Car Accident Claims

Many Missouri drivers think that their auto insurance will cover any cost in the event they get into a car accident.

While it’s true that these policies are mandatory in Missouri to protect you, it does not mean it’s not without its limits. One important thing to consider is this: do you have sufficient coverage?

What Does This Mean?

In Missouri, the bare minimum auto insurance coverage is:

• $25,000 bodily injury per person per accident
• $50,000 bodily injury for all persons per accident
• $10,000 property damage liability

If you have only the minimum coverage, it means that as long as your expenses are within the policy’s limit, your insurance will cover your costs. However, this coverage may not be enough to cover all of your costs.

For instance, if you drive an expensive vehicle, the costs of repairs are likely to exceed $10,000 if the damage is extensive. High-end cars usually come with very expensive pieces that may need to be changed, and in this case, you should consider changing your policy.

The Minimum May Not Be Enough When There’s an Uninsured Motorist

Your auto insurance can also come in very handy when the other driver is uninsured, or when you are the victim of a hit and run. Under normal circumstances, if the car accident is not your fault, you can file a car accident claim with the at-fault driver’s insurance company. Legally, they are required to cover the costs of your medical bills and car repairs if they are the ones that created it in the first place.

But when the driver has no insurance or flees the scene, then you have to rely on your own policy to cover these costs which, again, may not be enough if the damage resulted are extensive.

What Happens If Your Policy Isn’t Enough?

For bodily injury, you could fall back on your health insurance and cover some of your treatments, but that also depends on what type of policy you have. Though health coverage does not exclude injuries created by car accidents (like it does in the case of work-related injuries), some procedures you may need could be excluded from the policy.

For property damage, however, unless you have other insurance policies specifically for them, it’s likely you’ll cover the costs of repairs out of your own pocket.

It’s really important to look both at your auto insurance and health insurance policy and see exactly what they cover, and what their limitations are. If you feel you’re not fully protected, you should consider changing your policy.

Involved in a St. Louis Car Accident? Speak With an Attorney!

Have you been involved in a car accident? If you are the victim, then legally you can ask for compensation from the other driver. Reach out to a St. Louis car accident lawyer to see what your best legal options are.

If your accident involved hitting an illegally parked car, you’re probably wondering what happens next.

Car collisions don’t always happen when two moving cars crash into each other. You can collide with parked cars, and even other stationary objects, like structures on the street, garbage bins, etc. If your accident involved hitting an illegally parked car, you’re probably wondering what happens next.

In such a case, the fault is often shared between you and the driver who parked illegally. You may be at fault for not driving carefully enough to avoid the parked car, and they may be at fault for parking illegally, putting other drivers at risk. Because these cases can get rather confusing, it would be wise to speak with a St. Louis car accident attorney to maximize your chances of receiving the compensation you are legally entitled to.

Duties of Care

To better understand who you may be both liable for the collision, we will remind you about a driver’s duties of care. This is the general requirement for any driver to act in a predictable way, practice cautious driving to avoid unexpected events like this.

You might think that it’s not your fault at all for hitting the illegally parked car, but if it can be proved that cautious driving would’ve prevented the collision, you might become part of the cause for the accident.

In the other driver’s case, it is clear that the duties of care were not applied when they parked in an illegal spot, putting other drivers or pedestrians in danger.

Shared Fault in a Car Accident

If it can be proven that you couldn’t possibly avoid the illegally parked car, even when driving cautiously, the other driver may be the only one liable for the accident. But if you were also negligent at the time of the accident – by speeding, using your cell phone, etc. – the fault will be shared.

The next steps in a car accident claim will depend on the state where this will be disputed. Missouri, for example, is a ”comparative negligence” and “pure comparative fault” state, which means that the settlement you will get depends on the proportion in which you and the other driver are at fault. For example, if you are found to be 20% at fault, your final settlement will be 20% short after calculating what should be paid for your damages.

What to Do After Hitting an Illegally Parked Car

It’s important to start gathering hard evidence from the scene, as much as possible. Take pictures of the two cars, of the parking space and surroundings, talk to witnesses and request their contact info, and call the police. The police report will weigh a lot when calculating the settlement. The next steps are going to the doctor for an evaluation and seeing a good St. Louis auto accident lawyer who can help you get the most out of the settlement dispute.

Driving under the influence of alcohol or street drugs is a clear violation of the law in any state, and it’s not difficult to link it to reckless driving and negligence causing a car accident. However, these are not the only substances that can impair someone’s ability to drive responsibly.

Prescription drugs can have effects as strong as the effects of drinking alcohol or smoking recreational marijuana, and the rate of consumption for these drugs is high across the country.

If you were hit by a driver who was under the influence of prescription drugs and you suffered injuries and/or property damage, the fact that they had consumed prescription drugs can and should be taken into consideration when building your case.

How Can a Driver Be Impaired by Prescription Meds?

While not all prescription meds come with an interdiction to drive or use heavy machinery while taking them, many of them clearly come with these warnings. You can find these warnings on the labels of many types of medicine, from antidepressants and painkillers to antihistamines.

The prospect of a medication that can affect your ability to drive will include this information, and sometimes it can be read on the label of the pill bottle as well. This is sufficient information to make a driver liable when they cause an accident under the influence of such prescription drugs.

The side-effects of medication that can impair a driver include:

• Blurred vision
• Nausea
• Fainting
• Drowsiness
• Impaired cognitive function
• Slow reaction times

Anyone of these side-effects can lead to an accident, and when they do, you do have a strong case as a victim of such a driver.

Will You Get a Higher Settlement from an Impaired Driver?

The fact that the driver was impaired by prescription drugs or not will not necessarily influence the amount of money you can expect to receive. The settlement amount depends on what your damages are, not on the reason why the other driver is liable. In some states, though, this information can influence the settlement amount: when you are in a state of pure comparative negligence (like Missouri, for example), and you are partially at fault for the accident, the settlement amount will be calculated based on the proportion in which you are both at fault, and this could be established by looking at the reasons for one’s negligence.

Even though a driver facing a DUI will only have to answer for that in the face of the law and criminal court, you can still use testimony and documents from the criminal case to back up your civil lawsuit. You can actually call police officers or experts like toxicologists as witnesses in your civil suit.

Negligence from driving under the influence of prescription meds is not easy to prove, so we strongly recommend seeking the assistance of an experienced St. Louis car accident attorney who can help you build a strong case and protect your legal rights. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4242 for a FREE case evaluation.

The law is clear: if you are responsible for a car accident, then you are liable for compensation. Missouri is a pure comparative fault state, meaning that all drivers involved in the car accident could potentially be liable if they are all responsible, at least in part, for the collision.

However, in some cases, it’s not a drunk driver, or someone using their phone and not paying attention to the road that may have caused the accident. It could be someone with a genuine medical condition, like dementia. Who pays then?

Understanding What Dementia Is

Dementia is a neurodegenerative condition that affects 46.8 million people worldwide. This disease does not hit you all at once – symptoms can be very slow to appear in some cases, taking even years to fully affect a person’s life.

On average, people with dementia can experience:

• Memory loss
• Disorientation
• Mood swings
• The trouble with planning or following steps
• Confusions regarding time and space

People with dementia are sometimes allowed to continue driving. Now, the law doesn’t mandate people to disclose they are suffering from dementia when renewing their license, but doctors do have the option of reporting these drivers if there is a concern their driving may put themselves or others in danger.

In most cases, the person will dementia will get a driving assessment that will show if they are still able to drive or not, and will need to repeat it as their doctor’s recommendation.

Who Pays for Compensation?

This can be a tricky question because it greatly depends on the case at hand. If the person with dementia has permission to drive, then they will be liable through their auto insurance. However, they are also required to disclose to the insurance company that they are suffering from this condition. If they don’t, the insurance company may be able to deny covering the claim because their client breached the contract.

Additionally, it’s also possible for a person with dementia to get behind the wheel even if they are not allowed. This condition can create a lot of confusion, and the person may very well forget they cannot drive anymore and get behind the wheel without their caretaker noticing.

In this case, the person legally responsible for the person with dementia may, therefore, be held liable. Technically, auto insurance coverage does extend to family members, but this situation creates a grey area and it’s possible to have a hard time getting compensated.

What Should You Do?

These cases can be incredibly difficult because you are not dealing with a reckless driver, but with a very sick person. Still, you still have the right to be compensated. Reach out to a St. Louis car accident lawyer to find out what your legal options are.

A car accident often leaves the victim in a personal financial crisis, with high medical bills, lost wages and other expenses they might have during the recovery phase. With all this stress involved, it may seem that hiring a St. Louis auto accident lawyer would only add to the cost of an accident.

Some victims feel confident enough in their own negotiating capabilities to consider representing themselves during the car accident claim trial. However, this decision rarely saves them more money. On the contrary, not having an attorney to represent you can drastically reduce the settlement you will obtain.

Here are the main reasons why you should not represent yourself during a car accident claim:

You Should Invest All Your Time and Effort into Your Recovery

If you got injured, then you will most likely have to visit doctors and specialists, take time from work to rest and recover, and undergo treatment for your injuries. Depending on the severity of your injuries, you are more or less capable of moving around and the discovery period of your trial can be really tiring: gathering evidence, submitting all necessary documents in time, contacting witnesses and experts, and much more.

You May Lack the Experience and Knowledge an Attorney Has

No matter how well you know the law, if you are not a car accident attorney yourself, you may not understand all the legal details that will be relevant to your case. Laws are also updated periodically and they might be interpreted wrongly by an untrained eye. You may also lack the experience related to the court, the judges, the jury, etc. An experienced attorney can navigate smoothly through this process, focused on getting you a fair settlement.

It’s Likely That You Will Settle for Less Than You Should

When you represent yourself, you are more likely to be tempted by the first offer the insurance company will make. Too many times, this offer is lower than you should rightfully get, and the insurer only proposes an amount this low because they also expect negotiations. Taking the first offer might get you money fast and release you from the stress of handling the case, but it’s a loss in the long run.

Time Management

Think about the actual time you will have to spend doing representing yourself in a car accident case. Split between doctor’s appointments and legal documentation, it’s easy to miss a deadline or just make mistakes.

If you have been involved in an accident, it is in your best interest to speak with an experienced car accident attorney. At The Hoffmann Law Firm, L.L.C. we have over 20 years of experience handling these claims. We can evaluate your case FREE of charge and we work on a contingency fee. Simply put, we only get paid and if and when you get compensated.

Call (314) 361-4242 for a FREE case evaluation.