Missouri Injury Law Blog

In our recent Missouri injury law blog article, it was noted that health care providers are in business to make money; that is perfectly proper, except when making money becomes more important than making an appropriate diagnosis.

Several Missouri injury plaintiffs filed a Missouri Medical Malpractice lawsuit citing medical negligence against a Missouri physician, clinic, and the clinic’s CEO. They alleged the doctor “intentionally treated them for afflictions they didn’t have, to profit from the sales of in-house supplements and other treatments.” The lawsuit also claimed fraudulent misrepresentation, medical negligence, and violations of the Missouri Merchandise Practices Act.

A Jackson County Circuit Judge approved a confidential settlement on October 12, for one of the plaintiffs. This plaintiff alleged, in her Missouri Medical Malpractice lawsuit, that the doctor intentionally and negligently diagnosed her with 21 different disorders, when she went in to the clinic for abdominal and chest pains. The doctor diagnosed her with Lyme disease - which was later discovered to be hyperthyroidism – and prescribed several different medications along with alternative medicines. Plaintiff alleged that as a result of the misdiagnosis, she had to undergo surgery and continues to suffer from related injuries.

In May 2009, a consolidated Medical Malpractice related case settled for $24 million on behalf of two other patients and their spouses. This Missouri Personal Injury Medical Malpractice case involved not only the aforementioned doctor, the clinic, and the CEO of the clinic, but it also included the Florida-based laboratory that the clinic uses. The parties alleged that the laboratory falsified test results to profit from sales.

There are at least four other Missouri Personal Injury lawsuits pending against this Kansas City doctor and clinic.

There is an ongoing battle to determine the definition of the phrase, “value of medical treatment rendered”, and what this means in regard to financial compensation for medical bills in Missouri Personal Injury cases. A recent unanimous decision by the Supreme Court at least puts an end to the bills paid being the only measure. Now it appears, both bills paid and amount charged will be submitted to the jury; however, many judges on the circuit level have held the statue unconstitutional and thus only amount charged has been submitted in may cases. This Supreme Court decision did not address the constitutionality of the statute; hopefully that issue will be considered int he future.

In 2003, a Missouri negligent driver rear-ended several cars. One of the Missouri personal injury and car crash victims of that car accident sustained several injuries, causing her to undergo surgery, physical therapy and other medical needs. She filed a Missouri personal injury lawsuit stemming from the car crash claiming the other driver was negligent in causing the collision and her personal injuries. She sought compensation for her medical expenses that totaled $28,000 but after adjustments, Medicare, supplemental insurance etc, only $9,900 was actually paid to the medical providers.

The Missouri car accident and personal injury claimant attempted to admit evidence which showed the full amount of her medical bills. She also had testimony of physicians to prove that her value of medical treatment was the amount billed to her, not the amount that was paid by insurance after adjustments.

The trial court would not allow this testimony on grounds that the presumption in section 490.715.5, in the RSMo Supp. 2005, (which states that the dollar amount, after adjustments, needed to pay the plaintiff’s financial obligation, constitutes the value of the medical treatment rendered), was not rebutted, and therefore the court determined that the value of the injury victim's medical treatment was what she ended up having to pay – not what was billed.

In Deck v Teasley, The Supreme Court of Missouri reversed a portion of the trial court’s judgment regarding damages, remands the case for a new trial on the issue of damages. This unanimous decision was determined on the grounds that the trial court erred by misapplying the law by stating the statutory presumption was not rebutted, and by ruling that the claim for medical expenses was limited to the amount paid not the amount billed. The key to this is that the rebuttable presumptions requires the trial court to determine if the rebutting party has presented substantial evidence to prove that the value of the medical treatment rendered is a different amount from the amount necessary to satisfy the bill to the medical provider.

It also found that the evidence she was trying to present to the jury, was in fact admissible. By doing this, the jury was only permitted to hear evidence that the value of her treatment totaled $9,900 and was not allowed to consider evidence of the $18,100, which would naturally, affect the merits of the action. This also prevented the jury from considering the possibility of future surgeries and treatments.

Continue reading "Under Missouri Personal Injury Law, Medical Damages are Amount BILLED to patient, NOT Amount PAID by Insurance; assuming proper evidence is established by Plaintiff" »

A negligent or reckless driver can be held liable for their actions both in criminal and civil courts, as their actions may have violated criminal laws as well as caused personal injury to a victim. As a basic legal tenant, in a personal injury claim for wrongful death, one must pass the “but for” test. This is to say, “this person would not have died, ‘but for’ this defendant’s specific action(s)”. Andy and Debbie Smallwood of Carthage, Missouri were able to see the young man that killed their daughter held accountable in both the criminal court and civilly for personal injury.

The Smallwood's settled a Missouri wrongful death claim resulting from a car accident with auto insurance company American Family Insurance this past Tuesday in their Missouri wrongful death lawsuit against Jarub R. Baird. The parents will receive $25,000 each in compensation for their daughter’s life that was taken 4 years ago.

In December 2006, the negligent and reckless driver was driving a car, full of teenagers, at speeds well over 100 mph. He hit a patch of ice which caused the car to go airborne, hit a telephone pole, run through a barbed-wire fence and continue to roll the length of a football field.

Only one of the three teens managed to secure her seat belt moments before the accident. She, along with the negligent and reckless teenage driver, suffered only minor injuries. One passenger suffered a traumatic brain injury, three broken bones in his hand and a broken femur. Another passenger was thrown through the front windshield and tragically died at the scene of this horrific Missouri car crash.

The driver was charged, and later convicted of one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of assault in the second degree. The Missouri reckless driver will serve consecutive 4 and 3 year sentences, respectively, in the Missouri Department of Corrections.

See St Louis injury attorney Ben Sansone's Missouri Injury Law Bog Article for a case similar to this one involving high speed driving, involuntary manslaughter charges, and Missouri wrongful death

If your family has suffered a Missouri or Illinois wrongful death or personal injury, please contact experienced wrongful death and personal injury attorney, Benjamin Sansone. This was another avoidable tragedy, but we are glad that not only will the defendant driver be held accountable criminally, but there will also be some type of monetary restitution made to the victims and victim’s family.

A $20 million dollar personal injury lawsuit verdict was awarded this week in favor of the Metheny family of Arkansas. The family filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Children’s Hospital’s insurance company, Proassurance Indemnity Company Inc.

In 2004, a 15 year old patient, Cody Metheny, underwent brain surgery in hopes of reducing seizures and the amount of medication he was required to take. During the surgery, representatives of the media were present to observe and photograph the medical procedure. The Gazette ran a pictorial of Dr. Badih Adada reviewing Cody’s brain scans prior to the surgery (as shown above).

Everything seemed procedurally correct. However, four hours into the surgery, surgeons realized they had been removing pieces from the wrong side of his brain, obvious medical negligence causing severe brain injury and associated symptoms. As soon as the surgical staff realized what they were doing, they immediately contacted the top four people connected to the hospital: the CEO, vice president, risk manager and nursing supervisor. At that time they performed a second operation on the correct side of the brain. They did not, at any time, contact Cody’s parents. “All those people knew, but the family didn’t know,” said Grant Davis, attorney for the family.

The medical malpractice lawsuit alleged, among other things, that the mistake permanently changed Cody’s personality and behavior; the surgical team did not perform all of the hospital’s pre-surgery protocols; and the doctors failed to notify Cody’s parents of the mistake.

The Metheny’s found out about the doctors' negligence by accident when, 15 months later, they took their son to another hospital for a second opinion on Cody’s recovery and changes. The jury returned a unanimous verdict – in part because of the lack of honesty from the hospital.

We have discussed how open communication between doctors and patients is invaluable. This case further proves that hospital cover-ups not only still happen, but are ultimately detrimental to the reputation of the facility and its bottom line.

St Louis personal injury lawyer Ben Sansone's comments on Erin's article:

Since I began my St Louis injury law firm about 10 years ago, I have handled dozens of Missouri and Illinois medical negligence cases arising from medical errors by doctors, surgeons, and health care staff. At first I was surprised by the cover ups and frequency of mistakes by medical personnel, all my life I held doctors up to be perfect, but they are just human and a certain percentage will make negligent mistakes and cause injuries to patients, that is just a fact of life. A certain percentage of negligent doctors will attempt to cover those mistakes up, because in the end, health care providers are primarily in business, like anyone else, to make money and mistakes cost money and reputation points; and since they control the medical records cover ups are not uncommon.

In fact just recently, in an Illinois wrongful death and medical negligence case, we received the medical records and about 6 months later were able to discover the originals were whited out, which you cannot see on a copy. See the picture of the whited out original. The excuse by the negligent doctor, as expected, was a claimed mistake in taking down the history so she whited it out. However, medical record keeping standards require mistakes to be crossed out, not hidden, and then the correction written next to it. In the picture to the right the original record is held up against a window so the light shines through and showed what the doctor whited out to cover up a mistake. This was not an insignificant entry, the entry hidden by the whiteout is a crucial part of the case and shows that the Illinois wrongful death victim was suffering symptom "x 1 day" which the negligent doctor disputes claiming her death was caused by a sudden onset of symptoms after she saw her and not that she failed to diagnose bronchi pneumonia.

Staff Article - Erin Mace.

We have discussed driving while texting, (or "DWT"), in a previous Missouri Personal Injury Law blog article, but I recently read an article that was titled, “Texters, you’d be better off driving drunk” and thought this would be a good follow up.

On September 21, laws regarding driving while texting were the major topic at the Transportation Department’s Distracted Driving Summit. They discussed why cell phones, combined with moving motor vehicles, are so deadly. They also discussed why it has been so difficult to define this danger which is the root cause to many car accidents and personal injuries.

According to recent studies, driving while texting is more deadly than being legally intoxicated while driving. This study found that cell phone users had a much slower reaction time than those who were drunk. A test subject, with a 0.08 blood alcohol content and driving 70 mph, was made to break suddenly. He traveled approximately 4 feet “beyond his baseline performance”. A completely sober subject performed the exact same test; the only difference was he was reading an e-mail at the time he was made to break suddenly. He traveled 36 feet beyond the baseline result. While sending a text message during the test, subjects traveled 70 feet.

In a recent poll they found that in 2009, Americans text 15 times more the number of messages than in 2005. Most drivers said that they would ban texting while driving, even though these are the same ones that admitted to engaging in this activity.

There have been many different ideas proposed for stopping people from cell phone use while driving. As we discussed in the previous blog, laws have been passed, foundations have been formed, and bumper stickers made. None of these things seem to be working. This is because the penalties are quite lenient, and the fines that are imposed are less than speeding fines.
Missouri DUI laws are some of the most relaxed in the country – and they are still somewhat strict. DUI laws around the country vary from minimum fines of $200 to $1,500, license suspension from 90 days to one year, and jail time from 48 hours to 2 years. States with driving while using a cell phone fines typically are $20.00 for the first offense and $50.00 for each successive violation.

If driving while using a cell phone, in any capacity, is more dangerous than driving while legally intoxicated, why are the laws less stringent than DUI laws? How do the police officers enforce these laws that more and more states are trying to implement? The problem with driving while using your phone is a cognitive problem – a distraction in the mind more so than a physical distraction. How do you regulate distraction while driving? At some point law makers will have to remove car radios to be consistent.

I am currently taking some Criminal Justice classes. My class is mostly comprised of police officers so I asked them these same questions and the majority responses somewhat shocked me. They said that the DUI laws are too strict in some aspects, driving while texting is a fairly new problem, the texting laws are almost impossible to enforce, and – my favorite – there is no need for these laws, as we already have laws that cover what texting while driving causes (i.e. swerving, running stop signs, speeding, and accidents).

They also said that they see more accidents from drivers messing with their car radios than messing with their phones. Some municipalities are adding what will appear as an addendum-like charge to a careless and imprudent violation. This will allow the fine to be raised but that is all.

Just as Missouri does not list “driving with no seatbelt” as a primary offense, they will not have "driving while using a mobile device" as one either.

We receive a lot of questions regarding personal injury related statute of limitations for Missouri and Illinois. Keeping in mind that each and every case is dependent on many different variables, below we have listed Missouri and Illinois civil statutes of limitations. This is to be used as general information only and should not dissuade you from seeking counsel for your individual situation.

Most of the Missouri civil statutes of limitations are in Title 35 (XXXV), Chapter 516 of the Missouri Revised Statutes. Most Illinois civil statutes can be found on the Illinois General Assembly website.

Missouri

Personal Injury, 5 years
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516-120.4

Product Liability, 5 years
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 516-120.4

Wrongful Death, 3 years
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 537-100

Illinois

Medical Malpractice, 2 years after knowledge of injury (or should have known)
735 ILCS 5/13-212

Personal Injury, 2 years
735 ILCS 5/13-202

Products Liability, 12 years from the date of first sale, or 10 years from the date of the first sale to initial user, whichever expires earlier.
735 ILCS 5/13-213(b)

Personal Property Damage, 5 years
735 ILCS 5/13-205

Wrongful Death, 2 years of death
740 ILCS 180/2

We hope this clarifies some of the questions you may have regarding your potential or ongoing Missouri or Illinois Personal Injury case.

If you believe you have a personal injury claim or lawsuit please contact St Louis Personal injury lawyer Ben Sansone immediately to discuss your potential claim, as once the statue of limitations runs, your claim is forever barred.

When you believe you are involved in a potential Missouri or Illinois Personal Injury claim, it can become a very confusing and emotional time for you and your family. I receive several phone calls and emails per week from new or potential new clients requesting information to better understand the process of a lawsuit. We at Sansone Law understand that having a clear procedural outline and timeline are key to client peace of mind.

Therefore, over the next few weeks we would like to flood you with applicable information which will take you step by step through the entire procedure.

We hope to answer some of the common questions frequently asked by new and potential new clients. Please contact us if you do not see information regarding a particular question you may have.

To the left of this article you can see a list of the types of cases we represent. Though we also specialize in Criminal and DWI/DUI Defense, our primary practice area is Personal Injury.

A Missouri and Illinois Personal Injury Lawsuit is a civil law case resulting from any type of accident that leads to bodily or psychological injury. It could encompass many different areas such as: auto accidents; product defects; medical malpractice; and those listed under the Personal Injury tab at the top of the page.

Normally, some form of “Do I have a case?” is the first question we hear. Here are a few things Missouri and Illinois Personal injury attorneys look for to see if the case has legal merit:

Most Missouri and Illinois personal injury claims have two very general but essential elements:

1. Liability: who is legally liable for your injury?
2. Damages: how much money are you entitled to?

In other words, not only does someone need to be negligent, but more importantly, an injury (mental, physical, or both) must be directly and proximately caused from the negligence. Mr. Sansone likes to analogize this area of law with the common saying, "no harm - no foul"

So, to recover damages as a result of one of the exampled types of Personal Injury cases, we need to know if, because of someone else’s negligence, you have suffered injury to your person or property.

Once we have determined whether or not your situation has legal merit, we will be able to sit down together and discuss moving forward with the investigatory part of your case.

Sansone Law does work on a contingent fee basis. This means that we will upfront all costs associated with the investigation and will be repaid only if a recovery is made. Therefore, if there is no recovery, there is no fee. Any and all costs advanced by the Sansone Law, shall be the financial responsibility of Sansone Law.

After we have completed the investigatory process, we will put together a demand package in hopes of settling your case out of court. This package will include the facts obtained in the investigatory period. If the negligent party will not settle, we will file a lawsuit on your behalf.

We hope this overview of the process helps dispel some questions or concerns regarding your potential personal injury case. We will have links associated with each step of this process that goes into further, specific detail.