Almost every personal injury firm in St. Louis advertises the same four things: experience, results, free consultations, and no fee unless you win. Those claims do not distinguish anyone, because everyone makes them. What follows is what actually differs between firms, and how to verify it rather than take it on faith.
Updated September 2026
This page is attorney advertising. It offers general information about Missouri law and is not legal or medical advice for your situation. Reading this page or contacting the firm does not create an attorney-client relationship, which is formed only by a written agreement signed by both you and the firm. Any case results described are specific to the facts of those cases; past results do not guarantee, warrant, or predict a similar outcome in any other matter. Finney Injury Law is licensed to practice law in the State of Missouri. The full disclaimer appears at the bottom of this page.
This article names no firms and ranks nobody. Rankings published by law firms are marketing, and rankings published by directories are frequently paid placement. Neither tells you what you need to know.
What follows instead is the list of things that genuinely vary between firms, phrased as questions you can ask in a first call, with a note on how to check the answer. Any firm worth hiring will answer all nine without hesitation, including ours.
Four of these you can verify from public records before you call anyone. The other five you have to ask, and the willingness to answer plainly is itself information.
Nearly every firm says it is willing to go to trial. Far fewer have done it recently. Ask directly: how many cases has this firm tried to verdict in the last three years, and in which counties? Missouri case records are public, so the answer is checkable. This matters for reasons beyond the courtroom, because an insurer's valuation of your claim depends in part on whether the firm across the table is known to try cases or known to settle them.
At many firms the lawyer in the advertisement is not the person who works your case, and in some the file is handled almost entirely by case managers with periodic attorney review. Ask which attorney is responsible for your file, who you call with a question, and how quickly you can expect a response. Then ask whether you will meet that attorney before you sign.
Volume practices work on throughput, which is a legitimate business model but a poor fit for a serious injury. Ask roughly how many open files the firm carries and how many the attorney on your case handles personally. There is no correct number, but the answer tells you how much attention a single file can realistically get, and whether the economics of the practice depend on settling quickly.
A contingency fee and case costs are different things. The fee is the percentage. Costs are the expert witnesses, depositions, records, and filing fees, and in a serious case they can reach five or six figures. Ask two questions: what is the fee percentage, and does it change if the case goes to trial? Then ask who pays the case costs if the case is lost. Get the answer in writing, in the agreement.
A national grocery retailer offered $125,000 for an unguarded pallet that fractured our client's femur. A previous firm had already declined the case.
It settled for $2.5 million — twenty times the offer, on a case another firm had assessed as not worth taking.
That gap is not a claim about our cleverness. It is the point of the exercise: the first number an insurer puts on a case and what the case is worth are different figures, and closing the distance takes a firm both able and willing to try it.
Past results do not guarantee a future outcome, and every case depends on its own facts. These are public-record results that show what trial-prepared representation can produce.
Defense offered $0 and blamed the mother for her son's death. After five days of trial, a St. Charles County jury delivered $20,025,000. Read full story →
A red light runner. Multiple disc replacements, a lower back fusion, and blood clots. A St. Louis County jury returned $10,000,000. Read full story →
A national grocery retailer offered $125,000 for an unguarded pallet that fractured our client's femur. A previous firm had declined the case. Read full story →
The insurance company said the wrist fracture had healed. A unanimous jury disagreed in 15 minutes, at more than 10 times the last offer. Read full story →
Then ask in which counties. Missouri court records are public, so you can verify the answer. A firm that cannot name recent trials is a firm that settles, which is worth knowing before you sign rather than after.
Follow it with: will I meet that attorney before I sign, and who do I call with a question? If the answer routes you to a case manager for everything, you have learned how the firm is structured.
Some agreements step the percentage up if a case is filed or tried. That is not improper, but you should know it at the start. Ask for the number in both scenarios.
Case costs are separate from the fee and can be substantial in a serious case. The answer belongs in the written agreement, not in a conversation you will be asked to remember later.
Every real case has a weakness. A firm that tells you only what it thinks you want to hear in the first call will do the same thing when the news is bad. The honest answer is the most useful thing you get from the call.
Ask how many cases the firm has tried to verdict in the last three years and in which counties, then verify it. Missouri court records are public, and case information is searchable through Missouri Case.net. Most personal injury cases settle regardless of the firm, so the question is not whether a firm settles cases, but whether it is genuinely prepared to try one when the offer does not reflect what the case is worth.
It matters a great deal for a serious injury. The attorney responsible for your file makes the judgment calls about medical documentation, which experts to retain, when to reject an offer, and whether to file suit. Ask for that person by name, ask to meet them before signing, and ask who you contact with a question. A firm structured so that no attorney is reachable is telling you how your case will be handled.
The contingency fee is the percentage of the recovery the firm is paid, and it is only paid if there is a recovery. Case costs are the out-of-pocket expenses of building the case: expert witnesses, depositions, medical records, court filing fees, and trial exhibits. In a catastrophic case those costs can run well into five or six figures. Ask what the fee percentage is, whether it increases at trial, and who is responsible for costs if the case is lost.
Not necessarily, but it is worth getting a second opinion before you accept that assessment as final. Firms decline cases for reasons that have nothing to do with the merits, including caseload, cost exposure, and whether the case fits how that firm works. One of our premises cases had been declined by a previous firm and settled for $2.5 million against a $125,000 offer.
Treat them carefully. Many directory rankings and best-of listings are paid placement, sponsored content, or generated from submitted information rather than independent review, and the criteria are often not disclosed. Some genuine peer-reviewed recognitions exist, but the safer approach is to verify the things that matter directly: the trial record, who handles the file, and the fee terms.
Sooner than most people do, because the useful window is early. Physical evidence gets repaired or discarded, surveillance video is overwritten on retention cycles measured in days or weeks, witness memory fades, and insurers begin building the file immediately. Missouri's general limitation period for personal injury is five years and wrongful death is three, but the practical deadline that decides cases arrives long before either.
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