Ohio Category Archives — Lawsuit Information Center Published by Personal Injury Lawyers Discussing Auto and Truck Accidents, Medical Malpractice and Products Liability Issues

May 11, 2023

Ohio Average Personal Injury Verdicts

This page looks at settlement amounts and jury payouts in personal injury cases in Ohio. Our lawyers also provide an analysis of Ohio personal injury law.

If you are a personal injury victim bringing a compensation claim in Ohio, you want to know the possible range of settlement payouts for your claim. Why? Because money compensation is what a personal injury or wrongful death claim is ultimately about.

This page is designed to look at how personal injury cases have been resolved in Ohio and to give you the ability to match your claim with Ohio personal injury settlement statistics and example settlements and jury payouts.

February 13, 2022

Ohio Medical Malpractice Settlements and Statistics

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Medical malpractice cases in Ohio are on the rise. A little. The Ohio Department of Insurance released its 2017 data (ah, guys, it is 2023).

Here is the snapshot:

2,428 claims reported

May 28, 2013

Wrongful Death Verdict Against ODOT for $4 Million

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

The family of an Ohio woman was awarded nearly $4 million dollars in a wrongful death suit filed against the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT).

Awful story here. On December 26, 2008, a husband and wife and their two kids were returning home after visiting with family for the Christmas holiday. Traveling in two separate vehicles, the husband and daughter arrived at home. When his wife and son did not return, he retraced his route only to find his wife’s car off the road, against a fence. A tree had fallen on the car and medics were already on the scene. While the son was taken to a local hospital, the wife was pronounced dead at the scene.

The suit filed against ODOT claimed that they knew that the bank along that stretch of road was eroding, and that trees had been uprooted in the area. The tree that had fallen on the wife’s car had been leaning over the road, creating a hazard. The suit further claimed that ODOT had breached its duty to maintain the road and attend to any potentially dangerous situations.

June 26, 2012

Insurance Law: Fortuity Revisited

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

In my insurance law class, I talk in Chapter 2 about the idea of fortunity. It is mostly a theoretical concept. Insurance is intended to provide protection against unknown events that occur in the future. So obviously, the law and common sense dictate that when you buy car insurance after a car accident, the “loss in progress” doctrine will bar coverage.

In Schwartz Manes Ruby & Slovin, L.P.A. v. Monitor Liability Managers, LLC, the 6th Circuit looked at whether or not the insured reasonably could have foreseen that a claim would be made prior to the signing of an insurance policy.

The case involved legal malpractice coverage. The law firm – an Ohio firm – clearly screwed up in defending a lawsuit. The client fired the firm. The new firm asked why the firm failed to appear at the trial, particularly since its file contained a notice for the trial. The law firm did one smart thing: they put their agent on notice who apparently told no one. Then, a new policy of legal malpractice insurance was issued.

The malpractice insurer disclaimed coverage becasue prior to its policy’s inception, the law firm knew it had a motza ball of a potential lawsuit hanging out there.

June 26, 2009

Joe Jurevicius’ Lawsuit Against the Cleveland Browns

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Former Cleveland Browns wide receiver Joe Jurevicius has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against the Cleveland Browns and the Cleveland Clinic. He claimed that he contracted staph following arthroscopic surgery at the Cleveland Clinic in January 2008. His Complaint accuses his doctors, including the team doctors, of medical malpractice of negligence over a staph infection to his right knee.

I’ve been down this road with an NFL player in a case I handled against the New England Patriots. He is the motion I filed in that case to defeat the team’s claim that there is no jurisdiction. But that Browns’ lawyer will make the argument that unless Jurevicius’ lawyer put the Browns on notice very early in the game (90 days, I believe); he has waived his right to bring a claim against the team based on the NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement. It seems silly to break off the malpractice case into two separate cases: one against the team and one against the doctors. But at least one court that I have seen, Sherwin v. Indianapolis Colts, 752 F. Supp. 1172 (N.Y.D.C 1990), seems to think this is the required approach under the NFL CBA. (My case gave the court an easy out: the Patriots waited 2 years to file their motion which the court relied upon to find that the Patriots and their team doctor waived their right to assert that arbitration was still a remedy.)

You cannot understate the harm caused by staph infections: CDC estimates infections – many of which are staph infections – kill 90,000 people annually. Infections result in an estimated 205,000 additional hospital days for infected patients and a whopping $2 billion in medical costs.

December 27, 2007

Ohio Supreme Court Approves Pain and Suffering Cap

by Ronald V. Miller, Jr.

Cap on Damages Lives in Ohio

The Ohio Supreme Court has concluded that Ohio’s statutory caps on damage awards in personal injury lawsuits are constitutional in a 5-2 decision today.

Like most states with caps, the cap applies to pain and suffering damages and other intangible injuries. The Ohio cap is particularly restrictive: $350,000 unless the injured person lost a limb or bodily organ. Ohio also has a punitive damages rule that restricts punitive damages to twice the amount of damages awarded as the judge or jury awards in compensation for the plaintiff’s injuries, minus any reductions because of the cap on pain and suffering damage. (Actually, the formula is a little more complicated than that, but this is the gist.)