Langdon & Emison attorney Brennan Delaney has been published in the most recent edition of AIEG Voice magazine, with an analytical article on roadway design issues. “Tips for Success in Road Design Cases” was featured in the Winter issue of the magazine, which went out to all members of the Attorneys Information Exchange Group.
To deal with changes in volume or other circumstances over time, the authority responsible for a particular section of road can perform traffic studies, either at regular intervals to monitor system performance or on an ad hoc basis to explore a particular problem or circumstance. Thus, in evaluating the design of a road where your client was injured, two pieces of information are paramount: (1) the standards for which the roadway was “originally designed” and (2) what studies or other efforts have been made to evaluate the changes to that roadway since its construction under those standards.
Brennan practices law in a variety of areas such as product liability, premises liability, and dram shop liability. He has received recognition for being a Top 10 Under 40 Attorney for Missouri by the National Academy of Personal Injury Attorneys (2017), a Top 100 Civil Plaintiff Trial Lawyers for Missouri by the National Trial Lawyers (2017), and a Rising Star by Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyers (2015-2017). He is an active member of various legal organizations and serves on committees for both the Missouri Association of Trial Attorneys and the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association. Brennan also serves on the Law Alumni Board for his alma mater, the University of Missouri – Kansas City. He periodically performs continuing legal education presentations on topics such as social media discovery, use of technology in the courtroom, the use of experts, and legal ethics.
This article looks at how roadways are often improperly designed or maintained and how plaintiff’s attorneys can navigate these issues in personal injury cases. Along with partners Bob Langdon and Kent Emison, Brennan has successfully litigated roadway design cases throughout the Midwest.
Overall, the pursuit of a road design case can provide a greater recovery to a client injured on a roadway under the right circumstances. Often, the costs of initially evaluating such cases are low, as most of the information is publicly available if requested. Once pursued, road design cases present challenges and constraints that are different from those found in product cases; but if the methods described above are used, those challenges and constraints can be successfully planned for and dealt with.