 and the last 0.2 miles, I just sprinted. And there's a huge hill in the last one-tenth. I don't know if that's kind of some sick marine joke or something. I had to sprint it, sprint up it, but I got it done. I got it done. And so I crossed the line, got my beautiful metal, um, and I was in the pain cave. Uh, luckily, I had a ticket for a VIP area, and I went to get a little massage and reunited with my family. As luck would have it, the metro station for that spot with 40,000 people and their families was out. The escalator was out. So we waited around. Of course, you can't Uber, you can't walk, you were too far from the hotel to walk. We're miles and miles away. Um, and there was a little window where they reopened the metro and I snuck in and they allowed us to go. The problem is we had to go downstairs and down an escalator, the biggest escalator I've ever seen. This thing must have been four or five stories tall. I had to walk down the escalator and every step hurt. Every step hurt. But we made it. We got on the metro, got back to our hotel. Uh, Jake and I went sauna when we got back. I said, Jake, you want to? I'm going in the sauna. That helps loosen up muscles. He said, Dad, can I come? I said, Yeah, there's nobody in the hotel, Jim. Come on. And so we did that. Um, we had dinner plans with Beth's family at six, um, made it out to Fairfax, Virginia, did that. And then we get home, and I'm just whooped. I have like 50,000 steps on my on my watch at this point. That's like 32 or 33 miles. So that's the marathon plus the pre-marathon, plus the post-marathon walking. And the kid said, You promised us we were gonna take one more lime scooter ride. And so um I'm sitting there like, well, promises are broken sometimes, boys. And I was like, you know what? This is a lifetime memory. We're in DC, it's nighttime, this is our last night here. When I get back home to Lafayette, it's back to reality. It's already um tomorrow's Monday, they're gonna miss a day of school. We're gonna fly back. I gotta get it back in the office. When's the next time we're gonna be in DC, if ever? So I put my big boy pants on, I put some money on the lime scooter, and we took an amazing cruise. Beth, the kids, and I, and we hit the Capitol one more time, we hit all the monuments one more time, and we hit the Supreme Court, and the kids got a good, a great picture in front of the Supreme Court, and it was an hour-long ride, and um, I'll never forget it. It was beautiful. We got some pictures, we we knocked off all the little remaining things on our on our kind of bucket list, and the kids were super happy, and they gave me a big hug, and I said, Dad, thank you so much. I know that was not easy for you, but we we love you so much, man. And so I put myself in their shoes. Chaz Roberts at 10 years old, nine years old, definitely would have wanted one more cruise, and um, and so I was able to do that. How I found the energy to do that, I have no idea. Got on a flight, got back to New Orleans, drove straight from New Orleans here. I was back in the office by 2 p.m. and I had a meeting with a new case at 3 p.m. And I sat there as I'm driving a car to the office. I'm thinking, you know, there's not a lot of people who could do this. Not a lot of people who could run as hard as I did in DC with the kids that whole time leading up to the marathon, run the marathon, run a sub-four-hour marathon, go to dinner after, do a nighttime cruise, get on a plane, get to New Orleans, drive from New Orleans to Lafayette, and be here and be in good spirits. And and and so I was super grateful, and I don't know, it's just a moment of clarity and gratitude. Like, man, I'm I guess I'm built different. I guess I'm built different. And thank God for giving me this type of energy and health to be able to do that. And that energy and health starts on Sundays every single week. And I know I preach it all the time on this podcast, and I preach it to you guys. Like, when you make those decisions on Sundays to go run, you you I met those demons before, I met um that energy suck before, I met all the adversity that I faced. I've done it a million times every Sunday, and that set me up for where I am today to have that energy, to be able to do these incredible things, like do marathons 26.2 miles in different areas of the world and bring my family along with me. It's made me a better lawyer, it's made me a better husband, it's made me a better father, it's made me a better friend, made me a better athlete. Those are the sacrifices. So um DC, 9.5 out of 10, amazing trip. The 0.5 is because the government shut down. We didn't get to go to all the museums, the Smithsonian's um museums. Those would have been fantastic. We did go to the spy museum. I give that a 10 out of 10. I love the spy museum. I love spy culture. I love who doesn't like James Bond, right? I was into spy stuff when I was a kid, and um, it was a really cool museum. I wish we could have done more. I wish we could have gone to the flight museum. I wish we could have gone to the Capitol or the White House, but unfortunately, with the government shut down, we couldn't. So I give the trip 9.5 out of 10. Enough about that. Let's get into some law. All right, so anyone that comes into our office has to meet three elements to have a case. All right, and they are fault, damages, and insurance. What is fault? Somebody has to be at fault other than you. And so you wouldn't believe how many people call me and they're at fault, they know they're at fault and they call to see if they have a case. Well, no, you can't sue yourself. You can't sue your own insurance for your problems. Somebody else has to be at fault. I had a guy that called me this week. Sometimes it's not as obvious, right? So a rear-end, that's usually a pretty obvious case. That's a clear situation where someone else rear-ended you. I had a guy who called this week. He was at an intersection and he said, I had the green light and somebody hit me head on. I said, Okay, well, tell me about it. Well, he was at a light and he was turning left and he had a green light. I said, Well, did you yield to oncoming traffic? Did you have a green arrow? No, I don't think I had a green arrow. So you didn't yield to oncoming traffic? No, but somebody else ran the other light. I was like, well, you were a left-hand turning vehicle. You had a solid green light. Chances are you probably didn't yield to oncoming traffic. You have a higher duty. How can we prove that you weren't at fault? Well, there were no independent witnesses. His testimony is self-serving. The other person said that they had a green light. There's no camera footage. And so, based on him being uh the left-turning motorist who has the higher duty in that scenario, I know he has no case. Somebody else has to be at fault. That's the first box we have to check. The second box we have to check is there has to be damages. And so if you're rear-ended and there's no damage, no visual damage to your vehicle, and you're not hurt, and you call me and you say, Hey, I have a case. I say, okay, well, somebody rear-ended me. I say, good, you got fault. But there's no damage. There's no damage to the vehicle. Are you hurt? No, I'm not hurt. I don't have you don't have any headaches, any neck pain, any back pain. No, I'm not hurt. Well, then you're not damaged. So you have to have damages. Damages are damages to your vehicle or you need a repair. Damages, you need a rental. You have uh headaches, you have neck pain, you have back pain, you have a broken limb, you have a hurt limb, you have a hurt wrist, a hurt finger. Would that we can prove with some type of medical documentation? That's an example of damages. I missed time from work. Well, what if what if you just missed time from work, but you didn't have any medical care? Well, how am I going to prove that you were damaged? Maybe you just didn't want to go to work. A lot of people just don't show up to go to work. So you have to be able to prove damages. Most people that come into our office are damaged in some kind of way, right? They're not calling a lawyer to pursue a case unless they're actually hurt. You would be surprised though, some people still call when there's no actual damage. If there's no damage, you don't meet one of the elements and therefore you have no case. So so far, we've established that to have a case, somebody else has to be at fault. And there has to be damage, some type of damage to you, whether it's you, your car, that's it, really. You or your vehicle, your property. And the third element, which I find is the hardest to meet, especially in Louisiana, is there has to be insurance. If somebody is uninsured, that means that they don't have enough money to pay for insurance, or they don't have enough wherewithal to have insurance, or they don't have enough brains to get insurance, or they're that derelict in their responsibility to get insurance. What's the chances that they got a dollar in their checking account? What's the chances that they even have a checking account or any other assets that we can seize? Zero. Zero. Right? Zero. And you get somebody's uninsured, you take two or three years, you go to you go to trial, you get a three million dollar judgment against them, they file bankruptcy the next day, right? So you have to have a pocket, and the pocket is a company, an insurance company. So in Louisiana, as you know, it's a$15,000 minimum coverage,$15,30,$15 per person,$30,000 total. So there's three people that three people would have to split$30,000. You also have uninsured motorist coverage that would that is your own policy that steps in if the other person has no insurance or uh not enough insurance. And so some people that come into my office, the other person doesn't have insurance, but they have their own uninsured motorist coverage or med pay coverage, they have a case because there is some type of insurance. So you have to have insurance. If you call me and you don't have UM and the other person was uninsured, hit and run, they tracked them down, they got their license plate, and there's no insurance on the car, you don't have a case. You could be you the other person could be at fault, you could be damaged, have neck pain, back pain, need medical treatment, and the other person has to have insurance. I'm sorry, there's no case. Flip side, there's a lot of insurance, there's a lot of injuries, but you are at fault, you have no case. You have no case because somebody else is not at fault. You are at fault. There has been cases where somebody else was at fault and there's a lot of insurance, like a commercial policy, like a million dollars of insurance, but there's no injuries, no case. You have to have all three elements fault, damages, and insurance in order to have a case. All right. Hope that clears it up. Those are the three elements that we look for to have a case. I hope you enjoyed the episode. We covered the marathon. We covered the three elements that you need to have a case. Stick around for the next episode. Make sure you subscribe to the channel. I love doing this. I love educating you guys. I love sharing my life. I hope you enjoy it. Shoot me a DM. Give me some feedback on the episode or what you want me to talk about in the future. Appreciate it. Have a great one, guys.
