Legal Question in Personal Injury in Missouri

Equity requires clean hands

You want to set aside the settlement agreement. To do that you must give the court a reason to do that. To do that, a court would have to do what we call equity. To ask for equity, to look for fairness, you must have what we lawyers call "clean hands."Let's look at the history of your case.An agreement is a contract. The other side did not breach. Neither did you. But now you think you should have gotten more money for settling than you did. At that time, you believed you had better settle quickly before the other side realized they made a mistake about the statute of limitations. So you -- and/or your lawyer -- were trying to take advantage of the other side. Was that "fair"? You believe that they then made a mistake.Because I do not know the law in your state, I'll assume your lawyer knew the s/land did not make a mistake. So you gained at their expense.Can you now say, I made a mistake taking advantage of them then, I would have made out better if I sued?Personally, I think your hands are too "unclean" to get equity.I could, however, be wrong, so you should consult other attorneys.

Caveat: What I have just said is based on your version of how your atty interpreted the law at that time.I personally do not believe that is what happened at all. I'm having a hard time swallowing that the insurance company didn't know what the S/L was.Insurance companies don't give outmoney when they don't have to.The only way the ins. co. through its adjuster settled without going through the higher echelons or the legal department is if you settled for very little: under the adjuster's ceiling. In other words, the adjuster was allowed to settle without permission all claims under a certain amount, under a certain ceiling.And that's a different story. Good luck! Consult a local atty.

Statute of Limitations

You should consult with an experienced personalinjury atty in your area. My experience is that insurancecompanies don't give out money they don't have to and ifwhat you say the law is really is the law, then the insurance companydidn't have to pay you a dime. So something is fishy andyou at least need to understand from your lawyer or anotherexperienced injury attorney exactly what the situation was

Does Settlement Bar Suit?

Your question has a number of subquestions. First, you are in MO and you need to seek the advice of a competent MO attorney to fully answer your legal questions. We practice in GA.

You settled. A settlement bars any suit you may be considering, however, belated against the estate or ins. co. of the deceased driver.

If you are considering suing your lawyer for bad settlement advice, you claim would have little or no chance of success in GA. If you could read and understood your actions, you would be stuck with your attorney's advice and or your settlement. If the attorney can show that his actions were arguably a judgment call based on the resolution of a difficult and disputed claim, no recovery will be had against the atty. However, you may wish to check specific MO law on this issue.

I spent some time searching the MO database to find the PI statute in MO. I am afraid that I did not find it. Missouri Revised Statutes at Section 516 seem to be where the limitation of actions for torts should be, but I could not find it after 5 minutes of reading. You may wish to look your self. The interent site is http://www.moga.state.mo.us/STATUTES

If MO is like most states, you would have 2 years to bring your action or forever be time barred. If it is 2 years, the advice on the 1 year statute would be wrong. I could not find your claim that there was also a 4 year statute. You will need to consult a MO attorney to find the specific answer.

It would be fairly stupid for an attorney to assert that an insurance company would not be aware of the statute of limitations in a wrongful death action. Maybe in retrospect, you would be able to draft a complaint against an attorney who would impart such advice. In GA, atty-client is a confidential relationship and the client is allowed to rely on such advice without being required investigate behind it.

It is a shame you settled this case based on such questionable advice and information.