In a catastrophic case, the hard part is the future.

A life care plan is a documented projection of future medical needs prepared by a qualified professional: surgeries, therapy, medication, equipment, home modification, and attendant care, itemised and costed over a lifetime. It is frequently the single largest component of a catastrophic claim and the one insurers attack hardest. Ask whether the firm builds them as a matter of course, and who it uses.

The at-fault driver's policy is often not the only source of recovery. There may be underinsured and uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy or a resident relative's, an employer's commercial policy if the at-fault driver was working, umbrella coverage, or additional defendants with their own insurance. Finding all of it is investigative work, and in a catastrophic case it frequently determines the ceiling on the recovery.

Lost earning capacity is not the same as lost wages. It is what this person could have earned over a working life, which for a young client with no long earnings history requires a vocational assessment and an economist rather than a pay stub. One of our brain injury cases involved a planned career in the U.S. Navy that the injury ended before it began.

Catastrophic cases carry the largest gap between the first offer and the real value, because the numbers are large enough to be worth fighting about and most of the loss is projected rather than billed. A firm that does not try cases has limited leverage on exactly the cases where leverage matters most. Ask for recent trials by county and year.

There is no single statutory definition in a Missouri injury claim, but in practice it means an injury that permanently changes what someone is able to do: a moderate to severe traumatic brain injury, a spinal cord injury or paralysis, an amputation, severe burns, multiple fractures with lasting impairment, or any injury that ends a career or requires long-term attendant care. The practical marker is that future losses exceed the losses already incurred.

It is a costed, itemised projection of a person's future medical and care needs over a lifetime, prepared by a qualified life care planner: surgeries, therapy, medication, durable equipment and its replacement cycle, home modification, and attendant care. It matters because in a catastrophic case most of the loss has not been incurred yet, and a jury cannot award what nobody has proved. It is also the component insurers challenge most aggressively.

That is common in catastrophic cases and it is not necessarily the end of the recovery. Other sources may include underinsured or uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy or a resident relative's, an employer's commercial policy if the at-fault driver was working at the time, umbrella coverage, and additional defendants who carry their own insurance. We have recovered a full policy limit through a client's own coverage where the at-fault driver was underinsured.

Longer than a routine claim, and usually for a good reason. Future damages cannot be projected credibly until the medical picture has stabilised enough for a physician to give a reliable prognosis, which can take a year or more. Settling before that point means settling without knowing what is being given up. Missouri allows five years from the injury to file most personal injury claims, so there is usually room to do it properly.

Because the disputed amount is larger and most of it is projected rather than billed, which gives an insurer more to argue about and more reason to argue. A firm with a recent trial record changes the calculation on the other side. Our results include a $20,025,000 wrongful death verdict returned after a five-day trial in which the defence had offered nothing at all.

Generally yes. Missouri follows pure comparative fault, so a plaintiff found partly responsible has their recovery reduced by their percentage of fault rather than eliminated. Being assigned some share of fault does not bar the claim, and insurers routinely assert more fault than the evidence supports. This is worth confirming with an attorney about your specific facts.