Personal Injury Attorney in St. Louis, Missouri

What Is a Personal Injury Case?

Personal injury cases occur when someone is injured by the action or inaction of others. These cases range in severity and type as some cases involve minor injuries whereas others, unfortunately, result in a fatality. Some of the more common causes of personal injury cases are:

• Alcohol Over-Service (Dram Shop)

• Car Accidents

• Climbing Accidents

• Construction Accidents

• Dangerous Conditions

• Dog Bites

• Design Defects

• Defective Products

• Electrocutions

• Failure to Supervise

• Failure to Warn

• Falling Objects

• Falls

• Food Poisoning

• Medical Malpractice

• Premises Liability

• Product Liability

• Slip & Fall

• Snow, Water, & Ice

• Swinging Objects

• Welding Accidents

At The Law Office of Steve Slough, our personal injury attorney will help you seek the maximum amount of compensation allowed for your accident. You deserve a chance at justice and we are here to give that chance to you. Reach out to our law firm in St. Louis, Missouri, and schedule a free consultation. We provide our services to the entirety of the St. Louis Metropolitan Area including St. Charles County, Madison County, Missouri, and St. Clair County, Illinois.

What to Do After an Injury

The most important issue with a personal injury case is your health and safety. After you’ve been hurt, you need to do the following:

• Seek medical attention immediately. Seeking medical attention will ensure that you are doing everything you can to ensure your safety. Likewise, by seeking medical attention, you are helping your personal injury case. On many occasions, victims of personal injury cases do not experience immediate pain after the occurrence of their injury. On these occasions, personal injury victims decline medical treatment only to realize – usually the next day – that something is wrong. If this occurs, do not feel as if your chance for medical treatment has passed.

Again, follow this general rule:

IF YOU ARE HURT, SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION IMMEDIATELY

Process of Filing a Personal Injury Claim

It is important to have a St. Louis personal injury attorney who understands both your injury as well as the process for maximizing your claim. Our attorney — Steve Slough — will take as much time as needed to gain an understanding of what your injury is as well as help you seek what you deserve.

Length of Time to File a Lawsuit

Not all personal injury cases involve the filing of a lawsuit. In many situations, your case can be settled without filing a lawsuit as the insurance company covering the liable party will pay. When an agreement cannot be reached, a lawsuit is necessary.

In Missouri, the governing laws that set forth the time limits for filing a lawsuit on a particular case are referred to as the Statutes of Limitations. Simply stated, these statutes are Missouri laws that set forth specific and strictly enforced lengths of time to file lawsuits after the cause of action has happened. In most cases, the clock begins ticking at the moment the injury has been sustained.

Most personal injury cases in Missouri have a five-year statute of limitation. That means if you are hurt on January 1, 2023, you must file a lawsuit by January 1, 2028. In cases involving wrongful death, the timeframe is three years. Cases involving medical malpractice have a two-year window.

Significantly, if you fail to file your lawsuit during the statute of limitations time frame, your claim will be barred. You will not be able to recover any kind of compensation for your injury, despite the severity and clear fault of the other party.

Contact us today if you have suffered a personal injury due to another person's negligence. We are ready to help you find a solution.

Insurance Company Tactics

When dealing with a personal injury claim, it is important to note the following:

• Insurance companies are not on your side.

When insurance companies find out about a potential personal injury claim, they will contact you immediately. They will ask you to obtain at least one, sometimes two estimates on your car’s damage. They will ask you to provide a statement of what happened and they will ask you to provide them with all of your medical records and bills related to the accident. At first, these insurance companies will appear to be on your side and may come across as someone who is trying to help you get through your injury. Despite this, after complying with all of their demands, the insurance company will offer you a settlement that is substantially inadequate. Most of the time, the offer doesn’t even cover your medical bills, let alone your pain and suffering.

Missouri Comparative Fault Law

Insurance companies will employ many different tactics to try to convince you that your claim isn’t what you think it is. One of these tactics is to tell the injured party that they contributed to the accident. This is called comparative fault.

Comparative fault is a doctrine recognized by Missouri law that allows fault or blame to be placed upon the injured party. Specifically, juries are told that if they see fit, they may assign a percentage of fault to an injured party based on the facts of the case. For example, a jury may find that an injured party’s actions, although not the main reason, still contributed to the accident occurring and as such will assign fault to the injured party. This assignment of fault will reduce your award in proportion to the percentage assigned.

Insurance companies are well aware of this doctrine and will oftentimes abuse this doctrine in an attempt to make the injured party believe they played a role in the accident. Insurance companies will make a determination for themselves as to what percentage of blame is to be placed upon the injured driver. For example, insurance companies will allow assigning a significant percentage of blame to an injured driver who was injured in an accident due to being cut off by another driver. Despite following all applicable rules and regulations, insurance companies simply think being cut off by another driver is the injured party’s fault. Of course, this doesn’t follow simple logic, but that is how insurance companies think.

Why You Need to Hire an Attorney

When an attorney gets involved in a personal injury claim, insurance companies take notice. They begin to realize that they can no longer take advantage of an injured person who is in a bad situation. Insurance companies know that an attorney has the ability and resources to properly investigate an accident. Likewise, an attorney understands all the facets of a personal injury claim giving you a distinct advantage against the insurance company. All in all, when an attorney gets involved, the insurance company knows that the injured party means business.

Our personal injury attorney spent years defending insurance companies facing lawsuits and now wants to give you the insight that has proven to be successful.

Schedule Your Free Consultation Today

You will find that having a knowledgeable personal injury attorney at your side will be beneficial when seeking financial compensation. At The Law Office of Steve Slough, we will never back down from a fight. Contact us today to schedule a consultation on your case. From our office in St. Louis, Missouri, we serve the areas of St. Charles County, Madison County, Missouri, and St. Clair County, Illinois.