Recognized as one of the top personal injury attorneys in Missouri.
A lifelong resident of St. Louis, Dave began practicing personal injury law in 2003. Since that time, he has been repeatedly recognized as one of the top personal injury attorneys in Missouri. Since 2015, he has been honored in Best Lawyers in America for Plaintiff’s Personal Injury. Dave is one of only 21 Plaintiff’s Personal Injury lawyers listed in Best Lawyers for the City of St. Louis. Best Lawyers has become universally regarded as a definitive guide to legal excellence. Because Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive peer review survey in which almost 50,000 leading attorneys cast nearly 5 million votes on legal abilities of other lawyers in their practice areas, and because lawyers are not allowed to pay a fee to be listed, inclusion in Best Lawyers is considered a singular honor.
Award-Winning Results
Dave’s honors and awards have been the result of his efforts in obtaining numerous favorable results for his clients. In 2023, he obtained an $11,000,000.00 verdict against Black and Decker for a staple gun that shot out a client’s eye. This is the largest verdict in United States history for the loss of an eye. Also in 2023, he obtained a $745,000,000.00 verdict against the manufacturers of Whip-Its nitrous oxide when a driver using nitrous oxide passed out and caused the death of his 25 year old client. This verdict received an award from Missouri Lawyers Weekly magazine as the largest personal injury verdict in the state of Missouri in 2023. He also helped secure the largest personal injury settlement in the state of Missouri in 2023 as recognized by Missouri Lawyer’s Weekly magazine, which was a $23,710,000.00 settlement for a child injured by a defective boat roof. In 2019, he was successful in obtaining a $16,000,000.00 settlement, which represented all of the available insurance coverage, for a client that was rendered a quadriplegic by a falling tree branch. He was recognized by the Missouri Lawyers Weekly magazine with an award for the highest individual plaintiff settlement in the State of Missouri for the result in this case. He also obtained a $6,000,000.00 settlement in Knott v. Shepherd, Inc. for a woman seriously injured in a truck accident. He resolved another truck accident case for $1,087,000.00 on behalf of a family that suffered various injuries when they were rear ended by a tractor trailer, as well as a dump truck collision case for $1,300,000.00 involving a client that suffered a back injury. Additionally, he recovered $3,490,000.00 against a confidential utility company in a rural county for three power line workers that were electrically shocked by 69,000 volts when a defectively built wire reel stand malfunctioned. He has resolved multiple other product liability cases, including one for $1,175,000.00 involving the death of a client.
Dave has also been instrumental in obtaining millions of dollars in settlements for clients injured by defective pharmaceutical products and medical devices, for clients injured by negligent nursing homes, and for clients injured in auto accidents, premises liability accidents, and worker’s compensation cases. Due to such favorable results, Dave receives referrals on pharmaceutical and medical device cases from around the country.
As a result of his many success in resolving cases, he was asked to author the introduction to the Missouri Bar’s CLE desk book entitled “Settling Cases.” This desk book, which is used by attorneys around the state, gives advice from experienced personal injury attorneys on the best ways to settle cases and obtain the best results for clients.
Dave has been certified as a life member of both the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum. The Million Dollar Advocates Forum is recognized as one of the most prestigious groups of trial lawyers in the United States. Membership is limited to attorneys who have won million and multi-million dollar verdicts, awards and settlements. Fewer than one percent of U.S. lawyers are members.
Dave lives in St. Louis with his son and daughter. He is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri and the University of Missouri School of Law. While in law school, Dave was a member of the Order of the Coif, which is awarded to law students in the top 10% of the class, and the Missouri Law Review.
