Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Last week, the Missouri Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of our state's limits (or "caps") on non-economic damages a plaintiff can collect in a wrongful death lawsuit, reports LegalNewsline.com.

The case (Sanders v. Ahmed) involved Ronald Sanders, whose wife Pauline died in 2005. In 2003, Pauline had been admitted to an Independence hospital after experiencing numbness in her legs and difficulty walking. Her primary care physician requested a consultation from a neurologist, Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed. After seeing Pauline (who had a history of seizures), Dr. Ahmed changed her medication and prescribed the drug Depakote.

Pauline's condition did not improve - in fact, she began to deteriorate. Over the next week, she became lethargic and suffered a focal seizure, and Dr. Ahmed cancelled her Depakote dosage at that time. Within days, Pauline stopped responding to all stimuli (even painful stimuli), and it was determined that she had suffered permanent brain damage. She lived in a long-term care facility for 2 years before she died.

Initially, Sanders had filed a personal injury lawsuit against Dr. Ahmed, which was subsequently amended into a wrongful death suit after Pauline passed away. The suit alleged that Dr. Ahmed failed to recognize and treat rising ammonia levels in Pauline's body, which was caused by the Depakote (Pauline's medical condition made it impossible for her body to dispose of byproduct ammonia). Those rising levels, Sanders claim said, resulted in the damage to Pauline's brain.

The jury concurred: when the lawsuit went to trial, Sanders was awarded $920,745.88 in past economic damages, and $7.5 million in future non-economic damages, making his total award $10,120,745.88.

However, because of Missouri's cap on non-economic damages, the final amount of his award was cut to $1,265,207.64. Sanders' non-economic damages had been cut to reflect Missouri's $350,000 cap on these awards.

Continue reading "MO Supreme Court Votes 5-2 to Uphold Caps on Non-Economic Damages in Wrongful Death Lawsuits" »

In this post, our Missouri personal injury lawyers examine a recent decision from Missouri's Western District Court of Appeals that may be of relevance to our readers. In the State of Missouri vs. James Arthur Clampitt, the State appealed a judgment that granted the defendant's motion to suppress certain text messages, but the appeal was unsuccessful. The ruling marks the first appellate case in Missouri to extend the same privacy protection to text messages that has always applied to telephone conversations.

The Case
Clampitt is facing two separate criminal charges of first-degree involuntary manslaughter, and is also charged with leaving the scene of an accident. The charges are connected to a June 2010 accident in Audrain County, Missouri, when Clampitt's SUV collided with a riding lawnmower. The driver of the mower, Richard Cobb, was killed. Clampitt was found to be intoxicated, and he later told a radio station that he thought he had struck a curb while checking a text message. Cobb's family has also filed a wrongful death suit against Clampitt in St. Louis.

The State had issued subpoenas for text message records associated with four separate phone numbers, and received those records from U.S. Cellular. The reason for the subpoena, the Special Prosecutor testified, was that the State hoped to obtain an admission from Clampitt - specifically, she sought confirmation that Clampitt (or one of his family members) was driving the SUV when the collision occurred. Additionally, the prosecutor testified that she did not seek a warrant for the records because she believed they were "records in possession of a third party," and that a subpoena was a "sufficient means for obtaining such information from third parties."

In response, Clampitt filed a motion to suppress the text messages. His attorney argued that Clampitt had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" when sending text messages to family members, and that the subpoenas were not, in fact, a "sufficient means" to obtaining the records. The court agreed, and the records were suppressed. On January 24, the Missouri Western District Court of Appeals heard the State's appeal of that judgment.

Continue reading "Missouri Court of Appeals Allows Suppression of Text Message Records in DWI Hit and Run Case" »

A tragic hit and run accident that happened in Overland Park, Kansas will be of interest to our Springfield MO personal injury clients. A woman driving under the influence of drugs hit and killed a pedestrian; a 70 year old grandmother. Springfield personal injury lawyers have recently heard that the driver, Jill Conaghan, pleaded no contest to the charge of involuntary manslaughter, and was sentenced to three years and six months in prison.

Sandra Carocari, 70, was gardening in her own front yard at the time of this unexpected accident. A van driven by (at that time) 19 year old Jill Conaghan swerved, veering off the road and hitting Carocari, who died at the scene. Conaghan at first drove away, but later returned with her father to the scene and confessed her part in the accident.

Conaghan also received a six month concurrent sentence for leaving the scene of an accident, which is considered a felony crime in Missouri if anyone has been injured or killed.

Do Criminal Court Proceedings Lead to Financial Settlements?

The question many of our clients ask is, "are there also grounds for a civil suit as well?" In the case reported above, Ms. Conaghan was sentenced during a criminal proceeding. Many people are under the misapprehension that when a person is convicted of a crime, the victims or their families will be compensated financially--but this requires a completely separate proceeding.

Continue reading "Hit And Run Accidents Can Lead to Jail Time, but Do They Also Lead to Financial Compensation for Springfield, Missouri Victims?" »

Springfield Missouri injury lawyers wonder if the day will come when we never read about drunk drivers killing innocent victims again. Although the following accident happened in St. Louis County, it is not dissimilar to the kinds of personal injury and wrongful death cases we represent here in Springfield and other parts of Missouri.

According to the Missouri State Highway Patrol, Patrick Dawson Walsh, 20, was driving a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado when he rear-ended a 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe on Sunday, Sept 25th. The accident occurred around one in the morning, in the westbound lanes of Interstate 270, just west of West Florissant Road.

The force of the collision caused the Tahoe to roll over, killing two of its occupants--Steven M. Brueggen, 38, and Michael R. McLemore, 37. They were both pronounced dead at the scene. The Tahoe's five other occupants fared better, receiving only minor injuries. Walsh suffered minor injuries as well.

Mr. Walsh was arrested and held at St. Louis County jail on suspicion of drunken driving, second-degree assault and involuntary manslaughter. Later that day, two counts of involuntary manslaughter and five counts of second-degree assault were filed against him. His bail was set at $100,000, payable with cash only.

Continue reading "Suspected DWI Leaves Two Dead and Five Injured in Tragic St. Louis Missouri Accident" »

This is one of the saddest stories Missouri Personal Injury lawyers have written about in a long time. Despite safety checkpoints, despite the state patrol and other government agencies efforts, drunk drivers were still out on the roads this Fourth of July causing heartbreak, ruining lives and killing people.

This accident happened on I435, near 63rd St. in Kansas City, Kansas. Apparently, a drunken motorist was driving down the wrong side of the highway, before the fatal car crash. Diane K. Bronson and her daughter Anna, of Belton, were killed.

The driver, Felix Solano-Gallardo, 18, of Kansas City, Kan, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter. Tests two hours after the accident confirmed his blood alcohol level at 0.185--more than double the legal limit.

Apparently, Gallardo had two different Mexican ID cards on him, leading prosecutors to suspect he is an illegal immigrant. When questioned, Gallardo was uncooperative with police. He immediately asked for an attorney via interpreter.

According to police, Gallardo had been driving the wrong way for at least 14 miles before this accident happened. They believe he ran another motorist off the road right into a concrete median on I70 near Harrison Street, earlier that same day.

Continue reading "Fourth of July Drunk Driver Auto Accident Kills Mother and Daughter" »

Much of the evidence against Casey Anthony was circumstantial. Anthony was admittedly a liar. She was, in fact, convicted of providing false information to law enforcement officers. However, Missouri personal injury attorneys believe that the jury couldn't buy the prosecution's theory that she killed her daughter so she could party and hang out with her boyfriend.

As Juror #3 explained in a post verdict interview,

"If you're gonna charge someone with murder, don't you have to know how they killed someone or why they might have killed someone or have something where, when, why, how? Those are important questions. They were not answered."

To properly perform their role, jurors must weigh all the conflicting facts and theories, and be prepared to return a verdict of not guilty if they believe a conviction would be unjust.

Some legal analysts are claiming the prosecution overcharged the case; if they had charged her with lesser crimes, instead of first degree murder with the possibility of the death penalty, they would have had a better chance of conviction.

And many people are now wondering, if more evidence comes to light--can there be an appeal of the verdict? According to our laws, Anthony was acquitted of the murder of her daughter. An acquittal cannot be appealed. For Casey Anthony, the murder case is over, except for any time she might serve from her "misleading law enforcement" convictions.

Continue reading "Casey Anthony Verdict As Reviewed by Missouri Personal Injury Lawyers (part two) " »

The Missouri Personal Injury attorneys at Aaron Sachs have been watching the Casey Anthony trial, and the media uproar that has accompanied her acquittal. This case emphasizes the importance of our jury system as the foundation of justice in our country.

First, for those readers who are unfamiliar with the case, a brief synopsis:

Casey Anthony, 25, was charged with the murder of two year old Caylee. The prosecution claimed she chloroformed her daughter; then suffocated her with duct tape over her nose and mouth. The defense claimed the little girl accidentally drowned in the pool, and her mother panicked and kept the death a secret, making up a lie that her nanny had kidnapped her.

She was charged with seven counts -- first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter of a child and four counts of providing false information to a law-enforcement officer.

She was acquitted of the murder charge by a jury of her peers, after only eleven hours of deliberation--shocking and outraging much of the public who had been closely following the six week trial. However, when interviewed post verdict, jury members said things such as,

"I wish we had more evidence to put her away. I truly do ..."

"Everybody agreed, if we were going fully on feelings and emotions, she was done."

And...

"We were sick to our stomach to get that verdict."

Continue reading "Casey Anthony Verdict As Reviewed by Missouri Personal Injury Lawyers (part one)" »