Seriously injured in MVA in Missouri? You Will Need an Attorney

By The Cagle Law Firm | September 19, 2025 | Car Accidents, Featured, News, Personal Injury, Wrongful Death

Accident or unintentional injuries is the third leading cause of death for Americans. Heart disease and cancer contribute to more deaths according to Center for Disease Control  and 2021 data.  The most common types of accidental deaths include motor vehicle crashes, falls, poisonings, drownings and fires/burns.  As noted in the reports from an insurance association, “Ever wonder why we call them “accidents” when many are preventable? It’s like calling a deliberate face-plant a “gravity check”!    Actually, it is a really good question why we call these unintentional injuries as “accidents”.  At The Cagle Law Firm, we have a hard time with the word ‘accidents’ when it comes to motor vehicle crashes.  Every single motor vehicle crash has a cause or multiple causes. Had those actions or causes not occurred, the motor vehicle crash would not have occurred. Deaths and serious injuries due to errors in operating a motor vehicle cause are preventable, thus tragic. The prevailing cause of crashes is driver error.  Drivers make errors and sometimes those errors cause serious injury or death. Even though those errors are not intentional, they are often negligent.  Insurance companies like to call them “accidents” at it implies there is no cause and more importantly, “no fault”.

“Accidents” vs. “Crashes”

Just about every insurance adjuster, and insurance defense attorneys wants to call car crashes “accidents” and they like to say that “accidents happen”.  The term “accident” is defined as “an event that happens by chance or that is without apparent or deliberate cause”.  How  often do you talk to someone involved in a motor vehicle crash where they just have no idea how the collision occurred? Unless they were knocked unconscious, they have a good idea.  There are VERY FEW crashes that are “acts of nature” or commonly called “acts of God”.  This means that 99 percent of the time there are actual causes–usually driver error that result in crashes whether it is failing to yield, speeding, drunk driving–all result in a failure to follow the rules of the roadway.  When drivers fail to follow the rules of the roadway, crashes result.

As much as we do not like to say it, we do call motor vehicle crashes by the same term as “car accidents” since is it he most common terms for most people.

Motor Vehicle Crashes impact millions of American every year.  Hopefully, if you are involved in a crash it only involves property damage or damage to your car.  However, there are about 13.1 million crashes in the US per year according to the National Safety Council. If you only suffered property damage in a motor vehicle crash, then honestly, you probably do not need The Cagle Law Firm.  According to the most recent numbers available through the NSC, there were 44,762 deaths due to crashes in 2023.  Medically consulted injuries involved 5.1 million people.

You Do Need An Attorney if You Are Seriously Injured

Serious physical injuries are real personal!   Our attorneys take your serious injuries real personally.  The adage that ‘it’s business, it’s not personal” is just great if you are negotiating a car sale.  When it comes to your body after a life-changing injury or assessing the value of a family member’s life, it is not “just business”.   Our attorneys do not take 100’s of cases a year.  We represent those seriously injured and yes, we do take those clients and their lives very personally.   If you’ve been seriously hurt, you have many credible fears including:

“How badly am I hurt?”

“How long will I be out of work?”

“How much will this cost?”

“How can I ever pay for all of this medical treatment?”

“How long will it take me to heal and is permanent?”

“How am I going to support my life without going to work?”

If you are seriously hurt, all of those questions are pressing on you while you lay in a hospital bed or are you are confined to the couch at home— just healing and thinking.  Every one of our clients goes through that agony of the injury and the uncertainty.  While no one can provide all of the answers at the beginning, we make a plan with our clients and commit to handling “the legal portion”.  For many of our clients, it is a relief to know they can focus on their physical recovery and attempt to resume their lives while we handle their injury case.   We get to know our seriously injured clients really well.  While we help our clients, our clients make us better people.  Simply, we get to know people with serious injuries who are dealing with one of the most challenging parts of their lives.  More often than not, we are better people by walking beside them on that road to recovery.

Following a Crash-Focus Make a Difference

These are general rules and completely depend on your physical ability to do these steps based on your severity of injury.  It goes without saying that if you are seriously hurt, you cannot run around getting information from other drivers or taking photos. At times, you may want to get information from the police and let them do the talking to the other driver. Again, each situation is different and you want to keep yourself and others as safe as possible. At times, individuals can be upset at a crash. Often it helps to know the steps that you need to take in order to have a list on which to focus. When you have a plan, you have a purpose that can often make the situation a lot less stressful.  The Cagle Law Firm has an Iphone/Android app called Injury Attorney that walks you through the steps (if you are physically able) and assists you in gathering important information. When you are stressed, it can be hard to think–the app walks you through the steps and provides focus for your anxious energy.  As everyone in our firm has been in a car collision, we each have found that using the steps in the app help tremendously.

Steps After a Crash

Call 911.  If you have been involved in a motor vehicle crash call the police immediately. If another vehicle is involved, do not wait to call the police, do it immediately. The time you take waiting to call the police can be seconds an injured person does not have. Calling authorities activate responders and those few minutes may be the difference between someone surviving the crash.

Give a Statement of Fact:  If you are able to talk to the police, report facts. Provide your information and insurance card.  If you are hurt and an ambulance is offered, most of our clients are glad they accepted the ambulance or wish they had if they declined.  Your car will be towed. Vehicles can be replaced, people cannot.

Gather Information: Only if you are able–gather information from the other participants, drivers and passengers. Snap a photo of their auto insurance card and driver’s license if able. When you are seriously injured, you are not able to do these things.

Seek Medical Treatment: Go to the ER immediately via ambulance if needed.  While adrenaline is flowing, sometimes people do not experience immediate pain, but end up with serious injuries. In the hours and first days after a crash, seek medical treatment as soon as you have any pain.  Failure to get medical help in a timely way slows your progress to recovery.

Consult a Lawyer:  BEFORE you talk to insurance companies, consult an expert. We are happy to talk to anyone involved in a crash and give free legal advice to protect you.  If you’re hurt, you will most likely need us.  However, becoming a client is never a requirement for free information.  We would rather save you the nightmare of a bad decision that you would not probably make with legal information.

Fatal Crashes

If you have lost a family member in a motor vehicle collision that was not their fault, you will need an attorney.  Trying to negotiate with an insurance company yourself about the value of your loved one will enrage you and not be productive. Also,  insurance companies just don’t take you seriously without an attorney.  We wish both of these scenarios were not true.  Honestly, trying to negotiate with an auto insurance carrier about how much your spouse or child’s life is worth, is an exercise no family member should attempt. An insurance adjuster attempting to put a value on one of the most precious things in your life will most of the time fall short. Not to mention, it may take you months to even feel mentally prepared to take on that conversation.   We specialize in wrongful death cases.  Wrongful death cases demand a great deal of responsibility.  We take that responsibility seriously, seven days a week.  In spite of what some say, you do want an attorney who takes the loss of your family member very personally.

We Win for Our Clients

Over the last 20 years, we have fought for our clients. Those years and battles have made us better attorneys.  We produce results for our seriously injured clients.  Over the years, we’ve been fortunate to represent a number of remarkable people.  Each case and person is unique.   Our attorneys answer the phone seven (7) days a week to provide information for those who have been injured in incidents such as car or truck crashes. We provide free consultations and never charge folks for valuable information.

Call us toll free 1.800.685.3302 or locally 314.276.1681

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