Michael A. Langella is a personal injury attorney at The Dixon Injury Firm in St. Louis, where he represents victims of car, truck, motorcycle, and rideshare crashes, dangerous property conditions, workplace injuries, and dog bites, along with families pursuing wrongful death claims, throughout Missouri and Illinois. Licensed in both states, Mike spent the first years of his career defending insurance companies before turning that experience to the other side of the table. He was named to the Super Lawyers® Rising Stars list seven consecutive years, from 2018 through 2024.
Before he represented injured people, Mike defended the companies that fight their claims — several years as an insurance defense attorney at two established St. Louis firms.
That is not a line on a résumé; it is a working knowledge of the other side’s process. Mike knows how a claim gets evaluated internally, how reserves get set, how an adjuster decides what a file is “worth,” and which arguments actually move a carrier versus which ones get filed and ignored. He knows how defense counsel reads a medical record — hunting for the treatment gap, the prior injury, the inconsistent history that becomes the centerpiece of a causation defense. And he knows what a defense file looks like when it starts to worry the people paying for it.
He builds his clients’ cases accordingly, and from the beginning: documenting the details that get contested later, closing the gaps a defense lawyer would exploit, and anticipating the arguments before they arrive. Attention to detail isn’t a slogan in this work. It’s usually the difference between a claim that gets paid and one that gets picked apart.
Mike’s cases carry the full resources of The Dixon Injury Firm, which has recovered more than $60 million for injury victims and their families across Missouri and Illinois. Clients get a direct relationship with their attorney and the backing of a firm equipped to take on national carriers and the defense counsel they hire.
Mike’s practice is built on two things: preparation and communication. Clients who come to him have usually never dealt with a serious injury claim before, and the process is disorienting — records requests, adjusters, medical liens, deadlines nobody explained. He handles his cases personally so that the person living through it always has a lawyer to ask, not a voicemail box.
A meaningful share of his work comes from people his former clients sent him. In a practice area saturated with advertising, a referral from someone who has already been through it is the endorsement that is hardest to manufacture and hardest to argue with.
Mike is licensed in both Missouri (2014) and Illinois (2017) — which matters more in St. Louis than in most metros. A crash on the Poplar Street Bridge, a fall at a business in Belleville, or a workplace injury in Madison County can turn on Illinois law and Illinois venue rules, and Missouri-only counsel can’t follow a case there. Mike handles claims on both sides of the river without handing them off.
Mike also handles medical malpractice, product liability, and class action matters at the firm. See all practice areas →
Mike lives in St. Louis County with his wife and daughter. He is a parishioner at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis and gives his time to charitable organizations including Autism Speaks, on the view that serving the community he practices in matters as much as serving the clients in it.
He also plays softball and golf, and — having arrived in St. Louis by way of Rhode Island — remains an unrepentant Yankees, Knicks, and Islanders fan, which he has been advised is a difficult position to hold in this city.
What kinds of cases does Michael Langella handle? Mike represents injury victims in car and motor vehicle accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, rideshare (Uber and Lyft) accidents, pedestrian and bicycle accidents, dog bite injuries, slip and fall and premises liability cases, and workers’ compensation claims, and he represents families in wrongful death cases — in both Missouri and Illinois. He also handles medical malpractice, product liability, and class action matters.
Where is Michael Langella licensed to practice? Mike is licensed in both Missouri (2014) and Illinois (2017), and represents injury victims throughout the St. Louis metropolitan area and the Illinois Metro East.
Does his insurance defense background help his clients? Mike spent several years defending insurance companies before representing injured people. That experience means he knows how carriers evaluate claims, where defense attorneys look for weaknesses, and how to build a case that anticipates those arguments from the start.
What does it cost to hire Mike? The Dixon Injury Firm handles injury cases on a contingency fee basis. Consultations are free, and clients pay no attorney’s fee unless the firm wins their case.
If you’ve been injured in Missouri or Illinois, Mike will review your case at no cost. Free consultations, available 24/7, and you pay nothing unless we win.
Many personal injury law factories get as many clients in the door as possible, hoping one will be the jackpot. Not us. At The Dixon Injury Firm, we’re highly selective about our cases because we devote considerable time and attention to each client.
