Burnett Evans Banks

Clients call me all the time saying they have a wrongful termination case. Usually the conversation goes something like this;

Client – “My boss fired me for not showing up yesterday.”

Me – “Do you have a contract that says they can’t do that?”

“No – I don’t have a contract.”

“Then you are probably an at will employee, which means they could fire you for just about anything.”

While most employees are at-will and can be terminated for just about any reason, occasionally employers take it too far. The Supreme Court of Missouri recently heard one such case. In February, the court ruled that an employer may not fire an employee for refusing to violate public policy. In short, if an employer asks you to break the law and you refuse—they can’t fire you.

In that case, Keveneny v.Missouri Military Academy, No. SC89925 (Feb. 9, 2010), a school teacher was told by his superiors that one of his students might come to classes with bruises and that the teacher should not report the potential child abuse. This is in direct conflict with a state statute that requires teachers to report possibly child abuse.

The employer argued that the teacher was fired legitimately for being insubordinate. That’s right; the employer said we can fire him because he wouldn’t break the law for us.

Until February 2010, this was legal in Missouri. I’ll address more specifics on wrongful termination in future articles.

If you have been denied Social Security disability benefits you must seek an appeal of the decision or you could lose out forever.  The Social Security Administration has different rules for what type of appeal you should seek depending on which state you live in because it is experimenting with how to manage appeals.

In most states, after receiving a decision on your initial application you must request what is called reconsideration of the decision.  Reconsideration is basically an internal review of the decision the administration made with an opportunity to submit additional evidence.

If you are denied again at the reconsideration level you must ask for a hearing in front of an Administrative Law Judge.  This is called the hearing stage and it will probably be your only opportunity to give live testimony.  In the states that are experimenting with how to manage appeals, you skip the reconsideration stage and go directly to the hearing stage.

If you are denied benefits by an Administrative Law Judge the next step is an appeal of the judge’s decision to the Appeals Council.  The Appeals Council is a part of the Social Security Administration.  Generally, you are not allowed to present new evidence at this level.  The Appeals Council reviews the Administrative Law Judge’s decision to see if any errors were made.

If you are denied by the Appeals Council, you have the opportunity to sue the Social Security Administration in federal district court if the Social Security Administration made an error in denying you benefits.  This is a relatively rare step to take and it can be difficult to obtain relief this way.

If you are still denied at this level it is possible to appeal that decision to a federal appellate court and ultimately to the Supreme Court of the United States but this level of appeal is very rarely done.

An attorney can help you meet your deadlines and work your way through the confusion that appealing an unfavorable decision involves.  If you have been denied Social Security benefits you should us today as soon as possible.

**This information is provided solely for educational purposes and no attorney client relationship is formed between the person requesting the information nor any person reading the information.  The information should not be relied upon and does not constitute legal advice.  The provider of the information expressly disavows the formation of an attorney client relationship between himself and any other person absent express assent and as a practice only forms an attorney client relationship with a written and signed agreement.

The choice of a lawyer is an important decision and should not be based solely upon advertisements.

The Supreme Court of Missouri nor The Missouri Bar reviews or approves certifying organizations or specialist designations.**

Lately, I’ve received several calls from potential clients who were angry, or thought they had a great defense because the police did not read them their Miranda rights when they were arrested.

We all see the television shows where the cops rush through the front door to arrest a suspect, and the police immediately begin to recite the Miranda warning. “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can be used against you. You have the right to speak to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you.”

That NEVER happens in real life. The police are not required to give Miranda warnings as they arrest someone.

The issue of exactly when police must give the warnings is surprisingly complex, but for the simple purposes of this post, remember two words: custodial interrogation. You have a right to receive Miranda warnings when you are being interrogated and you are in police custody.

Generally speaking you are in custody when a reasonable person would not believe that he could leave (though this area of law is once again surprisingly complex). You are being interrogated when the police are asking questions or making statements that are designed to make you disclose incriminating information.

Keep in mind that it is not an exact science. Courts will look at the “totality of the circumstances” to determine whether a person underwent custodial interrogation.

A few examples:

The police arrest you and take you to an interrogation room at the police station. They ask you why you robbed the local bank. – Custodial Interrogation.

The police handcuff you and place you in the back of a squad car. An officer sits in the car with you and asks you why you were running away from the recently robbed bank. – Custodial Interrogation.

The police handcuff you and place you in the back of a squad car alone. Overwhelmed by the experience, you begin mumbling to yourself under your breath that you wished you had not robbed the bank. The squad car video camera captures everything. – Not a Custodial Interrogation. You are in custody, but not being interrogated.

The police knock on your door and ask you a few questions. They note that you withdrew some cash from the ATM of the local bank just before it was robbed. You confess everything. - Not a Custodial Interrogation. You are not in custody, and you are not being interrogated.

Regardless of whether the police give you a Miranda warning, assume that the police do not have your best interests at heart. Do not speak to the police without first consulting an attorney. If you are in custody, tell the police that you will not speak to them and you would like to see an attorney. If you are not in custody, decline to speak to the police, decline all searches, ask if you are being detained, and if not – leave.

The Kansas City Police Department has streamlined the process of obtaining dashcam videos. Download the form here. Each DVD costs $0.52 for 2 hours of video. More importantly, there is an hourly charge for a technician to copy the video. The hourly rate is $44.

At the risk of turning this into the Mizzou Sports Law Blog, I’ll share this article published in the Maneater*.

It appears that the University is selling pictures of the crowds that rushed the field after the win over Oklahoma. 30 members of that crowd were arrested on suspicion of trespassing. Apparently those fans “trespassed” their way into the center of the University’s latest marketing pitch.

“Alumni, relive the glory of your youth when no one was charged with trespassing for rushing the field!”

“Prospective students, come to the University where you will get to share these amazing moments…unless you are one of the 30 random unlucky people that gets arrested!”

*The Maneater is the student newspaper at Mizzou

The University of Missouri football team won the biggest game of the school’s history on Saturday. I watched every snap  on television and wished I was in the stands enjoying the game with fellow alumni and students. As is tradition across the country, thousands of students rushed the field after the game to celebrate with the players and carry the goal posts to Harpo’s.

Unfortunately, 30 unlucky individuals were arrested on suspicion of trespassing.

That’s right. Maybe 20,000 people rushed on to the field, but 30 were arrested.

It looks like campus police made the arrests. Frankly, I think the Columbia PD took a much better approach to dealing with the ensuing mayhem. Its policy was to “just keep the peace;” only focusing on large problems and ignoring smaller ones.

1st Degree Trespass is a Class B Misdemeanor in Missouri, punishable by up to six months in jail and a $500 fine.

I hope the prosecutor does the sensible thing and dismisses the trespassing charges. Those goal posts were destined to be cut into pieces and treasured as souvenirs.

As discussed in the previous post, the state mandated minimum insurance coverage is rarely sufficient to pay for serious injuries. The best way to protect yourself and ensure that your health needs will be taken care of in the event of a serious auto injury, is by purchasing uninsured (UM) and underinsured motorist (UIM) coverage.

Missouri mandates that auto insurance companies provide a minimum of 25/50 UM coverage (for explanation of what 25/50 means, click here). Every Missouri driver has at least some uninsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage is exactly what it sounds like. Your UM policy will pay for medical treatment as well as pain and suffering caused by someone driving with no insurance. Minimum UM coverage is rarely enough to pay for serious injuries.

Underinsured motorist coverage is NOT mandated by Missouri state law. UIM covers injuries and pain and suffering that cannot be adequately compensated by the other driver’s insurance policy limits. Many drivers are underinsured for a multitude of reasons. States have differing requirements for minimum policies. For example, Iowa’s minimum policy is 20/40 whereas Missouri is 25/50. Additionally, insurance rates seem to continually rise and many people feel they can only afford the minimum. Unfortunately, the minimum is tragically rarely enough.

Missouri requires that all drivers have an insurance policy. Currently, the minimum required coverage is 25/50. That means that the driver’s insurance policy must be able to pay up to $25,000 for any given injured person with the overall payout capped at $50,000.

Imagine the following common scenario:

Mom is driving to the local elementary school to pick up her son and take him to soccer practice. Along the way, a careless driver runs a red light, slamming into Mom and seriously injuring her.

Obviously, Mr. Careless is liable for, and should pay for Mom’s injuries. However, since Mom was the only person in the car, Careless’ insurance is only obligated to pay up to $25,000. If Mom’s injuries total more than $25,000, she will not be able to recover that money from Careless’ insurance company. She must recover the money from her own insurance company or from Careless himself.

To further illustrate the point, imagine that Mom has already picked up Son from school when Careless runs the red light, injuring both Mom and Son.

Being young and hardy, Son’s injuries are relatively minor. His treatment costs $1,000. However, Mom was seriously injured. Her treatment costs $49,000.

Unfortunately, Careless’ insurance company will only pay a total of $26,000 in this case: $25,000 for Mom and $1,000 for Son. Mom will have to recover money from her own insurance company or from Mr. Careless himself to pay for the remainder of her care.

Unfortunately, all too often, Mr. Careless is “judgment proof,” meaning he has no significant assets. Even after Mom wins a judgment against Carless, she will not be able to recover any money. Alternatively, Mr. Careless may have fled the scene of the accident. Either way, more often than not, plaintiffs like Mom will not be able to recover from defendants like Careless.

A plaintiff’s best option is to recover from her own insurance company. Her success will depend on whether she has Uninsured Motorist and/or Underinsured Motorist coverage.*

*Occasionally, there are other options like recovering from the state (highway defect) or stacking insurance policies. You should consult an attorney with your specific facts.

Trapster is an application that allows drivers to share information about law enforcement live while driving. This video provides the rough idea behind the app designed to help you avoid speeding tickets.

In a nutshell, the app uses crowd sourcing–multiple users sharing and confirming information–to give reliable projections for where police like to speed trap and when they are actually speed trapping. In addition, the maps include school zones and work zones to give you an extra heads up when you are in a stricter-enforcement area.

After hearing about Trapster, I ventured on to http://Trapster.com to investigate whether drivers in Kansas City, Blue Springs, Independence, and other areas around Jackson County were actually using Trapster.

They are. If you look at the Trap Map, you can see that there are many different location that have been noted as speed traps in the area. Having driven through many of those areas, the data seems accurate. The information will only get better as more people use it. The user interface is very easy. While your driving just touch your screen and it logs the point you are currently at as a speed trap.

While Trapster may be inconvenient to use each and every day, it could be useful for a day when you are running behind or coming home from a late night. Try it out and you may avoid a traffic ticket.

You can also visit AndroidTapp.com for a more detailed review of the Trapster Android applicaiton.

We serve the Greater Kansas City Metropolitan Area and our office is located in Eastern Jackson County.

Click here for a more specific list of the areas we serve.

Here’s a list of the places we frequently take cases in. Our lawyers our licensed to practice in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois. We’ll take cases anywhere we can practice, but those areas listed below are our “home” area.

Jackson County, Missouri

Blue Springs,  Buckner, Grain Valley, Grandview, Greenwood, Indepdence, Kansas City, Lake Lotawana, Lake Tapawingo, Lee’s Summit, Lone Jack, Oak Grove, Raytown,  and Sugar Creek.

Cass County, Missouri

Belton, Raymore, Harrisonville, Pleasant Hill

Clay County, Missouri

Excelsior Springs, Gladstone, Kansas City, Kearney, Liberty, North Kansas City, Smithville, and Sugar Creek

Platte County, Missouri

Parkville, Platte City, and West Platte.

Johnson County, Kansas

Leawood, Lenexa, Merriam, Mission, Mission Hills, Olathe, Overland Park, Prairie Village, and Roeland Park

Wyandotte County, Kansas

Bonner Springs and Kansas City Kansas