Cape Girardeau Highway Accidents

Highways and interstates usually have speed limits of 55 miles per hour or more. This means that vehicles are traveling at higher rates of speed and highway collisions can result in severe or life-threatening injuries such as broken bones, neck and back injuries, brain injuries, and death. In Missouri, an injured party may seek compensation for his medical expenses, lost wages, lost future earnings, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life, and loss of consortium by filing a claim directly with the insurance company or by filing suit in court. Many auto accident lawsuits in the area are filed in the Circuit Court of Cape Girardeau County, and the courthouse is located at 100 Court St., Suite 301, Jackson, MO 63755.

If you have been involved in a highway accident in Missouri, you ordinarily have five years to either settle your bodily injury claim with the insurance company or to file a lawsuit in the appropriate jurisdiction. While five years may seem like a long time, it is important to not wait too long to contact an attorney after your accident. To assert your claim, your attorney will look for actions such as aggressive driving, speeding, drunk driving, and other traffic violations. Evidence may be lost or destroyed over time, but a lawyer can act quickly to preserve any evidence that may be needed later to prove your claim.

In order to recover for your injuries and losses following a highway accident, you will need to prove that the other driver’s negligence caused the crash. If the other driver was found to be at fault by the responding law enforcement officer, you may be able to recover under a theory of negligence per se where the other driver’s negligence is presumed if he or she was cited for breaking a law. In some crashes, the officer will not issue any citations or make any firm findings of fault, so you will have to rely on eyewitness testimony or other evidence to prove the other driver’s negligence.

The other driver may try to place some or all of the blame for the accident on you. Even if you are partly at fault for the accident, you may still be able to recover through Missouri’s pure comparative fault system under which a percentage of fault may be attributed to each vehicle in a highway accident. Obviously, the higher the percentage of fault that is attributed to the other driver, the greater your recovery will be. A knowledgeable attorney can assist you in showing that the other driver was largely at fault for the accident, even if you share a portion of the blame for the crash.