Blog Posts in March, 2017

Iowa Guts Their Workers’ Compensation Law

Neighboring Iowa is set to radically change how workers’ compensation works in their state. The state house and senate have passed a law that would drastically reduce the payouts that injured workers can get in a workplace injury. The bill sits on the governor’s desk, awaiting his signature. Iowa’s New Workers’ Compensation Bill Following last November’s election, which saw Iowa swing into ...

Wrong-Way Crash Kills Two in Kansas City

Two people died in a fatal car accident in Kansas City after a driver went the wrong way on the highway. Wrong-way crashes happen rarely, but when they do they are often fatal, and frequently lead to more than one death. Wrong-Way Driver Causes Crash in Kansas City The accident happened just before 10pm on the night of Tuesday, March 28, 2017. According to initial police reports, 34-year-old Troy ...

Two Fatal Car Accidents Near Kansas City

It was a deadly weekend on the roads near Kansas City. A pair of car accidents led to two fatalities and several other serious personal injuries . Fatal Truck Accident Near Kansas City The first fatality happened in a truck accident in Olathe, Kansas, on the southwestern outskirts of Kansas City. A woman was driving southbound on Interstate 35 at 2am when she slammed into the back of a ...

Car Accidents are Common at Intersections

Two people suffered personal injuries in a recent car accident in St. Joseph. The crash, like many others, happened at an intersection. Studies of car accidents have found that collisions that happen at intersections are caused by different factors than those that happen on single roads. Car Accident Hurts Two The incident in St. Joseph happened on the morning of Thursday, March 23, 2017, at the ...

Not All Employers Carry Workers’ Compensation Insurance

In last week’s workers’ compensation blog post, we discussed how a shot store clerk got workers’ compensation after a court case. Why he had to go to court to get workers’ compensation, however, is a story that illuminates some of the intricacies in how workers’ compensation law works. Shot Store Clerk Gets Workers’ Compensation After Court Case In May, 2008, a clerk at a convenience store in ...

How Laws of Another State Can Reach into Missouri

In our last blog post, we discussed guest statutes , and how they used to impact passengers that got hurt in car accidents that were caused by the driver of their car. While these guest statutes used to be in effect in lots of other states in the U.S., Missouri never enacted one. However, just because Missouri didn’t have a guest statute didn’t mean that they could never play a part in personal ...

Guest Statutes and Passengers Injured in Car Crashes

A single-vehicle car accident in Platte County proved to be a fatal one when the driver was ejected from the vehicle as it overturned. The passenger in the vehicle suffered serious personal injuries , as well. The incident raises a point of law that is now obsolete: Guest statutes. Car Accident Kills Driver, Injures Passenger The wreck happened in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday, March 18, ...

Police Use Dram Shop Law to Prevent DWI Injuries

After 2017 started with a pair of fatal car accidents in the St. Joseph area, the Missouri State Highway Patrol have announced that they’ll ramp up their drunk driving patrols . In addition to sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols, though, police are expected to start questioning suspected drunk drivers where they had their last drink. Any evidence they get would help police enforce ...

England Considers Capping Damages for Whiplash

Lawmakers in England are moving forward on a bill that would limit compensation for whiplash injuries. While the bill would likely lower car insurance costs, it would leave many people without the compensation they need to recover from the personal injuries they suffer in a car accident . If the bill passes in England, lawmakers here in the United States might consider something similar. England ...

Shot Store Clerk Gets Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation can be a tricky area of the law to understand because of how it is set up. Under the workers’ compensation scheme, if you get hurt while on the job, you can get compensated for your personal injuries without filing a lawsuit. In fact, with workers’ compensation, you get compensated precisely because you can’t file a lawsuit. This might seem counterintuitive, but this is just ...

Takata Pleads Guilty to Fraud for Airbag Defects

Airbags and other car safety technologies, like head-up displays , aim to prevent car accidents or make them less severe. However, when they’re made defectively, these devices can make things even worse, and can lead to products liability issues. This is just the case with the defects in Takata’s airbags . Because they were poorly designed, Takata’s airbags have been hurting innocent drivers ...

Intel Steps Into Self-Driving Car World

The arms race in the self-driving car industry is heating up. Intel, the company that makes many of the chips that run laptop and desktop computers, has spent over $15 billion to purchase Mobileye, a company that makes cameras for cars. The huge acquisition puts Intel into the running with other self-driving car companies, including Google and Tesla, and could help speed up the process to safer ...

Car Crashes, Head Injuries, and Latent Symptoms

A car accident in St. Joseph involving two vehicles resulted in one of the cars rolling over. Despite the seriousness of the crash, there were only minor injuries reported. However, one of the injuries from the accident was a head injury that may require further medical attention. Rollover Car Accident in St. Joseph The incident happened around 6pm on Saturday, March 11, 2017, at the intersection ...

Only One Road Fatality in St. Joseph in 2016

While the number of fatal car accidents rose across the country in 2016, St. Joseph was a shining bright spot. According to the St. Joseph Police Department, traffic fatalities in the city were down to their lowest number in well over a decade. While some luck might be involved, the police have made a conscious effort to do all they can to bring the number down in the past few years, and now it ...

The Idea Behind Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ compensation is often available if you get hurt while on the job. However, not many people really understand how workers’ compensation operates. This can lead to confusion, especially when things don’t go right, or if your employer hasn’t handled things properly on their end. Unfortunately, this confusion can result in bad decisions, like signing a contract that prohibits you from ...

Kansas City Requires Pit Bulls to be Sterilized

Dog bites are some of the most dangerous kinds of personal injury that you can suffer. Not only are they traumatic events that can scar someone – both physical and mentally – for life, they can also lead to severe health complications, including rabies. Unfortunately, the majority of dog bites come from one breed of dog: Pit bulls. Despite making up only 6% of the dog population in the United ...

One Killed After Being Ejected in Car Accident

A fatal car accident happened in the afternoon of Monday, March 6, 2017. The driver of the only vehicle involved in the crash was ejected from her car, and was pronounced dead at the scene. The incident highlights the dangers of being thrown from your car during a crash, and the importance of wearing a seatbelt. Fatal Car Accident in Polo, Missouri The single-vehicle accident happened just two ...

Crash Test Shows Two Decades of Safety Technology

A new crash video from the Euro New Car Assessment Program shows just how far we’ve come in car safety technology. The video simulates car accidents in two popular European vehicles: A 1997 Rover 100 – one of the most popular cars in England at the time – and a 2015 Honda Jazz – the European version of the Honda Fit. The results of the video speak for themselves. While the video involved European ...

Lost Earning Capacity in Car Accidents

If you get hurt in a car accident that was not your fault, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be compensated. After all, it wouldn’t be fair if you were expected to pay for your injuries when you weren’t the one that caused them. This is true, even if the crash was unintentional – just because someone else was negligent does not mean you’re any less hurt. Thankfully, the law recognizes this. If ...

Missouri Supreme Court Upholds City’s Wage Law

Workers throughout our state scored a victory when the Supreme Court of Missouri decided that the city of St. Louis had the power to create its own minimum wage requirements. The news is welcome relief after a string of setbacks in workers’ compensation rights, including the passage of Missouri’s new “right-to-work” law . The decision could open the door for other cities, including Kansas City and ...

Takata Airbag Recall Impacts Used Car Dealers

The defective airbags made by Takata have become one of the biggest product liability situations in the U.S. The main implication of these poorly-designed airbags is the personal injury risk they pose to drivers. Even if there wasn’t a car accident , the inflator in Takata’s faulty airbags can suddenly explode , sending shrapnel into the car. Unfortunately, the recall efforts have gone very slowly ...