Missouri Wrongful Death Laws

Wrongful Death Act Compensation

If you’ve lost a loved one, and it’s someone else’s fault, the Missouri Wrongful Death Law can help you. Injury law news, brought to you by the S.E. Farris Law Firm. I’m Spencer Farris, a personal injury trial attorney in Saint Louis, Missouri, and partner at the S.E. Farris Law Firm. When you’ve lost a loved one and someone else is responsible, you have a lot of concerns and a lot of things on your mind. While you’re sorting through those and the grief, remember that the Missouri Wrongful Death Act can help hold the other person responsible for the damages they’ve caused to your family.

While you’re sorting through your grief and the personal matters that go with the death of a loved one, the Missouri Wrongful Death Act is ticking away. You have three years after the death of a loved one to file a lawsuit. In Missouri the lawsuit does not belong to the dead person’s estate, it belongs to his survivors. Whether they be spouses, siblings, parents or children, the law gives different rights to different classes of people, and you should find out where you fall and whether or not you have the right to pursue a wrongful death case for the loss of a loved one.

You can never replace a loved one, and we all know that. In fact, the Missouri Wrongful Death Law doesn’t cover your grief or sorrow for the loss and the death that your family has suffered. It tries to replace the loss of income that that person provided, the loss of support, education, comfort. The kinds of services that you would’ve gotten from your loved one, but for their wrongful death. If a member of your family has been killed and it’s someone else’s fault, you owe it to yourself and your family to contact an attorney. Call my office at the number at the bottom of the screen, or contact us at our website. I’m happy to visit with you about your case without any cost or obligation. And if we can’t help you, we’ll try to point you in the right direction. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated to the needs of injury victims and their families.

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’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

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

Summary judgement is when the other side tries to win your case without going to trial based on the papers that have been filed.

By: Spencer Farris

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

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

A lady called me to tell me that she’d been in a car crash and before she even got home from the hospital she had a message on her answering machine from the insurance company. Let me tell you what happened next. 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 represent injury victims and their families. And when I got the call from this lady I knew that she needed some help.

The insurance company wanted to initially make contact and befriend her if you will and offer her a settlement, that’s 101 in the claims adjusters handbook. They do that because if they settle a case quickly they know that they can so more cheaply. You won’t know the full extent of your injuries. You won’t have spoken to a lawyer and you won’t really know what your case is worth. In this client’s case it was a good thing that she called because we told her not to settle her case and six months later she needed surgery on her neck. You only get one opportunity to settle your case, to get all of your medical paid for, to gather your lost wages, and provide for your family, and to get whatever damages you’re going to get for pain, suffering, and inconvenience. If you do that too quickly in a case and don’t know the full extent of your injuries, you’re going to sell yourself and your family short. That’s what the insurance company wants. Thats what some lawyers want when they advise you to take a quick settlement, but it’s not what’s best for you. If you have questions after you’ve been hurt, call my office at the number you see on the screen or contact us through the internet at the web address below. We’re happy to visit with you for free and give you whatever advice we can on how to handle your case. The S.E. Farris Law Firm is dedicated the needs of injury victims and their families.

By: Spencer Farris