Here at Holman Schiavone Law, LLC, we take on personal injury cases on a contingency fee basis. This allows us to take on the clients who need us most without the worry of up-front fees. It also means that victims do not have to pay us anything if we cannot win them a settlement. We take on the risks, allowing victims of negligence to seek compensation for their injuries without fear.

If you or somebody you love has been injured in an accident caused by the negligence of another party, we are here to help you pursue the recovery of your damages and compensation for the stress, pain and suffering you have been put through as a result.

We have a long history of success under our belts, and we have won cases for clients in nearly identical situations to yours, giving us an advantage when it comes to tailoring a bespoke strategy.

Our commitment to achieving justice for our clients means that we do not walk away until we are sure we have explored every avenue. We never settle for less.

As soon as you have agreed to representation from one of our attorneys, they take over all aspects of the case on your behalf. They will investigate what happened, collecting the evidence necessary to build the strongest, most compelling case on your behalf, and will liaise with all of the relevant parties, such as the insurance companies on both sides.

With an attorney taking over the difficult parts of the case, you can take a step back and focus on what is important, your recovery and your mental health, confident in the knowledge that a capable advocate is on your side.

Give us a call at 816-320-6108 for a free consultation regarding your personal injury lawsuit today.

Injured woman sits on a wheelchair with an arm sling. Our team of knowledgeable Kansas City personal injury attorneys can help you get the compensation you deserve.

Personal Injury Solutions for Accident Victims in Kansas and Missouri

If you have been injured in a motor vehicle accident, slip-and-fall accident or any other type of personal injury accident, it is important to have an experienced attorney on your side through every step of the legal process.

The scope of our practice includes all types of personal injury cases:

Our lawyers have the skill and experience in personal injury law to assess the short-term and long-term consequences of your injury. We will work with you personally to determine the extent of the damage in terms of medical bills, lost wages, diminished quality of life and other damages. Whether through negotiating a fair personal injury settlement or presenting a strong case at trial, we will aggressively pursue maximum compensation for your losses and your future needs.

A personal injury claim form. Our Kansas City personal injury lawyer can help you file your claim after being injured due to another's negligence.

Step-by-Step Guide Following an Accident That Wasn’t Your Fault

When you have been involved in an accident caused by somebody else, there are things you can do that might help your case later on.

Check For Injuries

The first thing you need to do is to check yourself for injuries. If you are in pain, especially in the neck, shoulders, or back, you should remain still and wait for help to arrive. If you are certain your injuries will allow it, you can check others for injuries.

If there are any injured victims, you must call an ambulance immediately.

Move to Safety

If you are in further danger and your injuries allow you to do so, you should move out of further danger. An example of this would be moving to the side of the road following a car accident. This will stop you from suffering further injury.

Call Emergency Services

You should always call for an ambulance to attend to any accident where people have been injured, even if the injuries seem minor. In some cases, adrenaline can mask injuries that may prove later on to be fatal. A common example of this is when someone has internal bleeding.

If there has been a crime committed, or you were involved in a road traffic accident, you should call for the police. They will make the road safe for others, and they will deal with the criminal aspect of the accident. If you have reason to believe there was a drunk driver, it becomes even more important that the police attend the scene, as you will want the BAC blood alcohol test results later on.

Collect Evidence and Contact Information

In all personal injury cases, evidence is extremely important, and collecting some at the scene of the accident will massively increase your chances of a successful claim. The best way to collect evidence is to take pictures and videos of the accident scene and any important aspects, as well as recording a quick voice statement of what happened in your opinion. Even if your memory becomes hazy later on down the line, you then have a clear account you can give to your attorney.

If there were any eye witnesses on the scene of the accident, and they are willing to help you out, you should make sure you collect their details and, if possible, a quick statement. This ensures they are reliable as they only have to confirm they gave that statement at a later date instead of recording a fresh one weeks down the line.

Seek Medical Attention

If you did not need to receive medical attention from paramedics at the scene of the accident, you should head to a hospital for a check-up as soon as possible.

One important aspect of a personal injury case, is proving causation. Proving causation means you will need to prove that your injuries were directly caused by the accident. The best way to prove this is showing that you had medical attention for injuries directly after the accident.

Claiming Compensation in a Kansas City Personal Injury Claim

Personal injury lawsuits are designed to help a victim seek compensation for the damages they have suffered. Your personal injury attorney will know the best way to document your damages and how to evidence them so that they are difficult to dispute in the settlement negotiations. or in court, if it proceeds that far.

Your damages are split into economic damages and non-economic damages. Your economic damages are the easiest to deal with, and will have a clear figure attached to them. Proving your property damage for a car accident for example, will be easy. There will be a physical repair bill or replacement bill for your car.

On the other hand, your non-economic damages are more difficult to calculate and will require your attorney to use their judgment to place a value on. This is why an attorney with a lot of experience in personal injury cases is invaluable.

Potential damages you may be able to claim include:

Pain and Suffering Damages

Pain and suffering damages are non-economic and are designed to compensate the victim for the emotional stress and physical pain they have been put through. Things that come under pain and suffering include loss of enjoyment of life, if you can no longer do things you enjoyed before, and the development of mental health problems like phobias and PTSD.

To calculate what your pain and suffering damages are worth, most attorneys will add up your economic damages and apply a multiplier to that sum depending on the severity of your pain and suffering.

Medical Bills Past and Future

With the notoriously high cost of medical care in Kansas City, it is easy to see why medical bills are one of the major worries a victim will face following an accident. Thankfully, your attorney will be able to help you recover all of your medical costs, both past, and future.

If your injuries mean that you are going to require long term or life-long treatment, they may seek the expert opinion of medical professionals to accurately gauge what compensation you will need to cover the costs of your treatment.

Lost Wages

For most people involved in an injury, there will be time off work for treatment and recovery, and this often results in a loss of earnings and lost wages. When you may have to pay medical expenses in the interim, this can leave victims in a tough situation.

With the help of your personal injury lawyers, you will be able to document this and recover compensation for your lost wages.

If you have suffered a serious personal injury, then you may never be able to work in the same capacity ever again. If this is the case, then your attorney may look to expert witnesses to help them calculate what this looks like so they can recover the right amount for your losses.

Punitive Damages

Punitive damages can only be awarded if your case goes to court, which 75% of personal injury cases do not. They are awarded by the Judge if they believe the at-fault party acted maliciously or with gross negligence as a form of punishment.

Finding a Personal Injury Lawyer in Kansas City

Deciding which attorney to hire is a difficult decision, especially with the number of attorneys on offer, and advertisements that you likely see every single day. This can make it hard to narrow down your choices.

Remember, flashy ads are not a guarantee of a good law firm. In fact, many law firms work on referrals alone, and do not need to advertise to fill their client list.

Making the right decision here is important, as it may have a huge impact on the compensation you secure, if you even win any at all. This may be the difference between having the money to afford your long-term medical care or not.

It doesn’t have to be as difficult as you think it is to find the right attorney. In fact, most personal injury lawsuits offer a free consultation to new clients, and this gives you a great space to ask the right questions you need to judge if they are the right fit or not.

Potential questions you might like to ask your attorney include:

  • How much do you think my case could be worth?
  • Are there any upfront fees for your legal services, and will I need to pay anything if my case is unsuccessful?
  • How much of your time is dedicated to personal injury victims in Texas?
  • Do you have experience handling cases similar to mine in court?
  • Can I see reviews from your previous clients?
  • Will I be able to contact you if I have questions?
  • What are the important details of my case?
  • Have you won cases similar to mine in the past?

Do I Need an Attorney to File a Personal Injury Claim?

Under Kansas City state law, you are fully within your rights to pursue a personal injury claim by yourself. We do not recommend it, however. Trying to win a personal injury lawsuit by yourself is extremely stressful and comes with a strong risk of failure. The process alone may take several years, and you will be responsible for pushing the case, filing paperwork, and negotiating by yourself throughout this period.

Often, the idea of pursuing compensation alone occurs because victims are concerned about the costs of legal representation. They may believe that if they lose, they will still have to pay legal fees or that they will win more by themselves. However, this is usually wrong on both counts.

Most people walk away with more compensation with an attorney, even after the fees for representation have been deducted, and contingency fee work does not require upfront payment or payment if the case is not won.

Your chances of success with an attorney are much higher too. Personal injury attorneys will have a lot of resources to draw upon, such as expert witnesses and investigatory teams.

Insurance companies tend to hire the most aggressive legal teams possible in an attempt to reduce their liability and your overall payout. When they find out they are fighting a case against an individual with no legal training or representation, they will be more likely to fight for a low settlement. If you have representation, they are much more likely to treat you fairly.

If your case goes to trial, then your attorney will handle everything on your behalf, minimizing the stress on your life as much as possible.

Finally, it is important that you take the time to focus on your recovery and well-being following an accident, and by hiring representation, you will have the space to do this.

The Four Elements of Negligence

Personal injury claims are based on negligence, and there are four important elements to prove in order to establish who acted negligently. Put simply; negligent behavior is any behavior that can be construed as different to how another “reasonable” individual would have acted in the same situation.

An example would be somebody running a red light and crashing their car. This is negligence because another reasonable driver would not have run the red light.

The four elements of negligence that need to be established in a Kansas City personal injury claim are:

Duty of Care

The first element of negligence is establishing that the other party owed you a duty of care at the time of the accident. A duty of care is a legal obligation to act in a way that protects the health and well-being of others.

Common examples of situations where a duty of care is established are the duty of care all road users assume to other road users, the duty of care private property owners owe to visitors to their property and the duty of care medical providers owe to their patients.

Breach of Duty

The next element to prove is that there was a breach in the duty of care the individual owed to you. To breach the duty of care, the other party must have failed to act in a reasonable way.

Causation

For compensation to be awarded, your attorney will need to prove that the accident directly caused your injuries. If a driver ran a red light and crashed into you when you were crossing the road, and caused you to suffer broken bones, then causation is clear.

Damages

Finally, the accident must have led to damages. Damages are the types of compensation you will be claiming, such as property damage and medical expenses.

Types of Personal Injury Cases in Kansas City

Our law firm has a long history of successful cases, and this means it is likely that our attorneys have dealt with and won cases similar to yours in the past.

The most common types of personal injury cases we see are:

Workplace Injuries

Workers in the United States have rights given to them by federal laws. These rights include the right to a safe working environment. If you have been injured at work, you may be entitled to either workers’ compensation or to raise a claim against your employer if they have acted negligently, such as not providing you with safety equipment.

Premises Liability

If you have been injured while you were a visitor on private or public property, you may be entitled to compensation if the owner of the property has acted negligently.

Property owners have a legal responsibility to ensure that they keep their premises safe for all visitors. This means they should keep their property free from hazards and if it is not possible to fix a hazard immediately, they should put up signage that warns visitors of the hazard.

Auto Accidents

Injuries from car accidents are the biggest cause of personal injury lawsuits across the entire country. As soon as you get behind the wheel of your car, you automatically assume a duty of care to other road users, including pedestrians. This means drivers have a duty of care to act reasonably and follow the rules of the road. An experienced personal injury lawyer will help you evidence your claims and prove the other driver was acting unreasonably.

Product Liability

Product liability lawsuits are raised against the manufacturers of products that have been proven to be defective and have injured victims. This may be a medical implant, such as a defective catheter, or it may be a part used in the repair of a commercial truck. Manufacturers have a duty of care to their customers.

Product liability claims are complex because they can be raised against a number of different parties, such as a business, individual, or government entity.

Your premises liability attorney will be able to help you determine who is at fault and how to hold them responsible for your suffering.

Wrongful Death

The most tragic outcome of any accident is when a victim loses their life as a result of the injuries suffered. When this happens, the family of the loved one may raise a wrongful death claim.

If you have lost somebody you love because someone else has acted negligently, you have every right to be angry. No amount of money will ever bring your loved one back, but it can provide financial security during this difficult time and can help you pursue justice.

No-Win No-Fee Representation

At Holman Schiavone, we want every victim to have the opportunity to pursue their claim. For this reason, we offer a free initial consultation and case evaluation to all new clients. We will evaluate your case for free, and if we believe it is worth pursuing, we will do so on a contingency fee basis, with no upfront cost or legal fees if we lose your case.

Kansas City Personal Injury Lawyer FAQ

This will depend upon how complex your case is. If the other party is clearly liable, and your injuries are not going to require complex long-term care, it could be wrapped up relatively quickly.

Most personal injury lawsuits are more complicated, however, and can often take two years or more to settle.

Around 3/4 of personal injury cases end up with the victim receiving compensation and settlement without the need for a lawsuit. This means that most cases do not end up in court.

Sometimes cases do require court judgment, however, and it is always important to make sure your attorney is ready to litigate on your behalf if necessary. Making sure your attorney is a skilled trial lawyer ensures that they are ready to fight on your behalf if your case goes that way.

Even in cases where court involvement is necessary, your attorney will be able to represent you in court, so you will not have to attend yourself.

If you had an injury before the accident, you would need to prove to what extent your damages were caused by the accident, and what was pre-existing. This makes the case more difficult but you still deserve to pursue compensation for your injuries. The best thing to do is to discuss your case with your attorney and inform them of your previous injuries.

It is always unethical for any attorney to promise a victory. However, as most personal injury cases are taken on a contingency fee basis, law firms will always evaluate your case and decide if it is likely or not to be successful.

Speak to A Dedicated Kansas City Personal Injury Lawyer Today

As an established personal injury law firm, we have been fighting on behalf of clients for decades. Over this time, we have won countless cases for clients just like you and helped victims of accidents secure the financial compensation they need to cover their medical bills and lost income.

We offer a highly personalized approach and always take the time to listen compassionately to our clients. Once we understand your needs, we can assign an attorney to your case that is going to be best suited to fight your corner.

If you have suffered a personal injury in the Kansas City area, do not hesitate to contact our legal team today at 816-320-6108.