Wrongful Death Lawyer in Missouri

Who can bring a Missouri wrongful death claim, and who receives the recovery

Missouri lets the family bring the claim directly. The surviving spouse, the children and the parents of the person who died are the first group entitled to sue, and any one of them can file. There is no requirement that a probate estate be opened or that a personal representative be appointed before the wrongful death claim is filed, which lets a Missouri family move faster than families in many other places.

If the person left no spouse, children or parents, the claim passes to siblings and their descendants. If there is no one in either group, the court can appoint a plaintiff ad litem to bring it. Only one wrongful death action is brought for a death, so every family member entitled to a share has to be accounted for in that single case, and we identify them all at the start.

The recovery is divided among the family members according to the loss each one suffered, and the court apportions it. A spouse who lost the household's main income, a teenager who lost a parent's guidance and an adult child who lived far away are each recognized on their own terms. A wrongful death recovery in Missouri is not an asset of the estate, so it passes to the family rather than through probate.

Because any one family member can file, disagreements sometimes arise about who should lead the case or how a recovery should be shared. We help the family agree on one person to work with us, keep every entitled relative informed, and put the apportionment before the court with the evidence that supports it, so that the case moves without anyone being left out.

What a Missouri wrongful death claim can recover (and where the survival claim fits)

Missouri's wrongful death law is broader than most. The family can recover the funeral and burial costs, the financial support the person would have provided over a working life, and the value of the services they gave the household. It also allows recovery for the loss of the person's companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel and support, which recognizes what a spouse, a child or a parent actually lost rather than only what the person earned.

In many places a separate survival claim, brought by the estate, recovers what the person suffered before death. Missouri folds that into the wrongful death action when the crash caused the death: the pain and suffering the person experienced between the injury and the death, and the medical expenses of the final treatment, are recovered in the same claim. When someone lives for hours or days at University Health Truman Medical Center in Kansas City or Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, that part of the claim can be substantial, and the trauma notes and EMS records prove it.

The insurance behind the driver sets the practical ceiling. RSMo 303.025 requires every Missouri driver to carry liability insurance, and a driver with only the state minimum cannot pay a serious claim, so we look for every other source: the vehicle's owner, an employer if the driver was working, a trucking company and its cargo broker, a rideshare company's commercial policy during an active trip, and the family's own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, including a household relative's policy. Every Missouri policy carries uninsured motorist coverage; underinsured coverage is optional and worth checking.

We do not quote a number in the first conversation. A figure given before the records are gathered, the fault evidence is secured and every policy is found is a guess, and a guess helps the insurer more than the family. When the picture is clear we put a demand on paper backed by evidence. Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is decided on its own facts.

What if the insurer delays, denies or lowballs a Missouri wrongful death claim?

Expect a fault percentage. Because RSMo 537.765 reduces the family's recovery by the share of fault assigned to the person who died, an insurer that cannot deny the claim will try to inflate that share instead. The recorded statement an adjuster asks a grieving spouse for in the first days is where the percentage is built, and grief produces sentences like "she always drove too fast" that follow the file for years. Do not give that statement. We handle every call.

We answer the percentage with evidence gathered before it fades: the Major Crash Investigation Unit report, the event data recorder readouts showing speed and braking, the camera footage, the phone records and the witnesses. Where the physical evidence is contested we retain a reconstruction engineer. A percentage is argued, not measured, and the side with the better evidence usually wins the argument.

Expect a causation argument as well, especially when the person was older or had a health condition. The insurer may claim a heart condition, not the crash, caused the death, or that the injuries were survivable with different care. We answer with the medical examiner's findings, the treating physicians and, where needed, a medical expert tying the death to the collision.

Delay and the early offer are the other two tactics. Some insurers wait, knowing the family is facing funeral bills and a lost income. Others offer the policy limit within days in exchange for a release, before the family knows about the employer's policy or its own underinsured coverage. A release signed early ends the claim for every family member, and a Missouri wrongful death settlement has to be approved and apportioned by the court in any event, so nothing should be signed until every policy has been found.

If the insurer will not pay fairly once the loss is documented, we file suit in the circuit court for the county where the crash happened and use discovery to put the driver, the footage and the experts on the record. Most Missouri wrongful death cases still settle before trial. They settle for more when the insurer knows a Jackson County or City of St. Louis jury is the alternative.

How long a family has to file a Missouri wrongful death claim

Three years from the date of the death, under RSMo 537.100. The clock runs from the death, not the crash, so when a person survives for weeks in the hospital the two dates differ and we calendar both. Three years sounds like a long time, and it is the reason some Missouri families wait too long. The deadline protects the right to sue; it does nothing to protect the proof.

Families sometimes assume they have the five years that RSMo 516.120 gives an injured person, because that is the deadline they read about after a crash. A wrongful death claim runs on the shorter three year clock, and a claim filed in year four is gone. We treat the three year date as the deadline for everything the family can recover and file well inside it.

Claims against a public entity do not run on the three year clock alone. If a RideKC or Metro Transit bus, a city police car, a county truck or a state highway crew was involved, or a dangerous condition of a public road contributed, the claim is subject to Missouri's sovereign immunity rules and their exceptions for the operation of motor vehicles and dangerous conditions of public property. Some cities impose their own short written notice requirements on top. We identify every government defendant at intake so no notice is missed.

Insurance deadlines run separately and sooner. Every policy requires prompt notice of a crash. Uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage generally requires that the family notify its own carrier and obtain consent before settling with the driver, and settling without that consent can forfeit the coverage. Camera footage is overwritten in days and a truck's electronic logs can be lost in weeks, so the real deadline is the first month.

What to do in the first weeks after a fatal crash in Missouri

Decide who will lead. Missouri does not require an estate or a personal representative for the wrongful death claim itself, so the family can retain us and begin immediately. A probate estate may still be needed for other reasons, such as the person's own property, a vehicle title or bills addressed to the person, and it is opened in the probate division of the circuit court for the county where they lived. We tell you in the first conversation whether one is needed.

Order certified copies of the death certificate through the funeral home; they come from the Missouri Bureau of Vital Records, and the court, each insurer and each bank will want one. If the county medical examiner or coroner performed an autopsy, we obtain the report. It establishes the cause of death and helps show how long the person was conscious after the crash, which matters to the part of the claim that covers their suffering.

Preserve the evidence before it disappears. Do not let an insurer scrap or sell the vehicle, because the event data recorder inside it records speed, braking and seat belt use in the seconds before impact. If a commercial truck was involved, its electronic logging device, dash camera and driver file need a preservation letter within days. Tell us where the crash happened so we can send letters to the businesses on that stretch and to RideKC or Metro Transit before their footage is overwritten.

Expect calls from the other driver's insurer within days. The adjuster will offer condolences, ask a few questions and may mention a quick payment. Give them our number and nothing else. Do not post about the crash or the person who died on social media. Keep every funeral and burial receipt and every bill from the hospital, because those costs are part of what the claim seeks, and check the person's own policy for medical payments coverage, which can help with early bills regardless of fault.

Where we help families in Missouri

Top USA Law does not keep an office in Missouri. We meet Missouri families by phone, by video or at home, which is how most families prefer to handle the early conversations anyway. One number, (877) 411-5291, is answered around the clock. Andranik "Andy" Boyadzhyan, the firm's founding attorney, is licensed in Missouri and handles Missouri wrongful death matters personally.

Missouri wrongful death lawsuits are filed in the circuit court, generally in the county where the crash happened. For our families that is most often the Circuit Court of Jackson County in Kansas City and Independence, the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, the St. Louis County Circuit Court in Clayton, the Greene County Circuit Court in Springfield and the Boone County Circuit Court in Columbia. Each has a probate division for the estate matters that sometimes accompany a death.

The fatal crashes we see come from the same roads. Truck and high speed collisions on I-70 across the state and through both metro areas, median crossovers and wrong way crashes on I-44 between St. Louis and Springfield, ramp and merge crashes on the I-435 loop around Kansas City, and rear end collisions in the congested stretches of I-270 through St. Louis County. Rural two lane highways at night produce many of the rest.

When a person is taken from the scene, it is usually to University Health Truman Medical Center or Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Barnes-Jewish Hospital or SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital in St. Louis, Mercy Hospital Springfield or CoxHealth in Springfield, or University of Missouri Health Care in Columbia. We handle fatal crashes involving commercial trucks, RideKC and Metro Transit buses, rideshare drivers, drunk drivers, hit and run drivers and out of state drivers passing through on the interstates.

What Your Claim Can Cover

• Funeral and burial expenses
• Lost financial support for dependents
• Loss of guidance, care and companionship where allowed
• Conscious pain and suffering of the deceased before death
• Claims against drivers, carriers and government entities