If you’ve suffered physical, mental, emotional, or reputational harm because of someone else’s negligence, you can file a personal injury claim to seek compensation. Any damages you recover will help pay for medical expenses, counselling, and physical therapy, and cover any lost income from missed work.
The laws concerning personal injury differ from state to state. This comprehensive fact sheet provides everything you need to know about your legal rights and how to file a lawsuit for personal injury in Missouri.
Once you have the information you need, contact Phalen Law for a free no-obligation consultation. If you have grounds for a case, we can assign you a trusted and experienced personal injury attorney to manage your claim.
What qualifies as personal injury in Missouri?
Automobile collisions
Most personal injury claims involve automobile collisions.
You could have grounds for a personal injury claim if you’re:
- A driver or passenger involved in a collision
- A pedestrian hit by a vehicle
- Injured by a vehicle while riding your bike or motorbike
The most common types of automobile incidents that qualify for an automobile accident lawsuit include:
- Rear-end collisions
- Excessive speed
- Failure to indicate
- Collisions caused by overtaking
- Collisions at junctions or roundabouts
- Lane-changing collisions
- Drunk driving
- Hit-and-run incidents
- Collisions caused by uninsured drivers
For insights on how to protect yourself, read our article on why every Kansas driver should have a dash cam in 2025.
Workplace accidents
If you’re injured at work, you typically claim through workers’ compensation rather than personal injury insurance.
In Missouri, workers’ comp is mandatory for any business with at least five employees, with some exceptions.
But if you’re employed by a company with fewer than five employees, it’s recommended that you take out a personal injury insurance policy.
Under this policy, you can claim for:
- Slips, trips, and falls
- Injuries caused by defective equipment
- Injuries caused by insufficient training
- Manual handling injuries
- Dangerous workplace practices
- Occupational illnesses
Even if you’re covered by workers’ comp insurance, you might be able to make an additional third-party personal injury claim depending on the accident.
As experts in both workers’ comp and personal injury claims, we can advise you on the best course of action during your free consultation. For more detailed steps, refer to our guide on filing a workers’ comp lawsuit in Kansas and Missouri.
Other examples
- Dog bites: Missouri personal injury law holds dog owners responsible even if their dog has no prior history of aggression
- Product liability: This involves holding manufacturers, designers, or sellers responsible for injuries suffered as a result of a dangerous product
- Assault and battery: Though also criminal, these intentional acts of harm can lead to civil personal injury lawsuits
- Defamation: While less common, you can claim for reputational harm caused by libel and slander as a type of personal injury under civil law
- Wrongful death: Survivors can recover damages for an incident that results in a policy holder’s death
Negligence and liability
Missouri works on an at-fault system. So to make a personal injury claim, you need to prove negligence. This is someone else’s failure to exercise reasonable care.
To prove negligence in a Missouri personal injury case, you need to establish four elements:
- Duty of care: The defendant had a responsibility to act – or not act – in a certain way
- Breach of duty: The defendant breached that duty by acting carelessly, failing to act, or causing intentional harm
- Causation: That breach directly resulted in your bodily injury or another type of harm
- Damages: You suffered actual harm or loss, whether physical, financial, or through pain and suffering
Missouri also uses a ‘pure comparative negligence’ system to determine liability. This system evaluates the extent to which each party was responsible for the incident.
Even if you’re partly responsible, you can still recover damages. But your compensation will be reduced by your percentage of fault.
For example, if you’re found to be 30% at fault for an accident and your total damages amount to $10,000, you’d be eligible to receive $7,000.
Missouri statute of limitations
The Missouri statute of limitations for filing a personal injury claim is five years.
That means you have typically five years from the date of your injury or incident to seek compensation.
If you don’t file a claim within this five-year limit, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to claim compensation for injuries or harm.
However, there are some extensions and exceptions to the statute of limitations.
Deadline extensions
- Discovery Rule: In some cases, you might not know you’re injured until long after the accident. The Discovery Rule allows the five-year statute of limitations to begin when you became aware of your injury, or should reasonably have become aware of it
- Defendant leaves the state: If the defendant leaves the state at any time after the statute of limitations begins, the deadline won’t include that time
Deadline exceptions
- Minors or mentally incapacitated: If the injured person is under the age of 21 or determined to be mentally incapacitated, they’ll have five years to file a claim starting from the date they turn 21 or are declared mentally competent respectively
- Government agencies and employees: If you’re claiming against government agencies or employees, you need to file your claim with the Office of Administration’s Risk Management Division within 90 days of discovery
- Wrongful death claims: The statute of limitations for wrongful death claims in Missouri is three years
What damages can you recover?
There are two types of damages that you can recover under personal injury: economic damages and non-economic damages.
Economic damages
These are quantifiable out-of-pocket financial losses directly caused by the incident.
Injury damages include:
- Medical expenses: Your injury settlement should cover the cost of medical treatments and rehabilitation. This includes emergency room visits, surgeries, medications, and physical therapy. Depending on the extent of your injury, you can claim for both past and future medical expenses
- Lost wages: If your injury caused you to miss work, you can recover lost income, missed overtime, expected bonuses, sick days used, and other benefits. If you’re unable to return to your previous job or career, you can also claim compensation for loss of earning capacity. You typically need employer documentation and medical evidence to prove inability to work
- Property damage: You can also claim for damage caused to your vehicle, personal belongings, or real estate. In cases of total destruction, fair market value before the incident is used to determine compensation
You can prove economic damages using receipts, pay stubs, bills, or financial records.
Non-economic damages
Subjective, intangible losses don’t have a set dollar value. But they can still significantly impact your quality of life.
Non-economic damages include:
- Pain and suffering: As well as medical expenses, you can claim damages for any physical pain you suffer from your injuries. This could be chronic pain, discomfort from surgeries and mobility issues, and loss of enjoyment of life due to physical limitations. While there’s no fixed formula for calculating damages from pain and suffering, Missouri juries consider the severity and duration of your injuries
- Emotional distress: This refers to psychological or mental trauma resulting from the incident. Anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, grief, and humiliation are all considered types of emotional distress
- Reputational harm: While less common in cases of physical injury, reputational harm applies if the incident affected your character or standing. This is relevant to cases involving defamation, publicized accidents or assaults, or false accusations linked to your injury. These claims are complex and often involve proving measurable social, professional, or financial consequences
You can support claims for non-economic damages using testimonies, medical expert opinions, and impact statements.
Steps to file a personal injury lawsuit in Missouri
The following is an overview of what you can expect from your claims process. For more information, please read our complete guide to filing a personal injury claim in Missouri.
Initial consultation
When you decide to file a claim, the first thing you should do is arrange a consultation with a local Missouri personal injury lawyer.
This is your opportunity to discuss the details of your case with an expert. They’ll let you know if you have good grounds to make a claim and inform you on how to handle your case correctly. The stronger your position when you start, the more likely you are to receive substantial compensation.
Schedule your free consultation with Phalen Law today for expert legal advice with no obligation to move forward.
Investigation and evidence gathering
If you choose to work with one of our personal injury lawyers, we’ll start investigating your claim.
The more evidence you can give us, the easier it’ll be to build a strong case for compensation.
Things like your medical bills, witness contact information, photos, videos, and your police accident report are vital evidence. So be sure to keep them safe.
After sending a letter of representation to the defendant or their insurance company, we’ll gather more evidence to build on what you gave us.
By speaking to police officers, witnesses, medical professionals, and others, we can build a complete picture of what happened before, during, and after the incident.
Negotiating a settlement
We do our best to settle your case without going to court. This helps you receive a quick, hassle-free payout.
We begin by sending a demand letter to the defendant stating the reason for your claim, who was responsible, and how much compensation you seek. This is the starting point for insurance negotiations.
If the defendant accepts, you could receive a settlement within a few weeks.
Most of the time, the defendant will instead respond with a low settlement offer. We then continue to exchange offers until we agree a suitable amount.
If we can’t reach an agreeable settlement, the defendant refuses the claim, or they just don’t respond, we then file a personal injury lawsuit.
Filing a lawsuit
Depending on the damages being claimed, we’ll file a lawsuit with the appropriate branch of the Missouri court system.
The courts will serve the defendant a petition and summons.
Ideally, this will prompt them to accept a previous settlement offer.
But if they respond with a denial, we move on to the discovery phase.
Discovery
After a denial, the court will set a date for a trial or pre-trial.
Both parties must then provide each other with all the relevant evidence and facts they’ve gathered about the case.
They also need to disclose whether they plan to call upon expert witnesses like medical professionals.
Mediation
Before the trial process begins, we’ll try to arrange an alternative dispute resolution method like mediation.
This is when we meet with the defendant’s lawyer and a neutral third party in the hopes of reaching a fair solution.
Most personal injury cases are settled during mediation. But if we can’t reach an out-of-court settlement, your case will go to trial.
Trial
On the day of your trial, both parties’ lawyers will present all their information to a jury. Expert witnesses will also give their perspective.
The jury will use this information to decide who should win the case and how much compensation they deserve. Remember, in Missouri, how much you actually receive could be influenced by your degree of fault.
Whether you settle out of court or we win your trial, you can receive your compensation as a lump sum or through a structured settlement plan.
How long does a personal injury claim take?
The length of your case is influenced by:
- Length and type of medical treatment
- How many people were involved
- Whether liability is an issue
- Your insurance policy
Most personal injury claims filed in Missouri are settled within six to 12 months.
But in cases that involve serious injuries or go to trial, it can take two to five years to receive compensation.
Even in the best case scenario, your claim could be hanging over your head for a long time. Unfortunately, many people find that this pressure and anxiety makes life a lot harder until the matter is resolved. Read our article on how to pay bills while waiting on a settlement.
That’s why it’s so important to hire a Missouri personal injury attorney. As well as handling the case on your behalf, they ensure your claim is filed correctly and advocate aggressively for a substantial payout.
Do I need a personal injury lawyer?
Trusted and experienced legal representation can make or break your claim.
The Missouri legal system is exceedingly complex, with strict rules for fault, negligence, deadlines, and procedures. Without a knowledgeable lawyer by your side, it’s easy to miss filing deadlines, fail to provide suitable evidence, or be outmaneuvered by the defendant’s attorney.
It’s recommended that you hire a personal injury lawyer as soon as possible after your injury or incident occurs.
Early legal involvement gives your attorney plenty of time to gather the evidence you need to build a powerful case. They’ll also help you avoid common mistakes and file your claim correctly before the statute of limitations expires.
It’s not just a formality, either. Your attorney will use state laws, legal precedent, and evidence gathered to secure the highest possible amount of compensation. Without their help, it’s likely you’ll only get a fraction of your potential payout – and it’ll take much longer to get.
Hiring a lawyer for a Missouri personal injury claim is more than a smart decision. It can be the difference between a successful recovery and a costly mistake.
Seek representation from a leading Missouri law firm
If you’ve suffered an accident or injury that led to medical expenses, lost wages, property damage, or emotional suffering, you could be eligible for compensation.
In most cases, you have five years to make your claim.
That sounds like a long time. But trying to handle the case yourself can turn your life upside down. You also risk having your case thrown out due to a simple mistake, or being forced to accept a lower settlement because you can’t compete with the defendant’s lawyer.
As such, it’s important to seek professional help right away to protect your right to compensation.
As specialists in personal injury law, Phalen Law has over 50 years’ experience winning substantial compensation for those who’ve suffered from someone else’s negligence.
Our dedicated attorneys handle your case quickly and effectively, building a powerful case for compensation while ensuring you endure as little stress as possible. Together, we can win the payout you need for a proper recovery, replace your damaged possessions, and get your life back on track.
Call us now toll free or fill out our Free Case Evaluation form online to book your free no-obligation consultation.
William L. Phalen
For 30 years, Bill Phalen has been representing families and workers whose lives have been devastated by workplace injuries, reckless drivers and the negligence of others. When tragedy needlessly strikes – because of the irresponsible behavior of an employer, corporation or an insurance company – Bill Phalen is an advocate for the people, always representing David in the fight against Goliath. Bill’s strong convictions have led to successful cases at the Court of Appeals and Kansas Supreme Court.
The people in this office have been a part of this community for a lifetime and working with them has helped me feel as if I was a part of this great community as well.
