Missouri Slip & Fall Laws

We count on medications to make us feel better, but it doesn’t always work that way. Some drugs get to market before adequate safety studies are done, and the drug itself winds up causing more harm than good. Other times, a doctor will prescribe a drug without knowing a full history and the other medications that you are taking, and the drugs and your history work together to cause harm. Finally, my office has represented folks where the pharmacy has placed the wrong drug, either the wrong dosage or the wrong pill altogether in the bottle. If you or a loved one has been harmed due to a medication error, call my office at the number on the screen or visit us on the Internet. Not all injuries are caused by drugs, and I’m happy to help you figure out if your family has been harmed due to a dangerous drug.  Call 314-A-LAWYER today for your 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

The primary reason that trucking accidents are different form car-to-car collisions is the amount of force involved. When at 80,000 pound truck going 60 miles an hour hits a four or five thousand pound car, the energy is immense, and the damages and the injuries to the folks inside the car can be disabling, devastating, and sometimes fatal.  The other main difference in a trucking case is that trucking companies are regulated by state and federal government. It limits how often they can drive and how long they can be on the road. And because of that, even the most minor – relatively speaking – trucking case involves a lot of work to dig into log books and making sure that the trucking company was in compliance with government requirements. Call 314-A-LAWYER today for your free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

In our modern mobile society, freight and passengers move by rail car every day, just at the same time you and your family are in your car, travelling the highways. And it’s inevitable that at the intersection there’s a potential for devastating collisions. We try to avoid that with crossing equipment and crossbars, but sometimes it doesn’t function properly. Sometimes it hasn’t been properly maintained, sometimes it simply doesn’t exist. If you’ve been injured, or a loved one has been killed at a train crossing, you owe it to yourself and to your family to hire a personal injury attorney who can investigate the causes of the collision and determine whether or not your rights should be protected.  Call 314-A-LAWYER today for your free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

If you’re a victim of a hit and run in Missouri your uninsured motorist coverage will protect you. And a 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 losses. You don’t need to know who hit you. They may not even need to touch your car in Missouri. If they swerve and cause you to wreck, your uninsured motor coverage is available to you and a Missouri accident attorney knows how to follow the law to get you your damages back. If I do my own plumbing at home and mess 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. Over the years folks have come to me that tried to handle their case at the beginning because the insurance company the claim reps are very friendly and they want you to trust them. But at some point folks realize they can’t go it alone and they call me because they’re looking for a Missouri auto accident attorney. Sometimes I can help and sometimes I can’t, but it always works better if you call me, call an attorney immediately or as soon after a crash as you can. The longer the wait the harder it is for me as a Missouri auto accident attorney to do my job.  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 hurt, and you’re thinking that maybe you can handle your case without a personal injury attorney. Let me tell you some things you should look out for. 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. Folks call me all the time and wonder if they even need to have a personal injury attorney represent them in their claim. Maybe not. And I tell folks daily how to handle their own cases. But there are some things you need to be aware of. First and most important is the Statute of Limitations. Every case has a time limit, and it must be filed within the time limit or you forever lost your case. The law changes, and the law of medical bills and damages has changed in the last several years. You need to know what that is in order to present your case to a jury. Your health insurance is going to want to be reimbursed for the medical bills that they’ve paid for on your behalf. They may not be entitled to reimbursement. Whether or not they are is a question that you need to find the answer to. The insurance company has professionals looking out to investigate your case and try to find a way to pay you as little money as possible. Some folks are able to deal with the insurance company and able to handle their own cases. Most are not. In fact, studies show that people with an attorney get four to five times more money on their injury case than those without. You may have questions about handling your own personal injury case. Call my office and I’m happy to visit with you without cost or obligation. I tell folks everyday that they don’t need an attorney to handle their case, and point them in the right direction, and I’m happy to do that for you. Thank you for watching. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

I got a call from a lady the other day who wanted to know how her medical bills were going to be paid after her injury.

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

I’m Spencer Farris and I represent injury victims in the state of Missouri. I get that kind of call a lot from folks who are worried about their rising medical bills and the daily mail that they get with another bill collector looking for payment. And this is what I typically tell them.

Medicare

Senior citizens and folks on social security disability are covered by Medicare and Medicare will pay the medical bills as they are incurred. However, Medicare gets part of their money back from your injury case at the end. Your lawyer will have to negotiate that for you because Medicare will want dollar for dollar on what they spend.

Medicaid

Children in Missouri who don’t have private health insurance, and some adults, are covered by Missouri Medicaid. And Medicaid also will pay Medical bills and, at the end of your lawsuit, they will expect to be repaid. However, a judge can reduce or totally eliminate your payback to Medicaid. You’ll need your lawyer to help you with that.

Private Insurance

The other group that frequently pays medical bills in Missouri is private insurance and private insurance will ask for repayment almost always. Unless they are a special plan, a self-funded union plan or something along those lines that is governed by federal law, they’re not entitled to reimbursement. The word that they will say is subrogation, which means they stand in your shoes and get to collect their money back from the person who hurt you. Make sure that your lawyer is well aware and willing to fight for you so that you don’t have to pay back the health insurance. And this isn’t cheating. You paid benefits to get the health insurance. You wrote a check every month. They shouldn’t get their money back just because they did what they promised to do.

No Insurance

Finally, there are a lot of folks that don’t have any health insurance. And in those situations, hospitals and doctors will treat you on what’s called a lien basis. Hospitals don’t have to see you unless you’re in an emergency. But, experienced trial lawyers can help you find a doctor who will treat you on a lien basis and will make sure that your doctor understands that they will get paid.

When you’ve been hurt, the most important thing is to feel better and not be worried about how you’re going to pay for your medical bills. Remember that a trial lawyer who cares about his clients will fight for you and fight to put money in your pocket, rather than spend it all on the health care that you wouldn’t have needed but for your injury. If you have questions about medical care or how to pay for it after an injury, call my office or reach us at the website at the bottom of the screen. I’m happy to visit with you without any cost or obligation and hopefully help put your mind at rest.

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

By: Spencer Farris

A lady called me to tell me that she’d been in a car crash and before she even got home from the hospital she had a message on her answering machine from the insurance company. Let me tell you what happened next. 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 represent injury victims and their families. And when I got the call from this lady I knew that she needed some help.

The insurance company wanted to initially make contact and befriend her if you will and offer her a settlement, that’s 101 in the claims adjusters handbook. They do that because if they settle a case quickly they know that they can so more cheaply. You won’t know the full extent of your injuries. You won’t have spoken to a lawyer and you won’t really know what your case is worth. In this client’s case it was a good thing that she called because we told her not to settle her case and six months later she needed surgery on her neck. You only get one opportunity to settle your case, to get all of your medical paid for, to gather your lost wages, and provide for your family, and to get whatever damages you’re going to get for pain, suffering, and inconvenience. If you do that too quickly in a case and don’t know the full extent of your injuries, you’re going to sell yourself and your family short. That’s what the insurance company wants. Thats what some lawyers want when they advise you to take a quick settlement, but it’s not what’s best for you. If you have questions after you’ve been hurt, call my office at the number you see on the screen or contact us through the internet at the web address below. We’re happy to visit with you for free and give you whatever advice we can on how to handle your case. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

When you’ve been hurt and the bills are piling up, the big question on your mind is: What is my case worth?  Injury Law News brought to you by the S.E. Farris Law Firm. I’m Spencer Farris, a St. Louis injury lawyer at the S.E. Farris Law Firm. The value of your case depends on a lot of factors. Let’s talk about those for a minute.  The facts of your case matter. What happened? Was it a injury that went away after a couple of days, or did you need surgery?   Where did it happen, in a conservative venue, or one where jurors understand that pain and suffering have a value?   How did it happen? There’s a difference to the value of your case if Grandma hit you on the way to bingo versus a corporation in a large truck with a drunk driver. The combination of these factors go into the mix and help determine what your case is worth, what a jury – and therefore a claims adjuster – would assign as the value of your claim.   Choosing the right St. Louis injury attorney matters. The insurance company knows what lawyers have the experience and the credentials necessary to prepare your case to present it to a jury, and that goes into their valuation of your claim.  If you have more questions about the value of your case, please contact my law firm at the phone number or the website address on your screen. We’re happy to talk with you without any cost or obligation about your case.  The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris