Michael S. Foster

It can be stressful trying to find an experienced attorney who you can trust to be there for you every time you need them. At Foster Wallace, we remove that stress, because our entire focus is on client service. If you are becoming overwhelmed trying to find the right attorney for you, please contact us and schedule a free consultation. We truly want to help you. If we do not think we can help you in your particular case, we will tell you that honestly. However, we are confident not only that we can help you, but that you will see a difference in how we serve you.

When you're out interviewing talking to attorneys on your case you're making a big decision right I mean we can't discount that and I and I can't sit there and tell you that we're the only people in the in the city that do what we do but we like to think that you know we were trained by some of the best attorneys in Kansas City and around the country and what we do you know we're at one of the largest law firms in the country we learned about client service you know we care about who we work for
when you're looking for an attorney you have trustworthiness transparency you know those sorts of things that every attorney should have but may not may not exhibit and but make sure you understand hey what are you going to do for me am I going to get to talk to you personally do I do I get thrown you know to a to the paralegals but do I get to have direct contact with you do I get your cell phone number are you gonna respond to my emails you know all those little things and make sure upfront you understand and we like to go through very simply you know what the contingency fee looks like yes oh you understand okay if I settle this case for this what actually what compensation will I receive the client receive if if they actually hire that attorney you know we we get some clients that have come from from other firms or had other you know bad experiences in the past with other attorneys our focus is truly client service and getting back to people as quickly as we can we don't like to let people hang and sometimes we are out more taking depositions in a day
or we're traveling you know we're in mediations were in trial we're we are working hard for our clients and so we may not get back to you within 10 minutes you know in 30 minutes but we like to be as responsive as possible because we want every single one of our clients to know that we care about them we care about their case we care about how much we can get for them and compensate them for the bad situations that they're often dealing with you know we're constantly brainstorming we're
constant picking the brains of other attorneys that we know we know a lot of other attorneys around town that maybe have seen an issue that we've not seen before how do we deal with that but we have access now to you know a whole host of people that we go and talk to it and but it's really about it's really our focus is client service.

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Many employees who feel that they are being discriminated against, sexually harassed, or subjected to a hostile work environment, do not report their experiences to the EEOC or to their Human Relations department, manager, or co-workers. Often, victims feel that if they make a report, no one will listen, they will be retaliated against, or they will lose their job. Based on the statistics indicated above, it is understandable that a victim might feel this way. However, Foster Wallace is a safe place for you to tell your story and to begin the process of protecting your rights at your place of employment. There are shorter statute of limitations for employment claims than personal injury claims in both Kansas and Missouri so it is critical that you move quickly after you experience a discriminatory act in the workplace.

If you feel that you have been a victim of employment discrimination, please contact us at Foster Wallace and tell us your story in a safe environment, with no fear of retaliation at work. Our experienced employment law attorneys will listen to you and carefully assess your circumstances at work to determine if you have a strong case. Even if you decide not to pursue litigation, we can help you find resources that will enable you to protect your rights at the workplace. Contact Foster Wallace today to learn more about your options for getting help.

Learn more about personal injury lawsuits here: https://www.fosterwallace.com/
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Veteran litigator Michael Foster has a well-honed ability to see the big picture and quickly narrow options to the best possible solution. As a former partner at one of the biggest law firms in the country, Michael has successfully represented some of the most noteworthy national clients in their toughest legal battles and recently won the largest jury verdict in United States history for a prisoner secondhand smoking case that led to a statewide ban on prisoner smoking.

Michael relishes time in the courtroom and fights on behalf of local and regional plaintiffs who have experienced adverse situations due to liability, negligence or wrongdoing. He has been on both sides of the courtroom and knows how the most aggressive defense firms approach cases. This insider’s knowledge enables Michael to craft winning legal strategies for his clients, whether their matters are large or small.

From growing up in a family of attorneys, Michael’s legal intuition comes to him naturally. Michael’s father was an attorney and six of his aunts and uncles are attorneys or judges who practiced in the area. Michael was born and raised in the Kansas City area and is a former Division 1 college athlete. This collective background has contributed to Michael’s unrelenting drive to compete and win. Michael and his wife spend most of their free time raising their three young children.

My partner Michael is one of the hardest-working guys I know I grew up in a town called Lake Quivira it's a suburb you can city having family in the business I get a go I have the advantage of talking to you know my dad about cases talking to judges about cases I can call it my you know a family member and you know how would you handle this what should I do here how would you rule on this maybe his wife doesn't like it as not yours kids don't like it as much but you know I we constantly are texting each other about cases things we could be doing better people that we should be in contact with a all with a view towards how do we get the best result for our client possible we're good people that care about our clients and we do we do the right thing and that's the that's the biggest thing someone once on a lawyer is trust and knowing that they're gonna work hard and that they're going to fight and that's who Bryan and I are we're providers and we know when to push and we also know when to be the friendly guy I mean a lot of clients want Bulldogs you know they want the other to punish the other side but sometimes it's it's alright to be a you know not that Bulldog you know sometimes they like writin checks when they like the attorney on their side and we know when we need to be the good guy and when we need to push and we tell our clients that too.

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Our personal injury attorneys understand that sometimes after a car crash you may know that you have been injured or that something just doesn’t feel right, but you feel you must forego medical attention because you don’t have health insurance. We understand that feeling. But you should not let that prevent you from receiving the medical attention you need.

Our personal injury attorneys can help you work through the complex issues that affect your physical and financial well-being after an auto accident. We will work with your doctors and other service providers to see that you receive the medical care and treatment you deserve. And we will fight to make sure you receive the maximum compensation for your injuries, so that you can quickly return to your normal life.

If you or someone you love was injured in a crash, call our office today or fill out our online contact form to set up your free initial consultation. Foster Wallace, LLC takes all car accident injury cases on a contingency fee basis, allowing victims and family members throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area to get the legal help they need without adding to their financial burden.

We see situations all the time where our clients and do not seek medical treatment and that can be for a host of reasons oftentimes it's simply because they don't appreciate the full extent of their injuries they'll have you know they'll have a tweak in their shoulder and they'll just they'll just assume it's soreness but they don't know there could be underlying ligament damage and we often see other clients say you know hey Michael Brian I don't have health insurance I don't know how I'm going to pay I've got this major issue that I've got to deal with but I've got absolutely no way to pay for this in those situations we talk to our clients about their options and we know doctors that will work in certain areas on a lien basis and in that situation basically a doctor will provide that service to the client and they don't send a bill or an invoice to to the client immediately they'll agree to hold that and basically have a lien against the case and so then that lien gets paid out of the
settlement proceeds you know there there are other there are service providers out there that that provide short-term loans and situations like that you know there there are ways that we can try to help navigate that kind of complex issues where our clients are you know that they're cash-strapped they don't have health insurance but they need to focus on their health they need to get better and they're not going to do that unless they go see a doctor a lot of these injuries they they don't manifest themselves for weeks after the accident you know we have clients all time their neck hurt a little bit after the accident kept getting worse and worse and worse go see a doctor you know go see a doctor quickly document document document document the more we can you know show that an injury relates to the the accident the the better your chances are in court and the more the the more believable your story and it is most of time believable because that's the truth it takes time for some injuries to manifest themselves.

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At Foster Wallace, your personal injury process begins with a free consultation. We will meet with you in person, discuss your case by phone, or perhaps do both. We want to hear your story. We want to know:

- What happened?
- What is the extent of your injuries?
- Have your injuries caused you to miss work?
- Have you received any medical treatment for your injuries?
- Have you been to the hospital or to see a doctor?
- How has this experience affected your family and loved ones?
- What is your treatment plan?

We want to listen to and understand your story. We also want you to understand what to expect. We will walk you through the personal injury process, step by step, so that you know we are fighting for you every step of the way.

After after a client's has been injured or potential clients been injured and they come talk to us you know we have an initial consultation and that's always free sometimes that's over the phone sometimes that's in person sometimes it's both in that initial consultation we just want to hear your story we want to understand what happened we want to understand the extent of your injuries have you taken time off of work did you go to the did you go to the hospital you know what have and what have other family members what have they had to do to help pick up the slack because you know you you've been essentially you have to sit on a couch because you've got a traumatic brain injury or you've got a knee issue or shoulder issue and so at that initial consultation consultation we talked to our clients about what we do we tell them the process of a lawsuit we tell them about our fee arrangement that get on a contingent basis and and if we're privileged enough to get retained by our clients and what what we immediately do is we send a letter of representation out to the insurance company or the other driver if if we don't know the insurance company and and oftentimes we include some spoliation language in there basically we want the insurance company to preserve the car preserve and we want people to preserve text messages use of the phone all of that stuff will then get a letter of acknowledgement back from the inch current insurance company saying okay we acknowledge that you represent client X please give us a summary of their injuries time out of work all of those sorts of things and most of the time our clients are still treating so after that and we tell that to the insurance company so at that point really our clients focus should be on their health you know go see the doctors that you need to see to get better after our clients finished reading or when they're very close to finished reading we were work with our clients where we go out and we get the medical records we get the medical bills sometimes our clients do that oftentimes we do it and we advance the costs of
obtaining those medical records and we'll put it together a demand letter and the demand letter really is where we tell the story of our clients we give them the background we talk about you know missed time off of work you know all the struggles that they're going through as the accident we give our most of the time we give the insurance companies around 30 days to respond to that and we'll know sometimes pretty quickly whether or not you know the insurance company will come back and give us a fair offer or not ultimately the decision to settle is always with our clients we don't make that decision all we can do is come back with offers made by the insurance company to our clients counseled them on whether we think the offer is fair and let them make that decision the client decides to put their trust in us and retain us to be their attorney in a situation like a car wreck or a slip and fall and one of the very first things that we do is we send a letter of representation out to either the insurance company or the other driver if we don't have that other drivers insurance company and what that does is that really cuts off communication between the insurance company and our client so that all of those communications now are funneled from the insurance company directly to us.

Learn more about personal injury lawsuits here: https://www.fosterwallace.com/
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Our goal at Foster Wallace is to serve you. We hope to serve you as effective personal injury attorneys, supportive advocates, and trusted advisors. One of the ways we can serve you in this capacity is through this website—www.fosterwallace.com.

We have tried to make our website a resource for people whether or not they've been into a wreck they've been in a wreck they they've been wronged you know we we want to offer to you know the public and our clients you know resources that they can go to and maybe get some frequently asked questions answered some basic things we're not trying to hold the secrets here right I mean we want to educate our clients we want them to know that okay number one these guys do know what they're talking about so from a credibility perspective we think it's important to put that information out there like I said like I said we're not hiding anything and you know if this were this were easy if this was a formulaic job where we were just plugging in oh there's injury X and there's this much wage so the compensation that you deserve is why if it were that simple you wouldn't need an attorney but that's you know we're often dealing with complex issues and so by providing some free resources to our clients to kind of help them understand that you know they can educate themselves and appreciate what this process is you know what we're actually doing for clients on the back end because our clients may not hear from us for a couple weeks that doesn't mean we're not working for them you know we are out there every single day ordering medical records drafting demand letters filing drafting filing petitions preparing for depositions and there's a lot that we put into every single case you're probably on our website because you came across our site when googling some issue you're dealing with and we try to provide you know free and you know answers to those those frequently asked questions you know we tell people all time they're welcome to call us we're willing to do a free consultation we work on a contingent basis which which which means that we don't get paid unless you win and if we're not the right attorneys we we like to find the right attorneys to help you hi I'm Michael foster and I'm Brian Wallace you've came to our website because you're searching for an answer either someone has injured you in a car wreck you've been discriminated against at work there's malpractice committed by a professional and you need answers that's why we built this website we've created a lot of free content either in the form of videos articles we have three books some of which are coming out very soon or which already are out regarding dog bites the process of a lawsuit and car accidents so if you have questions please use our contact us form and reach out to us I promise that Brian or I will reach out personally to you about your claim.

Learn more about personal injury lawsuits here: https://www.fosterwallace.com/
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For the attorney’s at Foster Wallace, you are worth more to us than what it will cost the other party to avoid litigation. We value the treatment you require, the recovery you achieve, and the quality of life you will enjoy in the future. If you have been injured in an accident, contact us for a free consultation and let us investigate all of the factors in your case. We will always fight for the compensation you deserve.

Yeah that's a typical question what's my case worth you know we have to do our investigation it's hard to say what a case is worth until you we get all the medical bills all the records we know you know what your future loss losses are involved you know in the accident in the wreck or whatever you come into our office for we can't tell you that on day one people always you know ask well what's my case worth I'd be doing a disservice to my client to answer that question because I can't tell you what your case is worth what I can tell them is you know keep getting keep seeing a doctor if you need a doctor we'll go gather the bills we'll get the records we'll see how this injury impacts the rest of your life is how it impacted your your you know your previous life you know to the you know going back to when the accident occurred but we can't really tell you what this case is worth on day one we have an idea after we you're done treating after we have all the bills all the records we know what's fair we know what's the right amount to settle for and we'll tell our clients that you know sometimes they they're like oh this case is worth a million dollars you know and you know sometimes you gotta understand juries and they don't like handed out money in certain jurisdictions I mean your case is worth something in Johnson County it's worth something different in Johnson County than it's worth in Jackson County it's worth something different in Wyandotte County than it's worth in Clay County it depends where you're hit what kind of defendant is the defendant likeable I mean we don't know yet we haven't deposed that have been I haven't had a chance to talk to the party that caused your damages are they likable are they are they is it a is it a 20 year old like you know girl who just you know was on her phone was the person drunk when they committed the accent and you know if you have a drunk driver your case value usually goes up because juries aren't going to like drunk drivers there's just so many factors that go in and go in and go in to telling someone what their case is worth we have to do our full investigation and then we'll get a good sense of what this case is worth after after we do it and you know people think that this is the first time there there situations never happened I mean sometimes people people think that a lot of times cases like this have been done before there's car wrecks every day in Jackson County there's jury verdicts every day or you know there's a lot of jury verdicts in Jackson County or Johnson County involving car wrecks and what the medical bills we can kind of guess on what a case like yours is worth but it takes some time and it takes a full investigation we don't like to settle a case or you shouldn't settle case it's almost malpractice to settle a case if you were injured and you're not done treating okay the reason is we don't know the full extent of your damages we we don't know we've had cases in the past where you know their shoulder pain the client almost took a offer for you know let's say ten thousand dollars and made that made the matter go away you know what we asked our client to get an MRI they finally got an MRI they had a rotator cuff tear that case that almost settled for $10,000 settled for six figures and you know we want to make sure that our clients are done treating that we know we have every bill we have every medical record we know the full extent of their damages before we can settle their case because we don't want to settle their case to cheat we would be committed a disservice to our client to settle their case just because there's money on the table when we can no we know we can get more for them in the long run.

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When you are in a car accident, there are steps you can take to increase your chances of receiving compensation for any injuries or property damage you sustain in the wreck. Here are five easy steps you should be sure to take immediately after a car wreck:

Step One - Call The Police
Step Two - Exchange Information
Step Three - Talk to Witnesses
Step Four - Take Pictures
Step 5 - Get Medical Attention

Yeah I mean a lot of times clients come in our office and then they swear it wasn't their fault you know that there's disputed liability the first thing to do after a car wreck is to call the police get them to come out and use their you know their technology and what to determine how this wreck occurred you go to the other driver though you exchange all kinds of information with them you you know take pictures you have us every one cellphone now has a camera on it take a picture of their insurance card their driver's license their their license plate talk to witnesses that were there exchange information with those witnesses get make sure that you have their cell phone and you had the correct cell phone number those witnesses that would testify on your behalf so you get witness statements later or they could testify you know how this accident occurred you know people don't realize this too but we've had cases in the past where you know our driver was cited and we sent a letter to the other driver saying don't get rid of your car you know we want to go examine that car we paid for a company to come out and extract data from that car that data showed that the other driver was speeding and didn't hit the brakes you know a half second they hit the brakes a half second before before the wreck occurred we used that data to make our case one case that we thought you know that our client was in despair she knew it wasn't her fault and all of a sudden she's getting significant damages because we took the steps of making sure quickly after that that wrecked that the other car wasn't disposed in some lot you know another thing you can do too is send a letter to their side and say don't throw away your cell phone you know a lot of wrecks nowadays happen because you know the other drivers on their phone especially with these teenage teenagers you know young adults Millennials that are on their phone they're getting texts they look down and all of a sudden bill you know we want to make sure we preserve those cell phone records so when we file the lawsuit we can determine whether they were texting or looking at their phone you know responding to a text or getting a text you know seconds before that accident occurred you know trying other things you can do take pictures of where you are the scenes get marks on the road you know we've had cases in the past where we used something you know the wreck occurred outside someone's house so in that case we asked we went to the neighbor's house and said her neighbor the the person's house and said hey do you have you know did you see this no but they had ring technology they had technology their doorbell was was a ring you know those those ring apps and we were able to prove our client's case it showed the wreck and how it occurred you know businesses if that you if you got if you were injured in a car wreck outside a business you know a lot of these businesses have businesses have video cameras and technology that allow us to go back and see actually how the wreck occurred.

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At Foster Wallace, we are not settlement attorneys—we are trial attorneys. This means that we prepare every case for trial. Of course, we will always negotiate aggressively for settlement, but we will never handle a case with the sole intention of settling. We plan for trial.

There are many attorneys who work very hard negotiating a settlement and planning not to go to trial. We call them “settlement attorneys”—not because they are skilled at negotiating settlements, but because they plan for you to “settle” for less damages than you deserve so you do not have to prepare for trial.

At Foster Wallace, we will negotiate aggressively for settlement, but we will always prepare for trial. So often, it is not preparing for settlement that ensures maximum compensation, it is preparing for trial.

Contact Foster Wallace today. We will prepare you for trial and will not “settle” for anything less than what you deserve.

We plan for every case like it's gonna go to trial the only way to make an insurance company to pay or a defendant to pay is to prepare like you're going to trial and day one you can't just say uh you know this one's gonna settle I'm not gonna put it on the back burner no they did they smell that out they know that you're not gonna try this case you need to go be aggressive take depositions file when you did a file you know you know if they're not playing fair or settlement talks just file the
(00:34) lawsuit we're gonna be there you know aggressive and and that's because you know they can sniff it out and so I can't tell you most cases don't go to trial but we have to act like they were they are gonna go to trial because if we don't you're not gonna get enough money and they might just take us up on the fact that we're not ready for trial.

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If someone sees a picture of you that you posted on social media after an accident—even if it is a completely innocent picture—they can easily misinterpret what you are doing in the picture and ultimately undermine your claim for damages. Social media platforms are one of the first places the insurance adjuster will look for evidence demonstrating that your injuries are not as serious as you have claimed in your lawsuit against their client.

Often times we we get clients that come in and they're complaining about you know they've got they've got serious back issues neck issues shoulder issues knee issues and and we actually have this our engagement letter we talk to clients all the time you know you can't come to us or we can make a claim to a claims adjuster that says our client can't walk because of knee issues but then you know an insurance adjuster may go do a quick search on social media because we have a client who's got an Instagram account or Facebook or Twitter and they're putting videos of them waterskiing right so we actually count counsel all of our clients and we advise them not to post you know any sort of personal stuff that might undermine their case on social media or at a very minimum put that up put it in private so that the public can't go out and see their social media accounts [Music]

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