With the upcoming 4th of July weekend approaching, many motorists will be hitting the highways in search of their holiday destination.  With the influx of traffic, there will be Missouri car accidents this weekend.  Some of those accidents will involve alcohol, others will be caused by distracted driving.  One of the most common causes of serious car accidents in Missouri is driver distraction or inattention.  The safest way to avoid a car accident of this type is to keep off your cellphone and keep eyes on the road. 

Traffic on Interstates 70 and 44 will be heavy this weekend.  Despite the 70 mph speed limit, traffic will be slow and congested at times.  This presents a real danger, as cars and trucks that are used to traveling at freeway speeds for set distances will be faced with slowing traffic.  This is precisely what caused the recent fatal tractor-trailer crash in Herculaneum Missouri a few weeks ago.  In that instance, a distracted truck driver failed to notice slowing traffic and violently collided into seven passenger cars that were slowing in traffic congestion. 

If you notice traffic slowing ahead of you, check your rear-view mirror for fast-approaching vehicles.  If necessary, active your emergency flashers briefly to grab the attention of motorists traveling behind you, including large trucks.  If that doesn't work, your last resort may be to pull off onto the shoulder of the roadway to avoid a collision.  Bottom line is pay attention to your sorroundings on the highway and have a safe holiday weekend.  You don't want to be calling a St. Louis personal injury lawyer this weekend due to a preventable car accident.

With the upcoming 4th of July weekend approaching, many motorists will be hitting the highways in search of their holiday destination.  With the influx of traffic, there will be Missouri car accidents this weekend.  Some of those accidents will involve alcohol, others will be caused by distracted driving.  One of the most common causes of serious car accidents in Missouri is driver distraction or inattention.  The safest way to avoid a car accident of this type is to keep off your cellphone and keep eyes on the road. 

Traffic on Interstates 70 and 44 will be heavy this weekend.  Despite the 70 mph speed limit, traffic will be slow and congested at times.  This presents a real danger, as cars and trucks that are used to traveling at freeway speeds for set distances will be faced with slowing traffic.  This is precisely what caused the recent fatal tractor-trailer crash in Herculaneum Missouri a few weeks ago.  In that instance, a distracted truck driver failed to notice slowing traffic and violently collided into seven passenger cars that were slowing in traffic congestion. 

If you notice traffic slowing ahead of you, check your rear-view mirror for fast-approaching vehicles.  If necessary, active your emergency flashers briefly to grab the attention of motorists traveling behind you, including large trucks.  If that doesn't work, your last resort may be to pull off onto the shoulder of the roadway to avoid a collision.  Bottom line is pay attention to your sorroundings on the highway and have a safe holiday weekend.  You don't want to be calling a St. Louis personal injury lawyer this weekend due to a preventable car accident.

As a St. Louis Car Accident Lawyer, I am always asked by new client what the value of their car accident injury claim is.  The answer is not a simple one.  Any personal injury lawyer that is able to opine as to the value of an injury claim after first meeting with a new client is either purposely or mistakingly misleading the client.  The true value of an injury claim can only be determined when the victim has completed treatment OR when all treating doctors are in a position to forecast what the cost of future medical treatment will be.  Even the best doctors are not fortune tellers, they cannot forecast future medical costs with absolute certainty.  After it is all said and done, a lawyer can only offer a ballpark of what a car accident compensation claim is worth.

Compensation for injuries sustained in a serious car accident in Missouri depends on many factors, some of which have nothing to do with the injury victim.  For instance, the venue where the lawsuit will be filed factors into value.  Venue is a procedural law in which a lawyer must observe and file a civil injury lawsuit in a certain Missouri county or city circuit court.  The current venue laws in Missouri require a plaintiff to file his or her injury lawsuit in the county or city where the car accident took place.  Rural venues such as Audrain County, Butler County, and Clay County typically offer rather conservative jury pools, where a plaintiff can reasonably anticipate a verdict that is lower than an urban county such as St. Louis County or St. Charles County.  Venue is a value indicator that is often overlooked by less experienced Missouri personal injury lawyers.

Medical bills, lost wages, future medical costs, emotional damages, and pain & suffering all play a large part of how to value a car accident personal injury claim.  Medical bills and lost wages make up the economic damage component of the claim, while emotional damages and pain & suffering comprise the non-economic damage portion of the claim.  Age, marital status, economic status, and other factors also effect the value of the claim.  Younger plaintiff's can typically expect to obtain more compensation for their personal injuries, especially if the injuries are permanent.  Keep in mind that even soft-tissue injuries such as disc herneation and whiplash injuries can be categorized as permanent.

The first step to understanding the value of your Missouri car accident injury claim is to contact a St. Louis personal injury lawyer.  An experienced injury lawyer can discuss all the components that will effect the value of your specific case and offer advice on how to protect this value from being minimized by an insurance claims adjuster.  Contact a Missouri personal injury lawyer by calling (866) 840-3636 or locally at (314) 448-0934.

Statistics prove that personal injury victims rarely receive fair compensation for their claim unless a personal injury lawyer is handling the case.  Insurance claims adjusters are highly trained individuals that are commonly rewarded by minimizing compensation paid on personal injury claims.  Through recent pending insurance bad fair litigation with Allstate, it was discovered that claims adjusters are incentivized with paid vacations, even small refrigerators, for lowering claims payouts or denying claims all together.  Following in the footsteps of Allstate, many of the country's largest insurance companies have used McKenzie Consulting Services, a corporation that essentially revamped the way Allstate handles insurance claims.  The result - a landscape of insurance bad faith claims and victimized customers and personal injury victims.

Missouri law requires that an insurance company put the interests of its customer ahead of the company's desire to maintain high profits. Unfortunately, they don't.  Insurance companies are primarily focused on pleasing shareholders and top executives.  They are in business to make a profit, and will go to great lengths to achieve this goal.  Personal injury victims who attempt to negotiate directly with an insurance claims adjuster will find themselves on an uneven playing field.  Without a keen knowledge of the laws of Missouri, injury victims will make the mistake of signing unlimited medical records release authorizations, giving recorded statements or interviews, and ultimately settling their case for pennies on the dollar.  It is strictly a numbers game with the insurance companies, and their bet is that you will not retain a personal injury lawyer to file your claim.  This gamble ALWAYS pays off for the insurance company.

Missouri personal injury lawyers are the equalizers of the insurance claims process.  We make sure that the insurance companies are fair when it comes time to negotiating compensation for a settlement, or taking the case before a judge and jury.  Personal injury lawyers make sure that victims' medical history remains a private matter, not one for the insurance company to drove through like an open book.  We see that baseless arguments of a pre-existing medical condition or comparative fault do not destroy your injury claim.  Don't be victimized twice.  Contact a Missouri personal injury lawyer for free by calling (866) 840-3636 and get your questions answered by an attorney that ONLY represents personal injury victims. 

Our St. Louis personal injury lawyers have received several calls from victims of the fatal truck crash that occurred in Jefferson County last week.  The facts of the crash are all too familiar for the resides of the St. Louis metropolitan area.  An inattentive tractor-trailer driver crashes into traffic on a major interstate highway, causing serious injuries and fatalities.  In this most recent crash, two motorists lost their lives, one at the scene and another shortly thereafter at the hospital.

As St. Louis personal injury lawyers, our firm must immediately request preservation of evidence involved in any serious car accident or tractor-trailer crash.  For accidents involving newer cars and trucks, we can secure the electronic control module (ECM) and download critical data that may help prove liability in a personal injury accident claim for compensation.  Data from the ECM doesn't lie, and often times this information can be used in court or a mediation to motivate the defendant's insurance company to settle the case for a substantial amount of compensation.

Tractor-trailer accidents in Missouri are particularly complicated because they involve both state and federal laws.  These types of injury claims typically result in heated litigation and heavily contested issues of law and fact.  The insurance company for the trucking company will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight innocent victims in court.  These companies have deep pockets and it isn't uncommon for them to hire multiple defense lawyers to defend a truck crash injury claim. 

Contact a Missouri personal injury lawyer at Schultz & Myers for advice on how to proceed with your claim for compensation.  Consultations are the firm are always free and you will always speak with a lawyer, not support staff.  Don't be victimized twice. Call today at (314) 448-0934 or toll-free at (866) 840-3636.

The Missouri Highway Patrol has confirmed the cause of the tractor-trailer crash in Herculaneum that killed two and seriously injured several others.  Authorities claim that 32 year-old truck driver Jay Valentine of Huntsville Texas took his eyes off the road long enough to miss traffic slowing down in front of his semi-truck.  When Valentine glanced back at the road it was too late, and a rear-end chain reaction crash that involved eight vehicles took place.  Names of the two killed in the crash have not yet been released, but police say they are a 52 year-old man and 28 year-old woman from Festus.  One person was pronounced dead at the scene, while the other was rush to a local hospital but unable to recover due to the catastrophic nature of the injuries. 

Cpl. Jeff Wilson obtained a statement from Valentine that he "looked over his to his right, and looked back, and traffic had slowed."  The tractor-trailer first struck a small Ford Focus, dragging it for over 100 yards.  The Focus was hard recognizable from the crash, and resulted in the death of the 52 year-old Festus man.  The man may not have survived, even if he was in a tank, given the rate of speed at impact.  The 28 year-old Festus woman who died at St. Louis University Hospital was driving a Pontiac Vibe, which is a smaller passenger vehicle, similar to the Focus.

The facts of this fatal Herculaneum truck crash are strikingly similar to the crash which occurred on Highway 64/40 near the Mason Road exit in 2008, which resulted in three fatalities.  Truck driver inattention is a serious safety concern, especially in urban areas where traffic congestion can occur at the blink of an eye.  It is unclear whether Valentine was using his cell phone at the time of this crash, but a Herculaneum truck crash attorney will certainly subpoena his mobile records to find out.  Use of a cell phone by truck drivers is currently the topic of a major debate amongst federal and state safety officials.    

Authorities are still investigating a fatal truck accident that took place on Interstate 55 in southern Missouri on Wednesday afternoon.  The serious crash closed down northbound I-55 for several hours.  Because the crash involved a fatality and a commercial motor vehicle, the Missouri State Highway Patrol called in an accident reconstruction team.  Typically a crash reconstruction involving this level of injury and number of vehicles will take several weeks to complete.  The reconstruction report will include detailed data gathered from the scene, including witness statements, sight distances, skid marks, vehicle data, and weather information.

The 5 o-clock news interviewed a trooper from the Missouri Highway Patrol who stated that the crash was likely caused by the "inattention of the semi-truck driver."  The collision involved 8 vehicles.  The driver of the vehicle that was first in line was pronounced dead at the scene.  Another woman died shortly after being admitted to the hospital.  Several other motorists and passengers were injured in the crash.  Witnesses state that the tractor-trailer just plowed into slowing traffic.  It is unclear at this time whether the truck driver will face criminal charges. 

A Herculaneum 18-wheeler accident lawyer must request a Circuit Court Order commanding preservation of the electronic control module (ECM) located on the tractor-trailer.  A competent accident investigator and engineer can download data located on the truck's ECM to assist in determining the cause of the crash.  Typically this data will include speed of the truck, gear number, and rpm of the truck at the time leading up to the collision.  This data is critical in assisting a Missouri personal injury lawyer in presenting a claim against the truck driver and his commercial motor carrier.  Contact a top 100 trial lawyer at Schultz Legal Group today by calling (314) 448-0934.