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Personal Injury

Recent Posts in Personal Injury Category

  • Triumph Foods Put Workers at Risk of COVID

    An investigation by USA Today has uncovered huge problems in the way that Triumph Foods handled the coronavirus outbreak in its St. Joseph processing plant this year. What they did, and the cover-up that followed, led to deaths and life-altering infections of the disease. Investigation Uncovers Recklessness at Triumph Foods During COVID We mentioned the outbreak of the coronavirus at Triumph Foods ...
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  • Missouri Police Conduct Click It or Ticket Campaign

    Missouri state police in St. Joseph and the rest of northwestern Missouri are in the middle of a public safety campaign to make sure drivers in the area are buckling up. The goal is to reduce the severity of car accidents and save lives. Troop H’s “Click It or Ticket” Campaign In the past week, Troop H – which covers the northwestern portion of the state , including St. Joseph – has been ...
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  • Missouri’s Lack of a State Plan Puts Workers at Risk

    Some of the most important workplace safety regulations come from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) . However, states like Missouri are free to implement workplace safety rules that provide even better protections for workers within their borders. These are called State Plans , and can have a significant effect on workers’ compensation systems. Missouri, however, has refused ...
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  • Head-On Car Accident Severely Injures One

    A head-on car accident outside of St. Joseph left one person seriously injured. The crash is an example of how devastating these types of car accidents can be. Head-On Car Crash Leaves One Seriously Hurt The crash happened Thursday morning, October 29 , east of Ravenwood on Route O. According to the police report , a pickup truck that was going west crossed the centerline and hit the eastbound ...
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  • St. Joseph Says Educators are “Essential Workers”

    The St. Joseph School District (SJSD) has decided to reclassify school teachers and educators as “essential workers.” The shift in policy is meant to help keep local schools open during the pandemic. However, the details of the policy will mean that the virus will spread more quickly. It will also put teachers at risk of catching the coronavirus – a risk that their workers’ compensation might not ...
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  • Faultless Car Accident in St. Joseph Damages Homes

    A recent car accident in St. Joseph raises some interesting questions about so-called “faultless crashes.” Driver’s Medical Emergency Causes Crash: Two Homes Severely Damaged The incident happened last Thursday morning, October 15, 2020. According to the initial reports, police believe that the driver had a medical emergency while behind the wheel. The car left Faraon Street and slammed into a ...
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  • The Commission’s New Trend is Disturbing

    In the last month, we have covered multiple workers’ compensation cases where the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission expressly refused to follow decisions by the Missouri Court of Appeals. It is very easy to underappreciate just how problematic this is. It essentially means that the Commission has gone rogue to deny injured workers’ claims. Commission Refuses to Follow Court Decisions Both ...
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  • Is It Safer to Be Ejected During a Car Accident?

    In some of the most serious car accidents in the St. Joseph region, the driver or one of the passengers can be ejected from the vehicle. These ejections are far more likely to happen when the occupant was not wearing a seatbelt . Contrary to what some people think, when ejections do happen, they drastically increase the odds of the victim being severely hurt or even killed . Two Types of Vehicle ...
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  • Workers’ Compensation Commission Stretching for Ways to Deny Recovery

    Claims for workers’ compensation by injured workers have to go through an arduous administrative hearing process before they can be heard in court. That process has gotten more blatantly anti-worker in recent years. This is especially true for claims demanding compensation from the Second Injury Fund . A recent workers’ compensation case shows this in clear detail. Judge Denies Compensation for ...
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  • St. Joseph to Replace Traffic Lights with Stop Signs

    The city of St. Joseph recently announced a plan to replace most of the traffic lights in the downtown area with stop signs. The decision provides a great opportunity to look at intersection safety and how it can impact the number of car accidents that happen. St. Joseph to Replace Stop Lights with Stop Signs Starting this week on Faraon Street, the Public Works Department will begin replacing ...
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  • 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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