A major recent decision by the Ohio Supreme Court regarding an injured Ohio worker who was represented by Plevin & Gallucci, Houdek v. ThyssenKrupp Materials N.A., Inc. (Dec. 6, 2012), 2012-Ohio-5685, has been featured in a report published by the Center for American Progress and discussed at an event on May 15 in Washington, DC. The case was handled by Plevin & Gallucci’s David Grant and the complete case details can be viewed here.
The Center for American Progress distributed the following news release about its report and the event:
RELEASE: Corporate Campaign Cash Stacks Ohio Supreme Court against Injured Consumers and Workers in Favor of Big Business
Washington, D.C., May 15, 2013 — A new study released today by the Center for American Progress finds that as corporate campaign cash floods Ohio judicial elections, individuals who have been injured or wronged by the mistakes of corporations, such as a negligent hospital, an unsafe employer, or a callous insurance company, are finding it harder to hold these wrongdoers accountable in court.
The report, titled “No Justice for the Injured,” analyzes 164 cases that came before the Michigan high court from 2002 through 2012 and finds that the court ruled for the corporate defendants in 72 percent of those cases. From 2011 and 2012 the figure jumped to 91 percent. Overall, the report analyzed 1,499 cases that came before the six state supreme courts that saw the most campaign cash from 2002 through 2012, and found that these courts ruled in favor of corporate defendants and against injured individuals 70 percent of the time.
According to the report, the trend toward pro-corporate rulings is growing more pronounced in part because large corporations have spent millions of dollars over the past few decades to win the political battle over laws that limit damages in personal-injury suits. Through an enormously successful public-relations campaign, corporations have convinced the public that our system is suffering from an epidemic of frivolous lawsuits. In reality, however, no evidence exists of an explosion in the kinds of frivolous lawsuits that would make limits on personal-injury suits necessary. Thus, the move toward capping damages hasn’t eliminated unnecessary lawsuits, but it has limited Americans’ right to sue negligent corporations and hold wrongdoers accountable.
“My goal today is to bring attention to this cause of fair compensation and justice for future victims of workplace injuries… the way my brother was treated just wasn’t fair.” said Joanne Wirtz, an Ohio advocate for injured workers at an event today at the Center for American Progress. Joanne’s brother Bruce Houdek had his lawsuit thrown out by the Ohio Supreme Court despite the fact that the medical bills he accrued after an on-the-job injury cost him $757,845.07.
As the report details, the impact of limiting liability on injured citizens has been immeasurable. But the trend of courts becoming increasingly unfriendly places for injured consumers and workers is not inevitable. To ensure that judges decide cases based on facts and the law—not politics or campaign cash—the report advocates for:
- Strong recusal standards that ensure that judges do not hear cases involving corporations or trial lawyers that donate to their campaigns
- Merit selection and retention election court casessystems that minimize the opportunities to politicize and influence the judiciary
- Public financing of judicial races that holds judges accountable to the public, not wealthy campaign contributors
“Before big business declared war on the right to a jury trial, an individual who was injured by a defectively designed product or an industrial plant spewing a toxic substance could rely on the courts to hold the wrongdoer accountable,” said Billy Corriher, CAP legal expert and author of the report. “With unlimited corporate money pouring into judicial races, this principle is less true with each passing election.”court ohio
Related resources:
- Campaign Finance Laws Fail as Corporate Money Floods Judicial Races by Billy Corriher
- Public Financing of Judicial Races Can Give Small Donors a Decisive Role by Billy Corriher
- Strong Recusal Rules Are Crucial to Judicial Integrity by Billy Corriher
- Merit Selection and Retention Elections Keep Judges Out of Politics by Billy Corriher (CAP Action)
To speak with CAP experts on this issue, please contact Madeline Meth at [email protected] or 202.741.6277.
The following Ohio-based attorneys are also available to comment on this report:
- Frank Gallucci, Plevin & Gallucci, L.P.A., at [email protected] or 216.861.0804
- David Grant, Plevin & Gallucci, L.P.A., at [email protected] or 216.861.0804
