Missouri Auto Accident & Motorcycle Laws

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

A trial is when your case is finally decided by a judge or a jury, and somebody else decides what your case is about and what it’s worth.

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

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

Board Certified

Board certified means that after a certain number of years and a certain number of cases I’m able to take a written test and provide verification that I’ve practiced properly. Then each year I have to recertify, prove that I have my practice insurance, that I complete my continuing legal education hours, that I don’t have any complaints – bar complaints against me.

Deposition

A deposition is a recorded statement that you give with a court reporter for use under the rules of evidence in court.

Discovery

Discovery is just like -what it sounds like. You discover what’s going on in a case. You learn facts.

Interrogatory

An interrogatory is like a deposition, but it’s in written format and you answer your questions under oath.

Malpractice

Malpractice is when a professional breaches the standard of care. Not that they have to be perfect, but that they have to be reasonable in their actions.

Workers Compensation

Worker’s compensation means that you were hurt on the job. Your employer’s liable for your medical, a portion of your wages while you’re off work, and a lump sum for the disability that you have after medicine’s done the best it can do.

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

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

Bad things happen and you’ve been in a wreck. Now you need to figure out what to do to make the best of this terrible situation.

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. We’re going to talk about some things that you can do to help your St. Louis injury lawyer make the best of the bad situation that the car crash caused you. Your situation is the opposite of the movie, Fight Club. Talk about your wreck, talk about your wreck, talk about your wreck. Talk about your wreck to the police. Make sure they know what happened and they know how it happened. Talk about your wreck to health care providers. If you’re having pain and problems, you need to make sure that your doctors see you immediately, and they know why you’re there. Tell them about your wreck. A picture of your crashed car, a picture of your injuries will all be important to your injury lawyer when he represents you. Don’t rely on the insurance company to take pictures for you. And don’t expect that the pictures they take will be available to you if you need them.

After the wreck, expect a call from strangers with the insurance company and other investigation sources. The professionals at the insurance company will work hard to defeat your claim. They’re going to ask you a lot of questions and for a lot of information. Don’t give them a statement. Remember that they’re not there to help you. You wouldn’t do surgery on yourself and you probably shouldn’t handle your own injury case either. In fact, studies by insurance institutes have shown that folks who get a lawyer to represent them after an injury get four-to-five times more money than those without.

If you have more questions, feel free to contact my law firm, at our web address, or the phone number that’s listed. We’re happy to visit with you and talk about your case without cost or obligation. The S.E. Farris law firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris

When you’ve been hurt whether it’s in a car or because you’ve gotten injured on someone’s property at that moment a Missouri personal injury lawyer is important to you and the Missouri law is important to you. But up until that time you weren’t even aware it existed and you’re always in the cross hairs in our state legislature. There hasn’t been a year gone by since the 22 years that I’ve been practicing that the Missouri legislature hasn’t had injury victims in it’s cross hairs. They want to get at the lawyers, but they do it by walking over folks like you, that have been hurt.

Unfortunately you don’t know your rights have been infringed upon, you don’t that you’ve been within the cross hairs of the legislature until you get hurt. But because of that you don’t know all the things you need to do to handle your case once you’ve been hurt and how the law has developed over the last several hundred years. And you need a Missouri personal injury lawyer to help guide you down the path and make sure that you don’t get taken advantage of by the insurance company for the folks that hurt 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