Missouri Personal Injury Laws

Black Box Data

After a truck wreck, it’s important to gather the data from the black box or the data recorder. And a St. Louis truck accident lawyer will have the resources and know-how to get, not only to the scene, but to get permission to download or copy the information that’s on that data recorder so that they have it to present your case. In the data recorder there’s not infinite space, and what happens is, after a certain amount of time, the recorder starts to record again over the breaking, the speed, the other events that are on that data recorder. So it’s crucial to get that offloaded as quickly as possible. 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

When you hire a Missouri personal injury lawyer, the first thing that that person should do if they’re worth your trust is to listen to your story and get an understanding of who you are, who you were before you got hurt, and who you are now, and understand the changes in your life due to these injuries. That lawyer then does a lot of things that you’ll never see – talks to witnesses, gathers evidence, gets your medical records and your statements so he can present a convincing case to the insurance company. And hopefully, if he’s got a good reputation and if he’s done his job in collecting information about your case, you’ll never see the inside of a courtroom. But if not, you need a Missouri personal injury lawyer who’s willing to go to court and fight for you in trial. 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

Punitive damages are sometimes called exemplary damages. Those are the damages that a jury awards to punish the defendant for bad acts, and to keep other folks from repeating those kinds of acts.

By: Spencer Farris

Auto Accident Litigation

Accidents involving over the road trucks are almost always devastating. While you’re off work, your bills are going to pile up. You’re going to want to hire a St. Louis truck accident attorney to protect your rights, because the trucking company and their insurance companies want to delay things as long as possible. The longer they delay, the more hard up you’re going to be for money to pay your bills and whatnot, and the better chance they have of getting off cheap. 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 the case, if we’re successful for you. Call 314- A-LAWYER today, for a free consultation.

By: Spencer Farris

Choose Spencer Farris

When you call my law firm – day or night – it’s going to ring out to a cell phone. If you send an email – day or night – it’s going to go out to a cell phone, if there’s somebody not at the desk. I tell everyone who comes to my office and trusts us to handle their case that within 12 hours of contact with my office they’ll hear back from us – either myself or the assistant that’s assigned to the case or the lawyer that’s assigned to the case. When someone comes into us and in our law firm, it’s because something bad has happened to them. They don’t come in to see us because they’re having a great day. Initially, I want folks to feel comfortable that we’re going to take their case seriously. If you’ve taken the breadwinner and he’s no longer able to work because his back hurts to somebody on the street who would see him walking down the street. They’d think how can that be and it’s no big deal, but to this guy losing his house, losing his family, losing those things are very important. At our law firm we want folks to feel comfortable that they’re going to get the attention that they deserve.

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

Assist Your Attorney In Litigation

You’ve hired a St. Louis injury attorney to help you with a very important job. Now help him do his job. Injury law news brought to you by the S.E. Farris Law Firm. I’m Spencer Farris, a partner with the S.E. Farris Law Firm in St. Louis. Let’s talk about some things you have to do to help your lawyer do the best he can for you. You need to tell your lawyer everything. Your lawyer needs to know who’s treating you and when your treatment starts and stops. You also need to tell your lawyer about medical bills that you’re receiving. A good St. Louis injury lawyer can stop the bill collectors from bothering you at least until the end of your case. Don’t tell anyone else anything about your case.  Everything you share with your attorney is protected by the attorney client privilege. Don’t talk to strangers meaning your pastor, friends, or family about your case because they do not share the same protections that your lawyer does. Also, don’t talk about your case on the internet. Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace are great ways to stay in touch with folks. They’re also a horrible way to share about your injury and a good place for the insurance company to look for ways to defeat your claim. There are no dumb questions. Make sure and visit with your attorney and his staff frequently to let them know what’s going on with your case and keep in touch. You can contact my law firm at our web address or the phone numbers on the screen. If you want to visit about your case, we’re happy to talk with 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; Marasco & Nesselbush Personal Injury Lawyers Providence.

Truck Accident Litigation

I’ve been representing injury victims for a long time, and as a Saint Louis truck accident attorney, I know that a truck crash is much different than a crash between two cars. Trucks are regulated by state and federal governments, and they’re certain things they must do.  When truck drivers drive over a long period of time as they have to to make a living, they get tired. And driver fatigue is a big issue. Drivers keep logbooks of how long they drive, and I remember one case where a driver had produced his logbooks that look like he was within the law. But because we know how trucking companies work, we’ve gotten the rest of his log books, the ones he submitted for payment to the companies, and found out that he was way, way over his hours. And he’s keeping two sets of books to fool the government. 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

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