High Court Strikes Death Blow to Injury Victim Rights

Friday, December 28, 2007 Columbus, Ohio - In a major victory for insurance companies and those who wish to be able to actuarially calculate the financial risks associated with injuring people; the Ohio Supreme Court fulfill the dreams of insurance companies, rules that caps on damage awards are legal, in personal-injury lawsuits, declaring them constitutional by a 5-2 margin this Thursday, December 27, 2007.

One dissenting justice stated it was a: "a sad day for the court" and "a tragic day for Ohioans."

The Court simply upheld damages caps on awards already approved by the legislature in 2004. One of the statutes has a cap on awards for pain and suffering and intangible injuries to a maximum of $350,000 unless the injured person loses bodily organ or a limb. The other statute limits punitive damages normally understood to be a sort of death penalty to businesses who put profits over people, to just two times the amount of compensatory damages awarded by juries for injuries. The Court’s shocking ruling was the result of several years of litigation by Plaintiff Melissa Arbino, a Cincinnati woman, versus Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Co. The allegations were in part, that Johnson & Johnson was negligent, causing blood clots due to the use of a birth control patch manufactured and distributed by Defendant Johnson & Johnson.

An organization considered by many consumers to be an anti-victim, anti-plaintiff group, called the Ohio Alliance for Civil Justice, claims the ruling sets: "parameters that fairly award injured parties while providing a reasonable and predictable system for Ohio's job creators."

The Ohio Alliance for Civil Justice consistently argued that the tort damages caps have been long needed in order to encourage businesses to stay afloat and also to help businesses create jobs without being threatened by run away jury verdicts. Consumer groups retort that if businesses followed the law to begin with, they wouldn’t get sued and there would be no fear. “This simply acts as a get out of jail free card.” According to California trial attorney, Michael P. Ehline. Los Angeles personal injury attorneys are getting ready to go out of business as hundreds of years of tort law falls like dominoes...Ohio just created a road map to allow big business to be able to exactly how much they will have to pay if they ruin someones life." Said Ehline.

Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who wrote the majority opinion, said damages caps still let juries be fact-finders in personal-injury lawsuits, but simply allows the General Assembly to determine how much the jury gets to award; a concept never imagined by our founding fathers.

"We are charged with evaluating the constitutionality of their choices," Wrote Moyer. "Issues such as the wisdom of damage limitations and whether the specific dollar amounts available under them best serve the public interest are not for us to decide."

Moyer did seem to agree that the Court had in the past rejected damages in injury lawsuits in over 30 years, but now a bill had been written good enough to take away the historical role and right of the jury, stating the new legislation approved by the General Assembly three years ago fixed these constitutional “problems.”

Justices Maureen O'Connor, Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, and Judith Ann Lanzinger all joined in the Court’s majority opinion. Justice Robert R. Cupp wrote a separate and concurring opinion. Back to personal injury news.