Posted by s on 1/15/07

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for those of you "who DON'T believe mold can cause extreme
health problems I submit to you an article that was
published in the St. Petersburg Times on November 2, 2006.
I think you should contact Jeff Kottkamp and tell him "it
was in his head".

[http://www.sptimes.com/2006/11/02/State/Jeff_Kottkamp_s_pr

ofe.shtml]

Politics Jeff Kottkamp's professional conversion

He went from defending companies to suing them. But

was it really a change of heart?

By JONI JAMES Published November 2, 2006 ADVERTISEMENT

FORT MYERS - Lieutenant governor candidate Jeff

Kottkamp's so-called conversion is there in the Lee County
courthouse

files in black and white, dated August 2005.

Before that date, Kottkamp, known in the Florida

Legislature for business-friendly tort reform, was a

defense attorney for Publix, Travelers insurance and other

corporations.

But after more than a decade of such work, the Cape Coral

Republican filed notice that he would switch sides and

represent people who sue such companies. One of his first

cases was representing a man suing Albertsons for

negligence.

Overnight, Kottkamp became a plaintiff's trial lawyer,

joining a group the Republican Party has painted as the

anathema of civil justice.

In March, Kottkamp was the only Republican state House

member to vote against one of the most sweeping,

probusiness changes ever to Florida civil litigation law,

the abolishment of joint-and-several liability.

Acquaintances speculated that Kottkamp's brush with death

had changed him. After all, he was a new plaintiff in an

October 2005 lawsuit alleging that improper maintenance of

the hospital's roof allowed mold to infiltrate the room

where he had surgery.

To some Republicans, the conversion was reason enough that

gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist shouldn't pick

Kottkamp as his running mate.

But those closest to Kottkamp, Republican and Democrat, say

there never was a conversion. Anyone who thought he had

changed just didn't know him to start with.

Power of prayer

It was July 2004 at their regular lunch spot, a Sonny's BBQ

near Interstate 75 in Fort Myers, that Larry Ringers

learned that his best friend and colleague needed

open-heart surgery.

"We didn't think it would be that big a deal," Ringers

said. "He was in tremendous physical condition."

They had worked together at the same law firm for more than

a decade. Ringers was best man at Kottkamp's 1995 wedding

to Cyndie. He'd celebrated with them when Cyndie became

pregnant after years of trying. She was due in two months.

Kottkamp spent those months in hospitals, in an induced

coma, so he could undergo daily surgeries to scrape mold

from his chest cavity - mold believed to have been picked

up during his heart surgery.

As he laid in a hospital in Lee County, Hurricane Charley

came and went, and Cyndie Kottkamp was diagnosed with

preeclampsia.

Doctors counseled Cyndie that her husband's odds were slim.

Did she want to bring him out of the coma to tell him the

news?

Instead, she called a prayer vigil. More than 70 friends

and fellow church members jammed into Kottkamp's room and

spilled into the hall. The first round of tests taken after

the vigil showed for the first time that his body was

winning the battle against the infection.

"What that did, if it changed me at all, it really deepened

my faith and made me appreciate more my family and

friends," Kottkamp said.

He was transferred to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota for a

series of reconstructive surgeries to restore his chest

cavity and replace his deteriorated sternum with a bundle

of muscles.

"The goal all along was to get him home to see Jackson

born," said Ringers. "He did, in a wheelchair in the

delivery room."

Jeffrey Jackson Kottkamp - named after his father and

Andrew Jackson, Florida's first territorial governor - was

born Sept. 23, 2004, the result of a second round of in

vitro fertilization. His embryo had been frozen for a year.

The couple also share two yellow Labradors named in honor

of the Bush brothers: Jeb and George.

In March 2005, as Republican lawmakers pushed to intervene

on behalf of Terri Schiavo's parents to keep her husband

from removing her feeding tube, Kottkamp rose from the

House floor and, evoking his experience, supported state

intervention.

"Many people in this state in this time of high emotion

just listen to their doctors and are convinced to give up,"

Kottkamp said on the House floor.

"This is simply a policy statement about what kind of state

we're going to be. ... All things being equal, we're going

to defend life."

'Both sides of the coin'

Kottkamp stewed as he sat through a debate in the House

Justice Committee in January over a bill to overhaul

Florida's civil justice system.

The proposal called for the elimination of

joint-and-several liability, a centuries-old legal doctrine

that often forced deep-pocket defendants to pay the lion's

share of damages, regardless of their share of the

culpability.

As both sides of the debate fired up videocameras to tape

the proceeding, Kottkamp grew testy. "Yesterday we were

told that there were going to be cameras here today, sound

bites taken today and used against at least one of the

members of the committee in an election cycle," he said.

"Frankly, if you are so afraid of the exchange of ideas in

the process that you have to intimidate members, your ideas

must not be very good."

When the bill reached the floor, Kottkamp was the only

House Republican opposed.

Critics suggested Kottkamp was looking out for his

self-interest as a new member of one of the state's most

aggressive trial lawyer firms, Morgan & Morgan.

But Kottkamp says he would have voted for the bill had it

included a way for victims who win to return to court if

the defendant most at fault couldn't pay the damages. It

was the same kind of caveat he pushed in 2003 when he was

still a defense lawyer and played a role in rewriting the

state's medical malpractice law.

"He's always believed that victims out there, that they

don't need to be victimized twice by the system," said Rep.

Jack Seiler, D-Wilton Manors, who twice served as vice

chairman of committees led by Kottkamp.

Lee County court files also show Kottkamp has a personal

record of taking on big companies, including once

threatening to muddy a company's name in a legislative

hearing if they didn't address his problem.

When he was the plaintiff in a suit over disputed billings

with Havertys furniture, he wrote a presuit letter warning

the company he was a lawyer and could embarrass them

publicly: "I am a member of the Florida House of

Representatives. ... I will be sure to point out your

company's actions during our upcoming hearings on consumer

protection legislation."

"Jeff was always able to see both sides of the coin," said

attorney Scott Weinstein, who has worked with and against

Kottkamp in the courtroom. He represented Kottkamp in the

Havertys suit, which was settled out of court. "He's always

been very balanced in his approach to personal injury

litigation."

Kottkamp said his so-called trial lawyer conversion was

largely a matter of financial reality. Defense attorneys

earn money based on billable hours, which can be hard to

come by for a lawmaker often traveling to Tallahassee.

"I was a partner at the oldest, biggest, most prestigious

firm in Southwest Florida. ... I thought I'd probably spend

my whole career there," Kottkamp said. "But as with most

legislator lawyers, it became very difficult to meet

expectations."

Joni James can be reached at jjames@sptimes.com or 850

224-7263.

[Last modified November 2, 2006, 04:51:26]

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