Blog Posts in January, 2018

New USDA Rule Would Threaten Workplace Safety in Pork Processing Plants

As a city, St. Joseph, Missouri relies on food processing plants. Many of the people who live in St. Joseph work at these plants. Many others work in businesses that make a significant portion of their money from those plants workers. When conditions affect the food processing plants, they trickle down into the surrounding community. A new rule proposal can have such an impact on St. Joseph’s pork ...

Attorneys From Smith Law Office, LLC Help Grieving Father Seek Justice

A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed against the Californos bar in the Westport Entertainment District, where Officer Thomas Orr III was killed while off-duty. The lawsuit, which was filed by Mr. Orr's father, Thomas Orr, Jr., names both the restaurant’s owner and the man who is suspected of killing the officer as defendants: The restaurant owner is claimed to have provided negligent security, ...

How DWI Laws Have Fought to Keep Roads Safe

Driving while intoxicated (DWI) is guaranteed to increase the chances of causing a car accident. This puts the occupants of both vehicles involved at serious risk of suffering a severe personal injury. Unfortunately, this problem has existed since cars were invented: The very first DWI arrest happened in 1897. Since then, DWI laws have fought to keep up with the problem of drunk driving. Here is ...

A Hazardous Work Environment: Police Driving Distracted

If you work to make your income, then workers’ compensation impacts your life. It is a layer of protection to keep you financially stable, should you get hurt while on the job. This is especially true if you work in an occupation that has high injury rates. One of these high-risk occupations is a police officer. Cops are supposed to confront danger, so it is not surprising that they get hurt on ...

Takata Defective Air Bag Recall Expands

The Takata air bag recall has grown even bigger. Toyota and Honda are the latest car manufacturers to recall vehicles that have air bag inflators made by Takata. Their latest recall impacts dozens of car models, and totals an additional one million vehicles in the United States. These recalls are not insignificant. The air bag inflators that are defective can activate at any time, not just during ...

Opioid Crisis Complicates Inability to Sue Co-Workers

Over the past decade, developments in workers’ compensation law in Missouri have only gone backwards, pulling away protections that workers once counted on. One of these repealed protections was the ability of hurt workers to sue co-workers for a personal injury caused by the co-worker. Especially in light of the opioid crisis, which has increased the number of accidents that happen on the job, ...