A young family came to us after they had filed a Federal Tort Claim for medical malpractice against the Department of Veterans Affairs on their own without a lawyer. It was a strong case, and they did an admirable job working through with the VA’s red tape and bureaucracy on their own. But the VA made them a low-ball offer to settle the claim. The VA told them their hands were tied by federal regulations and could not offer much more. Thankfully, the family reached out to us for help, and we knew better about the VA’s ability to settle a case like this. The family recognized the value our expertise could add and brought us on to negotiate with the VA representative. We were able to bring our skills to bear and negotiated the VA up to a settlement of $575,000 to get the family substantially more than the VA originally told the family the case could be settled for. It was a quick and great resolution for this family and is a good example of why going it on your own in these cases can leave a lot of money on the table.