In Jefferson County we see brain injuries from I-55 highway crashes, from two-lane collisions on Highway 21 and Highway 30, and from falls on poorly maintained property. What they have in common is an insurer reading a normal CT scan and deciding the claim is small.
Updated September 2026
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Brain injury cases are won on documentation and lost on the assumption that someone else will notice. The emergency room is looking for what will kill you tonight. It is not building a record of what you will not be able to do in five years.
We approach these cases by establishing the baseline — who our client was before, what they earned, what they could do — and then proving the distance between that person and the one the crash left behind.
Rear-end impacts and multi-vehicle crashes at interstate speed through Arnold and Pevely produce the rapid acceleration and deceleration forces that cause closed head injury even when nothing strikes the head directly.
Head-on and run-off-road collisions on the county's undivided highways involve combined closing speeds and frequently rollover, both strongly associated with severe traumatic brain injury.
A fall on an unmaintained stairway, an unguarded drop, or an unmarked hazard is a leading cause of serious head injury, and these claims turn on what the property owner knew about the condition and how long it had been there.
Being struck by equipment, falling material, or an untrained operator causes head injuries that are often documented poorly at first because the focus is on the visible orthopedic damage.
A self-employed mechanic came to us after a crash. The defense theory was simple and, in this part of Missouri, very common: his problems were not from the collision, they were from arthritis and a working life of repetitive physical labor.
That argument is aimed at working people, because anyone who has earned a living with their body has a medical chart a defense expert can mine. A Jefferson County jury heard it and returned $2.5 million. The same defense gets run against brain injury claims, using prior concussions, headaches, anxiety, or a stressful job as the alternative explanation.
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.
A professional musician suffered a traumatic brain injury after being struck while crossing the street. The insurer opened at $350,000. Read full story →
A traumatic brain injury suffered in a motorcycle crash ended a planned career in the U.S. Navy. Read full story →
A head injury caused by an underinsured driver. We recovered $250,000 through our client's own insurance coverage. Read full story →
A normal CT scan does not rule out a brain injury. CT looks for bleeding and skull fractures; it routinely misses the diffuse axonal injury behind lasting cognitive symptoms. Ask about neuropsychological testing and follow through on the referral.
Keep a dated log of headaches, sleep, memory lapses, word-finding trouble, irritability, light and noise sensitivity. Contemporaneous notes are evidence. A recollection built two years later is testimony a defense expert will attack.
Brain injury is frequently more obvious to a spouse, parent, or supervisor than to the person living it. Those observations become some of the most persuasive testimony in the case.
Adjusters routinely price brain injury claims off the emergency room record alone. Establishing the full picture -- lost earning capacity, life care needs, the cost of supervision -- takes expert work that has to start early.
Yes. CT imaging is built to detect bleeding, swelling, and fractures, the findings that require immediate intervention. It does not show diffuse axonal injury, the microscopic shearing damage responsible for most persistent problems with memory, attention, mood, and processing speed. A clean CT means no emergency, not no injury.
Not a complete one. Under Missouri law a defendant is responsible for aggravating a pre-existing condition. A prior concussion, a history of migraines, or documented anxiety does not immunize the person who caused the crash. It does mean the medical proof has to separate what was there before from what changed, which is expert work.
Generally in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, the 23rd Judicial Circuit, in Hillsboro. Finney Injury Law has tried a case to verdict before a Jefferson County jury, obtaining $2.5 million after the defense argued the injuries were pre-existing.
Persistent headaches, disrupted sleep, sensitivity to light or noise, difficulty concentrating or finding words, memory lapses, unusual irritability or emotional flatness, dizziness, and fatigue that rest does not resolve. Family members often notice the personality and behavior changes before the injured person does.
By what the injury costs over a lifetime rather than by the medical bills to date. That means lost earning capacity, future treatment and rehabilitation, any care or supervision required, and the non-economic loss of function and relationships. A life care plan and a vocational assessment are the usual tools for documenting it.
Missouri sets filing deadlines that vary by claim type and by the facts, and different rules apply to claims on behalf of children. Because a missed deadline can end a claim outright, and because the medical documentation that proves these cases is best built early, it is worth speaking with an attorney promptly.
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