The degree of fault is probably one of the most important factor, along with damages and ability to recover , in determining how much you may finally recover for your injury. The person at fault is the one whose negligence caused the accident; they are the ones who must pay for the damages. The circumstances of the accident will usually make clear the level of fault for both parties involved.

If the other party was completely at fault, you will be able to receive more money than if you are partially at fault. Missouri is a comparative fault state that allows an allocation of fault. If there is an issue as to shared fault in an auto accident, it typically will first show up during the negotiations on your car. In that circumstance, the insurer will determine the relative percentages of fault of the various parties involved. An insurance adjuster will reduce the recovery amount by your percentage of comparative fault. For instance, if 10% of the accident is your fault, the insurance company will attempt to reduce you property damage claim by 10%. Hence, car insurance companies have a financial interest in attempting to find you at fault or partially at fault for the car accident.

If you have been injured in a car crash and would like information or legal assistance, feel free to call the Missouri personal injury law firm of Aaron Sachs and Associates and ask for a free initial consultation. There is no obligation or pressure. Feel free to submit our convenient and easy-to-use Do I Have a Case? form, or call us toll free 24/7 at: 1-888- 777-2886. Aaron Sachs’ regional law offices are located across the state of Missouri in Springfield, Joplin, Columbia and Cape Girardeau. Meetings are by appointment only. Practice is limited to personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability.

Introduction: Many people use their own auto in the performance of their jobs. Here are a few questions for Aaron Sachs regarding a person’s rights and liability.

Q: How could a business be sued for an accident an employee had in their own personal vehicle?

• A: There is a common law doctrine, known as “Respondeat Superior“, or “vicarious liability”
• which makes an employer liable for injuries caused by an employee, during the course of employment.

Q: Aaron, what’s the bottom line on employees using their own cars for work purposes?

• A: Discuss the situation with your employer.
• It needs to be clearly defined who will pay for what, and what insurance coverage is in place, or needs to be changed.
• Doing this is to the benefit of both parties.

If you have been injured and would like more information or legal assistance, feel free to call the Missouri personal injury law firm of Aaron Sachs and Associates and ask for a free initial consultation. There is no obligation or pressure. Feel free to submit our convenient and easy-to-use Do I Have a Case? form, or call us toll free 24/7 at: 1-888- 777-2886. Aaron Sachs’ regional law offices are located across the state of Missouri in Springfield, Joplin, Columbia and Cape Girardeau. Meetings are by appointment only. Practice is limited to personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability.

Introduction: Many people use their own auto in the performance of their jobs. Here are a few questions for Aaron Sachs regarding a person’s rights and liability.

Q: If you are driving your own vehicle to perform work functions, and you are in an accident, will your auto insurance cover it?

A: Most personal auto policies exclude use of a vehicle for business purposes. If you are regularly using your car for work, you need a business policy.

Q: Who is required to buy the commercial policy - the employee or the employer?

• A: There are no legal requirements, however, it is to an employer’s advantage to provide a commercially insured vehicle for the employees use, or have “non-owned auto” coverage.
• This protects the company if it is sued because of an auto accident
• while an employee is on company business in their personal vehicle.
• The risk of a serious auto accident wiping out a small business is far greater than the cost of this insurance.

Q: What exactly is Respondeat Superior?

A: It is a Latin term, translating as “Let the superior make answer”. Basically, it means the employer is responsible for the employee. This common-law doctrine was established in seventeenth-century England to define the legal liability of an employer for the actions of an employee. It was adopted in the United States and has been a fixture of agency law ever since.

If you have been injured and would like more information or legal assistance, feel free to call the Missouri personal injury law firm of Aaron Sachs and Associates and ask for a free initial consultation. There is no obligation or pressure. Feel free to submit our convenient and easy-to-use Do I Have a Case? form, or call us toll free 24/7 at: 1-888- 777-2886. Aaron Sachs’ regional law offices are located across the state of Missouri in Springfield, Joplin, Columbia and Cape Girardeau. Meetings are by appointment only. Practice is limited to personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability.

Missouri law now contains a direct challenge to the health care law passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in March of this year. According to federal law, all individuals would be required to purchase health insurance beginning in 2014. Missouri’s Proposition C asked voters to decide if residents should be allowed to opt out of mandatory health insurance.

On August 3, the measure won with just over 71 percent voting for it, and 29 percent opposing it. This gives Missourians the power under state law to ignore federal government requirements to buy health insurance, as well as nullifying penalties for failure to do so. A heavily Republican turnout in a relatively low-turnout primary is cited as one of the main reasons for the proposition’s success.

Tuesday’s vote was the first statewide referendum testing this aspect of the new federal health care law, but similar propositions will be on November ballots in other states, including Oklahoma, Arizona and Florida.

According to Missouri Sen. Jane Cunningham, R, who carried the ballot measure in the state Senate, “The Show-Me State just picked up a megaphone and sent a message like you wouldn’t believe to Washington, D.C. - to stay out of our health care decisions,”

Although the law goes into effect immediately, it is almost certain to face a court challenge. Critics of the measure claim it is essentially a meaningless protest, because courts have repeatedly found that federal law overrules state law.

And at the very least, they suggested, it could provide the basis for a legal challenge against the federal law.

If you have suffered a work related injury, you need to immediately report it to your employer. Include your name and address, the date, time and place of the injury, and of course the nature of the injury in your written notification. Keep a copy of this notice for your records. If you sent the notification in the mail, keep a written record of the date you mailed it. If you hand deliver it, keep a record of the date and time, as well as the full name and job title of the person you handed it to. If there is any dispute about your Workers’ Compensation claim, this information might be important for you to prove your case.

After you have reported your injury, it is your employer’s responsibility to arrange for any necessary medical treatment. He/she is required to file the reports with the Division of Workers’ Compensation. The employer or insurer who knowingly fails to report the injury to the Division in a timely manner may be subject to a fine, imprisonment or both.

If you have been injured on the job, and would like legal assistance, feel free to call the Missouri personal injury law firm of Aaron Sachs and Associates and ask for a free initial consultation. There is no obligation or pressure. Feel free to submit our convenient and easy-to-use Do I Have a Case? form, or call us toll free 24/7 at: 1-888- 777-2886. Aaron Sachs’ regional law offices are located across the state of Missouri in Springfield, Joplin, Columbia and Cape Girardeau. Meetings are by appointment only. Practice is limited to personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability.

If you have been injured at work, the first thing you need to do is report your injury immediately to your employer or supervisor. In Missouri, you only have 30 days from the date the injury occurred to file a report; failure to meet this deadline may jeopardize your Missouri workers’ comp claim. Even if the injury seems minor - you should still report it. This is for your benefit, to protect your rights under the law.

If your injury is something like carpal tunnel, which came on slowly over time, or is an illness that developed as a result of on-the-job exposure to chemicals, there will be no specific date that the injury occurred. However, the statute of limitations on filing your injury report begins from the time when you should reasonably have known about the illness or injury.

If you have been injured on the job, and would like legal assistance, feel free to call the Missouri personal injury law firm of Aaron Sachs and Associates and ask for a free initial consultation. There is no obligation or pressure. Feel free to submit our convenient and easy-to-use Do I Have a Case? form, or call us toll free 24/7 at: 1-888- 777-2886. Aaron Sachs’ regional law offices are located across the state of Missouri in Springfield, Joplin, Columbia and Cape Girardeau. Meetings are by appointment only. Practice is limited to personal injury, workers compensation and Social Security Disability.

Intro: There have already been more than 50 federal disaster declarations this year. How prepared is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to handle this ongoing series of disasters? Dustin Lattimer and Missouri personal injury lawyer Aaron Sachs will discuss FEMA and disaster management in this week’s Legally Speaking.

Q: Aaron, this week’s topic is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, (FEMA) and disaster preparedness. How does a state or county qualify for federal funding after a disaster?

• A: The governor of that state must declare a state of emergency and make a formal request to the president for federal disaster aid.
• This allows FEMA to step in, and provide assistance with recovery efforts and federal funding.
• President Obama has already made more than 50 disaster declarations this year.
• If things continue at this pace, 2010 will have the highest number of disasters on record.

Q: FEMA came under severe criticism for their handling of Hurricane Katrina. Are there any signs that the agency has become more efficient in its response?

• A: With a new and highly experienced director, Craig Fugate, at the helm, FEMA is starting to get praise for having a more practical and flexible approach.
• FEMA was fully prepared in advance to support Texas in the event that Hurricane Alex touched down there in the beginning of July.

Q: What kind of preparations did they make?

• A: FEMA had support personnel already in place, and held emergency commodities outside San Antonio, including more than 1.1 million meals,
• 400,000 liters of water, 41,000 tarps, more than 100 generators,
• and other necessities such as cots, blankets and personal kits.

The first thing that happens in a Missouri worker’s compensation hearing is the employee presents evidence and testifies. Other witnesses may also be called to testify. All witnesses will be sworn by the administrative law judge to tell the truth, and they may be cross examined by the lawyers for the other parties. The employee will present medical evidence, which might include certified copies of medical records, as well as testimony from his/her doctors. Usually, the physician’s testimony is presented by a deposition, although some will testify in person at the hearing.

Next, the employer/insurer will present their evidence. Any witnesses called by the employer/insurer are subject to cross-examination as well. If the Second Injury Fund is a party to the case, they also have the opportunity to present evidence. The employee then has the right to present “rebuttal” evidence which is limited to countering new issues that came up during presentation of the evidence.

Everything said during the evidentiary workers’ compensation hearing is recorded, and all documents are marked for identification by the court reporter. This becomes a permanent part of the judge’s file on the case. After the hearing concludes, the judge may allow both parties a short period of time to file “briefs” in the case. Briefs are written statements arguing each party’s position.
The judge will issue the award (ruling) after reviewing all evidence and considering the briefs. The award is mailed to the employee, the insurance company, and all lawyers in the case within 90 days of the last day of the hearing.

Don’t face a Missouri workers’ compensation hearing alone. For a Free evaluation of your case, use our convenient “Do I Have a Case” form, or call us Toll Free at 1-888- 777-2886.

The vast majority of Missouri Workers’ Compensation cases are resolved with a settlement agreement. If the case cannot be resolved in this fashion, it goes to a hearing.

A workers’ compensation trial is called an “evidentiary hearing”. It takes place before an administrative law judge. This hearing is conducted in way similar to non-jury civil trials in Missouri circuit court.

The injured employee has the “burden of proof” on the contested issues; this means he or she has to prove what they’re saying with admissible evidence to back up their claims. Failure to do that could mean losing the case. That’s why pre-trial preparation of the employee’s evidence is vital to the success of the workers’ compensation trial.

A lawyer is not legally required to have an attorney in this type of proceeding, but representing oneself pro se is typically not a good idea. The services of a Missouri Workers’ Compensation Attorney are highly recommended.

The judge’s role during the hearing is to listen to the evidence, make a ruling on any objections to the evidence, and make a decision based on admissible evidence and current law. The judge cannot help you prepare or present evidence, or even explain the “rules of evidence”.

After the evidentiary hearing concludes, the judge will render his/her decision. It is called an “award”, even if the employee loses the case and no compensation is actually awarded. The decision can be appealed.
If you have a workers’ compensation case with contested issues, we offer a Free Worker’s Comp Consultation – with no pressure or obligation. Call us toll free at: 1-888- 777-2886.

The Social Security Administration announced in March it is providing new help to the over three million Americans who will apply for disability benefits this year, via links on their website to important information. These links take disability applicants to two different U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sites:

www.healthfinder.gov – containing information and tools to help them better understand and cope with their conditions. Someone with cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, or other diseases can go to the site to gather information about diagnosis, symptoms, treatment, ongoing research, and local resources available to people with those diseases.

www.healthfinder.gov/rxdrug - links people to the Partnership for Prescription Assistance, which provides information on reduced cost or free prescription drugs offered by drug companies, state and local governments, and local organizations.

“This year over three million Americans will apply for disability benefits. Whether they meet the statutory test and qualify for benefits or not, almost all of them are facing difficult economic and medical challenges. One of the advantages of our fully electronic system is that our notices can provide applicants with valuable information provided by HHS that might help them make good choices faster,” says Michael J. Astrue, Commissioner of Social Security.

If you are newly disabled, you can use all the assistance and information you can get. The process of applying for and receiving social security disability benefits is a long one, and frequently claims are denied at first. Click here for more information on “how do Social Security cases proceed”.

Please feel free to call us for Social Security disability assistance. There is no charge to you for an initial phone consultation and we are happy to answer your social security disability questions. Call us TOLL FREE at or at our local offices handling Social Security Disability Claims:

Springfield, MO: (417) 889-1400; Joplin, MO (417) 627-0066; Columbia, MO / Jefferson City, MO: (573) 449-5500; Cape Girardeau, MO,
(573) 334-7959.