Kansas Injuries Glossary

Legal and insurance terms explained plainly

People often confuse an assistive device with durable medical equipment, but they are not the same. Durable medical equipment is usually prescribed for a medical condition and...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-23

basic speed law

Miss this rule, and a crash that looked "not your fault" can turn into a ticket, a blame fight, or worse if weather, traffic, or road conditions made your speed unsafe. A basic...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-31

disability rating

What trips people up most is that a disability rating is not the same as being unable to work. It is a medical or legal measure of how much a physical or mental condition has...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-23

distribution of wrongful death proceeds

Who gets the money if a wrongful death case succeeds, and how is it divided? The answer is the distribution of wrongful death proceeds: the process of paying out money...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-28

estate representative

Control over settlement money, access to records, and the legal power to file or defend claims can all turn on who is authorized to act for a deceased person's estate. Without...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-26

failure to signal

Not using a required turn signal before turning, changing lanes, or moving from a parked position. "Required" matters because drivers are not expected to signal every twitch of...

GLOSSARY 2026-04-03

funeral and burial costs

Who pays for a loved one's final expenses after a fatal accident? Funeral and burial costs are the reasonable charges tied to laying someone to rest after death, such as the...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-30

hedonic damages

50 percent is a hard line in Kansas: if an injured person is 50 percent or more at fault, they recover nothing under the state's modified comparative fault rule. That matters...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-22

impairment rating

A medical estimate of permanent loss of bodily function. "Medical estimate" means a doctor or other qualified evaluator uses exams, records, symptoms, and testing to assign a...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-23

loss of consortium

It can raise or reduce the dollar value of a case because it pays for harm to a close family relationship, not just the injured person's medical bills or lost wages....

GLOSSARY 2026-03-28

loss of earning capacity

$50,000 a year missed for six months is not the same as losing the ability to ever earn $50,000 a year again. Lost wages pay for income already missed because an injury kept...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-21

loss of parental guidance

This can raise or limit the value of a wrongful death case because it deals with a child's non-financial loss after a parent dies. In practical terms, it is the loss of the...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-25

minor beneficiary

You may see this in a settlement letter, probate paper, insurance notice, or court filing: a child is listed as a "minor beneficiary," sometimes next to a parent, guardian, or...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-31

pain management program

Insurers and defense lawyers often treat this phrase like a warning label: if someone is sent to one, they may argue the person is exaggerating pain, should be "fixed" by now,...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-22

pecuniary loss

You may see this phrase in a demand letter, insurance paperwork, jury instructions, or a lawyer's summary of damages: "pecuniary loss" means a financial loss that can be...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-24

personal representative

A personal representative is the person authorized to handle a deceased person's legal and financial affairs. "Authorized" matters because this person usually gets authority...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-26

pre-death pain and suffering

Miss this issue, and a family can lose a major part of a case before anyone realizes it was even available. Pre-death pain and suffering means the physical pain, fear,...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-28

right turn on red violation

Miss this on a ticket or after a crash, and the ugly version is simple: you turned right at a red light, someone got hit, and now you are dealing with a citation, insurance...

GLOSSARY 2026-04-01

statute of limitations for wrongful death

Like a mile marker counting down on a long stretch of highway, the law gives families only so much time to act after a death caused by someone else's carelessness or...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-25

summary judgment

Miss this for what it is, and a case can be thrown out before a jury ever hears it. That is the worst-case version: after months of treatment records, photographs, and lawyer...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-21

survival action

Not the same as a wrongful death claim, and that mix-up can cost families money they should not lose. A survival action is the claim the injured person had before death,...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-27

transferable skills analysis

Insurance companies and defense lawyers lean on this as a neat way to say, "You can still work somewhere." They use it to take a person with real limits - chronic pain, a brain...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-23

vocational rehabilitation

Think of it like getting rerouted after a bridge washes out: the goal is not to pretend the old road still works, but to find a realistic way to keep moving. In injury and...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-23

wrongful death action

Money, deadlines, and who gets paid are where bad advice causes real damage. A wrongful death action is the civil lawsuit certain surviving family members can bring when...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-29

wrongful death beneficiary

The point that confuses people most is that this is not always the same person as the estate or the personal representative. A wrongful death beneficiary is a person the law...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-24

wrongful death damage cap

How much can a family actually recover after a death caused by someone else? Sometimes, not as much as the harm is worth, because a wrongful death damage cap is a legal limit...

GLOSSARY 2026-03-26