St. Louis Lawyers Quoted in the Post

“Zevan, who specializes in medical malpractice lawsuits, said that other consumers stand to be hurt by the damage caps.

He and his partner, Kevin Davidson, represented the Blankenships in their lawsuit. It was one of many such suits filed before the 2005 law went into effect lowering the damage caps to $350,000. The lower caps are bad for consumers, Zevan said, because it means that people such as the Blankenships will have a harder time finding a lawyer willing to take their cases.

“If that case came in today, I would be unlikely to take it,” Zevan said. He said that such a case costs $50,000 to $75,000 just to get it to trial. Lawyers take such cases on a contingent fee basis, taking generally 30 percent to 40 percent of whatever the jury awards.

If such cases aren’t being filed, then there is less accountability in the health care system, Zevan said. “I truly believe this process raises the standard of care,” he said.

That’s why the Blankenships filed their case in the first place, they said.

“We did this because we thought we were going to change the way they do things,” said Suzanne Blankenship.

“It was about nobody else going through what we did,” echoed her husband.

With the lower caps, Zevan and other attorneys in his line of work say that the Legislature has taken the power out of juries by prejudging cases before they ever go to trial.

“The lady who died in the nursing home from bed sores has no economic value to the Legislature,” said Zevan. “In Jefferson City, this debate becomes something it’s not. … It’s about real people.”