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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 am excited to announce the start of a new adventure: The Lawyer v. Lawyer Podcast.
You can check out our podcast on our youtube, our website, and wherever you listen to podcasts! In the podcast, I partner with Debbie Champion of Rynearson, Suess, Shnursbusch & Champion to debate civil litigation issues and teach listeners the tricks of the trade.
Debbie is a well-known and successful civil litigation defense lawyer who has represented clients and defended claims for over 25 years. With my tenure fighting for injury victims against the people and insurance companies that Debbie represents, we have over 50 years of civil trial experience.
Never listen to a podcast before? Why not start now? In Lawyer v. Lawyer, Debbie and I try to educate lawyers and laymen about civil litigation issues. We have different views and styles of how to succeed in these claims and obviously litigate on opposite sides of these cases.
We think that this will be an exciting show. It should also be a great tool for young lawyers to learn how to practice, or improve their practice, of law. Please subscribe today and enjoy.
If you have any issues, you would like us to address in our podcast or any ideas, let us know. We are also looking for guests to come on the show to provide their insight, so if you are interested, shoot me an email.
Lastly, look for our upcoming CLE later in the spring where we will be teaching classes as well as recording podcasts to be aired later.
We utilize the techniques I discuss in my podcast Lawyer v. Lawyer all the time. We recently got a great settlement for our client Jake.
Jake was side swiped and pushed off the road in a hit and run accident. A hit and run driver is considered an uninsured driver under all car policies. But a witness got the license plate number, and police were able to find the driver who hit Jake, but the driver did not have insurance.
We filed an uninsured claim with Jake's insurance company, and attempted to settle the case. When we were close to an agreement, the insurance company stopped communicating with us. After two months of trying to resolve this claim, we filed suit, something we do often. Less than a week after we filed suit, the insurance company remembered our phone number and reached out to us. We informed them that the amount we were willing to settle for had increased because we were forced to file suit. The insurance company initially balked, but increased their offer by 25% and we were able to get Jake a great resolution to this case.
We were so happy to help Jake out and get him a great settlement.
In this email I would like to tell you about a great lawyers marketing conference in St. Louis on May 17, 18, 2018, called MaxLawCon – with fantastic presenters from around the country.
It has its origins from an amazing podcast called Maximum Lawyer, put on by my friends Tyson Mutrux and Jim Hacking. Their riveting show focuses on marketing and operating law firms. It was named one of the top 100 podcasts by the ABA and has gained national prominence.
I discuss the maximum lawyer conference and podcast, and my podcast Lawyer v. Lawyer, more below. But first, I would like to tell you about a case with tons of legal issues we have had to navigate.
Niko is an accountant from New York who was at the Sheraton Hotel in Clayton for an accounting conference. You might think this is a slip and fall or a car accident case.
Nope. While he was sitting in class, a cement block came through the ceiling and landed on his head.
Niko went to the emergency room twice that day; the second time because his headache and concussion symptoms increased. He then went back to New York. Niko became caught up in the New York Workers' Compensation system, which is complex.
Niko had head and neck problems and received care from a few physicians. Pretty quickly they said there was not much they could do for him – he ended up not having much medical treatment.
He went back to work for a couple of months, but eventually had to stop to give his concussion a rest. The good news is that he then went back to work and had additional success. He now has moved on to an even better job.
Niko is the kind of guy you love to represent – good, hard working, pull himself up with his own bootstraps kind of guy. However, his case took many twists and turns.
We found out the hotel management company wasn't really the right defendant. We then had to sue a trust run by Goldman Sachs which actually owns the hotel, and two different roofing companies. We proceeded through over a year of litigation where we had many discovery requests, depositions, and many documents produced trying to sort everything. We eventually did.
The Goldman Sachs folks hired a management group in Texas which hired an Atlanta roof consultant and then a national roofing company to repair the roof at the Clayton Sheraton. The roofing company in turn hired a Kansas subcontractor to do the actual work.
While replacing the roof, a worker fell through the roof. He caught himself and only went waist deep.
The roofing company insisted that only the roofer's leg went through the roof and not any cement blocks. So how did the cement block fall on Niko's head?
The roofers did an investigation - when they looked above the ceiling and below the roof, they found that numerous boards with drip pans were there to collect the water under the leaky roof. They figured the cement block was up there and became dislodged by the roof failure.
The roofing companies blamed it on the hotel. We learned that a year before the incident the hotel owner had a consultant recommend immediate roof replacement and that the roof was weak. The roofing company said they didn’t know about it.
Of course, the hotel blamed it on the roofers. They said all roofs can be weak and have problems. The roofing company should have inspected the roof and looked underneath it to see what might be above the ceiling.
We went around and around with many depositions with all of the defendants pointing the fingers at each other. This is usually good in cases as the other defendants help us prove our case.
Regardless, why put a conference under an old roof being repaired?
Of course, the defendants had many contracts and indemnity provisions between them. There were cross claims against the roofing companies on their contractual indemnity claim. You would think that would be straight forward - but it was denied and litigated.
Also, the medical was challenging in the case. The employer had controlled the medical in the New York workers compensation claim - so the doctors reports and medical records were unclear about Niko's symptoms, diagnosis, medical condition, and the type of treatment received.
There was also a workers' compensation lien under New York law. Cliffhanger alert:
The end.
Despite the recurring snow, spring is sprung. This means baseball and 4-part yard work between freezing gray days.
Below, I tell a little story about one of my cases: a strange truck crash on the wrong side of the road. But first some Dickinson:
A Light exists in Spring
Not present on the Year
At any other period –
When March is scarcely here
A Color stands abroad
On Solitary Fields
That Science cannot overtake
But Human Nature feels.
As the Cardinals take the field.
And nothing generates more family bonding or elicits more complaints than yard work.
Alejandro (Alex) is driving his tractor trailer eastbound on highway 70. He and his co-driver, Uiolo, drive from California regularly across the United States for CRST, a large national transportation company. They take turns driving; and can drive https://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/summary-hours-service-regulations 22 hours a day under Federal Law.
As they come through Warren County, Missouri, there is intermittent rain. Uiolo is in the sleeper and Alex has the accelerator pegged 100%, going full throttle at 64 mph (as we later learn from the ECM or black box data recorder). A Jeep and a Mustang pass him on the left.
He does not notice as the Jeep skids on balding tires, hits the center barrier and slows down. Having nowhere to go, the Mustang quickly strikes the Jeep and angles to the right into the semi.
The Mustang hits the front left wheel of Alex's tractor; its right front quarter panel is ripped by the spinning lug nuts of the tractor wheel.
Alex continues on past the two wrecked cars, veers a bit to the right and then about 3 or 4 seconds later goes left. He applies his breaks right before the median but it doesn’t slow the 70,000-pound tractor trailer.
It tears through the median and its wire barricade, turning over onto its right side and into oncoming highway 70 west traffic. Sadly, the first vehicle Alex strikes is ripped in half and instantly kills the driver: a kind grandmother and bedrock of a fantastic family.
A GM pickup simultaneously hits the CRST truck. Its driver, Ammon, has driven the same route many times home from 30 years at the General Motors plant. He goes from 39 miles an hour to 0 in an instant.
Both the Missouri Highway Patrol and our expert reconstructed the crash and testified a 39 mph change in velocity often kills occupants. It severely injures Ammon.
Tom is driving in the left lane a little behind Ammon. He is a professional tractor driver with a 30-year stellar driving record. He sees Alex coming through the median into his lane. He looks straight ahead at the roof of the tractor cab (Alex’s tractor is sideways and stopped on the road at this point).
Tom knows if he hits the fiberglass top of that cab its occupants will die. Tom steers left and crashes his tractor into Alex's trailer. Within a second, he feels another impact as the tractor trailer following him (too close) rear ends him. After the severe impacts Tom and his tractor remain inside Alex's trailer.
Tom is in the trailer for 4 and a half hours. The Highway Patrol does not realize he is there for a couple hours until they compare tractors and trailers and conclude a tractor is missing.
The amazing highway patrol and fire department saw open the trailer and Tom's tractor and get him out.
During his wait, Tom struggles to breathe (with a collapsed lung) and live, and listens to badly injured cows (in the truck that rear ended him) being shot.
We are working hard to steward Ammon and Tom through their recovery and help them recover from their injuries. We take depositions, retain experts and put in long hours analyzing the facts and law to prove their case.
Sadly, again, this type of life ending and changing crashes happen daily on America's roads. Be safe out there.
On a lighter note, do you ever get someone a Christmas present on a lark, hoping it's a good idea? I got a Bullhorn for my wife/kids for Christmas.
As it turns out, it's the smartest thing I've done in a long time. It wonderfully gets teenagers out of bed.
Excited to have Lime Bike in St. Louis. If you have not seen them yet, here ya go:
Limebike is a private corporation from California that started last year. It operates in cities in 13 states and college campuses. You download the Limebike app on your phone and pay only a dollar an hour to ride the bike. The app shows you where the bikes are.
Limebike copied Lyft and Uber and tried to get ahead of any problems that might arise. They require riders to obey the local laws prior to riding. Their long User Agreement requires the rider to obey all laws in the city and sets out general rules for riding the bike.
But just like Apple's agreement no one ever reads, people don't read the User agreement before they ride. It includes a strong waiver of all liability. It also has a bunch of smart safety rules, like safe riding, don't carry stuff on the bike and only one person on a bike at a time. We see this in a lot of places and have litigated contracts that waive liability.
Limebike has problems where cities' local Limebike laws require helmets, since Limebike does not provide them. Groups in many cities are coming together to fix these issues by providing helmets or having designated places for bike drops to lower the instances of bikes blocking sidewalks, entry ways, and streets.
All of this boils down to potential legal issues for Limebike. The concept has been heralded by many cities and Limebike has received numerous awards for their activism to change the world.
Like many original ideas, this one is bound to transform the law and drag it forward where business and technology are headed.
Try Limebike next time you're downtown.
We are pleased to announce a new program to help kids in our community: Burger Law announces its Bikes for Kids program. We will provide free bikes to 10 children starting in May.
We are doing this in a partnership with Big Shark Bicycles’ Location, Urban Shark.
At Burger Law, we want to show our support for children in our local community who are making a difference. We are excited to announce our first annual Bikes for Kids Giveaway where we will award one child a brand-new bike all summer long.
We need your help selecting our winner by nominating a kid you believe has made a positive impact in our community.
Many local children dedicate their time giving back to the community, whether that be by volunteering at a local soup kitchen or cleaning up city parks. We would like to reward one kid who demonstrates a strong commitment to his or her community.
If you know a child who fits this description and would love a new bicycle this summer, nominate him or her! Have fun riding this year.
Thanks,
Gary Burger
Below, I share a great trip my daughter and I took to New York, an auto crash success, and a reminder about our CLE on May 29.
But first did you know Missourian Harry Truman was born 134 years ago today in Lamar Missouri? Here are a few quotes from our 33rd president:
”You want a friend in Washington? Get a dog.”
”I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth and they thought it was hell.
It's a recession when your neighbor loses his job; it's a depression when you lose yours.”
”America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.”
”If you can't convince them, confuse them.”
Harry Truman beat New York governor Thomas Dewey in a close presidential race. Aspects of the election foreshadowed later ones. Truman lost the popular vote but won the electoral college like our last election. Dewey barely won his home state of New York.
Third Party candidate Henry Wallace, a former Democratic Vice President who ran to the left of Truman and was nominated by the local American Labor Party, finished a strong third, with 8.25 percent.
This crazy 1948 election yielded the famous incorrect Chicago Tribune incorrect headline – Dewey Defeats Truman.
My daughter and I had a little getaway to check out New York last weekend. We visited many sites – museums, the Top of the Rock, and Central Park.
We also got to see the new Broadway musical hit Mean Girls. It was great. Just nominated for 12 Tony Awards.
Me, Debbie Champion, Robert Cohen, and Michael Downey will present a special 3-hour CLE on May 29 at my building at 500 North Broadway.
Three hours of Missouri CLE credit, including 1 hour of ethics credit. Register soon. All profits go to Legal Services of Eastern Missouri.
They're going to be so good we will record them for future Lawyer v. Lawyer podcast segments.
In the first hour Debbie and I will argue Motions to Compel in front of Judge Cohen – discovery issues most often encountered in personal injury litigation.
Motions, memoranda and case law and arguments provided. See how Debbie and I do against each other. And remember – NO WAGERING.
The second hour, Debbie and I present each of our Top 10 Trial Tips. We will share our most effective techniques in a variety of circumstances – voir dire, opening, testimony, demonstrative evidence, instructions and closing from 50 years of trial experience.
In the last hour, Michael Downy will teach ethics questions and answers most often encountered in injury litigation. Mike always clearly shows how to navigate tough ethics issues.
And, as usual, at the end Debbie, Michael, and I will field questions from the group about legal problems facing litigants. These are great sessions: everyone learns from complex issues that attendees are faced with.
This is a unique opportunity. Hone your skills and improve your practice. Join past Burger Law CLE folks like Doug B: "Best CLE I have ever attended - nuts and bolts education and tricks shared. Thanks Gary."
We recently settled a case for two sisters who were involved in an auto accident. A driver rear ended them into another car while they were stopped at a stop light.
After their medical treatment was done, they tried to settle on their own. The insurance company offered $3000, less than the medical bills for these sisters.
We filed suit, completed discovery, scheduled depositions and litigated this case aggressively. The day of depositions the opposing counsel called and settled for $10,000 each.
Then we settled my client's third wreck in a Prius. We have represented her in all three crashes – for some reason people keep rear ending her.
She got medical right away, but the case was complicated by the prior injuries to the same part of her body. We did not give up and kept fighting for her.
We filed suit, pushed the case, and were able to get her a great $40,000 settlement. Hopefully the third time’s a charm so it should be safe to ride with her now.
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