Blog Posts in July, 2017

Missouri Workers’ Compensation Law’s Landmark Case

This blog article is the second in a four-part series dealing with how Missouri workers’ compensation law handles employers who fire an employee in retaliation for them filing a workers’ compensation claim. A prior blog post summarized how Missouri law dealt with this issue before 2014. Here, we’ll examine the Missouri Supreme Court case that changed the lay of the land. Future blog posts will ...

St. Joseph Car Crash Highlights Negligence Per Se Issues

A recent car accident in the city of St. Joseph highlights an important piece of personal injury law in the state of Missouri: Negligence per se. Driver Breaks Law, Causes Car Accident The incident happened late in the morning on Sunday, July 23, 2017. According to the police reports, a Chevy HHR vehicle was waiting to turn at the intersection of 22 nd Street and Messanie Street in downtown St. ...

Retaliating for Workers’ Compensation Claims: A History

An ongoing issue in Missouri workers’ compensation law is when an employer can fire a worker after they’ve filed a workers’ compensation claim. Our next several workers’ compensation blog posts will deal with the last few years of developments on this issue. In this post, we’ll go over the way Missouri handled this problem before 2014. The following posts will deal with: The Missouri Supreme Court ...

Driving in the Heat: Dangers of Low Tire Pressure

Living in St. Joseph, Kansas City, or other parts of western Missouri means dealing with very hot temperatures every summer. Unfortunately, unlike local residents who have lived in the area for decades, cars don’t get used to this weather. Instead, they require extra care and attention in the hot summer months if they’re going to stay in good working condition. If they don’t get this maintenance, ...

Trend of Fewer Workplace Injuries Raises Doubts

Over the past dozen years, workplace injuries have been on the decline according to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). However, this slow and steady decline might be about to change in the next few years as workplace safety regulations get slashed by President Trump. Regardless, though, the figures that the BLS relies on in its reports are self-reported, making them very ...

Yearly Accidents Down, Despite July 4th Holiday

Road fatalities from car accidents in Missouri spiked over the July Fourth Holiday. However, those numbers have actually declined slightly over the first six months of 2017 from what they were the year before. This decline runs contrary to the trend over the past few years, which has seen car accidents deaths rise across the U.S. over the past few years. Costly July Fourth on the Roads of Missouri ...

Supreme Court Limits Ability to Sue Corporations

Workers’ compensation laws protect workers by providing them with a source of income if they’ve been hurt while on the job. However, those laws have been getting attacked in recent decades by business-friendly politics. The newest attack, however, has come not from politicians, but from the Supreme Court of the United States, which has sided again and again with corporations, stripping state ...

Fatal Car Accidents Spike on July 4th

The Fourth of July Holiday is the worst time of the year for fatal car accidents, according to a study done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The spike in road deaths on not only July 4 th, but also on the 3 rd and 5 th, as well, likely comes from both drunk drivers and from motorcyclists, who are far less protected in a crash than people in cars. Fatal Car Accidents Spike ...