Missouri Dog Bite Laws

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

I want to talk to you for a moment about recorded statements. You’ve been involved in an injury. So a slip and fall, or a car accident, a truck accident, things of that nature. And the insurance company calls you right away. And they say, “Hi, I’m,” and they state their name. From whatever insurance company, “and I want to ask you about your accident or your injury. I need you to know that this phone call is being recorded for quality assurances.” Really, it’s for quality assurances? that’s why you’re recording me? That’s not true.

So they start off with a lie. They’re recording your conversation, in order to defeat your claim. They don’t want to pay you. You’ve just been involved in something that injured your body. You’ve been in the hospital. You might be on pain medications. And this nice person is calling you, and recording your conversation for quality assurance. They’re lying. That should be a big red flag. I need to call a lawyer. Call me at (314) 542-9999. Don’t give them a recorded statement. And let’s talk about why.

They’re going to ask you– let’s call it car collision. “What roads were you on, and which direction were you going?” Well you got to think. Was I going north, or was it west. I can’t remember. “What color was the traffic signal?” “Well when? When I was stopped at it, and hit from behind? Or before that when it was green?” I mean, they’re asking you questions to defeat your claim. “How hard was the impact?” Why do you want to answer those questions? Why would you? “What is the speed limit on that road?” I don’t know. Is it 35 or 40? Maybe it’s 45. They’re not helping you. You need a lawyer. Get the police report and figure those things out, and think about them. This isn’t a quiz, where you’re required to answer immediately.

They’re calling you to try to get you to mess up. So that later, when I’m preparing you for your deposition, and I show you that the police report says that you were stopped at a red electric signal and the speed limit is 40 miles an hour. You say, “Oh, well I told them earlier I thought the car was going 15 or 20.” Well how do you know that? You saw them in your rear-view mirror. You don’t know that. Don’t commit to that. Think about it. Do you know it, or do you not know it? If you know it, say it. And if you don’t know it, don’t say it. But get counsel. Because the insurance company doesn’t want to pay you.

So there’s lots of reasons not to give a recorded statement. They’re later going to take your deposition, which is your sworn statement under oath. And now they have two statements. Don’t do that. What’s the advantage of that? There is none. That’s why you always see lawyers in these 30 second commercials saying don’t give a recorded statement. They’re right, you shouldn’t. Instead, when they ask you for that, that’s your signal to call a good law firm and a good lawyer. And I don’t care who that is, which state you’re in. But you need representation. If you’re in the mid-west, in Missouri or Illinois, that’s all we do. My name is Mark Cantor. And again, our phone number is (314) 542-9999. And either I or my law partner Gary Burger, will personally represent you in your claim. Thank you.

By: Mark Cantor

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 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

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

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

MMI or Maximum Medical Improvement, is the term that the insurance company’s doctor uses when he or she believes that medicine will no longer make you any better, and you’re as good as you’re going to get from the treatment you’ve gotten after your work-related injury.

By: Spencer Farris

Insurance companies do a good job of making us feel guilty for hiring a Missouri personal injury lawyer. When you get your statement each month you read about frauds. And whether those stories are true or not in the back of your mind you think, I don’t want to be like that. The first word that most folks say when they call my office is, “I’ve never sued anyone before. Or I’m not the kind of person that sues.” You’ve already figured in the back of your mind that every lawsuit is fake even before you get hurt. And you know your case is real. And you know your injuries are real. You should always know that the insurance company is going to try to underpay those cases and those claims if you don’t have a Missouri personal injury lawyer fighting for you on your side. 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’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