Happy Holidays

December 17, 2017

Robert,

Happy Holidays. Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it and Happy Hanukkah to our Jewish friends and Roy Moore's lawyer.

It's a great time to celebrate the past year, reflect on what you're grateful for and plan for 2018.

I thought I would share some good news, some bad news, and end with more good news.

$350,000 Golf Cart Settlement

This week we settled a case set for trial in January for our client Jake who was injured in a golf cart incident. Nine interesting things about the case:

1. His brother did it. They were golfing in Illinois, his brother was not paying attention (on his phone) and ran his golf cart into Jake. The impact fractured his tibia and fibula. It can be a challenge for family members to sue each other (jurors think it strange). Why would one brother sue another for money? Why would a kid sue a parent or vice versa?

   In reality, we often hang out with family and friends so it is not uncommon for us to have claims against them when they do something irresponsible and unnecessarily cause injury. Driving or encountering dangerous conditions on property happens every day with folks you know well. We know how to handle these situations and in jury selection (but I don’t want to share all my tricks here).

2. In the surgery placing the steel rod down his fibula the doctor left stitches under Jake's skin. This irritated him, caused pain and challenged sleep. Two different doctors on two different occasions did exploratory surgeries to remove the stitches.
3. The Defendant's doctor was really good for us. Defendants can send Plaintiffs to an Independent Medical Exams to minimize the injuries sustained, say injuries or symptoms are not related to the incident or say there was no injury at all. In the case, Defendant's doctor was great for us, linked the injuries to the crash and said they were really bad.
4. In a very strange twist, Jake liked the IME doctor so much he asked him to do a surgery for him and the Defendant IME doctor agreed. The defense doctor went in and took a bolt out that was holding the rod in Jake's leg and was causing discomfort. He also did exploratory surgery and took out retained stitches.
5. The insurance adjuster advised that he would only pay about $100,000 to settle the case in the beginning, refused to pay anymore and got mad when I filed suit. However, through litigation, pushing the case, setting the case for trial, and taking depositions we were able to get a great settlement for our client.
6. After we settled the case for $350,000 in exchange for a Release, the insurance adjuster tried to claim a $5,000 credit for an advance paid long ago. But, the settlement was for new money and they were trying to change the deal. We are returning the signed Release and will insist on full payment. We will file a Motion to Enforce Settlement if necessary.
7. I kept the stitches and the bolt from the last surgery for exhibits at trial. It is good to have exhibits and tangible things a jury can look at.
8. In a true small world tale, when this accident happened 2 years ago Jake was attending his niece's wedding. He went to SLUH, got the metal rod put into his leg and then he went to the wedding the next day. Then, two years later, the niece worked for the Defendant's IME doctor and that was how Jake got connected to that doctor for the surgery.
9. Alcohol was involved in an unusually funny way. The ambulance record says Jake was drinking a beer when they arrived. Plaintiff and defendant testified Jake had not drank anything that day whatsoever before the accident. However, after his brother ran into him with a golf cart and shattered his leg, Jake sat there holding his bleeding leg and asked the Defendant to give him a beer while he waited for the ambulance. Defendant obliged.

Federal Judge Nominations

Time for the bad news. Trump's nominees for Federal District Court judges were questioned about an array of things including: the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, the Federal Rules of Evidence, and even what the Motion in Limine is -- nothing too surprising.

What was surprising were the bad answers they gave to Senator Kennedy's questions. One attorney who has never taken a deposition on his own also stated the last time he read the Federal Rules of Evidence was in Law School.

That same young man could not give a definition of what a Motion in Limine stating his background was not in litigation and therefore he was not up to speed on these definitions.

He has been nominated to be a Federal District Judge, without ever having even tried a case and had absolutely no knowledge about Federal or State trials, trial law, or had experience in courtroom practice. Why on earth would he want to be a trial judge?

Civil Justice for Crime Victims

How do We Keep Ourselves on the Cutting Edge of Important Issues at Burger Law?

We care deeply about our clients and their cases. We feel strongly about keeping ourselves up to date on the law, on research about the issues our clients face, and trial strategy to win cases for our clients. To keep our skills honed, we take time to learn, to listen, and to be educated by others in our field all over the world.

Last week, Nicole Gorovsky, an attorney in our office, went to a conference in Portland, Oregon, called “Civil Justice for Crime Victims.” The National Crime Victim Bar Association organized the conference. It is dedicated to helping crime victims, including victims of violent crimes, sexual crimes, crimes against children, and financial crimes.

As civil lawyers, we try to get justice beyond what the criminal system is capable of providing. Nicole went to presentations about lawsuits against celebrity defendants, proving the long-term impact of child abuse to a jury, dealing with consent defenses, suing universities for allowing sexual assault on campus, creative strategies in alternative dispute resolution, and much more.

At Burger Law we also work hard to become educators in our field. At the conference, due to her input at workshops and background in serving crime victims, Nicole will be on the Advisory Board of the organization so that she can help educate others on these issues in the future.

Going to these conferences and joining these organizations is just one way that we work to keep up with the best strategies to help our clients. We strive to provide the best service possible!

Responses:

“Nice outfit. If you ever decide to stop being a lawyer, you already have the wardrobe to be a pimp:). Happy Holidays.”

--Robert

“Enjoyed your newsletters! My best to you and your family for the Holidays! (Nice suit!) You are a brave man!”

--Ric

Happy New Year

January 2, 2018

Happy New Year Amy,

To begin, I wish you all the best in 2018 and hope you and your family have a safe and healthy year.

Below, I share some laws that went into effect yesterday, thank the great lawyers and staff who work with me and discuss a work comp/auto case we recently settled.

But first, here's my ten "by the numbers" 2017 review:

1. 3 Offices now – St. Louis, Belleville and Chesterfield
2. 4 lawyers now work at our firm and three paralegals
3. 5 Star review average on Google
4. 25 puppies my wife Kristen and I fostered in 2017
5. 25 -- The number of years I have been practicing law, which is also the age of my law clerk
6. 112 cases resolved in 2017
7. 117 lawsuits filed in 2017
8. 153 depositions taken by Burger Law Lawyers in 2017
9. 173 Google reviews for our main downtown office
10. 322 open cases right now

Cyberstalking, Circuses, and Custody of Pets – New Laws for Illinois and Tennessee in 2018

Illinois passed more than 200 bills in 2017 that took effect yesterday.

This includes combating the opioid epidemic. Senate Bill 772 requires doctors to check the Prescription Monitoring Program database to see if a patient has been prescribed a controlled substance by another doctor before writing that patient a prescription. This makes it harder to “doctor shop” drugs from multiple physicians.

Health laws are changing: psychiatrists don't have to be in the same room as a patient and physicians can do virtual medical care. Although virtual therapy visits for the opioid addict are slow to catch on.

Also, Senate Bill 314 requires insurance companies to cover breast MRIs if a mammogram detects dense breast tissue, which is a risk factor for cancer, according to the American Cancer Society.

Other new laws treat pets as children in divorce cases, ban circus elephants, and make cyberstalking a potential hate crime. Check out the full story to see 40 of the 200 laws that took effect Jan. 1 2018 in Illinois.

Tennessee is making changes, too. Using a cell phone while driving in a school zone is a Class C misdemeanor.

Finally, the biggest law many know about taking effect January 1 is a federal law -- the changes to the federal tax system. If you are a small business owner, make sure to check in with your accountant on what might change for you. If you are an individual, read up on the changes.

Burger Law Year in Review

Thanks to our clients and friends for all of your support this last year. We have grown as a firm – now with 3 attorneys (in addition to me), 3 support staff, and one really great law student who helps research my crazy ideas every 2 weeks for this newsletter (and apparently writes some, too).

I wanted to thank John Burns who worked really hard for our clients in 2017. John grew up in Northern St. Louis County, and graduated from CBC High School. He received his J.D. from Saint Louis University School of Law, receiving distinction for civil rights studies.

John was a grade school teacher before attending law school. In fact, John met his wife when he volunteered to teach on an Indian reservation for a year where she was also a teacher.

John zealously advocates for injured clients and holds negligent defendants accountable for the harm they inflict. John has extensive litigation experience in many varied areas and has appeared in many trial and appellate courts. He handles our many workers compensation cases in addition to other complex cases.

He gives great support to me – like I literally just asked him to do a legal brief for me for a hearing tomorrow. I am lucky to have such a great lawyer and good family man on our team.

Settled Auto/Work Comp Case

We recently settled an auto claim for one of our clients. Darius had two claims arising from his accident. We settled his workers comp claim earlier but his auto case took a little longer.

Darius was injured September 18, 2015 on his motorcycle when a car from the left lane attempted to turn right in front of him. I try to get the word out to share the road and watch for motorcycles. Darius had lacerations and bruising, and injuries to his legs, neck, teeth and head.

Darius's leg injury would not resolve on its own. His swelling continued and eventually, doctors relieved the swelling by performing calf incision, irrigation and debridement.

Darius also had wage loss claims. Darius had multiple employers he missed work for from the accident. Due to the case taking a while to settle, we had to send multiple demands for his injuries and updates to his wage loss claim throughout the process.

After no offer for a long time the defendant's insurance company offered $45,000, barely enough to cover his medical and work comp lien. So we filed suit and litigated the case and was able to double the first offer, settling for $90,000.

We negotiated the Workers' Comp lien asserted in the case. Here's my book on Workers’ Compensation – Chapter 10 deals with liens.

Even after settling the case it has taken almost 2 months to get the check from the other side. But finally, we are happy our client will ring in the new year with this behind him.

25 Puppies in 2017

My wife fostered 25 puppies through various organizations in 2017. I helped, too :-). This is up from 16 in 2016. Kristen is amazing at caring for them and finding them homes. We adopted one out at our Christmas party a couple weeks ago and thought we would take a break.

But Kristen got a call that Gateway Pet Guardians found 5 week old puppies out in the cold. So we took three in to ring in the New Year. With this weather they would not have made it.

Gary Burger