While growing up in New Jersey, Victor Finkelstein, a member of Congregation Beth Torah, dreamed of performing and being on television. Though life took Finkelstein in a different direction, he has helped start a new program to give kids that are facing difficult times more resources to follow their dreams.
Finkelstein, along with Kansas City attorneys James Roswold and Heather Lottmann, has launched a new program through their law firm, Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys. The program, “No Fee For Kids,” will benefit children who have suffered injuries in a motor vehicle collision in Missouri or Kansas. The No Fee For Kids program is for kids 12 or under at the time of the incident. For those kids, the law firm will charge them no fees, and attempt to get them the best settlement possible.
“We want to take the lead in helping kids,” Finkelstein said. “We want to make sure they had what they needed to recover.”
Finkelstein says this is a unique program in the area. He says this is an opportunity for children and their families to incur no attorney’s fees if the case can be settled before a lawsuit is filed. A fee will be charged only if a lawsuit is filed. The firm will be reimbursed for costs and advanced expenses, such as obtaining medical records and bills or obtaining reports from medical experts, only if the injured child recovers or a court directs.
“When children are involved in a car accident, they are particularly innocent,” Finkelstein said. “The accident happened through no fault of theirs. They were the passenger and there is an expectation of safety there. The driver is expected to drive safely. Other drivers are expected to drive safely. The children are as innocent as innocent can be.”
According to the National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA), approximately 250,000 children sustain injuries annually in motor vehicle collisions. In fact, the most common type of accident causing injury to children is a car accident. This translates to approximately 700 motor vehicle-related child injuries occurring daily.
Finkelstein said the No Fees For Kids program ties into another initiative the Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys are involved with, the Roswold Foundation for Injured Children.
“Our personal injury attorneys,” Finkelstein said, “are founders of an injured children’s foundation and feel that children are special. If a child’s auto accident case can be settled without filing a lawsuit, that child would benefit significantly if not charged an attorney fee.”
Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys have the stated goal of being the go-to resource for injury victims in the Kansas City area. James was recently admitted to the Million & Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Firm, one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers of which less than one percent of lawyers in the U.S. are members. Roswold is licensed in Missouri. Lottmann and Finkelstein are licensed in both Kansas and Missouri.
“It’s an honor to help people through these difficult situations, to be there and try and comfort people through a very stressful, emotional time,” Finkelstein said. “And it’s our job work to obtain a really good settlement for them.”
Finkelstein has dealt with several cases that have involved tragic occurrences, including children suffering brain trauma from their accident.
“My heart goes out to them,” he said.
Finkelstein said that attorneys generally charge around one-third of the total recovery when a child’s car accident case is settled with the insurance company before a lawsuit is filed. More than a civil service, Finkelstein feels the program is a spiritual one as well.
“I feel that by helping the youngest victims of motor vehicle accidents to recover from their injuries, by helping to facilitate optimal treatment, and by helping them and their parents recover financially, and not charging a fee, I feel that we are performing gemilut chasadim, acts of loving kindness, which is one of the tenets of Judaism,” Finkelstein said. “When one does something to help someone with no expectation of getting something in return, this is gemilut chasadim.”
The only qualifications are that the child be 12 years of age or younger and the accident happened in either Kansas or Missouri. For more information call Kansas City Accident Injury Attorneys at 816-471-5111.