Trial Experience Makes all the Difference
There are many personal injury attorneys in Utah. It seems like every other billboard along the Salt Lake County stretch of I-15 is an advertisement for an injury lawyer. How does one decide who to choose after a devastating injury? There's an easy answer: Trial Experience.
My advice? If you have a permanent debilitating injury and continuing loss of income, or the death of a loved one, call an experienced attorney. Hire Kay Burningham.
With Kay as your advocate you will get the personal attention offered by a sole practitioner who has the pedigree of insurance defense firm experience.
If required, she will associate with a larger firm. She and another top trial attorney will combine their talents and resources to give you the best representation and best results possible. Any fee charged for this combination of trial experience and resources will be no more than what is charged by a roadside billboard firm, but the difference in results could be huge.
Read Kay Burningham’s seminal case of Daniels v. Gamma West Brachytherapy, where in 2009 the Utah Supreme Court unanimously decided to order a retrial of the case in order to afford Kay’s client the right to pursue his claim for punitive damages in the trial court against the radiation oncologists who had “burned the Holy Jesus” out of him, according to the director of the University of Utah Burn Center.
The Court held, as Kay had argued in the trial court below, that gross negligence is indeed grounds for punitive damages. Daniels v. Gamma West Brachytherapy, LLC, 2009 UT 66; 221 P.2d 256, 269 (Utah 2009).
In San Diego she tried a case that the Superior Court trial judge told her could not be won. Kay Burningham was hired by a renowned family law attorney to represent his elderly client who suffered a broken hip and had to have hip replacement surgery from a trip and fall in a department store. Ms.Burningham hired a human factors expert who explained that merchandise is designed and placed on shelves at eye level, to keep customers' attention. Given the circumstances, her client would not be expected to see something in her peripheral vision which was the same color as the floor. To be seen, the floor should have been marked off with bright colors and/or cones.
After a two-week trial, the jury returned with what was in 1994, the largest verdict for a trip and fall injury in San Diego County. San Diego Superior Court Trial Judge Runston G. Maino said this about Ms. Burningham’s trial skills:
Kay Burningham has associated Salt Lake City and San Diego Firms to win, among other cases, a $1.6 million-dollar verdict for her brain injured client. The original offer from State Farm was for $25,000. The insurance company claimed there was no brain injury but that her client was malingering and his complaints were psychological not neurological. Kay located a renowned neurologist from Scripps Institute in La Jolla to run cutting edge neuropsychological and MRI diagnostics on her client, she also retained an economic expert in Utah to calculate this man's loss of income from running his farm in central Utah.
In the spring of 1994, attorney Kay Burningham was the lead counsel in the civil case of Combs v. Fedco. The case was a trip and fall accident with serious liability problems for the plaintiff, who was represented by Ms. Burningham. The case took two weeks from jury selection to jury verdict.
During these two weeks of trial, I had an opportunity to observe the courtroom demeanor, skill and character of Ms. Burningham. I have nothing but the highest regard for her. Ms. Burningham carefully crafted her case from the time of jury selection to closing argument. She cross-examined the defense liability and medical experts with consummate skill: she presented her facts to the jury with great effect; and, most importantly, she never even came close to using an inappropriate tactic or argument.
I think the jury verdict for her client of about $250,000.00 was a reflection of her legal ability. In the over 19 years that I have been a judge, this is the highest verdict for this type of injury I have seen.
-Judge Judge Runston G. Maino, San Diego Superior Court - 1994
These are just two of the many cases Ms. Burningham has successfully tried. Consider retaining Kay Burningham when you need an attorney who is ready, willing, and able to take your case to trial if necessary.