Missouri Nursing Home Laws

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

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

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

Whether you’re shopping at a business or walking down the street, the last thing you expect is to be flat on your back, and feeling pain. When you fall, or what lawyers typically call a “slip and fall injury,” the first thing to do is to figure out what caused you to fall. Was it a change in grade? Was it a slick substance on the floor? This isn’t always easy to do, because as you lay there in pain, the most important thing in your mind is to get medical attention. That is crucially important but if someone with you can take pictures of the scene, it will be invaluable to you later. When you slip and fall on someone else’s property, it’s important to get an experienced attorney who’s capable of investigating those claims. And if the claim involves a government entity, it is even more important to have an experienced attorney to investigate on your behalf. Call my office at the number on the screen, or visit us on the web at any time. I’m happy to visit with you and answer your questions about your slip and fall injury, without any cost or obligation. Call 314-A-LAWYER today, for your 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

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

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

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

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