Q. Tell us about yourself and your practice?
A. I started practicing law in 1981, after graduating from the University of Missouri at Columbia. I first went to work for a large firm in downtown Kansas City. In 1995, I left a largely defense firm to co-found Monsees Miller & DeFeo P.C. That firm has evolved into its current form as Monsees Miller Mayer Presley & Amick P.C.
Our firm tends to specialize in more complex personal injury cases and most of our cases are referred to us by other attorneys. Although we have vast experience in such matters as automobile collisions and premises liability cases, we tend to involve ourselves more with product liability cases, medical malpractice cases involving complex and significant injuries and cases involving complex insurance issues.
Q. Does your office offer paralegal services for simple forms and filings?
A. Since we restrict our practice to litigation there are few forms that would be available. We can at times provide medical release forms, powers of attorney and other simple litigation forms such as the paperwork necessary for filing a small claims court petition.
Q. Do you accept any of the pre-paid “legal plans” that are offered to help with legal fees?
A. In virtually all of our cases, we represent clients pursuant to percentage or contingent fees. We have accepted work from pre-paid plans in the past and at one time we were one of the principle law firms in Missouri working with one such a plan.
To an extent such plans seek reduction in fees in certain matters and we have done so in the past, although each case is analyzed on a case-by-case basis. We do not charge an hourly fee for our work, so our work is always free to the client unless we collect money on the client’ s behalf. Even initial consultations and investigations are generally provided free of charge.
Q. Do you offer free initial consultations?
A. Yes. We never charge for our time. We only charge if we successfully resolve the client’ s case.
Q. Do you always pay the expenses up front?
A. Our firm advances all expenses of litigation. We expect repayment of these expenses, only if we successfully resolve the client’ s case. Then the expenses are reimbursed out of the funds collected for the client.
Q. What type of personal injury claims are there?
A. There are many different forms of personal injury cases and many different legal theories that may apply to any given case. Cases range from vehicular accidents to more complex cases involving professional misconduct, such as medical or legal malpractice.
Sometimes, even seemingly simple cases such as an automobile collision may raise complex insurance issues that have to be considered, in addition to the basic claim for injury. Personal injury cases in a very general way fall into two types of claims, injuries that someone suffers due to intentional wrongdoing on the part of another and those injuries that happen as a result of someone’ s negligence. Negligence cases in one form or another are the most common.
Q. How can one determine how much his/her claim is worth?
A. We draw on a variety of sources to help us determine what a case is worth. A lot of our evaluation is based on years of experience. We have simply litigated thousands of cases and this gives us a valuable frame of reference to judge a current case, based on comparative results from cases in the past. However, no two cases are alike. We often have open discussions among the partners in the firm to discuss what a case is worth. We also draw on databases for comparative results of similar cases and occasionally hire “mock” juries or focus groups to hear our cases and give us opinions on likely outcome. All cases eventually have to be evaluated on a combination of two factors; how much is a jury likely to award a person for the injuries and damages a person has suffered and what are the chances the case will be won. If a case has very large damages, but only a small chance of victory a case may for settlement purposes be “worth" a lot less than what the damages themselves might suggest. Conversely, if a case has a high likelihood of victory for settlement purposes, the case is “worth” something close to the expected value a jury might award for the damages.
A jury is allowed to consider the medical expenses, lost income, disability disfigurement, loss of enjoyment of life and pain and suffering a person has suffered as a result of an injury. In some cases such as medical malpractice cases in Missouri, there are limits on how much a person can recover in a case irrespective of how much someone has suffered.
Q. How soon should one file a lawsuit?
A. There are time limits within which a lawsuit must be filed and these vary depending on the legal theory or injury claimed. Some of these time limits can be quite short.
Generally ,one should file a lawsuit only after there has been a careful investigation into the facts of the case and a person has had ample opportunity to have his/her injuries evaluated and treated by a physician. Oftentimes, people are not immediately aware of the full extent of their injuries.
Surgery may be months later after more conservative means of treatment have been attempted. So, while everyone is understandably in a hurry to resolve his/her case, it is important to do so only after enough data is available to make a sound decision.
Q. What if an individual is partly at fault for the accident?
A. Most states including Missouri recognize “comparative fault.” This system recognizes that there are oftentimes, several events that combine to cause a particular accident and that more than one person may share in the responsibility.
The jury will be asked to compare the fault of all the parties,whose acts combined to cause one incident or injury. The total fault between the parties must equal 100%. If the injured plaintiff is 20% at fault for his/her injuries and the defendant is 80% at fault, the plaintiff will recover 80% of his/her damages awarded by the jury. So, if the jury evaluates the injured plaintiff' s damages to equal $100, 000 in the example noted the plaintiff would recover $80, 000. |
