About Brittany Briggs Essma
Brittany Briggs Essma is an associate in Langdon & Emison's Complex Torts division, representing individuals and families in complex personal injury and wrongful death cases with a focus on defective products and catastrophic injuries. Before joining Langdon & Emison, she practiced at a Jefferson City law firm defending government entities in federal and state courts, and she now uses that knowledge to anticipate defense strategies and advocate for injured clients. Her background includes a judicial clerkship with the Missouri Court of Appeals and internships with the U.S. District Court and U.S. Attorney's Office. She served as managing editor of the Missouri Law Review, received the Ike Skelton, Sr. Prize for Best Work in Trial Practice, and was a member of the National Moot Court Team at Mizzou. In 2025, Brittany was selected by the National Trial Lawyers as one of the top '40 Under 40' lawyers in her practice area.
Proven verdicts and settlements at Langdon & Emison
These results are credited to Langdon & Emison. A result appears under an attorney's own name only when a published source names them as counsel on the case.
A Chittenden County jury returned $43,101,162 against Johnson Controls, the seat manufacturer, after a Vermont woman was left with a catastrophic spinal-cord injury when the single-sided recliner mechanism in her car seat collapsed during a rear-end collision she should have survived. The trial court entered final judgment at $36,948,123, and the appeal was later dismissed by stipulation.
A Jackson County jury held Ford Motor Company liable for a defective fuel tank design after three members of a Missouri family burned to death when their F-150 pickup ruptured and ignited during a 1999 highway collision.
A 1993 federal jury awarded $11.3 million to the sons of Beverly Garner, a passenger killed when a defective fuel pump ignited an engine fire in her 1985 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer, a verdict whose admissibility fight over a former GM insider's testimony traveled all the way to a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling in the plaintiffs' favor.
A Cook County jury awarded locomotive engineer Christopher Cravatta $5.3 million under FELA after he slipped on oil-coated flooring and an icy step-down gap at Chicago's Union Station, suffered a disc tear requiring spinal fusion, and was permanently disqualified from railroad work.
A federal jury awarded $4.5 million to U.S. Marine Lt. Col. Aaron Eckerberg after a commercial van driver for Inter-State Studio and Publishing Co. blew a stop sign on a Missouri highway and slammed into his truck, causing a fractured thoracic vertebra and traumatic brain injury that ended his career as a combat helicopter pilot.
Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome. Each case is unique and depends on its own facts.
