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Personal Injury

Recent Posts in Personal Injury Category

  • Commission Refuses to Follow Court Ruling

    The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission recently made a shocking and disturbing decision in a workers’ compensation case: They expressly refused to apply the interpretation of the law from the Missouri Court of Appeals. Injured Worker Recovers Compensation The situation began in late January, 2017. A 62-year-old Wal-Mart employee, with a history of several medical conditions, was lifting a ...
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  • Car Crash Dummy Design Puts Women at Risk

    Crash dummies help car manufacturers build vehicles that protect drivers and their passengers. They also help insurance companies understand the risks and the injuries that are often associated with a car accident . This means that the design of car crash dummies can greatly impact people’s safety. Unfortunately, dummy designs leave nearly half of the drivers in the U.S. and western Missouri ...
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  • As OSHA Inspections Decline, Workplaces Become Less Safe

    Workers in St. Joseph and the rest of Missouri would much rather not suffer a workplace injury than receive workers’ compensation . While workers’ compensation is essential for the recovery process, no one wants to get hurt in order to receive it. Preventing those workplace injuries is something that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is supposed to do. Increasingly, though, ...
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  • Motorcycle Helmet Law’s Repeal to Take Effect Friday

    Missouri lawmakers recently passed a transportation bill that abolished the state’s law requiring all motorcyclists to wear helmets. While many are celebrating the governor’s signature on the new bill, there are some serious reasons to be concerned about the safety of people on the roads. Motorcycle and car accidents are likely to become far more serious when the law goes into effect on Friday. ...
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  • New Rulings Tighten Workers’ Compensation Coverage

    Earlier in our blog, we tracked a pair of workers’ compensation cases that made it to the Missouri Supreme Court . Both of those cases raised an important question in workers’ compensation law: When does an injury “arise” out of the course of employment? As we predicted in that earlier blog post, the Missouri Supreme Court denied the victims recovery in both cases. Missouri Supreme Court Denies ...
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  • Fatal Car Accident After Tires Come Off Truck

    A fatal car accident on Highway 36 appears to have been caused by a tractor trailer’s tires flying off the vehicle’s axle. The freak accident is an example of how some crashes are not the fault of either driver involved, and how products liability law can become implicated in the wreck. Tires Fly Off Truck, Causing Fatal Car Crash The truck accident happened last Tuesday, August 4, 2020, on U.S. ...
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  • Injured Worker Pointed to Second Injury Fund

    The Missouri Court of Appeals recently ruled on a workers’ compensation case that implicated the still controversial Second Injury Fund . Once again, it is the injured worker who stands to lose. Corrections Officer Assaults: Awarded Workers’ Compensation The case involved a corrections officer at a Missouri prison. While on duty, she was attacked by one of the inmates. Because of a locked door, ...
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  • Car Accidents are Changing as Lockdown Ends

    The coronavirus has changed how we travel, with lockdowns shuttering businesses, schools, and social destinations. Now that the lockdowns are being lifted, though, some people are hitting the roads, once again. The swing in travelling tendencies, though, are drastically altering the frequency of car accidents . It is even changing the types of accidents that do occur. Car Accidents Plummeted ...
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  • The Demise of Missouri’s Comfort Doctrine

    Missouri courts have long been chipping away at workers’ compensation protections. Perhaps nowhere has this been more blatant than in how the Supreme Court of Missouri effectively ended the “comfort doctrine.” What is the Comfort Doctrine? The comfort doctrine is a piece of the law that lets injured employees tap into their workers’ compensation coverage for accidents that happened while they were ...
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  • Missouri’s Rules for Car Crashes With Stolen Vehicles

    A recent incident in St. Joseph raises an important question in personal injury law : How does proximate cause work when a car was stolen? Car Theft Leads to High Speed Chase and Gunfire Last week, a St. Joseph man reported to police that his car had been stolen from the Speedy’s Convenience Store on St. Joseph Avenue . An hour and a half later, though, he saw his car being driven by someone else. ...
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  • Employers Use Liability Waivers for Returning Workers

    As Missouri struggles to reopen from the coronavirus, employers are looking for ways to insulate themselves from liability if one of their workers contracts COVID-19. The method of choice in St. Joseph has been to force employees to sign a liability waiver. But are these waivers enforceable? And how will they alter an employee’s rights to workers’ compensation if they get sick? St. Joseph ...
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  • Motorcycle Accidents on the Rise in Missouri

    As the weather in St. Joseph heats up, motorcyclists are taking their bikes out for a ride. Unfortunately, this has led to the annual increase in motorcycle accidents . Practicing some simple driving techniques can drastically reduce the number of car accidents that involve motorcyclists in Missouri. Missouri Police Note Rise in Motorcycle Accidents In the span of a single week in mid-June, police ...
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  • The Aggressor Defense in Workers’ Compensation Cases

    The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) continues to deny workers’ compensation whenever it finds an opportunity. The most recent case involves a problematic application of the so-called “aggressor defense” to injuries caused by workplace fights. Employee Hurt in Fight, Claims Workers’ Compensation The case is Ford v. Associated Electric Cooperative, Inc . Back in June, 2015, two ...
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  • Cows Escape After Truck Accident: The Line Between Legal and Proximate Cause in Missouri

    A truck accident outside St. Joseph has led to a chaotic scene, with police struggling to round up dozens of cows that escaped from the truck’s trailer. The incident provides another interesting and real-life scenario where the concepts of legal and proximate cause come into play. Dozens of Cows Escape After Truck Accident According to the initial reports, the accident happened early in the ...
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  • Coronavirus Lawsuit Against Missouri Meat Processing Plant Dismissed

    Meat processing plants in Missouri have proven to be a reliable source of coronavirus infections. With the close proximity of the workers and the difficult work environment, germs spread easily. The processing plants, however, have been slow and less than willing to take adequate safety precautions. Workers in a processing plant in Milan, Missouri, filed a lawsuit for these failures to keep them ...
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  • How Does Subrogation Work in a Car Accident?

    Subrogation is one of the most confusing aspects of personal injury law. However, it is far from uncommon, as it frequently arises after a car accident . Here is how subrogation works, how it is different in Missouri, and what it means for victims of car accidents. An Example: A Pedestrian Accident Outside St. Joseph It is easiest to understand a complex legal issue like subrogation with an ...
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  • Utility Workers Hurt in Kansas City Explosion

    Five utility workers in Kansas City have been hurt in an explosion. While the cause of the explosion is still under investigation, it appears that a faulty switch may be to blame. If it is, the injured workers may be able to recover workers’ compensation as well as file a products liability lawsuit . Explosion Hurts Five Utility Workers in Kansas City The initial reports have indicated that the ...
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  • Missouri Lawmakers Press to Repeal Motorcycle Helmet Law

    Once again, the motorcycle helmet law in Missouri could change with the signature of the governor. If this year’s attempt to repeal the state’s universal helmet law succeeds, it would mean more injuries and deaths from car accidents involving motorcycles. Missouri Legislature Passes Another Bill to Repeal Motorcycle Helmet Law In what seems to have become an annual tradition, lawmakers at the ...
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  • Car Accidents, DUIs, and No Contest Pleas

    A car accident in St. Joseph raises some interesting issues in Missouri’s personal injury law , especially its intersection with the field of criminal defense. Car Accidents Leads to DUI Arrest in St. Joseph In the middle of the afternoon of May 12, 2020, a car rear-ended another vehicle on Highway 6 just outside St. Joseph. According to the initial reports , the trailing vehicle ran off the road ...
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  • Congress Considering Legal Immunity for Businesses that Spread Coronavirus

    St. Joseph is letting its stay-at-home order expire and allowing businesses in the area to reopen. The decision will allow more people to interact with each other in public, which is going to increase the number of coronavirus cases in the area. This raises a crucial question: When people get sick because of actions taken by businesses or their boss, can they file a personal injury lawsuit and ...
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  • Can Coronavirus Fears Let Employees Refuse to Work?

    The coronavirus has upended the idea of what makes a workplace unsafe. Suddenly, it has become dangerous to merely work in close proximity to coworkers and face the constant exposure of new people and customers. If anyone is infected with the virus, it can spread in the workplace and get other workers sick. Workers’ compensation only goes so far: People infected with coronavirus can face ...
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  • How Does Excessive Speed Affect a Car Accident?

    The Missouri State Highway Patrol is claiming that it has seen an increase in the number of speeding vehicles since the coronavirus shutdown began in March. Needless to say, excessive speed can make a difference in the odds of a car accident as well as in the severity of the crash. What many people do not know, though, is that speeding can impact their ability to recover compensation in a personal ...
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  • Emergency Order for Workers’ Compensation Coverage for Coronavirus Victims Isn’t Enough

    In a recent workers’ compensation blog post, we looked at whether Missouri’s workers’ compensation scheme would cover healthcare workers infected with the coronavirus . That post looked at Missouri Statute 287.067 , which defines “occupational diseases,” and predicted that, based on prior cases in the state, it would provide workers’ compensation coverage for healthcare workers. However, the post ...
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  • Are Fatal Car Accidents Up Since the Coronavirus Shutdown?

    If there is a silver lining to the coronavirus pandemic, it is that car accidents have plummeted across the U.S. With people staying inside and not driving for errands, to school, or even to work, cities have reported drastic decreases in the number of crashes on the roadways. However, Missouri police are claiming they have actually seen an increase in the number of fatal crashes. They insist that ...
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  • Coronavirus' Long-Term Impact on Workers’ Compensation

    As states like Missouri scramble to adapt their workers’ compensation schemes to the coronavirus spread, some of the weaknesses at the heart of the system are becoming more and more apparent. Chief among them is the power of insurance companies to simply raise their rates, indirectly shifting the costs of current coverage to tomorrow’s workers. States Struggle to Adapt Workers’ Compensation to a ...
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