Attorney Matt Boulton Featured on ‘Keep Kids Alive Drive 25’ Podcast

In Boulton Law Group’s mission to help injured people recover for their losses, Matt Boulton also places an emphasis on recognizing and partnering with individuals and organizations that focus on traffic safety.

One of those groups is a non-profit based out of Omaha, Nebraska named ‘Keep Kids Alive Drive 25‘ (KKAD25). KKAD25’s founder, Tom Everson, recently invited Matt to join him on their podcast for a conversation.

What Keep Kids Alive is all about—it’s all about preserving relationships

Tom Everson

The best part of my job is at the end of the claim when I’m having a meeting with a client, most times those end in hope rather than tears. Again, that’s just the most rewarding to me—not only helping clients through a time of allowing them to heal, whether that’s mentally or physically, initially we can take that initial stress off them in dealing with the insurance company. Helping guide them through the process to ultimately be able to bring it to closure for them.

Matt

At the end of the day the insurance companies don’t have my clients’ interests at heart. Why I’m hired is to represent their interests and dealing with the insurance companies, to again, bring a situation to closure, and it’s very rewarding.

Matt

There are things we’re all taught in driver’s training, but as we get farther and farther away from that, we’re more experienced drivers and think we’re better drivers, so we push some of that safety information to the back of our minds and get distracted by other things.

Talk to Attorney Matt Boulton Today

Schedule your free case consultation with one of Indiana’s most experienced personal injury attorneys

Free Case Review

Matt

Safety involves all of us. Myself and our firm and the cases we handle can have some impact, as well as your organization, but it’s really all of us combined and having a consistent message to get out to the community.

Matt

Tom: Want to welcome our audience to the KKA podcast. I’m Tom Everson, the executive founder and director of KKAD25. We’re a non-profit traffic safety education organization. We’re based in Omaha, Nebraska, but we work with communities all over the country and sometimes around the world as well. And our mission is simply to help make streets safer for all who walk, cycle, play, drive, and ride, so that’s all of us in some way shape or form. Our concerns are about safety on and along roadways.

Today we have a very special guest: Matt Boulton, a personal injury attorney from Indiana. He has his own firm. We connected a couple of years ago, and as I remember it, and I’ll let you chime in in a moment, Matt, you contacted us about maybe becoming a partner in Indiana to help us move our mission forward. I have to own that we don’t get many requests like that. It seemed kind of random and out of the blue from somebody we didn’t know, so I want to invite you to share about why you decided to connect with us or how you learned about KKAD25 in the first place. So welcome, Matt.

Matt: Well, thank you, Tom. I appreciate the invitation and it’s a pleasure to join you. We have a marketing consultant that helps us with things by the name of KC and I think he first reached out to you. We view ourselves as a unique personal injury firm. We’re not about volume of cases or anything along those lines. Our motto is Get Treated Like Family, so personal service to our clients as well as trying to impact our community for the betterment. So, part of that, we’re always looking for partners to not only get pour message out there but certainly share messages. We initially looked at your website and had some conversations with you and I think we really do have some shared missions with our firm and your organization, so it kind of just overlapped there and it’s been a good couple of years working with you.

Tom: Well, thank you, Matt, I appreciate that. You know, this is our first time we’ve had a personal injury lawyer on our podcast, and I thought this was a good opportunity to help educate our listeners about your role in this whole system. We have had a lot of stories of families who have sadly had to endure the death of a loved one because of a crash, and much of the good that those families have worked to bring into the world in honor of their loved one. But your work is a piece of this puzzle or equation, however we want to look at it, that often times I don’t think that we get a chance to have many insights into. I guess I’d just like to start with your story. What led you to do what you do and become the person that you are at this point in your life.

Matt: Sure. I’m in my early 50’s now, so going back I never envisioned being where I’m at today. Growing up I thought I’d be somewhere in the business world. My parents always sort of taught me a law education is good no matter what you do. It just teaches you how to think and approach certain issues and it could be a good resource at anything I do. So, I envisioned going to law school and ending up in corporate America somewhere. I went to Drake University law school which is in Des Moines, Iowa. They have a very good clinical and trial skills program, and they had the first-year law students, everyone has to do a moot court competition, which is essentially arguing to a panel of judges. And that kind of got me outside my comfort zone, which I realized I kind of liked and just took more of those classes, trial skills, and really liked the litigation. As part of that, also, after my first year of law school, I went to undergrad at Indiana University in Bloomington Indiana. I was able to get a clerkship with a law firm in Bloomington after my first year of law school. The gentleman I worked for, Bill Lloyd, he’s been in Bloomington 25-30 years and belonged to a small enough town that he had some business clients and done a little bit of everything, but his primary practice was personal injury litigation, so he sort of taught me the basics of it that first summer and hired me back each summer after that and offered me an opportunity to come work for him after graduating law school. Then he also allowed me to find my way a little bit. He allowed me to take on some divorce cases, which I quickly learned is not an area of law I wanted to handle. And I really found that personal injury litigation is what is close to my heart and what I really enjoy. Going back to what you said, it’s a full spectrum. A lot of times we’re meeting with individuals or families in one of the toughest times of their lives. It is a process and part of our role is educating the clients on what that process is and what they can expect, but ultimately, hopefully at the end of the situation, we don’t use the word ‘happy’ or anything, but there’s a reasonable outcome for everyone to be able to move on. The part of that process to help clients ultimately find that peace and justice is what I really enjoy.

Tom: What attracted you to personal injury itself? Because you mentioned being given different cases, different kinds of law, but you were really attracted to personal injury. What is it about that that really tugged at you?

Matt: I think it’s a couple of things. One, every day is different. I mean, each case is different. Each case could sound the same, such as a rear-end car accident, but within that there are also nuances of what happened, why did it happen that way, as well as each client we have. We all have our own personal medical histories and some of us have prior injuries we bring with us. So each day is different, whereas, I anticipate if I was doing State work, or something along those lines, I would be tied behind the desk everyday kind of doing the same thing and that doesn’t provide a whole lot of interest to me, but the other aspect is also the personal aspect of things, getting to interact with people and my clients, and again, at the end of the day, trying to help them deal with the insurance companies who have their own agenda and trying to deal with that process, because at the end of the day, the insurance companies don’t have my clients’ interests at heart. Why I’m hired is to represent their interests and dealing with the insurance companies, to again, bring a situation to closure, and it’s very rewarding.

Tom: When you think about the personal aspect of your work, is there a story or two you’d be privileged to share. I realize everybody may not want their story shared, but when you think back through the years, is there a story or two that really kind of highlights the good that can come out of your work?

Matt: There is, and sort of like you mentioned before, many families you work with end up honoring their family members one way or the other, and that’s been some of the most rewarding for me as well. There was a wrongful death, a group of 5 or 6 teenagers in a car out in the country late at night, dark roadway, there was some alcohol and drugs involved, and unfortunately, there was a single-vehicle collision that resulted in the death of our client–his name is Cody. Unfortunately, I never got to meet him, but I know a lot about him. He had a rough life growing up. His household, there were some allegations of abuse. He was in the child protective system for many years and then he met my client Kathleen. She was not a registered foster mom, had never had a foster child before, but when Cody was about 16 years of age their paths crossed and the DCS said, “Kathleen, even though you’re not licensed, we think you’d be a good match for him,” and they placed Cody with Kathleen. He had been living with her for about a year, year-and-a-half, before this accident and his passing. They talked about potentially her adopting him. He was about to reach the age of 18 but just for their personal reasons and the relationship they built going through the adoption process. Unfortunately, before that happened Cody passed. And there were a lot of issues with the case. Their relationship at the time was one of the issues. Under the law of Indiana, she was not a natural parent of Cody so there was a lot of issues and things that we kind of had to go down the path with Kathleen. At the end of the day, we were able to get the case resolved. What she used that money for was to create a foundation called Cody’s Kids. What Cody wanted to do was become an EMT, which actually is what Kathleen has done herself. She’s been an ambulance EMT for many years and now works in the corporate environment of one of those ambulance services. So that was his goal. He wanted to become an EMT like Kathleen and help serve others as well. So, what Kathleen has done is she’s created a scholarship that will pay for the EMT training for any child who is within the child protective services program. So, it’s kind of a specialized area focusing on the background of Cody and kids somewhat disadvantaged to try and help them get the training needed to better their lives as well as serve others.

Tom: Wow. You know often times I think that when we read, say, newspaper accounts, or hear a story on the news, we hear reasons why people die in traffic incidents, no matter what their age, and sometimes I think the temptation can be to just make a general judgement about a whole person because of the circumstances immediately surrounding their death. And yet the invitation is still there to really discover, you know, who is the whole person, which obviously, Kathleen knew Cody in a way that nobody reading a newspaper account would understand or probably appreciate. I think there’s an invitation there still to think about the people who die in traffic incidents as whole human beings that had aspirations and that there was more to them than what happened in that moment. And to hear what Kathleen has done and continues to do to bring great good into the world and, you know, in many ways help to preserve the lives of other people. Because those people who get scholarships and become EMTs themselves are probably going to be in a situation where it’s up to them to preserve the life of the people that they encounter on that particular day.

Matt: You’re absolutely right, and especially in today’s social media world, where an article may get put up about an accident or something, and all sorts of comments, but we truly don’t know what happened and all the circumstances, or like you said, the individuals involved wind up in a short little snippet.

Tom: Are there any other stories that… I hate to rival Cody’s, but that kind of inspires you to keep doing what you’re doing.

Matt: Yah, I mean, not all of our cases involve death. Some involve minor injuries, relatively speaking. For me it’s the satisfaction at the end of case. A lot of my first meetings with clients involve tears, talking about what’s happened to them, or what they’re going through, whereas the best part of my job is at the end of a claim, when I’m having a meeting with a client. Most times those end in hugs rather than tears, so again, that’s the most rewarding to me, not only helping clients through the time of allowing them to heal, whether that’s mentally or physically, initially, we can take that initial stress off them in dealing with the insurance company. Then again, helping guide them through the process to ultimately be able to bring it to closure for them. Clients tell me time and time again, regardless of the monetary aspect of a case, just being able to close a case and that chapter of their life is therapeutic to them.

Tom: Well, thank you. I mean thank you for your humanity in the work that you’re doing. Often times I wonder if people think about humanity in terms of somebody working in the legal profession and what they bring to the table. Ultimately, to me, everything’s about relationships. I think about that with families that I’ve encountered who have become friends of sorts with maybe the police officer that showed up at their door to inform them that a loved one had died, and what a tough position to be put in even though maybe you say, “well, they’re professionals.” It’s like, well, I don’t know how professional we all can be as human beings sometimes. Is that like something we’re getting paid for? To be a human being?

Matt: You’re absolutely right. At the end of the day, we all have our emotions and our personal experiences, and it impacts us.

Tom: How do you take care of yourself with when you’re dealing with all these emotional cases and the variety of people that you end up encountering?

Matt: That’s a very good question, and something the BAR association has shifted over the last 25 years to focus more on, the personal aspect of a law practice. Because again it is emotionally challenging. Thankfully, I have a great support system at home. I’ve been married for 25 years coming up in October. We have two, I still call them young boys–but they’re both in their 20’s now and in college–but just being able to go home to them at the end of the day and hug them and be thankful for everything we have. Sometimes people in my profession, and certainly personal injury lawyers, get a bad rap in terms of some of the advertising and things that people have seen, but like you talked about before, articles or things that you see, you really don’t get the full background of who somebody is or why they do it. Obviously, this is what I do for a living, but at the end of the day, the reason I do that is for the people and the clients and the relationships I’ve built over the years. I’ve had clients from 20 years ago that we touch base with a couple times a year just to see how they’re doing.

Tom: Well it’s nice to hear about the follow-up and that you have support at home and a place to rejuvenate and recharge.

Matt: Yeah, I know you do the Run to Pikes Peak, I think, every September, or so?

Tom: Yeah, we’ll be doing that in two and a half weeks.

Matt: Oh, ok, there, so that’s how I release stress, too, is run. I don’t consider myself a ‘runner,’ but I’ve been running now for about 20 years.

Tom: You’re a runner. (laughing)

Matt: I really enjoy it. It clears my mind and I know it’s good for me as well as I get older. So yeah, I’m not sure what it would be like out in Pike’s Peak but I’m sure it’s beautiful.

Tom: Well, our repeat listeners would know that I actually came up with the idea for KKAD25 while out on a run back in late July of 1998. The phrase literally popped in my head, and I started mulling it over and I said, ‘I think I can do something with this,’ and 24 years later now, we keep going and there’s still opportunities out there.

Matt: So, you know how it is, as you’re running and things just pop in your mind that you never otherwise would have thought about.

Tom: I think that’s the beauty of running, is that it’s an opportunity to kind of cleanse the brain and let some thoughts percolate that might not ordinarily be there. You just never know where those are going to take you. For those of you listening who may not be familiar with our Pike’s Peak weekend, KKAD25, for the last 15 years, we’ve had a running team that runs the Pike’s Peak ascent trail race, or marathon, we’ve had a few marathoners that have run up and down Pike’s Peak. For those of you who have never run 13 miles down a mountain, that’s the hard part. That’s the hardest part. But we do that in honor of loved ones who have died in traffic incidents. And for the last 10 years we’ve had families that have actually come out and joined us for the weekend to honor and remember and celebrate their loved ones. And one of those family members have runners who run with us and many of them are part of our cheer squad that kind of motivate us and keep us going that day. It’s really been a special weekend. It’s kind of what I call a reverse Make-a-Wish weekend. Families couldn’t do that one last thing they would’ve liked to have done with their loved one, which is what Make-a-Wish helps happen. So, we kind of do the reverse of that for the families to bring them to a beautiful place to share stories and make memories and create their own little informal support network along the way. We’ve got people all over the country who have connected with each other through these weekends and stay in touch and remember anniversaries and birthdays. All those important days in the lives of their loved ones no matter how long ago it was that their loved one died. It’s been a real special thing and we look forward to next year because next year will be the 25^th anniversary of KKAD25, and I have to admit, I didn’t imagine 25 years ahead when we started this whole thing and all the things that would happen along the way.

Tom: I want to just kind of circle back to the work that you do day-in and day-out because when a tragic event happens, or something just totally unexpected happens, that has to do with a traffic incident, what advice or tips do you have that you would give to an individual or a family about how to proceed when something arises that was totally unexpected?

Matt: The best advice, or simplest advice, I can give is reach out to an attorney. Each state has personal injury attorneys that generally will give out free consultations, talk to people on the phone, or initially in person. And, if nothing else, just ask some questions. There’s always many, many questions and some can be answered early on, and some questions, unfortunately, it’s going to take time to be answered. But like I said, anyone that would be reaching out to these individuals or families from the insurance company, or business on the other side, don’t have the injured person’s interests at heart. So, what the injured person needs to do is talk to someone who can answer questions from their perspective and what’s in their best interests rather than talking to the insurance company. That would be the best advice: just reach out and ask some questions. Just because you talk to an attorney doesn’t mean you have to hire one. Or it doesn’t mean that if you hire one that you’re going to end up with a lawsuit or many things that you may read about. But like I said, the process, the legal process as far as the insurance claims process is very unique, and most people don’t ever hopefully ever have to go through that in their lives, but when they do, there’s an education that needs to happen because it is a process

Tom: Well and thinking about reaching out, are there tips you might be able to offer about how somebody might be able to evaluate a local attorney? Because, I’ll own, I think about this, and it’s different from state to state, but you know some states I travel to and my gosh it’s just billboard city all over the place, and then you turn on the tv and every third advertisement is for a personal injury lawyer screaming at you to contact them or bring your business their way, and I have to own, it doesn’t make me feel like they’re very credible when they’re doing that, but that’s my own bias, I’ll own it. But I figure if somebody were to maybe ask some questions to help evaluate the attorney that they’re talking with and maybe help them to get a sense of, ‘is this the right person’?

Matt: Sure, and I absolutely agree with you. Attorney advertising over the last twenty to thirty years has changed the industry and changed personal injury cases. But I would tell clients that the attorney-client relationship needs to be very similar to the doctor-patient relationship. You need to be comfortable with your doctor and taking their recommendations on your health the same you do as your lawyer. You need to be able to be comfortable talking with them and ask questions and have difficult conversations as you would with your doctor. And you need to be comfortable to do that. Just because someone has a big billboard or a TV ad, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s going to be the right attorney for you. So, the best way is word of mouth. Ask your friends and family members whether they’ve gone through this process or know of any attorneys. In today’s world, online, you can at least get a feel for a lawyer and firm. And I also must admit, Google reviews nowadays, at least gives us some insight into others’ experiences. And I’m a believer based upon dealing with insurance companies that past history tells us a lot about the future.

Tom: It’s good to hear. I think about some families that I’ve encountered along the way, throughout the years that have connected with our mission because of a death and not knowing what to do. I know I’ve connected them with some attorneys throughout the years, people that I knew, that I was like ‘this is a good person.’ I guess one of my measuring sticks in life sometimes: ‘is this person somebody that I could stand in the driveway, and we could have a nice conversation, neighbor-to-neighbor,’ and if I have that sense about a person, it’s like, well, it’s the person. I mean, they may have specific knowledge in this case, in the legal field, but, you know, it’s the person ultimately that you’re connecting with. Obviously, as you said, and I guess I’d just like to echo is ‘Do you feel comfortable,’ and to listen to yourself that way and hopefully that’ll make for a good match.

Matt: It’s like you mentioned before: life is about relationships.

Tom: You know, you connected with us from a kind of partnering standpoint. We’re based in Omaha and you’re in Indiana. When you think about how a law firm like yours can partner, whether it’s with KKAD25, or any other traffic safety entity that might be out there. What are the kinds of things that you’re looking for, or what kind of aspirations might you have for where a partnership can take us? And I’d like to emphasize ‘us’ because sometimes I think partnerships can get a bad wrap themselves because it’s like ‘Ok, I’m going to partner with you and I’m going to do whatever you want to do, or you’re going to do whatever I want to do,’ and that’s not really a partnership. I figure partners bring something unique to the table, and it’s like something wholly new can emerge out of all that, and to me, that’s the exciting aspect of looking at partnerships.

Matt: I absolutely agree. I think partnerships need to be beneficial for everyone involved, and that’s where I think law firms and organizations can be beneficial moving forward is with that messaging, and that’s what we really liked about KKAD25, is the message of safety throughout the community. I don’t have the yard signs, but I have on my recyclable cans and our trash cans, the stickers. Again, just a reminder to people. I live on a fairly busy road here. Brownsburg is a relatively small town on the west side of Indianapolis, about 30,000 people or so, and I live on one of the main thoroughfares through town, and here recently there was construction on another throughfare, so everyone kind of came to our road. The speed of some of these cars would drive with was just crazy. Every Tuesday night when I put out my cans, I’d always think if ‘one person sees this and slows down,’ it’s only beneficial. So, I think trying to get the messages out that we all hear about—community safety—the more we can get it out there through law firms or organizations such as yours, the better we’ll all be.

Tom: And just to let our listeners know, the trash can decals is part of a bigger initiative we have. It’s called ‘America’s Trash Talks to Keep Kids Alive.’ We actually have had whole communities that have decaled their trash cans with our logos and that way everybody, when they’re putting out the trash, the whole neighborhood is sending out the same message, and hopefully that helps to slow down traffic. I know in our first iteration of that back in Oro Valley, Arizona, which dates all the way back to 1999, they did a pre-post study and showed a 13.5% reduction in an average speed, where the average speed on their residential streets was 24.5mph, and I think most people would be very happy to see the traffic adhering to the posted speed limit, and even going a tiny bit slower. You know, that’s something you can learn about at our website—keepkidsalivedrive25.org—and we’re always happy to work with communities in that way. I think, too, one of the things that struck me when you mentioned drivers being detoured sometimes, and I invite all of us, because all of us, whoever gets behind the wheel for whatever reason whatsoever, is to again, focus in on relationships, and the consideration that every neighborhood that we drive through, every car that’s around us, or truck that‘s around us, any vehicle that’s around us, is being driven by somebody who has people who love them and who they love and they want to return home to them and they want their loved ones to return home as well. I think it’s creating that mentality of recognizing that we all have people that we care about, so how about if we displayed the kind of behavior in our driving that says, ‘well, I care about you as much as I’d like you to care about my family as well.’ It may be a little bit of a stretch in terms of being that magnanimous to everyone, because maybe sometimes we don’t like how people drive.

Matt: It’s interesting you bring that up. I was reading an article in the New York Times last week, that after many years of decline, since 2020, traffic accidents are actually on the increase. And there were a lot of theories as to why that is, but one of them is ‘impulsive behavior.’ People have been kind of in isolation so much that they’re sort of looking out for their own self-interests, and once they get on the roadway, they’re taking that action/mindset with them, which is leading to more traffic accidents as well as more deaths, which is surprising since after over 20 years that number was heading down.

Tom: A lot of times I like to use sports analogies, and I don’t know if they’re real helpful depending on how people hear them, but I’ll take a situation like tailgating and it’s like ‘why should you not tailgate?’ And often times it’ll end up slowing you down in traffic and causing great irritation. But let’s look at a football team, and if you’ve got a running back, and if the running back leaves some space between himself and his blockers and gives them an opportunity to do what they can do, then pretty soon the lane will open up and you can do what you can do. Sometimes to me it’s just a matter of patience on the road to kind of let things clear up, let the congestion clear up, and then you’ll be able to maintain hopefully a speed that adheres to the speed limit, but the road will open up and you’ll end up with having less stress in your life as well. A couple decades ago, ABC, on their Good Morning America, they did an experiment in the Washington D.C.-area where they had two drivers that started the same point and were going to end at the same point, but one drove very aggressively and the other followed all the rules of the road. Lo and behold, the person who followed all the rules of the road arrived at their destination before the person who was driving aggressively because often times, they’d end up switching lanes really quickly but then get stuck in traffic nonetheless, or they’d get to a stoplight faster than a person who’s just adhering to the speed limit might do. To me, it was a nice little experiment that shows us it’s ok to calm down and relax and just pay attention to what we need to be doing behind the wheel and just honor the people around us, as well as the people in our own cars. I figure if we put ourselves and other people in danger, whether they happen to be in our own vehicle or around us, it’s probably not going to make our day any better.

Matt: You’re absolutely right. There are things we’re all taught in driver’s training, but as we get farther and farther away from that, we’re more experienced drivers and think we’re better drivers, so we push some of that safety information to the back of our minds and get distracted by other things.

Tom: I’m always reminded that when I took driving lessons from Mr. Kelly, when I was a junior in high. I actually when out to drive, but I got done and Mr. Kelly looked at me and he said, ‘you think you’re a 98% driver? You are kidding yourself.’ He says, ‘you are not.’ I don’t think he was asking me to be humble in any false kind of way. It was like, just be humble out there, and I know when I went out for my first solo drive after I got my license, it was like, ‘ok the light’s turning yellow…what do I do here?’ And it’s like, well, we’ve practiced all these things, but we haven’t practiced them enough to make them a part of the person we are behind the wheel. I figure there are none of us who are listening, we might want to lay claim to being the best driver in the world, but I don’t know that there’s any age we arrive at where we can make that claim. As you mentioned earlier, just in terms of the variety of cases you take on, every day is different on the road, and we have no idea who we’re going to encounter or how that encounter is going to happen. I’m reminded of the story when my oldest son was practice driving and we were out on the interstate and there was a car weaving in and out of traffic, so I mentioned to him, ‘you know at any one time of day, between 1 and 3 percent of drivers are driving under the influence of something. I said, ‘now you have no control over the decision they made, but what you do have control over is your spacing, is to create space so that you have an opportunity, regardless of what somebody else does, is that you can maneuver and hopefully create a safer situation for yourself. I got a two-for-one that day because our second son was sitting in the backseat, and he was 14 and he said, ‘dad, how do you know this stuff?’ For me, it was a matter of just knowing, ‘wow, he was listening.’

Matt: It’s the small victories as a parent.

Tom: Yeah, you know, just paying attention to that. There was a project I worked on years ago called ‘Flashing Your Brights’ that had to do with substance abuse and underage drinking, and how do you address some of those issues, and it was a little project called ‘Flashing Your Brights,’ where the whole idea of flashing your brights is to kind of do a little 30-second intervention where you can say what you know; you can say what you observe; you can express appropriate care for the person. There’s no guarantee that what you say is going to change their behavior, but you may be giving them information that they didn’t formally have that could be helpful to them, if not in the moment, hopefully in the future. Because often times, I think we want to intervene in a big way and have something very dramatic happen, and often times, it’s just those subtle interactions, like giving the information that ‘1 to 3 percent of drivers being under the influence of something.’ It’s like, well, most people on the road probably don’t think about that, and that’s something that we need to consider when we go out. Another little tidbit, and I don’t know how this plays in with your work, Matt, but I know here in Nebraska over 60% of traffic fatalities, those people are unbuckled, and all for the lack of 2 to 5 inches of fabric, they could have gone home, or they may have suffered some injury, but not a catastrophic or life-ending injury. So sometimes just recognizing that knowing that little detail might get you to buckle up.

Matt: Yeah, we have the same experience here in Indiana. Despite the seatbelt law in effect for many, many years, some people just aren’t in that habit, or for one reason or another, choose not to. But we have seen incidents over the years where people were ejected from the vehicle and sustained further injury, or death, whereas if they were simply buckled, they potentially could have had a less minimal injury.

Tom: Well, Matt, as we wrap up today are there any things just floating around in your head that you came in thinking ‘I wouldn’t want to end this conversation without having said ‘this’?

Matt: Safety involves all of us. Myself and our firm and the cases we handle can have some impact, as well as your organization, but it’s really all of us combined and having a consistent message to get out to the community–to know it’s everyone’s actions, and every little bit helps. And the other thing would be for people out there who may have a stereotypical personal injury lawyer in their mind, to know that we’re all different, and again, if you’re ever looking for an attorney, look for someone you’re comfortable with, as it’s an important relationship, and there’s really a bond that develops there that could be life-altering.

Tom: Kind of makes me think, often times we hear about comprehensive insurance, and ‘do you have comprehensive insurance?’ but when we really think about comprehensive insurance in terms of the bigger picture, it’s the need to be comprehensive in paying attention to how everybody fits into the puzzle that creates a safe environment, hopefully, for all of us, or helps to create better outcomes for people as well. I’m sure many people listening have experienced and encountered tragic situations in life and, how do we move forward from there, and I’m pleased that not only you, Matt, but your colleagues all over the country who are willing to walk with and listen and be compassionate with people who walk in the door who aren’t simply clients, but are other human beings that have a particular need for support in a very difficult time in life. I’m grateful that you’d give us the time to have this conversation and thank you.

Matt: It’s my pleasure. And I think the word ‘outcome’ is the appropriate word there because that looks different to different people, and in each case the outcome is different, but what we work hard for everyday is to make sure that outcome is best for each family that we represent. Thank you for your time today and all that work that you’ve done and continue to do as well.

Tom: Matt, if you wouldn’t mind giving your contact information, maybe the address for your website, people can follow up with you that way.

Matt: Sure. I’m Matt Boulton with the Boulton Law Group. We’re right near Indianapolis, Indiana. Our website address is boutloninjurylaw.com. My email is my first name ‘Matt,’ matt@boultonlawgrp.com If anyone has any questions, feel free to reach out.

Tom: Well, thank you. And for our listeners, if you want to find out more information about KKAD25, you can visit our website: keepkidsalivedrive25.org or if you’re into shorthand, you can just do kkad25.org. That’ll get you there, too. And if you look at our Partners page, Boulton Law is on our Partners Page, too, so there’s a direct link to their website there, so you’ve got multiple ways to connect with Matt if you wanted to follow up for any reason or for any question. And thanks for being our first lawyer on our Keep Kids Alive Podcast. It was probably long past due and pleased that you would accept the invitation to do so.

Matt: I appreciate the invitation.