Missouri Injury Law Blog

St Louis accident attorneys, Sansone / Lauber, obtained a favorable settlement in Cape Girardeau County on behalf of a Scott County high school student who was injured after a loose door divider fell and struck him on the head when he was walking through a gymnasium doorway. The lawsuit settled for a very favorable $75,000.00, plus court costs, about two weeks prior to trial. The injured Plaintiff suffered a concussion and incurred approximately $5,000 in medical bills. The claim was made against Scott County School District. See : PETITION - dangerous condition - School_Redacted.pdf.

When making an accidental injury or negligence claim against a public entity, such as a pubic school, certain issues must be considered and investigated since public entities have certain tort immunity under Missouri law. See: Government Entity Liability for Dangerous Conditions. Specifically, you must determine if the accidental injury you are making a claim for falls under one of the exceptions to sovereign immunity, additionally, you need to look for other 3rd parties that may be liable if the sovereign immunity caps apply and the damages from the injuries may exceed those caps.

In our recent Cape Girardeau premises liability case cited above, the school district was unable to dispute that the Plaintiff was injured by a loose double door divider that fell and struck the Plaintiff in the head as he walked through the doorway during gym class. The Defendant, Scott County High School, and its employees, had exclusive control over the gym doors, including the post. Additionally, we were able to show that Scott County had actual notice the center divider was loose or had fallen out the night prior to Plaintiff's injury.

The night before the negligent head injury, a teacher had actual knowledge of the dangerous condition. The school nurse testified that she heard from school employees the center divider fell out of the doorway the night before at the basketball game. Additionally, another teacher that was at the game, testified she leaned against the center divider and it moved, then a spectator at the basketball game tightened it up with just his hands, no tools. That same teacher testified nothing else was done to that center divider and she did not notify anyone. Cursory investigation fo the doorway showed that hand tightening would not be effective, the fastener holding the center pole is a small Allen bolt that is smooth without anyway to grip other than using an Allen wrench or pliers.

The Plaintiff was sent to the emergency room and diagnosed with a concussion. One year after the head injury, medical records documented that the Plaintiff was still suffering from post concussion symptoms including headaches.

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$575,000.00 Injury Settlement - Illinois Head / Brain Injury Settlement - Illinois Drunk Driving Car Accident Lawsuit

Evidentiary Issues to Consider under Missouri Law for a Slip and Fall Personal Injury Trial

Continue reading "Head Injury Settlement - Student Struck in Head at Missouri High School " »

With over a decade of experience handling personal injury claims, I have represented dozens of individual suffering from head injuries, including post concussion syndrome and more severe traumatic brain injuries. See Brain and Spine Injury Lawyer Articles. A head injury can be a slight as headaches and dizziness to severe as unconsciousness, visible injury to the brain, coma, or death. Brain injuries are need to be addressed medically and legally even when relatively minor.

One of the reactions to the recent awareness of how sever even perceived minor head injuries can become, the debate has begun about young children being allowed to play rough contact sports like football. Two of the world's leading experts on concussion related injuries disagree on the subject.

Any time a person sustains a head injury, there is risk of concussion. While a concussion may not sound too scary, the problem occurs in repeated incidents of concussions which can have serious long-term consequences. One especially troubling worry is that if an athlete, or a child, receives a second concussion before the first has fully healed, it can cause permanent injury or even death.

According to the experts, children who play football throughout high school may receive as many as 2,500 sub-concussive hits throughout their careers. A recent study found that the number of catastrophic brain injuries which caused permanent disabilities among high school football players increased to 13 during 2011. This alarming trend has researchers working on ways to make youth sports safer even if they don't agree on the best way to guarantee that safety.

The issue up for debate is whether the safety skills obtained by experiencing contact in the form of rough sports play early on in life is counterbalanced by the risk of injury caused by multiple concussions.

Boston University's Dr. Robert Cantu thinks that sports like ice hockey, lacrosse and tackle football should be off limits to kids under the age of 14 until rules are changed to limit risks of concussions and other injuries stemming from multiple blows to the head that so often come with the territory.

On the other side of the debate is Dr. Kevin Guskiewicz from the University of North Carolina. He believes young athletes need to learn how to deal with physical contact early on when they play against opponents who are the same age and size. Dr. Guskiewicz believes that such early exposure to proper safety techniques will ultimately lead to safer playing later in life.

Guskiewicz explains that "the youth league players generally are close to the same size and are about the same age. If you wait until the kids are freshmen in high school, you might have a 130-pound player competing with a 300-pound player. The forces can be tremendous. I believe it is safer for the players to learn at younger ages."

Cantu, who has treated a lot of youngsters with concussions, believes that it is absolutely critical to avoid repeated head injuries. "That's where Kevin and I differ," Cantu said. "I'm treating these children and I've seen them miss school for a week, a month, a semester, even a year because of post-concussion symptoms."

St. Louis personal injury lawyer Ben Sansone is an experienced Missouri injury trial lawyer practicing in all areas of personal injury including brain injury and medical malpractice. For information on how to protect your legal rights if you or a loved one has been seriously injured, call one of our Missouri personal injury attorneys today at 1-314-863-0500.

Source: "Concussion experts differ on safety in youth sports," by Tim Stevens, published at CharlotteObserver.com.

See Our Related Blog Posts:

St Louis Medical Malpractice Settlement: $900,000.00 for Spinal Cord Injury after Negligent Pain Injection

St Louis Auto Accident with Head Injury: Settlement obtained by Sansone Law

A St Louis medical negligence lawsuit we have been working on for several years settled for over $900,000. The injured Plaintiff was seen by a St Louis doctor who performed a cervical nerve root block. See Negligent Pain Injection Lawyer. Within fifteen minutes of the procedure she was left partially paralyzed, fortunately, she has mostly recovered from her paralysis and was able to return to her full time job.

We believe that the negligent doctor caused the partial paralysis by allowing the medicine to invade an artery through a combination of negligent techniques. One, the dosage of the pain medication steroid was double the recommended amount, two, the operative technique was negligent as he failed to use tubing between the syringe and needle to minimize needle movement, and three, the basic placement of the needle prior to the injection was in a dangerous location. See St Louis Medical Malpractice Lawyer Article: "Missouri Medical Negligence - Cervical Pain Injection Hits an Artery - Med Mal causes Depo Medrol to go into Spinal Cord and Brain - Spinal Cord Injury and Brain Injury resulting in Partial Paralysis"

Despite our injured client's neurological deficits, she missed only a few months of work and was able to return to her job full time within months of the spinal cord injury. She incurred about $200,000 in medical bills as a result of the injury and no lost wages. Generally, arterial invasion by a steroid results in devastating injuries and death, our client was lucky that her injuries were relatively minor.

One of the essential requirements to successfully pursuing a medical malpractice lawsuit is retaining a good medical expert. See St Louis Medical Negligence Attorney Article: "Use of Expert Witnesses by Missouri Injury Attorneys to successfully pursue Missouri Injury Claims and Lawsuits" Not only do you need an expert to testify regarding liability or negligence (violation of the medical standard of care), but before a Missouri medical negligence lawsuit can even be filed you must have a certificate of merit under Missouri Statute 538.225 or else the medical malpractice lawsuit will be dismissed. In fact, before retaining our St Louis medical malpractice law firm, our client initially retained another personal injury lawyer, however, they failed to file a certificate of merit and her case was dismissed. Additionally, they decided not to pursue the case after consulting with a medical expert. After we received the file, we immediately retained a well known and qualified expert in the field of diagnostic radiology. In fact, through a little research, we found out the expert the previous attorneys consulted with is a well defense expert, so obviously he talked the case down and immediately defended the negligent doctor.

Medical malpractice cases are time intensive, difficult, and very expensive. Many lawyers claim they handle medical malpractice cases, however few can successfully pursue them with excellent results. Choose your lawyer carefully.

Continue reading "St Louis Medical Malpractice Settlement: $900,000.00 for Spinal Cord Injury after Negligent Pain Injection " »

As St Louis personal injury attorneys, we see and handle a lot of cases involving traumatic brain injury (TBI). A competent brain injury lawyer will actively follow new bills that are introduced pertaining to insurance regulations which, in turn, greatly affect our injured clients with head injuries.

Recently Fox news published an article on the injustices surrounding traumatic brain injury cases. Brain Injury Patients Face Double Injustice -- Trauma and Mounting Bills Not only do patients suffer physical injury, but they must also deal with the surmounting medical bills that medical insurance will not pay. Example, Corey Beattie, 18 years old, was involved in a truck accident when she was the passenger in a vehicle hit by a truck. It took two hours for rescue workers to remove her from the mangled car. She had a broken neck and multiple fractures. The doctors said that her brain "spun within the frame of her skull". Corey's mother was informed that she would need at least one year of consecutive inpatient rehabilitation. But like so many others, her insurance would only cover 6 ½ months of rehab. She was released and sent to outpatient therapy. Research suggests that with a severe brain injury such as this, the brain needs this 12 month window to have the best chance of rehabilitation and regeneration. The brain surgeon was overruled by bureaucracy.

Insurance companies are notorious for refusing to pay the ongoing treatment needed to complete rehabilitation in TBI and other serious medical cases. A New Jersey representative is advocating that congress step in to correct this issue. His proposal is to have the Department of Health and Human Services make treatment of TBI a benefit under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. He is suggesting that the government will be able to better determine the guidelines for what will and will not be paid with the intention that patients can get the ongoing care that they need. Whether or not this is the best solution, something needs to be done to fix this problem.

St Louis injury lawyer, Ben Sansone, has handled multiple severe brain injury cases to successful conclusions. Including just a few mentioned below:

$575,000.00 drunk driving car accident and brain Injury Settlement. Client was a passenger in the back of a vehicle struck by a truck driven by a drunk driver in Illinois.

A young boy that was struck in the head by a loose commercial door post while at school. The evidence shows that the school faculty were aware of the defective post the day prior but failed to repair or warn o the condition. This particular case is still pending, but we believe it is just a matter of time before the case settles favorably.

Head Injury from St Louis Auto accident. Minor physical injuries but client suffered post concussion syndrome (PCS) a minor form of head injury.

$500,000 settlement for St Louis construction worker struck on head with board and suffered a head injury.

Continue reading "Potential New Insurance Regulations related to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) " »

Under Missouri personal injury law, government and public entities are immune from certain causes of action, however, if a dangerous condition exists on the property then the government or public entity is liable. See St Louis Premise Liability Lawyer Article: "Missouri Premise Liability Cases Against Government Entities - i.e. park, zoo, injuries at public school, etc ..."

Even when they are liable, Missouri law affords a limit on the amount an injured person can recover from these entities, basically, $300,000 per injured person, adjusted for inflation. See Missouri Statute 537.610(2), stating:

The liability of the state and its public entities on claims within the scope of sections 537.600 to 537.650, shall not exceed two million dollars for all claims arising out of a single accident or occurrence and shall not exceed three hundred thousand dollars for any one person in a single accident or occurrence

However, what if the public entity has more than $300,000 in insurance coverage? Is that a waiver of the sovereign immunity limit of $300,000? Recently the court addressed that very issue in Farm Bureau Town & Country Ins. Co. of Missouri v. American Alternative Ins. Corp. In the Farm Bureau case, which involved a Missouri car accident with serious personal injures, the issue was addressed of whether or not a public entity (a fire protection district in this particular case) waives the sovereign immunity limit of $300,000 by purchasing insurance coverage in excess of that amount. The analysis of the case has wrote:

"Section 537.610.1 allows political subdivisions of the state to purchase liability insurance for tort claims and waives sovereign immunity `only to the maximum amount of and only for the purposes covered by such policy of insurance' or self-insurance plan.'" Kunzie v. City of Olivette, 184 S.W.3d 570, 574 (Mo. banc 2006). If the entity "maintains insurance that covers these types of claims, then it will have waived its immunity under section 537.610 for the specific purpose of and to the extent of its insurance coverage." Id. This waiver through the purchase of insurance effects "an absolute and complete waiver of all immunities." Id. The insurance effects such waiver when, "the plaintiff's claim falls within the purposes covered by the defendant's policy." Hummel v. St. Charles City R-3 School Dist., 114 S.W.3d 282, 284 (Mo.App. E.D. 2003). Here, it was stipulated that "[a]s a result of the . . . accident . . . various claims were asserted against [Mr.] Day" and that the amounts were "reasonable and were necessary to settle the claims against [Mr.] Day." .

Consequently, the Fire District waived sovereign immunity to the limits of the AAIC policy. This case may open the door to getting around the sovereign immunity limits in Missouri personal injury cases, and each case will be very fact specific, particularly, the language of the insurance policy and how it addresses, if at all, any waiver of the limits.

The above case involved a fire fighter and an automobile accident. Currently, St Louis brain injury lawyer, Ben Sansone, is handling a case against a Missouri school district after the center pole between the double door to the gymnasium was secured negligently and fell and struck a 13 year old boy in the head as he walked through the door. The insurance policy is in excess of $300,000, so the issue of the waiver of limits will come up in our case as well. This is a pending case and I will update this article if this issue us addressed.

A former patient of Doctor Chao, the Chargers' team doctor, received a $2.2 million dollar settlement in a medical malpractice settlement after filing a medical negligence lawsuit against the doctor for negligently lacerating her femoral artery, vein and nerve during a routine hip surgery.

The personal injury victim and claimant, is now required to take several different types of medications daily to deal with ongoing and severe chronic pain, additionally, she walks with a limp. The patient and her husband received personal injury settlements for economic and non-economic damages. The patient's husband received a portion for loss of consortium, while the patient, herself, received awards for pain and suffering, future life care and loss of income.

Currently, our St Louis personal injury law firm, is pursuing a case with similar injuries against a negligent St Louis area doctor for an improperly performed nerve root block injection, commonly referred to as a pain injection. See Missouri Medical Negligence - Paralysis from Pain Injection

The negligent surgeon, mentioned at the beginning of this article, Chao has been sued a total of 20 times by former patients alleging personal injury, negligence, and fraud along with other medical malpractice claims. Chao was also under investigation for writing 108 prescriptions listing himself as the patient. He denied such claims and said they were nothing more than clerical errors. Chao attained the position of Charger's doctor when the former doctor, Gary Losse, was fired due to an alleged addiction to narcotics - narcotics that Chao had been issued a $1,000 citation for unlawfully prescribing to Losse.

In a previous blog we discussed Missouri medical negligence law regarding impeachment. To be able to admit as evidence the long list of legal problems Dr. Chao has and continues to face and impeach him as credible, Missouri personal injury attorneys are allowed on cross-examination to ask "questions about any specific incidents of misconduct....that might tend to cast doubt on his credibility, veracity, or truthfulness". Also, attorneys are allowed to ask a witness or the defendant (or other witness) if they have heard of any "convictions, arrests, rumors or accusations of specific misconduct... However, such specific instances may not be proven by extrinsic evidence". Chao's prior drinking and driving arrests and complaints filed by the medical board regarding his abuse of alcohol and unprofessional conduct should also be admissible for impeachment.

San Diego Chargers Doctor Settles for 2.2 Million

Continue reading "Negligent Surgeon Settles for $2.2 Million - Doctor had extensive Past Issues to Allow Attacks on his Credibility at Trial" »

In October 2009, St Louis personal injury lawyerBen Sansone was retained by Tiffany H. to pursue a Missouri injury claim against the negligent driver's auto insurance after a rear end style collision occurring after she slowed for traffic on Highway 40 and the other driver not paying attention slammed into her vehicle.

Tiffany suffered from a minor head injury diagnosed as post concussion syndrome , additionally, she suffered from back and neck injuries requiring physical therapy and pain management.

Tiffany's medical bills totaled around $15,000 and her injuries resolved. Missouri head injury lawyer, Ben Sansone, was able to get a settlement for $75,000 by focusing on the head injury portion of the claim. Tiffany's head injury has resolved, however, experienced brain injury lawyers know how to pursue theses types of cases to secure maximum recovery, even when the head injury is relatively minor and resolves after several months.

This case demonstrates how a case that is perceived as a small injury case can be successfully pursued and settlement for a significant amount more given the proper approach and emphasis on head injury.

Our other head injury settlements:

St Louis construction worker suffers concussion - Settlement $500,000.00

Illinois driver suffers brain injury after drunk driving accident - Settlement $575,000.00

Continue reading "St Louis Auto Accident with Head Injury: Settlement obtained by Sansone Law llc" »

In October 2008 a St Louis personal injury victim and carpenter working on a St Louis Missouri residential two-story home that was under construction in St Louis County. On that same day a negligent construction worker and roofer who was an employee of St Louis based Allen Roofing & Siding was on the roof of that same residential house installing shingles.

At some point in the afternoon, while my St Louis personal injury client was walking out of the front door of the house, a negligent roofer threw a long and heavy “toe board” from the tall second story roof, that board speared my client directly in the head, giving rise to serious injuries and a St Louis Missouri personal injury claim as well as a Missouri worker's compensation claim. The toe board is heavy, 14 feet long, and consists of two 2x4s tacked together, the carpenter immediately suffered severe personal injury, collapsed to the ground in a pool of blood, and went into seizures.

See pictures below depicting the hard hat, toe board, and area of the house showing how high up the roof is.

My personal injury client suffered a severe head and neck injury, has ongoing post traumatic brain injury symptoms, and had several teeth knocked out requiring a dentist and oral surgeon. The carpenter's medical bills for treatment of his injuries are $66,070.

Allen Roofing and the roofer are liable for these injuries. The roofer negligently and recklessly tossed the toe board without any consideration for where it would land and who would be there. The carpenter was walking out the front door where a walkway path of plywood sheets was clearly marked and any reasonable person would expect people to walk on a construction site. Moreover, there were multiple other area the toe boards could have been dropped, as opposed to recklessly thrown, in the back and on the sides of the house where walkways were not established.

In addition to the claim against the roofer, my St Louis personal injury client also had a St Louis Missouri Work Comp claim as the injury sustained occurred at work. The St Louis work comp insurance carrier paid total benefits of just under $100,000.

The 3rd party personal injury claim against the roofer and his employer settled for $400,000.00 and thus a combined St Louis personal injury and worker's compensation settlement of just under $500,000.00.

In August 2007 my client was the injury victim of a high speed car accident caused by an Illinois drunk driver operating a large pick up truck owned by a car dealership. See: Illinois Truck Accident - Drunk Driver Covered by Auto Dealership Policy

In Missouri and Illinois evidence of intoxication by an at fault driver will, in most cases, allow the imposition of punitive damages. Under Missouri and Illinois law, punitive damages cannot be added to a lawsuit until after filing a motion with the court, showing sufficient evidence to justify punitive damages, then the court will grant leave to file punitive damages. As a practical matter, if the evidence is overwhelming that the driver was drunk, then I often will add punitive damages initially as the defense will not fight the punitive damages claim as they know the judge will ultimately allow it. For example, See Illinois Drunk Driving Lawsuit - Negligence and Punitive Damages. Should a motion be necessary for leave to file punitive damages allegations supporting drunk driving should suffice to have leave granted to file punitive damages. See: Motion for Leave to File Punitive Damages - Illinois Drunk Driving Personal Injury Lawsuit.

Punitive damages are important as they can be used to pressure the insurance company to settle quickly to avoid an excess judgement. An excess judgement is when the judgement exceeds insurance policy limits and thus holding the at fault driver personally responsible financially over and above his insurance coverage. In such situations, I send a letter to the insurance company demanding payment of policy limits within a certain time period, usually 30 days. At the expiration of the time period the offer is forever withdrawn. This tactic opens the insurance company up to potential liability for an excess judgment under a bad faith refusal to settle claim.

The key to the above drunk driving head injury personal injury lawsuit settlement was the combination of the potential excess judgment liability and even more importantly properly evaluating, treating, and proving our client's traumatic brain injury through his treating neurologist as well as different experts to evaluate his current impairment as well as future impairment that he will suffer as a result of the head injury.

As a result of our efforts, the Illinois drunk driving injury lawsuit settled for a total of $575,000.00 $350,000.00 from the car dealership's insurance policy covering negligent entrustment and the negligence of the drunk driver; $100,000.00 being the policy limit for the drunk driver's separate personal policy, and $125,000 from the insurance policy that covered the driver of the vehicle my client was traveling in.

If you or someone you know has suffered a traumatic brain injury, post concussion syndrome, or other head trauma as the result of the negligence or fault of another, please contact us for a free evaluation of your case.

Currently we are representing the victim of medical malpractice in St Louis Missouri, she was completely paralyzed after a cervical pain injection hit her artery taking the medication (depo medrol) to her spinal cord and brain, where it caused lesions and serious nerve damage. For several months she was completely paralyzed from the chest down, thankfully, she has made great strides since then but still faces many daily challenges. Unfortunately, she still walks with a severe limp and has no feeling from the waist down causing hardship on a daily basis.

The contrast dye that is shot first, before the steroid medicine, to confirm needle placement can be seen in the picture to the side.

A few lawyers told her she did not have a case, I have heard this before, in fact, my largest multimillion dollar medical malpractice settlement (4.5 million) was for a Missouri medical malpractice case that several previous lawyers though was not a case; expertise and experience in the medical legal arena is key to evaluating a case. That case ended up being the largest reported Missouri medical malpractice settlement in Missouri for 2007 and settled for a whopping $4,500,000.00 about 1 month prior to trial.

After meeting with the client is this case I immediately knew she had a case and was determined to find the medical evidence and experts to support her case. Within just a few short months we had two specialists that 100% agree with me.

In this case, the patient received a depo medrol shot that was supposed to go into the nerve root and block the pain signal that was being sent to her brain. The St Louis MO medical negligence occurred when the pain injection doctor not only hit the artery, but then injected the depo medrol into that artery, carrying the medication to the spinal cord and frontal lobe of the brain and killing nerves and cells, thus resulting in serious spinal cord injuries and brain injuries resulting in permanent partial paralysis.