Missouri Wrongful Death Laws

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

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

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

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

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

Missouri personal injury lawyers are trained to help you when you’ve been in a car crash, and it’s not your fault, and your own insurance won’t help you, if it’s not your fault. You pay your premiums for defense, not to recover for your own injuries. That’s where a personal injury lawyer will help you. Missouri personal injury lawyers help you when you’ve been hurt, because your car insurance won’t. They’re there to take care of the other person’s injuries. Unless the other person doesn’t have insurance, you’re never going to hear from your insurance company. You need personal injury lawyers to take care of you, to fight for you, and to help you get what you’re entitled to after a crash. If the other person isn’t insured? You, if you’ve bought car insurance, have uninsured motorists coverage, and Missouri personal injury lawyers know how to help you gather that coverage, and collect on the premiums you’ve been paying all these years.  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’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

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

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