Blog Posts in 2010
Posted on Dec 21, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Sometimes personal injury accidents are caused by someone who shouldn't be using a certain product or driving a car in the first place. For example, a car accident might be caused by someone who ...
Continue reading "Negligent Entrustment" »
Posted on Dec 13, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
A common concern of my personal injury victims is whether they will owe anything for their medical bills when their case is over. The answer depends on whether the health care provider or health ...
Continue reading "Unpaid Medical Bills" »
Posted on Nov 23, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
One of the most important pieces of evidence in car accident cases is the police report. It provides a number of key facts about how an accident happened and who was involved. It is also the ...
Continue reading "Police Reports and Car Crashes" »
Posted on Nov 15, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
As a subdivision of the state, public schools in Missouri have sovereign immunity. This means they can't be sued in personal injury cases. However, as with many rules in the law, there are exceptions. ...
Continue reading "School Immunity" »
Posted on Nov 11, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
One of the most pressing concerns my personal injury clients often have is how long their case will take. To give a very lawyerly response, it depends. If personal injury cases are not able to settle, ...
Continue reading "How Long Will My Case Take?" »
Posted on Nov 2, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Like airplanes, most modern cars have "black boxes" that record information prior to an accident. These devices, called Event Data Recorders, are crash resistant and store various types of data from ...
Continue reading "Black Boxes in Cars" »
Posted on Oct 20, 2010 By Matt Meyerkord
A 300-pound chimpanzee that escaped from its cage and ran amok made headlines recently in Kansas City. Had the chimpanzee injured someone, that person would have undoubtedly had a personal injury case ...
Continue reading "Kansas City Leash Laws Apply to Chimpanzees" »
Posted on Oct 13, 2010 By Matt Meyerkord
As a Kansas City personal injury attorney , the entirety of my practice is contingency cases. Generally speaking, this is where my fee is a percentage of the money I recover for you at the end of your ...
Continue reading "The Contingent Fee and How it Benefits You" »
Posted on Oct 6, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
One of the most frequently used reasons by insurance companies to deny or shortchange personal injury claims is a gap in treatment. This is when there's a long period of time between an accident and ...
Continue reading "Gap in Treatment" »
Posted on Sep 28, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
As a Kansas City personal injury attorney , one of the most common questions I hear is, "What is my case worth?" There are too many factors to list in one blog, but I can provide an overview. ...
Continue reading "Case Value: An Overview" »
Posted on Sep 21, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Last week I wrote about the basics of settlement negotiation. This week I'd like to talk about the transaction itself. What do you get when you settle a case and what do you give in exchange? The most ...
Continue reading "The Settlement Transaction" »
Posted on Sep 8, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
The vast majority of personal injury cases settle before trial. If you have a personal injury case, you should therefore know how the settlement process works. Settlement negotiation is just that; a ...
Continue reading "Settlement Negotiation" »
Posted on Aug 31, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
I recently learned from a colleague that some insurance defense firms are now accessing clients' Facebook and other social networking profiles to try and dig up information that can be used against ...
Continue reading "Be Careful What You Share on Facebook & MySpace" »
Posted on Aug 24, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Insurance companies have databases with information on people who have had prior insurance claims . They use these databases, called claims indexes, when someone has been hurt in a personal injury ...
Continue reading "Big Brother is Watching" »
Posted on Aug 13, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
I read an interesting article in law journal today about company cell phone use motor vehicle accidents and want to share it with you. But first, a little background. Under a legal theory called ...
Continue reading "Texting While Driving, Part Two" »
Posted on Aug 9, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Unlike personal injury cases, in Missouri workers' compensation cases, you don't need to prove wrongdoing. Worker's compensation is a fault-free system. You only need to prove generally that something ...
Continue reading "You Don’t Need Wrongdoing in Workers’ Compensation Cases" »
Posted on Aug 2, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Underinsured motorist coverage (called "UIM") and uninsured motorist coverage (called "UM") are two types of automobile insurance that every motorist in Missouri should have. They provide protection ...
Continue reading "Ummmm, UIM UM" »
Posted on Jul 22, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
An often overlooked piece of evidence in car accident cases or other personal injury cases is recordings from 911 calls. Many lawyers don't realize that these recordings are readily available and ...
Continue reading "911 Recordings" »
Posted on Jul 15, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Not wearing a seatbelt is surprisingly common. When you are in a car accident in Kansas City as a result of someone else's fault, but you are not wearing a seatbelt, there will be legal consequences ...
Continue reading "Seatbelts" »
Posted on Jul 7, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
Just like one of my favorite toys growing up, often times in a personal injury case there is more than meets the eye. In most cases there is a bit of information that can turn a good case into a great ...
Continue reading "Personal Injury: More Than Meets the Eye" »
Posted on Jun 30, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
There is no better way to prove a case than with pictures and video footage. Whether you were injured in a car accident , trucking accident, slip and fall , or have suffered any other kind of personal ...
Continue reading "A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words" »
Posted on Jun 24, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
As a Kansas City personal injury attorney , I come across comparative fault many times. Comparative fault is when you are partly to blame for an accident. It reduces your compensation by however much ...
Continue reading "Comparative Fault" »
Posted on Jun 18, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
It should come as no surprise that texting while driving is dangerous. In a recent article in the New England Journal of Medicine , a Virginia Tech study is discussed by a doctor in the hopes of ...
Continue reading "Texting While Driving" »
Posted on Jun 10, 2010 By Matthew D. Meyerkord
As a Kansas City personal injury attorney , I recently enacted a firm-wide policy of donating 5% of every fee to charity. Giving is important to me and this commitment is something I feel strongly ...
Continue reading "Donating to Charities" »
Posted on Apr 22, 2010 By Personal Injury Attorney
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new personal injury law blog, with an RSS feed available .
Continue reading "Welcome to our Kansas City Personal Injury Law Blog" »