Missouri Lawyers Weekly Highlights $5M Settlement in Injury Case Initiated by Attorney Meyerkord

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - April 10, 2014 - PRLog -- In a car accident case initially by Kansas City Personal Injury Attorney Matt Meyerkord, the plaintiffs were able to secure a settlement for $5 million, an amount that was 16 time higher than the original amount they had settled for. Missouri Lawyers Weekly recently reported on the details of this case in in an April 7, 2014 Verdicts & Settlements article titled “Settlement balloons after insurer balks at annuity.”

According to the article, the higher settlement was reached after the judge threw out the old settlement and ordered a trial to determine a new compensation total. This action was taken after a couple of things happened: 1) the insurance company refused to structure the settlement for one of the child victims as the court had ordered, and 2) it was discovered that the defendant and insurer had withheld important information in the case. The plaintiffs in this personal injury matter were represented by Attorney Meyerkord of Meyerkord & Russell, as well as by two other lawyers who were late brought onto the case by Mr. Meyerkord.

As explained in the article, the $5 million settlement was approved in Jackson County Circuit Court on March 12, 2014. The personal injury cases stemmed from a motor vehicle accident that occurred on Jan. 16, 2010 in which the defendant’s pickup truck slammed into the plaintiff’s nearly stopped car at about 60 miles per hour. The car that was hit which contained a mother and her three young children. As a result of the accident, the mother’s son who was a year-and-a-half old sustained traumatic brain injuries. Three years later, the injury victims asked the Jackson County circuit judge to approve a $300,000 settlement, which reflected the at-fault driver’s auto insurance policy limits. Attorney Meyerkord, who was representing the victims, requested that part of the settlement (the portion for the one-and-a-half-year-old) be structured in the form of an annuity. This would have allowed him to receive payments over the span of his lifetime rather than all at once.

The insurance company, however, asked that the decision be reconsidered, arguing that the court did not have the power under state law to require this type of settlement structure, according to Missouri Lawyers Weekly. Attorney Meyerkord then requested a trial and brought on two lawyers from other firms to assist with the case. The lawyer worked together and learned that the defendant had insurance policies for other vehicles that could be used to raise the amount of compensation their clients’ could pursue. This was information that should have been disclosed previously.

The judge decided to void the original settlement and to allow for litigation due to the insurance company’s “material misrepresentations.” Before the case went to trial, the plaintiffs were able to reach a $5 million, which included the portion for the young brain injury victim through a structured settlement. The plaintiffs also received a separate settlement for the other two siblings, who received $33,333 each, minus expenses.

Attorney Meyerkord works tirelessly to reach maximum compensation for the wrongfully inured. His professional excellence has been recognized through his inclusion in the prestigious Super Lawyer® and Rising Stars℠ lists, his designation as the “2011 Best of the Bar” by the Kansas City Journal and other professional honors. Meyerkord & Russell assists clients throughout the Kansas City, Missouri area with various types of personal injury cases. More information about the firm is available at www.kansascityinjuryfirm.com.