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Personal Injury

Recent Posts in Personal Injury Category

  • How Guilty Pleas Can Help Car Accident Claims

    A woman has been sentenced to probation for her role in a car accident that hurt a child at a bus stop. Criminal cases like these can make it easier for victims to recover compensation in a personal injury case. Driver Who Hit Child Pleads Guilty The accident happened early in the morning on April 28 in Columbia, Missouri, at a bus stop near the entrance of a mobile home park. According to the ...
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  • What is the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission?

    In many of our blog posts on workers’ compensation , we mention the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, or LIRC . This Commission is a critical juncture for many claims for workers’ compensation, as it handles any appeals from the administrative law judge who first hears a dispute. Here is how the LIRC works. The Role of the LIRC in Workers’ Compensation When a worker gets hurt in Missouri, ...
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  • How Dangerous are Police Chases?

    After a string of high speed police chases in Missouri, police have found the need to insist that the public safety is their chief concern. However, there are plenty of reasons to be skeptical. Motorists should use an abundance of caution during a police chase to avoid a car accident . Multiple High Speed Chases in St. Joseph Area In the past few weeks, there have been multiple high speed police ...
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  • LIRC Misreads Court Case, Denies Second Injury Fund Claim

    Missouri’s Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (LIRC) has yet again found a way to interpret the state’s workers’ compensation laws to deny claims made against the Second Injury Fund (SIF) . Coverage Denied Because Medical Experts Used Extra Injury The case, Ingles v. Corrigan Brothers , involved a 66-year-old union pipefitter who ruptured his rotator cuff at work in 2014. He claimed that ...
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  • The Direct and Causal Connection Required for Occupational Diseases

    People who have been hurt on the job in Missouri have a steep hill to climb to prove that they deserve workers’ compensation . One of the trickiest is to show that there is a direct causal connection between the job and an occupational disease . Occupational Diseases Have to be Directly Caused by Job The workers’ compensation law that defines occupational diseases, Missouri Statute 287.067 , does ...
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  • NHTSA Investigates Tesla’s Autopilot System

    The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has opened an investigation into Tesla’s Autopilot system after a series of avoidable car accidents . Both the accident and the investigation raise some pressing questions about the use of partial driver assistance features in vehicles. NHTSA Investigates Tesla’s Autopilot System After years of inaction, on August 13, the NHTSA announced ...
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  • Is it a Hit-and-Run if Passengers Flee the Scene?

    A car accident in St. Joseph ended with several people fleeing the scene. The incident draws out some important distinctions in Missouri’s hit-and-run law. People Flee Scene of Car Accident in St. Joseph The accident happened on Saturday evening, August 7, 2021, at the intersection of North Belt Highway and Faraon Street . According to the police, a vehicle going south on the Belt Highway hit two ...
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  • Is Being a Police Officer Inherently Stressful Enough for Workers’ Compensation?

    A workers’ compensation claim on behalf of a Missouri police officer argued that the stress that he suffered on the job amounted to an occupational disease. The administrative law judge and the Labor and Industrial Relations Board (LIRB), however, disagreed. Police Officer Dies from Heart Condition The claim was filed on the officer’s behalf by his wife. The police officer in St. Louis and ...
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  • What Can Cause a Rollover Accident?

    Two people were sent to the hospital after their car flipped in a single-vehicle car accident in St. Joseph. Car Flips, Two Injured The accident happened on July 26, 2021, at the intersection of Sacramento Street and South 22 nd Street in St. Joseph. According to the initial reports, only one vehicle was involved , though it flipped in the intersection and landed on its roof. Two people were sent ...
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  • Appeals Court Overturns Workers’ Compensation Case

    A Missouri appellate court has overruled the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission on a workers’ compensation case that we covered earlier in our blog. Worker Denied Compensation for Hearing Loss The case involves an airline baggage handler who suffered several successive back injuries. He also had hearing loss from being near so many planes and loud conveyor belts. Nevertheless, the ...
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  • St. Joseph Sued Over Fatal Car Accident

    A car accident and wrongful death case that is winding its way through the Missouri court system has a lot of lessons about the state’s personal injury law . St. Joseph Sued Over Fatal Car Crash The accident happened way back on April 14, 2017 . The driver, who was under the influence of both alcohol and drugs, and five passengers were in a stolen vehicle going north on Riverside Road. The driver, ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation and E-Scooters

    Electric scooters have arrived in St. Joseph. Fun and useful for many, they can still be deceptively dangerous. The huge number of e-scooter accidents that have plagued cities in the past raise a pressing question for people who work in St. Joseph: If I ride an e-scooter while on the job and get hurt, will workers’ compensation cover me? In Spite of Track Record, Bird E-Scooters Land in St. Joseph ...
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  • Motorcycle Accident Fatalities Spike: New Helmet Law to Blame

    Motorcycle accidents are among the most severe type of car accident that can happen on the roads. This year so far, motorcycle accident fatalities have increased significantly in St. Joseph and the rest of Missouri. Motorcycle Accident Fatalities up 40% in Missouri According to the Missouri Department of Transportation, fatalities from motorcycle accidents are way up so far in 2021. At this point, ...
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  • Commission’s Narrow Workers’ Compensation Ruling Overturned, Again

    The Missouri Court of Appeals has again overruled the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission for its refusal to follow state Supreme Court precedent over the Second Injury Fund . The case is another step in the ongoing fight to get hurt workers the workers’ compensation they need to recover. Commission Refuses Second Injury Funds for Multiple Injuries The case involved a welder who hurt his ...
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  • Wrongful Death Claims After DUI Charges

    The driver who caused a fatal car accident has been charged with involuntary manslaughter. The outcome of that case could influence a potential wrongful death claim against him. Drunk Driver Causes Crash, Kills Passenger The accident happened way back on January 31, 2021, just north of Dekalb, Missouri, and south of St. Joseph. The driver, who was 18 years old, lost control of the vehicle. The car ...
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  • What are Third Party Claims in Workers’ Compensation?

    In Missouri, third party claims happen when a victim gets hurt while on the job by someone who is unrelated to the workplace. In these cases, the victim can recover workers’ compensation , and can file a personal injury lawsuit against the party that hurt them. However, the workers’ compensation insurance company can put a lien on the personal injury settlement to recover what it had already paid ...
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  • What is Missouri’s Eggshell Skull Rule?

    A car accident in St. Joseph presents an opportunity to look at an important aspect of Missouri’s personal injury law : The eggshell plaintiff rule. Pregnant Woman Involved in Car Accident The accident happened on Tuesday evening, June 1, 2021, at the intersection of Seneca Street and South 28 th Street . According to the initial reports , a pregnant woman was driving on South 28 th Street. ...
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  • Statutory Employers are Immune from Civil Lawsuits

    In several recent blog posts dealing with workers’ compensation law, we have looked at what statutory employees are , why they exist , and the “usual course of business” defense that many employers make. While statutory employees can use this legal concept to benefit from workers’ compensation coverage from someone other than their direct employer, it also means that these statutory employers are ...
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  • What Happens if the Jaws of Life Injures a Car Accident Victim?

    A single-vehicle car accident in St. Joseph caused such severe damage to the car that both occupants had to be extracted from the vehicle. The crash raises an interesting question: What happens if the extraction causes an injury? Driver and Passenger Extracted from Vehicle After Crash The incident happened just after 9pm on Friday, May 9, 2021. The driver of a Chevy Corvette was speeding and lost ...
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  • Missouri Supreme Court Rules on Second Injury Fund, Again

    The Missouri Supreme Court recently waded back into the waters of the Second Injury Fund , one of the most controversial aspects of the state’s workers’ compensation system. While its prior case dealt with Senate Bill 1 and its drastic limitations on who could benefit from the bankrupted fund , this new case is more about clarifying when the worker’s preexisting injury would trigger the Fund. ...
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  • Why to Hire a Lawyer After a Car Crash With a Cop

    In the past week, there have been two car accidents in St. Joseph involving police cars. These incidents are extremely problematic for the non-officer, especially if they were severely hurt. Hiring a personal injury lawyer is even more important than normal. 2 Car Accidents Involving St. Joseph Police Officers The first accident happened around 3pm on Thursday, April 29, on King Hill Avenue. While ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation and Idiopathic Causes

    A Missouri appellate court has, once again, narrowly read the state’s workers’ compensation law to reduce the amounts that have to be paid by businesses after a workplace injury . In this case, the issue concerned idiopathic diseases, or those that do not have an identifiable cause. Obese Worker Dies from Heatstroke The case is Halsey v. Townsend Tree Service Co. , and involves the tragic case of ...
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  • Seatbelt Investors Opened Patent to Save Lives

    One of the most important safety features on any motor vehicle is the seatbelt, which has drastically cut down the severity of car accidents . However, the inventor of the modern seatbelt made very little money off of it – instead of profiting, they opened their patent for others to use. Volvo Engineers Responsible for Modern Seatbelt Design All the way through the 1950s, seatbelts were not ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Retaliation and Sovereign Immunity

    A recent case by the Missouri Court of Appeals emphasized the role that sovereign immunity plays in the state’s workers’ compensation law. Worker Claims Termination Was Retaliation for Filing Workers’ Compensation Claim The case involved a worker at the University of Missouri, the state’s public college. After several months of complaints from her subordinates, the worker’s supervisors decided to ...
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  • What Are Mansfield Bars and Are They Safe?

    A serious car accident in Kansas City involving a tractor trailer shows why we need to continue to enforce safety regulations on the roadways, including requiring that trucks have Mansfield Bars. Car Rear-Ends Tractor Trailer The crash happened on the evening of April 5, 2021. The truck accident is still under investigation, so little is known about exactly what happened. However, it is clear that ...
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