Missouri Personal Injury Laws

Spencer Farris with the Farris Law Firm in St. Louis, Missouri. I’ve been practicing for almost 20 years and I’ve had my own law firm for about the last eight. When I was in high school I got to work as a page in the Oklahoma Senate and I realized at that point that I was interested in the law. Once I got a taste of the courtroom that’s all I really wanted to do. I did my undergraduate work at Oklahoma State University. I went to law school at Washington University in St. Louis. I have never represented an insurance company. We only represent injury victims and their families at my law firm. Well, I’m board certified by the National Board of Trial Advocacies as a Civil Trial Advocate. I took the testing for that. I”m an adjunct professor at St. Louis University School of Law in the trial program.

You know there’s only a couple areas of the law these days in my opinion that you actually get to go to court and try cases. The criminal arena, which I had no interest in and I had no interest in representing big companies and big businesses. So I put everything I wanted to do with folks who really need help. It’s kind of nice to feel like my work makes a difference in somebody’s life

By: Spencer Farris

If you choose us to be your Saint Louis truck accident attorney, the first thing that we’re going to do is determine if I’m the right lawyer for you and you feel that it’s a good fit. After you’ve left my office, in the first 20 minutes, I will write a letter to the insurance company for the trucking company and tell them to preserve whatever evidence they have. The data recorder, the trip packets that the driver will have done, his logbooks. Next we get on the phone with local law enforcement and find out what evidence they’ve got and what’s still in their possession. And in some occasions I’ll take a trip to the salvage yard to inspect the truck and take photographs before anything can be moved. I also want to look at the scene where you got hurt. The scene will tell us a story, and that story is something that’s going to be important to me as your Saint Louis truck accident attorney to tell the jury to present your case. When you’ve been hurt and the bills are racking up, you don’t have to pay a lawyer out of pocket to represent you in your injury case. Call my office, and if we can help you we won’t charge you anything until the end of your case if we’re successful for you. Call 314-A-LAWYER today for a free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

When you’ve been in a crash with a drunk driver, you need a Missouri personal injury lawyer to protect your rights, because your insurance may come into play. His may not be enough, and you need someone that knows the law, and will pursue those cases aggressively. They’re not open-and-shut just because the other driver was drinking.

I remember a case, many years ago, where a drunk was aggressively driving, and racing someone else. Blew through a red light, and hit my client’s car in the side. The impact was devastating. His– when I first met the young man, his face didn’t even look like a human face, because of all the swelling, and all the injuries he sustained. But we were fortunate to be able to help him in that situation, and were very creative in finding enough coverage to try to help him put his life back together.

You wouldn’t think so, but a drunk driver in Missouri who’s hurt somebody with his first offense, even if it causes a death, may not go to prison, may get probation. Part of what civil law does, and what a Missouri personal injury lawyer does, is help hold these folks accountable for the damages they cause, make them pay for the beautiful vase that they’ve broken, or the beautiful life that they’ve destroyed. If you don’t hire a Missouri personal injury lawyer after you’ve been in a car crash, you’re at the insurance company’s mercy. And they are there – and they’re generating profits for their shareholders – not by paying folks like you who have been hurt, but by paying as little as possible on claims. They’ve got professionals on their side, and if you don’t have a Missouri personal injury lawyer fighting for you on your side, you’re going to take the crumbs that they feed you. When you’ve been hurt, and the bills are racking up, you don’t have to pay a lawyer out of pocket to represent you in your injury case. Call my office, and if we can help you, we won’t charge you anything until the end of your case, if we’re successful for you.  Call 314-A-LAWYER today for a free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

You’ve been injured and you’re thinking of dealing with the insurance company without an attorney. That’s probably a mistake, but here are some things to watch out for if you decide to go down that road.

Injury Law News, brought to you by the S.E. Farris Law Firm.

I’m Spencer Farris and I represent injury victims throughout Saint Louis and the state of Missouri. I’ve helped hundreds of folks handle their case for personal injury, but every now and then I meet someone who thinks that they don’t need an attorney. Let me tell you a few things to look out for if you decide that you don’t want to hire an attorney.

Get pictures. Whether it’s the car you’ve been crashed in or the place that you fell, a picture is worth a thousand words. And if you’re relying on the insurance company to take pictures for you, you’re making a big mistake. If those pictures would have been helpful to you and they disappear, you’ll never be able to recreate that important evidence for your case.

The insurance company will want to take a statement from you and that’s a mistake. Remember that the person asking the questions controls and frames how your answers come out, and the insurance company is not there to help you. You never want to give a statement without someone on your side to help you through that step, and typically that’s where you have an attorney.

Finally, the insurance company’s going to want you to sign medical authorizations. And in Missouri, you don’t give up your right to all privacy just because you’ve had an injury case. You don’t have to sign the authorization that gives the insurance company the right to get all of your medical records from the time that you’re born, but the form that they give you will do just that. Don’t sign that form.

Studies have shown over and over that folks with attorneys get four to five times more money for their injury case than those without. If you’ve been injured and you have questions – whether you want to hire an attorney or not – please call me at the number on your screen or visit us at our internet website that you see on the screen as well. We’re happy to help, and if we can help you resolve your case without hiring us, great. And if you need an attorney, we’d be proud to represent you.

The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

Missouri Statute of Limitations

I’m attorney Josh Myers, of Schultz and Myers, based here in St. Louis, Missouri. In our personal injury law firm, one of the questions we often get is how long after your accident can you wait before you have to file a lawsuit. Otherwise, this is what’s known as the statute of limitations.

So, I want to run through these answers real quickly for you. In Missouri, you have five years after an injury to file a lawsuit. If you don’t file within that time, it’s forever barred. For any kind of wrongful death case, it’s three years. For medical malpractice, it’s two years. That’s a quick summary on Missouri’s statute of limitations laws. I hope that helps. If you’ve ever been involved in an injury and are looking to talk with a personal injury lawyer, please give us a call at (314) 444-4444.

By: Josh Myers

Taxes are on everybody’s mind at this time of year and you maybe wondering, “Do I have to pay taxes on my personal injury case?” Injury law news brought to you by the S.E. Farris Law Firm. I’m Spencer Farris, a partner at the S.E. Farris Law Firm. I’ve represented hundreds of injury victims throughout Missouri. And at the end of the case the question my clients always want to know is how much money do I get from my settlement and will I have to pay taxes. Current Internal Revenue Service and Missouri state regulations do not tax personal injury cases. They treat a personal injury case settlement as a return on investment, which means that you’re really just getting back money that you’ve invested or in the case of an injury, your body and your future work life, which has been taken away from you. So, you don’t currently pay taxes on a personal injury case. However, whenever you file your taxes you always want to meet with a professional tax adviser because there are a couple of exceptions to that rule. If you’re verdict of settlement included punitive damages it is taxable.

Punitive or exemplary damages are damages to punish a defendant which you don’t typically see in a civil trial setting. The State of Missouri will take up to half of punitive damages that are awarded and puts them in a special fund to benefit injury victims. If you’re verdict or settlement includes a confidentiality clause – meaning that you can’t talk about your settlement – there are taxes are on confidential portion or the portion that was paid for confidentiality. Finally, lost wages are taxed just like your wages would be. It’s rare in Missouri for a verdict to specifically set out wages so this doesn’t come up very often, but it can and you and your lawyer and your tax attorney should talk about those things. If you have questions about the tax consequences of a personal injury settlement, call my office at the number on the screen or visit us on the internet. We’ll be happy to try to help you without any cost or obligation. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

Any time a grownup falls in Missouri, there is an opportunity for the jury to blame you for not paying attention. Because of that, slip-and-fall or trip-and-fall type cases are the type that I’ve tried more than any other in my history as a Missouri slip-and-fall lawyer. Whether it’s on snow and ice, or a spilled yogurt at the grocery store, or any number of other things, you’re responsible to look out. And because of that, the insurance company is going to want to blame you for your incident and say you’re at fault for falling. Call a professional, call a Missouri slip-and-fall lawyer, and get the help you need when you’ve injured yourself, to take care of your medical bills and to pay for the bills that are going to continue to come in while you can’t work.  When you’ve been hurt and the bills are racking up, you don’t have to pay a lawyer out-of-pocket to represent you in your injury case. Call my office, and if we can help you we won’t charge you anything until the end of your case, if we’re successful for you. Call 314-A-LAWYER today for a free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

Catastrophic Injury Litigation

No one wants to get hurt and all personal injuries are serious. But some of them are so traumatic and so devastating that we called them Catastrophic Injuries. For example, a closed head injury. Injury to the brain that doesn’t break the skull or sometimes even the skin. Injuries that result in paralysis. Injuries to the unborn, or to new born and small children are typically catastrophic injuries. And hiring an attorney to represent you and your family in a catastrophic injury case requires you to do some extra research. You need an attorney that has the trial experience, the knowledge and the background to take the insurance company to task for the injuries that you sustained. Remember that in a catastrophic injury case you’re not simply looking to get your medical bills paid, but someone has to take care of the long-term consequences of the injury you or a loved one has suffered. If you or a loved one has suffered a catastrophic injury, call my office at the number on the screen or visit us on the internet at anytime. I’m happy to visit with you about your case, answer your questions without any cost or obligation and help you get the maximum recovery for the horrible injury you sustained. Call 314-A-LAWYER today for your free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

Pursuing Injury Claim

Folks call me sometimes and think they can’t pursue an injury case because they’re partially at fault. Let me tell you what I usually tell them. Injury law news brought to you by the S.E. Farris Law Firm. I’m Spencer Farris, a partner at the S.E. Farris Law Firm. Just because you’re partially at fault for your injury doesn’t mean the courthouse doors are closed to you. In Missouri, we follow something called comparative fault and that means you recover for your part of your injury that you didn’t cause. If you’re in a car crash and you were struck by someone even though you were driving a little too fast, the person who struck you has to pay for the part of the damages that they caused. If you’re 20% at fault, you still recover 80% of your damages. I represented a man who got distracted and fell due to a defect in the sidewalk. He was able to recover for the portion of his damages that the defective sidewalk caused even though he didn’t get back the part that was due to his inattention. If you’ve been hurt and you’re worried that it’s partially your fault, contact my office. I’m happy to visit with you without cost or obligation. Just because you’re partially at fault doesn’t mean you’ve completely lost your claim and I’m here to help. Thanks. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris