If you were hurt in an accident while driving a rental car, or while riding as a passenger in one, your right to compensation for your injuries is not diminished because the vehicle had someone else’s name on the title. The personal injury claim works the same way it would in any other vehicle. What […]
Can I Still Sue If I Wasn’t Wearing a Seatbelt
The seatbelt question sits at a particular intersection of legal doctrine, insurance strategy, and moral intuition that makes it more complicated than most people expect and more consequential than almost anyone plans for. The short answer is that in most states, including Missouri, not wearing a seatbelt does not bar you from bringing a personal […]
What If the Accident Was Partly My Fault
Most serious accidents are not clean. One driver ran a red light, but the other was going fifteen miles over the speed limit. One driver failed to signal a lane change, but the other was following too closely to stop safely. A driver pulled into traffic without enough clearance, but the approaching vehicle was not […]
What If There Are No Witnesses to My Accident
The absence of witnesses is one of the first things people fixate on after an accident, and it tends to produce a particular kind of anxiety that is both understandable and somewhat misdirected. The assumption embedded in the worry is that witnesses are the primary mechanism by which fault gets established, and that without them, […]
Should I Take Photos at the Scene of an Accident
Yes. But the more useful question is what to photograph, because the gap between what most people capture and what actually matters in an insurance dispute or personal injury case is wide enough to drive a truck through. The instinct most drivers have at an accident scene is to photograph the damage to their own […]
What If My Injuries Got Worse After the Accident
There is a particular kind of dread that comes with realizing, days or weeks after a car accident, that you are getting worse instead of better. You had a plan. You would rest, let things settle, give your body time to recover. Instead, the headache that started mild is now constant. The neck stiffness you […]
How Long After a Car Accident Can Injuries Show Up
One of the most disorienting aspects of being in a car accident is that the physical consequences do not always arrive on the same timeline as the event that caused them. A person can walk away from a collision feeling shaken but functional, go home, sleep, and wake up the following morning in a degree […]
What to Do If the Other Driver Flees the Scene of an Accident
The other driver hit you and drove away. Maybe it happened fast, before you had time to react. Maybe you saw them pause and then accelerate. Maybe you caught part of a license plate or maybe you caught nothing at all, just a make and color disappearing around a corner while you sat with the […]
What If the Other Driver Admits Fault at the Scene
An admission of fault at the scene of a car accident feels like the clearest possible resolution to the question of who caused it. The other driver says it was their fault. You heard them say it. Maybe a witness heard them say it. It seems like the kind of statement that should end a […]
Why Do I Feel Fine After Accident but Hurt the Next Day
What you are experiencing has a physiological explanation that is well documented in trauma medicine, and understanding it matters for two reasons that have nothing to do with each other. The first is your health. The second is your claim. Both are affected by the gap between how you felt at the scene and how […]