We are personal injury lawyers who handle cases in Missouri and Kansas and have tried and handled cases in both states. In both states, the location of your injury can greatly affect the value of your personal injury case. This is because generally, personal injury cases must be tried at the courthouse in the circuit where the accident happened. Here are a few ways in which the location of your injury can affect the value of your case.
- The nature of the juries.
In some places, juries are less inclined to give full and fair compensation in their verdicts, or are more likely to come to the courthouse with biases and prejudices against personal injury victims. We know this through verdict data when it is available for a courthouse. If it's not available, we have to rely on other lawyer’s personal experience. Regardless, if you get hurt in a county where the juries tend to give smaller verdicts or defense verdicts, the value of your case will likely decrease.
- The nature of the judges.
Judges are the gate-keepers of the evidence. They decide what the jury gets to hear in your case based on their interpretation of the law of evidence. These interpretations can vary greatly so that one judge might allow the jury to hear a piece of evidence, but a different judge may prevent the jury from hearing that very same evidence. If that evidence is a key part of your case, it can have a big effect on the jury verdict. In fact, it may cause you to lose your case outright. If the circuit covering the place you got hurt has a reputation for bad judges, then it may decrease the value of your case.
- The roadblocks to investigation.
We have developed many tools to investigate a case and gather evidence to help win. These include surveillance footage from local businesses or houses, statements of witnesses to the incident, or police documents. However, in remote areas where these things are not available, it may be more difficult to get good evidence. This case has an effect on the value of your personal injury case.
These are but a few of the ways in which the location of your accident can affect the value of your personal injury case. If you have questions about the effect of the location of your injury on your case, please do not hesitate to contact our firm at (816) 867-8611.