Dale R. Burmeister

Joining Harvey, Kruse, Westen & Milan, P.C. in 1980, he began working primarily on toxic tort cases, in particular the defense of thousands of personal injury and property damage asbestos cases. He was lead trial counsel for a consortium that originally included thirty-six former manufacturers of asbestos products and sixteen insurance carriers. Dale has tried asbestos cases to verdict from Marquette, Michigan to El Paso, Texas. He also started the Medical Counsel Program in Michigan and was responsible for hiring all defense medical experts and taking the lead in deposing and cross-examining plaintiffs' experts.

In addition, Dale has extensive product liability experience including cases involving mismatch and multi-piece tire litigation, safety restraint systems, vehicle rollovers, automotive seating systems, engine components such as flexible engine cooling fans, automatic transmission ”park-to-reverse“ cases, environmental claims, machinery accidents and fire extinguisher litigation.

He regularly sits as a Mediator or Case Evaluator in Wayne County Circuit Court as both a defense mediator and as a commercial mediator. In addition, he frequently serves as a Special Mediator and as an Arbitrator in commercial, toxic tort, malpractice, and wrongful discharge cases.