Missouri Personal Injury Laws

What Happens When Your Bitten by a Dog?

Hi, I’m Josh Myers, attorney at Schultz & Myers. We’re a personal injury law firm here in St. Louis, Missouri. Today I want to answer a question we get a lot, which is what happens if you’re bitten by a dog?

The One Bite Rule

A lot of people come in, and they ask us about this “one bite rule” or what they’ve heard of before called a “one bite rule” , and in Missouri, there’s no such thing. It used to be the law in Missouri that we had to show the dog had some kind of dangerous propensities, or meaning a past history of aggression. Several years back, the law was completely rewritten, so now it is a case of what’s called strict liability.

Basically this means if you were bitten on public property, or if you’re on private property and as long as you were there lawfully, the owner of the dog is completely liable for the damages you suffered.

Dog Bite Case Process

So it’s pretty simple these days. If you’re bitten by someone else’s dog, they’re responsible for that. Of course the real key comes in determining how much money it takes to make up for the harms and the damages that you suffered, and that’s where our expertise comes in.

So I hope this helped answer some questions. If you’ve ever been bitten by a dog, and you’re looking for a personal injury lawyer, I certainly hope that you’ll give us a call and at least let us talk to you about your case. Our phone number’s easy to remember. Just remember the fours: (314) 444-4444.

By: Josh Myers

It’s too late, once you’ve been in a wreck, to think about insurance coverage.

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

I’m Spencer Farris, an attorney with the S.E. Farris Law Firm, in St. Louis, Missouri. You buy automobile insurance and hope you never have to use it. But there are kinds of insurance that will help you quite a bit if you’re in a wreck. Let’s talk about those for a minute. In order to drive a car in Missouri, two types of insurance are mandatory: liability coverage, to take care of the harms you cause to other folks – and uninsured motorist coverage, in case someone hurts you, who doesn’t follow the law. Liability coverage protects you if you hurt someone else while you’re driving. It’ll also provide you with legal services in case you get sued. Although Missouri requires all drivers to have liability insurance, not all drivers follow the law. That’s why uninsured motorist coverage is also mandatory in Missouri.

Uninsured motorist coverage means that the person who hit you, who harmed you because of their negligent driving, has now coverage to cover your injuries. Besides the mandatory required coverages in Missouri, there are some other insurance coverages that will assist you if you’re ever hurt in a car crash, and it’s someone else’s fault. We’re not going to talk about property coverage today – just coverages for occupants, people, in the vehicles. The first of those is underinsured motorist coverage. Underinsured motorist coverage means that the person who harmed you doesn’t have enough insurance to cover all of your losses. If you’re seriously injured in a car crash, and the person who hurt you only has the minimum coverage required in Missouri – which right now is $25,000 – underinsured motorist coverage would help bridge the gap, between what they had and what you suffered, to help put you back where you were before you got hurt.

Even though you may have health insurance, medical payments coverage is another coverage that is available to you, to help defray some of the losses you have when you get hurt in a car crash. You can use medical payments coverage, even if you have health insurance, to help cover your deductibles and the other out-of-pocket medical expenses that you will have. Just because you have health insurance coverage doesn’t mean you can’t collect your medical payments. And it’s not cheating. It’s like having two life insurance policies. If you’ve paid for extra coverage, you get to collect when you have to. And if you’re hurt in a car crash, there’s not enough money for what you’re going through. You need to collect everything that’s available to you. In my office, and with most qualified injury attorneys in Missouri, there’s no fee for helping you collect your medical payments coverage. When you’re injured and go to the hospital or doctor, you want to make sure that, if you have health insurance, you present your health insurance information, and demand that the doctor or hospital bill your health insurance company.

Contracts with major providers, like Blue Cross Blue Shield, etc., will require that the doctor and hospital accept health insurance for payment. If you don’t do that, the health care provider is going to want to take money from your settlement. And there’s not going to be enough money, at the end of a settlement for an injury, for what you’ve suffered – the pain and the discomfort. It’s important to have a lawyer help maximize that coverage. And one way that my law firm does that is by making sure that health care providers bill health insurance. Medicare and Medicaid are the same thing as health insurance plans, and make sure that doctors and hospitals bill them. Don’t worry about repayments to Medicare, Medicaid, and other insurance plans. A qualified lawyer will take care of that, and try to minimize those repayments, so that more money goes to the injured victim.

Call the S.E. Farris Law Firm if you have any questions about insurance coverage. We’re happy to talk with you without a charge. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

If you’re a victim of a hit and run in Missouri, your Uninsured Motorist Coverage will protect you. And an Missouri auto accident attorney is who you need to hire to make sure that you collect from the insurance company, and take care of all of your loses. We’ve had multiple cases over the years where someone caused a wreck and fled the scene. Maybe they cut-in in traffic or stopped suddenly and caused a crash and then fled the scene. And as a Missouri auto accident attorney I know how to use the law and recover my client’s Uninsured Motorist Coverage.

If I do my own plumping at home and messed it up, I can call a professional plumber. He’ll come in, he may laugh at me, it may charge more but he can fix it. But if you have a legal case and you don’t have an experienced Missouri auto accident attorney, you can never get over that. You can never fix that problem. You get one shot, to collect all of your damages and one shot to do it right. Well I don’t do wills, I don’t do trusts, I don’t handle divorces. Because the law is very broad. Think of it like you would think of a doctor. You wouldn’t go to your dermatologist if you had a brain tumor. You want someone who works in the same area everyday. And we practice Missouri auto accident law everyday. It’s what I’ve been doing for 22 years, I’m board certified, and focus my practice on injury victims and their family’s. 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-AL-AWYER today for free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

Choose Spencer Farris

When you’ve been hurt, you have a choice to make on which attorney you hire. But the good news is, most attorneys in this area and almost all Saint Louis car accident lawyers charge about the same rate. It’s contingent on recovery, which means you pay at the end of your case. The question you have to ask yourself is, “Do I want to collect a percentage of a good recovery, or a percentage of a not so good recovery that I got from using an inexperienced or unqualified lawyer?”. After your car crash, you wouldn’t think twice about going home to set your own broken arm or stitch your own wounds. That’s because you only get one opportunity to heal after your injury. And it’s the same when you hire a Saint Louis car accident lawyer. Some folks are tempted to handle these cases on their own, but that’s one of the biggest mistakes you can make for you and your family. Look, the insurance company has professionals on their side, they do this day in and day out, and they know how to keep from paying you money. And you need someone on your side who knows how the system works, to work just as hard to get you the damages that you need to recover. When you’ve been hurt and the bills are racking up, you don’t have to pay an 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

Black Box Data

After a truck wreck, it’s important to gather the data from the black box or the data recorder. And a St. Louis truck accident lawyer will have the resources and know-how to get, not only to the scene, but to get permission to download or copy the information that’s on that data recorder so that they have it to present your case. In the data recorder there’s not infinite space, and what happens is, after a certain amount of time, the recorder starts to record again over the breaking, the speed, the other events that are on that data recorder. So it’s crucial to get that offloaded as quickly as possible. 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

What to Wear to Your Deposition

Hi. I’m attorney Josh Myers. You’re watching an episode of At Schultz and Myers. Today I’m answering the question, “What should you wear to a deposition?” Now we tell all of our clients, and this is always true, it’s an informal process. But that doesn’t mean that you should be dressing like you’re someone sitting around watching the ballgame on a Sunday. Remember, you’re being evaluated by the insurance company’s lawyer. They’re going to go back and tell the insurance company not only how you testified and what you said, but they’re also going to say what kind of an appearance do you make.

Nonverbal Communication

So much that goes on in a trial is all the nonverbal communication and all the impressions that jurors are getting just by looking at you. Part of that obviously is going to be your dress. So one of the suggestions I always give to my clients is you need to dress like you’re going to a job interview. In fact, you can kind of think of it like that because in this case, we’re going to be asking for a lot of money for you. You need to dress appropriately for that.

So, again, when you’re going to your deposition, take it seriously. Obviously your attorney, or especially if you’re our client, will prepare you well. But you need to do the same and dress well for that occasion. Again, if you have any questions about this, or any questions about any injury claim, give us call. It’s always free to talk about a case. Our number is easy to remember. It’s (314) 444-4444. Thanks for watching.

By: Josh Myers

Summary judgement is when the other side tries to win your case without going to trial based on the papers that have been filed.

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

I’m Spencer Farris, I practice law in Saint Louis, Missouri, and I want to tell you a story about a client of mine, who was hit on her way to work by a semi-truck.

Traumatic Injury Litigation Example

She was pulling on to the highway, a route that she had taken 100’s of times over the past 17 years of her work, and a truck driver following to close to the truck in front of him, paying attention to his computer, and tired on the road, and really wasn’t paying attention to her when she pulled her car in front of him. He smashed the rear of her car, pushed the back in really into the back seat, and she had horrible injuries. Had to have three or four surgeries to her back and neck, was near death at several points along the way.

Filing Claim with the Insurance Company

Even through all this the insurance company and the trucking company refused to admit fault. That’s when she called us. We interviewed and deposed the witnesses, the truck driver, and then we hired some of best experts in the country to help us develop her case.

Why am I telling you this? If you’ve been in an accident, a car crash, or more seriously a truck accident, you may have questions. This is what I do every day and I’m happy to answer those questions for you.

Call us at our number, it’s 314-A-Lawyer (252-9937). I’m happy to answer your questions and thank you for watching.

By: Spencer Farris