Do I Need a Lawyer After a Car Accident in St. Louis That Wasn’t My Fault?

By The Cagle Law Firm | March 7, 2025 | Car Accidents, News

If you have been in a car accident in St. Louis that was not your fault, you may wonder whether you need to hire a lawyer.  You certainly are not required to hire a lawyer, but there are usually overwhelming benefits.  If injured, medical expenses get drastic, quickly. Most people do not know the full extent of their injuries in the first few days.  It is an overwhelming feeling when you are not recovering quickly.  If you are hurt, hiring an attorney can be the difference between failure and success with your injury claim.

If you’ve ever been in a car accident regardless of fault,  you know the hassle of a simple property damage claim.  Honestly, if the insurance company downgrades the worth of your vehicle, imagine how they will be about your bodily injury.

Potential Damages Resulting from a Car Accident in St. Louis

Often, those injured in car accidents assume fault clear. While it seems like that should be true, it is not.  For example, if another driver comes into your lane and hits you head-on, you may assume the fault is obvious.  If an insurance company cannot logically argue fault, they will argue the severity of injury. This is true regardless of the severity of your injuries. Damages can be divided into categories:

Economic damages: Economic damages include measurable losses such as medical bills and lost wages.  Economic damages also include property damage, but it is important to know that property damage and bodily injury are two different claims.  Days of work missed and future work missed are included in economic damages.

Non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are harder to measure and include pain and suffering, emotional and distress and loss of quality of life.

Property damage:  Property damage is your vehicle damage. If you have child safety car seats, those also need to be replaced.  Property damage can be settled right away and should be separated.

Punitive damages:  Punitive damages are rare.  If you think punitive damages apply, you really must talk to an attorney. Punitive damages may apply to especially egregious driving behaviors.

How Can a Lawyer Help After a Car Accident in St. Louis That Was Not Your Fault

A lawyer is extremely helpful after a car accident even if the crash was not your fault.  Having a lawyer on your side provides significant benefits:

1. Liability:  A lawyer can investigate the accident and gather evidence to support liability.  If the collision involves multiple, it can get complicated with every driver’s insurance trying to avoid liability.
2. Dealing with Insurance Carriers:  Even if you are only navigating a property damage claim, every person has anxiety and uncertainty.  Each person  hopes the insurance carrier will cover the damage. This is true even when it is your own insurance company.   Thus, when it comes to injuries, insurance carriers are not very good at assessing bodily injury. Rather, they most often significantly under value your injury.  Having a lawyer actually deal with those calls and communication protects you from the insurance company taking advantage.
3. Calculating damages. A lawyer can assist in calculating the full scope of your damages including future medical expenses and ensure you seek appropriate compensation.
4. Handling the paperwork:  Car accident injury claims require a ton of paperwork including medical records and bills, police reports and other legal documents. Few people really enjoy paperwork. If you are injured, you may have a difficult time even knowing the paperwork that needs to be collected to support your injury claim.
5. Litigation. Depending on the facts of the crash and nature of your injuries, a lawsuit may need to be filed.   An experienced lawyer will plan a strategy and  can significantly increase your chances of winning.

After a car accident that results in injuries, you need to be focused on your physical recovery.  Injuries upend your life, impact your work and impact your relationships. When you have an unexpected injury, you need all of your concentration and energy to recover your life and obligations. A lawyer can guide you through this process and deal with the insurance company.  An insurance adjuster will turn you into their full time secretarial staff by mandating that upload all of your medical bills and records.   If injured, your medical records and bills have to be requested and the insurance adjuster is happy to make that your responsibility and expense.

You should not discuss your injuries with an adjuster in the first few days after your car accident.

What Are the Time Limits for Filing a Claim in Missouri

Missouri has legal timeline in which you must bring your case. This legal time limit is called “statute of limitations”.  Personal injury claims in Missouri have a five (5) year statute of limitations. This means, your lawsuit must be filed in the appropriate court on or before the date of injury.  Essentially, once the accident occurs, a stopwatch starts.  If you fail to meet the deadline by one day, your case ceases to exist.  There are only rare exceptions to the statute of limitations such as an injury to a minor. Once it has expired, your case or claim has expired regardless of the severity of your injuries.

While Missouri has a longer statute of limitations, no one should procrastinate. Many car accident injury victims think their crash is “clear cut” but there is rarely such as thing when it comes to insurance companies.  Waiting or procrastinating filing your claim can become difficult by failure to secure evidence. Likewise witness can be hard to contact and their memories fade. When you hire a lawyer, they immediately gather evidence including police reports and witness statement. Depending on your case,  inspections may need to be done by qualified experts. Those inspections are nearly impossible to coordinate on your own even if  you knew who to contact.  Insurance adjusters will not be cooperative and do not schedule inspections or do much evidence recovery. If you are hurt, consulting an experienced lawyer saves time and grief.

Contact our Car Accident Lawyers in St. Louis, Missouri

If you’ve been injured, please call our attorneys at The Cagle Law Firm. We offer free consultations seven days a week.

Call us toll free 1.800.685.3302 or locally 314.276.1681

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