Vulture, Bone & Associates Adds Drone Deployment Banks to Six US Offices to Improve “Services”

Vulture, Bone & Associates has announced the deployment of drone banks at six of its fifteen US offices, describing the initiative as a major investment in client service, responsiveness and the firm’s ability to arrive before anyone has finished exchanging insurance details.

The drones will be stationed on the roofs of offices in Miami, Houston, Phoenix, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Newark. Each location will maintain a fleet of twelve aircraft, a charging platform and a lawyer available to wave at them during launch events.

“Our clients need us where events happen,” said managing partner Dale Rusk. “Sometimes that is a hospital. Sometimes it is a roadside. Sometimes it is a press conference about why we were already there.”

The firm says the drones will provide accident-scene documentation, emergency legal information and rapid delivery of engagement letters. They will also identify potential clients using a proprietary system trained on traffic reports, local news and the phrase “we are investigating”.

A demonstration outside the Houston office showed one drone arriving at a simulated collision in forty-three seconds. It photographed the vehicles, recorded the weather and delivered a card reading CALL US BEFORE YOU CALL ANYONE ELSE.

The card was addressed to a bystander who had not been involved in the accident.

Vulture, Bone & Associates says the system will reduce response times by 78 per cent. The remaining 22 per cent consists of obtaining permission to fly, confirming the drone has not entered restricted airspace and deciding which office receives credit for the lead.

The firm’s client intake platform has been updated accordingly. A new field asks whether the prospective client is “currently injured, recently injured or likely to become legally interesting”.

The drones are not authorised to provide legal advice. They may, however, display approved messages, play a recorded explanation of contingency fees and hover silently until the recipient agrees to speak with an intake specialist.

One pilot asked whether the aircraft could be used to locate clients who had not returned calls.

The firm said this was an important question and announced a second phase called Persistent Outreach.

At the Miami launch, a drone was delayed by heavy rain. The firm said the delay demonstrated the importance of resilience planning and announced that the office would be adding waterproof landing pads.

The announcement came one week after the firm’s Miami headquarters was flooded by a hurricane while promoting emergency RTH, or “return to home”, procedures.

The drones returned successfully. The office did not.