Kansas City / Johnson County Personal Injury Attorneys
If you or a loved one has been injured in a truck or car accident, by a defective product, or any other circumstance involving another person or company's negligence, you should strongly consider retaining an aggressive and knowledgeable personal injury attorney.
You might wonder how to ensure that you receive compensation for all of your damages, and that the compensation you receive is the maximum amount possible. The answer is simple — you look for a Kansas City and Johnson County law firm that will maximize the value of your case.
At the personal injury law firm of The Law Offices of Jeremiah L. Johnson, LLC, we understand personal injury and wrongful death law in Missouri and Kansas, and we know how to protect our clients' rights and pursue the compensation you and your loved ones deserve.
We Work to Obtain Compensation through:
• Preparation: The attorney and staff in our office work with accident reconstructionists, medical care providers, investigators, police, and other professionals to prove negligence and damages, and argue for the high compensation. It is our goal to fully explore every relevant aspect to make sure that we maximize the value of your personal injury case.
• Litigation: When a law firm is known for taking cases to trial, this offers the best leverage to force at-fault parties and insurance companies to pay the amount they know you deserve. In many cases it is much more than they think you deserve. Our firm is willing to bring your personal injury or wrongful death case before a jury as soon as possible if the defendants attempt to shortchange our clients or their families. The lawyers in this firm have taken personal injury, wrongful death, and other cases to trial in State and Federal Court and we will never hesitate to do so again when it is in our clients' best interests.
• Settlement negotiations: We strengthen your case for settlement by preparing it for trial immediately after accepting your case. Many Kansas City and Johnson County personal injury law firms accept cases with the intent of settling them and they never adequately prepare the case for trial. Insurance companies keep statistics on law firms and personal injury attorneys and they know which lawyers are willing to go to trial and which lawyer will accept a settlement for less than the case is worth.
Personal injury lawyer Jeremiah Johnson is a member of the personal injury section of the American Bar Association, and has experienced numerous trial and settlement successes in personal injury and wrongful death cases, including numerous six-figure settlements and numerous policy limit resolutions. This law office is familiar with insurance company tactics and general settlement limits, we are skilled at anticipating their objections to fair payouts, and in arguing for high sums and policy limits during settlement negotiations and in court.
What Damages Can be Recovered through a Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Lawsuit in Missouri or Kansas?
When you are injured by a negligent party, you deserve the time and freedom to recover while a caring and dedicated personal injury law firm fights for your rights. We will work to ensure that your medical bills, prescription bills, and home health care and home modification expenses are paid, and that you are compensated for pain and suffering, reduced income and diminished earning capacity. The attorney and staff in our law firm can collect the following types of damages in a personal injury or wrongful death case in Olathe, Kansas City, Overland Park, Leawood, Prairie Village, Lenexa, Mission, Mission Hills, Mission Woods, Shawnee, Gardner, Spring Hill, Westwood, Merriam, Fairway, Edgerton, De Soto, Roeland Park, Stillwell, Blue Springs, Liberty, Lee's Summit, Kansas City and Independence, and Johnson County, in Kansas and Missouri:
Past, Present, and Future Medical Expenses:
In a wrongful death lawsuit, an experienced wrongful death lawyer can collect damages for your past, present, and future medical expenses.
How do I demonstrate my future medical expenses?
• Past, present, and future lost wages
• Past, present, and future pain and suffering
• Past, present and future expenses for lifestyle modifications
• Lost services
• Punitive damages
In many wrongful death and personal injury cases, punitive damages are the largest award to a Plaintiff. In Kansas and Missouri, punitive damages serve two purposes — punishment and deterrence. They are designed to punish a wrongdoer and serve as a warning to other individuals or companies who are similarly situated. The Kansas Supreme Court has given the following rationale for punitive damages, stating: "Punitive damages are not given upon any theory that the plaintiff has any just right to recover them, but are given only upon the theory that the defendant deserves punishment for his or her wrongful acts and that it is proper for the public to impose them upon the defendant.' Smith v. Printup, 262 Kan. 587, 602, 938 P.2d 1261 (1997).
Since companies and corporations are often in business for only one purpose, punitive damages can be the only way to make them change their actions. Kansas Courts have stated as much, reasoning that "the objective to be attained in imposing punitive damages is to make the culprit feel the pecuniary pinch... " St. Paul Surplus Lines Ins. Co. v. International Playtex, Inc., 245 Kan. 258, 777 P.2d 1259 [1989].
The amount of punitive damages that may be awarded in a lawsuit filed in Kansas, Missouri, or elsewhere in the United States is governed by the so-called "single digit ratio," as defined by the United States Supreme Court in State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company v. Campbell, 538 U.S. 408 (2003). In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that punitive damages of $145,000,000 in a case involving compensatory damages of $1,000,000 violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The punitive damages to compensatory damages ratio of 145-1 was too much for the Court's justices to handle and they reasoned that the maximum punitive damage to compensatory damages ratio must be in "single digits," i.e. 9-1.
Why Should You Choose The Law Offices of Jeremiah Johnson, LLC to Represent You?
Choosing a lawyer and law firm for your Kansas City/Johnson County area personal injury or wrongful death case is no easy matter. There are literally hundreds of attorneys advertising in the phone book, on TV, on radio, the bus stop, etc, which can make it difficult to know which personal injury or wrongful death lawyer to choose. We cannot tell you that we are the right law office for your case, we can only advise you to meet with several personal injury/wrongful death attorneys to determine the best fit for you and your case.
Call us at 913-764-5010 to set up a no-cost meeting with a skilled personal injury lawyer.
It has been said that choosing an attorney is a bit like getting married — you are going to be working with that person for quite some time, for better or worse. Personal injury and wrongful death cases in Missouri and Kansas can last for years, with all types of ups and downs, meaning that you will necessarily have a long-term relationship with the law firm you have chosen to represent you.
We Understand What You Are Going Through
The lawyers and staff in our law firm understand the negative effects that accompany a personal injury or wrongful death case and we treat all of our clients with the respect and compassion that they deserve. We realize that you have not only had to deal with the accident's effects on loved ones, but also its effects on you, your family, and your friends.
We strive to understand our clients' situations and to represent them in a compassionate and professional manner, and not simply as another "file," as some larger law firms do. Several of us have been involved in similar types of cases and we truly understand what you may be dealing with.
Our Law Office Keeps our Missouri and Kansas Clients in the Loop
While many Missouri and Kansas personal injury/wrongful death law firms rarely contact their clients, we send all of our clients copies of important court documents, communications with opposing parties, and items uncovered in our investigation. You have probably heard a friend or acquaintance complain about how hard it is to get their lawyer to call them back - the attorney and staff in our law office return almost all calls the same day they are received and most calls are returned within a few hours.
We make ourselves accessible to all of our clients. We do not "screen" phone calls — if you call our office, you will get to speak to one of us any time they are in the office and available. Finally, to insure that we are always easy to reach, we distribute our personal cell phone numbers and email addresses to all of our Kansas and Missouri personal injury clients. Our clients are always welcome to call or email after hours or on the weekends.
We Understand How to Properly Pursue a Personal Injury or Wrongful Death Case
Successfully handling a Missouri or Kansas personal injury/wrongful death case is no easy task, even for attorneys who have practiced for decades. The tort laws (such as the laws regarding negligence, wrongful death, or strict liability) and statutes in Missouri and Kansas are filled with pitfalls that could negatively affect your case, which makes it crucial for you to have an attorney who understands tort law in Missouri and Kansas. We practice in Olathe, Kansas City, Overland Park, Leawood, Prairie Village, Lenexa, Mission, Mission Hills, Mission Woods, Shawnee, Gardner, Spring Hill, Westwood, Merriam, Fairway, Edgerton, De Soto, Roeland Park, Stillwell, Blue Springs, Liberty, Lee's Summit, Kansas City and Independence, and Johnson County, in Kansas and Missouri.
Successful personal injury/wrongful death litigation also requires a tremendous amount of work by the attorney and staff in a personal injury law firm. This means that you need a lawyer who not only understands how hard they need to work to prove your DUI claim and maximize your recovery, but is also willing to do the work necessary to protect your rights and interests and insure you recover every dollar you deserve in your case. We work hard on all of our personal injury and wrongful death cases whether they are in Kansas City, Wyandotte County, Jackson County, Johnson County, or elsewhere in Kansas and Missouri.
We understand the physics and technical aspects involved with many Missouri and Kansas wrongful death and personal injury cases: Experience has taught us that a good understanding of the physics and technical aspects relevant in most wrongful death and personal injury cases in Kansas and Missouri. For instance, the typical auto accident case will involve dissecting the crash through vehicle inspections, site inspections, pictures, witness interviews, and contact with law enforcement. We take this information and utilize accident re-constructionists to determine what happened and to demonstrate the facts to the Court and jury.
A Recent Success
In a recent Kansas City area wrongful death case involving a commercial vehicle, the Kansas Highway Patrol determined that our client's deceased father was at fault in the accident. We were not discouraged, however, and we continued to work hard to prove our case and reveal the truth. After studying the case and doing extensive investigation, the attorneys in our office were able to successfully demonstrate that the commercial vehicle's braking systems were not working properly and that the poor brakes caused, or at the very least, contributed to the wreck and its horrible effects. The result of our efforts was swift: In a case where the best settlement offer by the defendant was $10,000, we were able to secure a "policy limits" settlement on a commercial vehicle policy which was worth many times as much as the previous "best" settlement offer by the defendant.
We Work with Medical Providers to Prove the Damages in our Cases
To maximize the recovery in a personal injury or wrongful death case in the Kansas City / Johnson County area, a good attorney must be able to work with medical records and medical providers (such as nurses or doctors) to determine and prove what injuries resulted from the DWI car accident, the medical or physical therapy remedies that are available, and the costs which are reasonable to claim for current and future medical treatment. If your lawyer does not have the proper contacts or the proper understanding of the medical issues in your case, you might not be able to recover every dollar you should.
Our staff and attorneys exhaustively review medical reports to determine the medical issues in each personal injury case. We work closely with medical staff and medical experts to insure that we can maximize the recovery in every case. In Kansas and Missouri wrongful death cases, we also work with medical professionals to properly determine the cause of death. Such a finding is crucial because it is the Plaintiff's burden to prove the cause of death to the Court and the jury.