Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer in Missouri

Who pays: the driver, the owner, the bar or host, and your own coverage

The driver's liability insurer pays first. Missouri is an at fault state with no no fault layer, so your claim for medical care, wages and pain and suffering goes to that insurer as a single package. RSMo 303.025 requires every Missouri driver to carry liability insurance, but a driver who drinks and drives often carries the minimum, and the minimum is spent quickly after a night at University Health Truman Medical Center or Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

The owner of the vehicle is the next place we look. When the drunk driver was in a borrowed car, a company truck or a parent's SUV, the owner's policy may respond, and an owner who handed keys to someone known to be drinking can face a separate negligent entrustment claim. A driver who was working, including a delivery driver or a rideshare driver with a trip active, brings an employer's or platform's commercial policy into the case.

Missouri allows a claim against a licensed bar or restaurant only in narrow circumstances, generally where the business knowingly served a visibly intoxicated person or a minor, and the law demands a high standard of proof. That is a hard claim, not an impossible one. A tab showing a dozen drinks over two hours, security video of a patron who could not walk straight and a bartender who kept pouring can meet it. Social hosts at a house party are generally not liable in Missouri.

Your own policy is often what makes the case whole. Every Missouri auto policy carries uninsured motorist coverage, which responds when the drunk driver had no insurance or fled and was never found. Underinsured motorist coverage is optional and pays when the driver's limits are too low for your injuries. A relative's policy in your household can sometimes respond too. We read every declarations page in the home before we tell you what the claim can pay.

How much is a Missouri drunk driving claim worth?

The claim covers what the crash took from you: hospital and physician bills, the future treatment your doctors expect, lost wages, lost earning capacity if you cannot return to your work, and out of pocket costs such as rides to therapy and help at home. It also covers pain, scarring, the activities you have lost and the strain on your family. Drunk driving crashes tend to happen at speed with no braking, so the injuries and the numbers are often at the higher end.

Missouri allows punitive damages against a driver whose intoxication showed a conscious disregard for the safety of others, and a high blood alcohol result or a prior DWI makes that argument stronger. There is a catch. Standard auto policies often exclude punitive damages, so an award against a driver with no assets can be a piece of paper. We evaluate the driver's finances before we decide whether a punitive claim is worth pursuing or whether it is better used as leverage in settlement.

Severity and permanence move the number more than anything else. A strain that resolves with therapy sits at the low end. A fracture with hardware sits above it. A brain injury, a spinal cord injury or a death is valued in a category of its own, against every policy that can be found. Venue matters as well: adjusters value a case headed for the Circuit Court of Jackson County or the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis differently from one headed for a rural county.

We do not quote a number on the first call. A figure offered before your doctors know how you will heal is a guess, and a guess helps the insurer more than it helps you. When the medical picture is clear we put a demand on paper backed by the criminal file, the medical records and the coverage we have found. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is decided on its own facts.

What if the insurer denies or lowballs your Missouri drunk driving claim?

It happens more than people expect. An insurer cannot easily deny fault when its driver blew twice the legal limit, so it argues about everything else: that your injuries came from an old back problem, that your treatment ran too long, that the policy limit is all there is. Some carriers also wait, knowing that a person out of work after a crash on I-435 may take a small check to cover rent.

On causation, the adjuster will point to age related findings on your MRI or a gap before your first doctor visit. We answer with your treating physicians, objective imaging and, where needed, a narrative report tying the injury to the crash. On treatment, keep going to your appointments. A gap in care is the exhibit an adjuster likes most, and it is the easiest one to avoid.

A quick policy limit offer often comes with a release that ends the claim against everyone, including the bar and your own underinsured carrier. Do not sign it. Underinsured coverage usually requires your own insurer's consent before you settle with the drunk driver, and signing early can forfeit money you already paid for. We handle the sequence so that every source is preserved.

If the insurer will not pay a fair number once treatment is complete, we file suit in the circuit court for the county where you were hurt and use discovery to put the driver, the arresting officer, the bar's records and the medical experts on the record. Most Missouri cases still settle before trial. A drunk driving case settles for more when the insurer knows a jury will hear how the driver spent the evening.

How long do you have, and why the criminal case runs on a different clock

Missouri gives you five years from the date of the crash to file a personal injury lawsuit under RSMo 516.120. A wrongful death action must be filed within three years of the death under RSMo 537.100. When a family member survives the crash for weeks and then passes, the two dates differ, and we calendar both. Neither deadline is extended because the driver was drunk or because a criminal case is still open.

The criminal case moves on its own schedule and has nothing to do with those deadlines. A DWI charge under RSMo 577.010 can resolve in a few months with a plea or drag on for more than a year if the driver contests the stop or the test. We do not wait for it. We obtain the arrest report, the test results and the body camera footage while the case is pending, monitor the docket, and make sure no plea agreement quietly includes a release of your civil claim.

Claims against a public entity run on different rules. If a RideKC or Metro Transit bus, a police car or a state highway crew was involved in the crash, Missouri's sovereign immunity rules and their exceptions for the operation of motor vehicles apply, and some cities impose their own short written notice requirements. We identify every government defendant at intake so no notice is missed.

Insurance deadlines run sooner than any statute. Every policy requires prompt notice of a crash, and uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage usually requires that you notify your own carrier and obtain its consent before you settle with the driver. Evidence has an even shorter life. Bar video is overwritten in days, and a bar claim that depends on it is lost long before five years pass.

What to do in the first 72 hours: the police report, the test results, the receipts and the video

Get medical care the same day, even if you feel more shaken than hurt. Adrenaline hides injuries, and the gap between the crash and your first visit is the first thing an adjuster will use. University Health Truman Medical Center and Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Barnes-Jewish Hospital and SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Mercy Hospital Springfield and CoxHealth in Springfield, and University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia are the state's Level I trauma centers. Tell every provider the injury came from a crash with a drunk driver.

Get the police report number and the name of the arresting agency. The Missouri State Highway Patrol handles most crashes on I-70, I-44, I-64, I-435, I-35 and I-29, and the Kansas City Police Department and the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department handle the city streets. Ask whether the driver was arrested and whether a breath or blood test was taken. Those results, the officer's narrative and the dash and body camera footage are the core of the case, and we request them immediately.

The receipts and the video are the pieces that disappear. If you know where the driver had been drinking, tell us. A bar in Westport, a rooftop in the Power and Light District or a Soulard tavern keeps card receipts and security footage for a short time, and a preservation letter sent in the first days is the only way to hold it. The same is true of the traffic cameras, storefronts and buses near the crash. Photograph the vehicles, the road and your injuries before anything is moved.

Notify your own insurer that a crash happened and that you were hurt. Do not give a recorded statement to the driver's insurer, and do not sign anything from them. Stay off social media about the crash. Then keep a simple file: every bill, every appointment, every missed day of work and a short daily note about pain. Months later that file, beside the criminal record, is the backbone of the demand.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Full injury claims against the impaired driver
• Dram shop claims against bars and liquor stores where the law allows
• Punitive damages where the law allows
• Use of the criminal conviction in the civil case
• Uninsured motorist claims when the driver has no coverage