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(314) 500-HURTEvery personal injury claim is unique, but hearing others' stories can help you understand what to expect. Burger Law offers a new collection of our previous clients' stories and how we were able to help.
I have embarked on a beekeeping adventure. My wife got me bees for Christmas (isn't that romantic). I did a bunch of work to put the hives in my yard, took some classes, and my bees came a few weeks ago.
The bees come in a nucleus colony – an established colony with a queen, worker bees and drones in five frames. I put them in my hive.
Over the last few weeks, they have built comb into the empty frames, increased in numbers and are flourishing. I go check them once a week to make sure they are doing well. I monitor the continuing larvae production by the queen, brood (new bee) development, that they are getting nectar and pollen and are doing well.
When I go check out the hive, I wear protective stuff to keep from getting stung. But we keep the dogs away because bees have a natural aversion to dark furry animals and sometimes attack them.
Did you know that honey bees are not native to America, but come from Europe and Asia? The first honey bees brought to America in modern times were by colonists in 1622.
There are over 4,000 bee species native to America, but none produce honey. Here's an interesting article. The honey bee and its social hive is run by one queen who communicates to her workers by emitting pheromones.
I'll let you know how we do with our bees this year. If you are a beekeeper and want to share experiences, please email me or give me a call. I would love to come and check out your hives.
Bikes for Kids St. Louis is proud to announce our first winner of the summer – McKinley CLA Middle School 8th grader, Malcolm Hinkebein!
Malcolm was nominated by his teacher and McKinley Athletics Director, Paul Husch, for being so outstanding at the school.
“Malcolm is a great student who for the past seven years has donated his hair for St. Baldrick’s,” Paul said. “Outside of that, he is always willing to lend a helping hand to the other students at McKinley. ” It was through Helen Fitzgerald Irish Grill and Pub’s annual St. Baldrick’s events that Malcolm raised money and shaved his head since 2010.
When Peggy Schneider, organizer of the Helen Fitzgerald event, learned about Malcolm’s nomination, she said: “Malcolm has been shaving at our Helen Fitzgerald’s St. Baldrick’s event for years, along with his mom and brother, so they have really made it a true family event. Even though he is young, he truly gets why he is donating. He wants to help kids with cancer and he cares about others, which means a lot to us.”
On an even bigger scale, the St. Baldrick’s Foundation caught wind of Malcolm’s dedication to kids and CEO Kathleen Ruddy was thrilled. “St. Baldrick’s is so grateful to kids like Malcolm, for volunteering their time and their hair to raise money for childhood cancer research,” the CEO said. “Malcolm exemplifies what is best about young people and their inherent nature to want to help those in need. To see kids helping other kids is truly amazing and we are so proud of Malcolm and all that he has done to help kids with cancer.”
He was awarded a brand-new bicycle from Urban Shark cycle shop, compliments of Burger Law. I was moved by such a young man making such a big difference. He was surprised he could inspire others.
“Did you ever think that you could inspire an adult?” Gary asked Malcolm.
“You are making such a difference and it’s inspiring to see your dedication to childhood cancer. We are so proud of you.”
We recently settled a case for our client Arvind. Arvind was driving around a curve when another driver crossed into his lane and crashed into the driver's side of Arvind's car.
The impact broke Arvind's arm. He was taken immediately to a hospital, and within two weeks, had surgery to insert a rod and screws into his wrist to fix his fracture.
After surgery, Arvind did physical therapy and was released from care with minimal pain. We pursued the driver who hit Arvind. Bur discovered he had lied to the police and did not have insurance.
So, we filed an Illinois uninsured claim with his insurance company, State Farm. These can sometimes be difficult as the insurance company has to do their own investigation to ensure there was no third-party insurance involved. Once they completed their investigation, they accepted coverage. But they still negotiated tough and we had to push to get a great recovery.
Last Friday I got to present at the Maximum Lawyer Conference in St. Louis. It was held at SLU LAW and had over 70 attendees for a full seminar of marketing tips for attorneys.
I spoke about launching a law firm – and gave 75 tips to remember in 45 minutes.
The entire conference was a lot of fun. The presenters were incredible and I know everyone walked away from it ready to try out some new ideas!
Listen to the Maximum Lawyer podcast for marketing lessons.
Our client Tenesha came to us after an automobile accident in St. Claire, County Illinois where she was rear-ended. She had severe injuries to her neck, back and shoulders costing her thousands in medical bills.
We ended up getting a great settlement for Tenesha for her overall claim. But we didn’t stop there. Whenever we settle a case, we make it a priority to put as much in our clients’ pockets that we can. This means negotiating down their medical liens with providers.
Tenesha's chiropractor, Shiloh Chiropractic, overcharged her. He refused to negotiate a reduction to a more reasonable price. He tried to charge about $250 per visit and wanted $5600. Our office communicated with his office extensively, but he still refused. We tried to take a third off his bill and explained the ridiculously high bill. (He had refused to take her insurance).
We filed a motion to adjudicate the lien with the court. This gets the court involved in the negotiations. The court will then decide the final amount a doctor is entitled to.
The chiropractor immediately hired an attorney to represent them in the motion. At that time, we received a notice from opposing counsel attempting to collect the debt plus interest and attorney’s fees. They increased it to over $7000!
Then Shiloh's lawyer went to a court appearance and got the matter ruled on Ex Parte – without us being there. We filed a Motion to set that aside (which we would have won).
After negotiations with opposing counsel, a subpoena for the chiropractors entire file, and communications about why the chiropractor did not bill Tenesha’s health insurance that they had on file, they agreed to a reduction.
They ended up taking off the attorney’s fees and interest and reduced the bill by 1/3. This was the original reduction we had asked for prior to filing a motion.
We were happy to help Tenesha get a great settlement and happier to fight so hard to keep the payment to her chiro fair. I hate bullies.
Below, I share a story from my CLE last week, my latest Bikes for Kids gift to Vera and some interesting case successes.
But first, I wanted to tell you about my new favorite Instagram account: crimebikes. It's a random group of Limebike users who hilariously stage lime bike pseudo crimes and post photos.
We had a wonderful Bikes for Kids giveaway on Saturday. Vera got a new bike and was very thankful. I totally surprised her.
Bikes for kids rewards great kids through a nominating process who go above and beyond with a bike every couple of weeks throughout the summer.
Vera helps special needs kids get off the bus and to their classrooms. She has volunteered for this and does this every day. She helps battle stereotypes of these children and facilitates having them being part of the school community.
We had a really successful CLE last week. A special thanks to Debbie Champion, Robert Cohen, and Michael Downey for their great presentations.
We argued discovery motions before Judge Cohen and had a blast!
We were able to raise a lot of money for Legal Services of Eastern Missouri in the process.
Clients and litigants can learn a lot from this and the 70 lawyers who attended sure did. These are thorough and detailed briefs with arguments from both sides on the most argued discovery disputes.
Debbie and I also presented each of our Top 10 Trial Tips. We shared our most effective techniques in a variety of circumstances – voir dire, opening, testimony, demonstrative evidence, instructions and closing from 50 years of trial experience.
Here are some highlights from that list:
The jury is watching. What does the jury see or think of objections? Approach the bench instead or don’t object.
I had a great time and I learned a lot from Debbie's top ten tips too.
We achieved a great settlement for our client Shawn after mediating the case last month. Shawn slipped on lettuce at a local grocery store. He was pushing his baby in a stroller and also was pushing a cart; so, he did not see the lettuce. He fell on his outstretched shoulder and side.
Shawn had to have rotator cuff surgery on his shoulder because of this fall. He also injured back and neck and had to get multiple pain injections. Physical therapy helped too.
Through litigation, we discovered there was a video of the incident clearly showing Shawn’s fall. Defendants claimed that the store was checked every hour for slip and fall hazards such as the lettuce and denied liability. So, we filed suit and pushed the case.
And we got the store's surveillance video which showed Shawn falling but did not show workers checking for slip and fall hazards near where Shawn fell. Also, we were able to show that the store was inspected incredibly fast, and not very closely. The video also showed store employees sweeping up lettuce after the accident, right where Shawn fell.
The defendant and the store manager continued to deny liability despite all the evidence. In their depositions, store managers denied the lettuce was even there, contrary to their internal reports and what the video showed.
Always report an incident when injured at a business. Often, as in this case, internal reports and video evidence prevent companies from changing their story later. I was able to use that evidence to show store employees were completely wrong and had changed their story in their depositions.
We fought hard to get the evidence needed to win the case. Filing suit and forcing production of the video and report really helped. As did our great client who helped us throughout.
The Court ordered us to medicate the case. We were able to mediate the case with the great mediators at United States Arbitration and Mediation (US A&M) to achieve an excellent result for our client.
We have fought hard for success in slip and fall and premises liability cases. And with many verdicts and settlements in a wide array of circumstances.
We had a great result in a bike premises liability case against AT&T and Holloran Contracting for $270,000. Our client had a terrible bike crash but made a miraculous recovery. It happened when he was riding his bicycle on the sidewalk along Baxter Road from his house to the post office to mail a letter.
Our client Kim is super safety conscious – he wore an orange vest (like a construction worker) and had on his helmet. It had just rained and the sidewalks were damp. He only had time to think there was something amiss with the sidewalk before his bicycle flipped and he crashed.
He determined after he woke up that he crashed into an area that had been dug out and the sidewalk removed – but water had pooled in and filled in this area following the rain.
Kimball got up, was a little bit out of it and warned a jogger about the hole. He walked home pushing his bike. His wife took him to the emergency room and he received treatment – he had facial lacerations and head trauma.
Holloran Contracting did not obtain a permit to remove the sidewalk as required by St. Louis County ordinance. Neither did AT&T. Holloran and AT&T pointed the finger at each other about who was supposed to pull the permit.
The lawsuit was both a dangerous condition of property and negligence claim, as well as negligence per se claims against both entities.
We deposed a 42-year public works official with St. Louis County. He testified that:
During the initial emergency room visit Mr. Nill was diagnosed with a closed head injury and facial fractures. He was admitted for observation and later released.
About a month later, Kimball’s wife took him to the emergency room and stated that he “didn’t seem right” and that he had been having headaches. He was admitted and found to have a right frontal subdural fluid collection/hematoma that needed to be evacuated.
The next day Kimball underwent a frontal craniotomy for a subdural hematoma procedure. The neurosurgeon cut open his head, removed his skull and the dura (membrane around the brain). As soon as the dura was opened, there was spontaneous emanation of high pressure chronic subdural fluid. A hemorrhage was repaired as well.
Less than a week after the surgery on November 18, 2014, Kimball was taken back to the emergency room for confusion and slurred speech and hand and arm numbness and loss of use. Mr. Nill underwent treatment for his right shoulder pain shortly after the crash as well.
Over the next few months, Mr. Nill continued his follow-up care with his doctors. He was prescribed anti-seizure medications and underwent additional head scans to monitor him after the surgery. He had an amazing recovery and is 100% now.
Yesterday was a great Father’s Day for me – I got to share it with my new son, William Lewis. He was born May 22 and is not quite four weeks old. Kristen, I and our other kids are super excited to have an addition to our wonderful family. Kristen's an amazing mom.
Below, I present some stories and articles on how to get third party recoveries outside of work comp for serious on-the-job injuries. What really matters in life is our family. I hope this email finds you as blessed as I am. I spend my best time in life being a father and relish it.
William’s first name comes from my grandfather, William Herrmann and Kristen's maiden name – Williamson. His middle name is Lewis – from Meriwether Lewis, the Corps of Discovery explorer.
I could talk about my kids all day – but let's turn to some cool cutting edge legal issues we have been battling.
I attended a hearing Friday to argue against a motion to dismiss a co-employee negligence case. Our client James was tragically killed because his co-employees had him ride in the back of a trailer with unsecured trash cans and a broken rear gate.
The driver (without a commercial driver’s license) went around a turn too fast, sending the cans into James. It knocked him out the back of a trailer and struck his head - he was not wearing head protection. This was all in violation of company policy and Missouri law.
Missouri law allows you to sue co-employees in some circumstances for on-the-job injuries. Under R.S.Mo. 287.120, employers are immune from civil suits brought by their employees with their exclusive remedy in the worker's compensation system.
Co-employees are also immune from a civil suit unless the employee engaged in an affirmative negligent act that purposely and dangerously caused or increased the risk of injury.
Missouri Courts view the exception to immunity narrowly and what constitutes an "affirmative negligent act" is not well defined. It's not susceptible of reliable definition, and the question is very fact intensive and determined on a case-by-case basis. Burns v. Smith, 214 S.W.3d 335, 338 (Mo. 2007). The Missouri Supreme Court in Badami created a “something more” test to better define this issue, which was codified under the current statute. State ex rel. Badami v. Gaertner, 630 S.W.2d 175 (Mo.App.1982).
The Court also referenced another case where it was found that negligent driving was not enough to meet the “something more” standard, “[a] simple allegation of negligent driving by a co-employee ... [was] not ‘something more’ than an allegation of a breach of the duty to maintain a safe working environment.” Taylor, 73 S.W.3d at 622–23.
The Court reasoned that negligent driving was “not the kind of purposeful, affirmatively dangerous conduct that Missouri courts have recognized as moving a fellow employee outside the protection of the Workers' Compensation Law's exclusive remedy provisions.”
Under the “something more” test simple auto accident negligence will not meet the standard. The standard is more akin to recklessness and requires an “affirmative act” of negligence. A supervisor can be held to this standard as long as he commits an affirmative negligent act and does not simply fail to supervise his employees properly.
Another way to get a recovery in addition to work comp, is reflected in a case I recently tried a case for our client JD Walker in the Illinois Court of Claims. JD was injured when an Illinois state worker pushed large amounts of snow off of an overpass onto his SemiTruck causing him severe injuries.
When a third party causes your injuries while you are in the scope of your employment, you have a worker's compensation claim against your employer and a civil claim against the third party responsible.
It is important to file a report of injury with your employer so you can pursue benefits including medical care through the work comp system. However, you should also pursue your civil claims against the third party to ensure a full recovery.
These cases can be complicated. Sometimes I have advised clients not to file a claim for compensation, when the third party has a large amount of insurance coverage available, so they can control their own treatment, see their own doctors, and not be limited to the medical treatment provided by their employer.
When you have a worker's compensation claim and receive medical treatment through the Missouri Work Comp system, your employer's insurance company will have a lien on your civil case. I recently handled a case with a large work comp lien described below.
We are still awaiting a judgment from the Illinois Court of Claims and I look forward to reporting the results of that trial when the Court reaches its decision.
I recently mediated a case and got a great confidential settlement for my client George, who was injured by a defective door which cut off the tip of his finger. He was working as an installer at a location owned and operated by a third party.
We achieved a great result for George, but since his medical treatment was paid for by his employer through the work comp system, he had a large work comp lien on his case. Under Missouri law, these workers’ comp liens are resolved in a very specific way.
Missouri law requires that work comp insurers accept a reduced lien which is calculated using the Ruediger Formula. I discuss Missouri Workers’ Compensation subrogation in detail in Chapter 13 of my book – Workers’ Compensation in Missouri: Succeeding in Your Injury Claim. You can grab a free copy.
Here is a helpful breakdown which explains how to figure out these liens under R.S.Mo. 287.150 and the Ruediger Formula:
Here are a few more important notes about work comp subrogation:
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