Laura Ramos James is an expert with liability insurance and working with commercial businesses. Attorney Laura Ramos James is the owner of Ramos James law, a legal firm with over 20 years of combined experience in successfully handling hundreds of personal injuries and accident cases representing individuals, workers, and families who suffer from accidents, workplace injuries, product liability, truck accidents, wrongful deaths, and personal injuries. She graduated with honors from St Mary’s University and joined the prestigious Baylor law school program. Laura practiced as an insurance defense lawyer before becoming a planted lawyer and she’s truly knowledgeable of the legal strategies used by her opponents in court. She has won numerous awards during her practice. She and her team have continuously worked to develop their network of professionals to help their clients.
We share the conversation
Larissa- Please tell us a little more about your story and how you got to this career.
Laura- I am actually a dog bite survivor, I was bit by a dog when I was a toddler and I of course experienced trauma and injuries and a lot of the stuff that goes along with that. Growing up I wanted to help people that were in a similar situation but I didn’t quite know that my path would end up taking me to a legal career even though I did want to be a lawyer since I was little. Eventually I went to law school and found a way to be in the courtroom.
Larissa- What do you enjoy most about your job?
Laura-Two things I enjoy the most, I love writing wrongs and if somebody is responsible and refuses to take responsibility I just automatically side with the person that was wronged and it gives me great pleasure to bring justice to that person and make things right. The other thing that I really love is even though I’m an introvert, at the same time I’m a people person, I love people so I really truly love getting to know my clients, working with my team and getting to know people from all walks of life.
Larissa- Do you frequently work with small business owners, or against small business owners?
Laura- I would say a lot with small business owners because small business owners are typically the individual, so we work a lot with individuals and big insurance companies. We represent them as a person that was hurt, we don’t represent the business.
Larissa-Can you give us 3 examples of things that small business owners frequently fail to do and they should do to improve or mitigate risk?
Laura- That is really good I think focused and helpful because like you said it is very easy to think, $200, $300 that I save is gonna help me a lot but if you expose your whole business then it’s pointless to have not invested in protecting it. The three things that small business owners frequently fail to do and they should do to improve and mitigate risk would be to get commercial insurance, the other one would be to create a Limited Liability company (LLC) and to have a liability waiver in place for their company.
Larissa- Why do you think they don’t pay attention to it?
Laura- I think it’s a very easy call to say, I’ve gotten a quote. It’s $200 a month if I get commercial liability insurance or however much, like I would rather just use this money to get more laptops for my business. The majority of people, we don’t think it’s going to happen to us, like it happens to other people but we’re like what are the chances that it’s gonna happen here.
Larissa- What can be the consequences of neglecting to do this?
Laura- The consequences can range from, you having to pay out of your own pocket you know, open your checkbook and write a check to someone who is making a claim or trying to cover their losses, to absolutely losing your business. Losing personal assets if you fail to create an (LLC), so things that you have been working towards and building and trying to create can all get taken away because you neglected to mitigate risk.
Larissa-How can small business owners stay updated with risk management strategies for their business or vehicles?
Laura- I would say there are a lot of resources that are free of cost and some others have limited cost. Obviously staying in touch with organizations like yours and similar organizations can always be sharing those types of strategies with them, there are now in the Advent of the availability of information at our fingertips where we can just research things like that. The Texas department of insurance has put out certain resources like that for people.
Larissa- What would you like people who listen to us to take away today?
Laura- Probably, broader than the specific three things that we discussed, I would say, I would like small business owners to take away that, always stay educated always seek out knowledge and you know don’t bury your hand in the sand and say, you know we’re all busy, we all have homes and we all have businesses and things like that. It’s easy to kind of turn a blind eye or say, I don’t have time, I don’t have money. To seek out education is the best way to save some money in the future for your business and protect it.
Translated by Berenice Osorio Alvarez