Missouri Slip & Fall Laws

You’ve been hurt and you’re angry. You’re not the kind of person who sues, but you want to know what the stages of a lawsuit are. Let’s talk about it.   Injury Law News, brought to you by The S.E. Farris Law Firm.   I’m Spencer Farris, a personal injury lawyer in St. Louis, Missouri, and partner at The S.E Farris Law Firm. People get hurt and call my office every day, thinking that we can get their case resolved in a matter of hours like they do on TV. But there are a lot of stages to a personal injury case, and I want to go through those with you. Before you think about a lawsuit, you need to think about taking care of yourself. If you’re hurt, get medical treatment. Follow your doctor’s instructions, go to your doctor visits, and take your medication. That’s important for two reasons. First of all, you won’t get better if you don’t do those things, and feeling better’s the most important part of recovering from an injury. From a legal perspective, you can’t recover your damages if you don’t document that you have been injured, and the way that you do that is taking the time to follow your doctor’s directions. Get the medical care that you need.  Almost as important as hiring good doctors is to hire a qualified attorney, someone who’s experienced in handling injury cases and someone that you want to work with. Remember that an injury case can take months or even a couple of years to get resolved, and you want to find someone that you don’t mind having a partnership with that will last throughout that time period. Stay in touch with your lawyer. Make sure that if you move or change phone numbers or change doctors your lawyer knows about it. When your doctor’s done treating you, it’s time for your lawyer to get to work gathering the medical records and the facts necessary to present your case. Most lawyers will then put together what’s called a claim packet or a negotiation packet. By this time your lawyer should have contacted the person at fault for your injury and their insurance company. Now, your lawyer presents the case to the insurance company and starts negotiations. Remember that most cases settle at this stage – better than half, at least. If the insurance company is reasonable and your lawyer does his job to present your case, you should be able to get the case settled. It doesn’t always work that way however, and if it doesn’t, you move to the next stage which is an actual lawsuit. We’re going to talk about that in the next video. In the meantime, if you have questions about handling a personal injury case or the stages, please feel free to call or contact my office at the website and the phone number at the bottom of the screen. We’re happy to visit with you at no cost or obligation and talk with you about your case, whether we represent you or not. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

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

We carry insurance on our homes because the folks that come visit us are friends and relatives. And if they get hurt, you want them to be taken care off. In Missouri though if you get hurt at the house of a friend or relative, they are the ones who named in lawsuit, and it scares a lot of folks. Am I going to take grandma’s car? Am I going to cause aunt Betsy lose her house? No, you’re not. The short answer is, A Missouri slip and fall lawyer is going to pursue the insurance that covered the home. And we’re never going to take away the property of the person whose house you were at. Insurance companies want you to feel guilty and want you to feel that way, but it simply not true. 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 free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

Between school buses, public transportation and charter buses, we see buses on the road every day. And because there are more and more buses, there are more and more bus accidents. Although buses cost many times what an average passenger car does, they don’t often have the simple safety devices that we take for granted, when we buckle up to go to the grocery store. If you’re in a bus accident, whether it’s because a negligent driver struck your bus, or because your bus driver wasn’t paying attention and hurt you, it’s important to contact an attorney immediately. There are limits to insurance in all bus cases, and making sure that your claim is made is important. Call my office at the number on your screen, or visit us on the internet if you’ve been injured due to a bus accident. I am happy to visit with you, without any cost or obligation. Call 314-A-LAWYER today, for your free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

Products liability is the part of the law that deals with defective or dangerous products. As a Missouri products liability attorney, I’ve been involved in cases where a product was misused and the manufacturer knew that it would be misused in that manner. The one that comes to mind was a baby seat case where a grandpa had strapped a baby into the car, didn’t get the seatbelt routed right, and there was a crash and the baby had a horrible, horrible brain injury because of that. We were able to hold the car seat manufacturer accountable because they knew that folks misused the product in this way and they didn’t design around it.

 It’s coming to light now that General Motors did exactly what Ford did back in the 70s and choose dollars over human lives with their Chevy Cobalt. As a Missouri product liability attorney, we understand that it takes a lot of work from the legal aspect from getting engineers involved and kind of doing reverse forensic sciences to figure out what was wrong with the product. Although, in the GM case, frankly they knew what was wrong and they made a decision to choose dollars over human lives. It’ll take a lot of attorneys to hold them accountable for what they did and for all the lives that they destroyed. There was a problem with the ignition switch that caused the airbag to fail. The airbag that’s designed to protect folks was failing and the cost of the part to fix it was under $1. GM’s first choice was to tell folks don’t hang heavy keys on your keychain. That will keep this from malfunctioning. They’d known for years before they finally did a recall, but they decided that the lives that they would have to pay for cost less than the cars they would have to fix. 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

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

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

You wouldn’t dare hire a surgeon based on a television ad, but many people hire their attorney based on a television ad. It’s a horrible idea. Here’s why.

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

A lot of lawyers want to talk to you about credentials. Board certified? Schmoard certified. Superlawyer? Pooperlawyer. At 800-CASH-COW, we’re the home of the Super-d-Duper Lawyers.

You’re in a wreck and you hurt your neck. We’ll be there to get you your check.

I’m Spencer Farris. I represent injury victims in Missouri, and I’ve been doing it for about 20 years. I hope you enjoyed that video and realized that’s just a joke, and that’s the last way you should pick an attorney.

Here are some of the things you should look for though. You should look for experience. A lawyer who’s trying his first personal injury case is not the lawyer you want trying your only personal injury case. You want someone with trial experience.

You want someone with credentials, and we’ve talked about this before, credentials are a thing that requires some research to see if they’re real credentials or not. Be aware that a lot of the badges and things you see on folks’ websites are nothing more than paid marketing things. Real credentials are things like board certification. That’s a test that lawyers have to take, and it’s not required, so lawyers that are board certified you know have gone the extra mile.

Finally, you want to find a lawyer who’s dedicated to your needs, not someone who’s just trying to see how many cases they can handle and how fast they can move through each one. You’re entitled to personal assistance on your personal injury case, and you want a lawyer that takes that commitment and that relationship seriously.

Television ads are a great place to buy a refrigerator, but they’re a horrible place to hire an attorney.

If you have a personal injury case and would like to talk to an attorney without any cost or obligation, call me at the number on your screen, or visit us at our Internet website. I’m happy to try to help without any cost or obligation, and if we can do nothing more than help you choose the right lawyer, we’re happy to do that as well.

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

By: Spencer Farris

When you’re in a car crash, the pain that you initially feel is only the beginning of your problems. When you make your claim to an insurance company, there’s a couple things that you need to know. One is that you’re entitled to recover your lost wages even if you took sick pay or vacation time at the time you were working. That was money that came out of your sick bank or your vacation bank and it’s money that is gone. The other thing you need to know is that insurance companies don’t automatically write you a check just because their insured hurt you. Just because they owe you money doesn’t mean they’re going to give it to you. You have to document your medical expenses and the treatment that went with them. I tell folks every day not to sign an authorization to let the insurance company get your medical records. You still have a right to privacy, but you want to control how those records are filtered to an insurance company. An attorney that’s experienced in representing injury victims is in a much better position to do this than you are. Call my office at the number on the screen or visit us on the internet. I’m happy to talk with you about your injury case and if I can’t help you, at least point you in the right direction so you can get on the path to recovery on your own.  Call 314-A-LAWYER today for a free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris