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Under Ohio law
before the enactment of SB 120, "joint and several"
liability means that every defendant found liable in a personal injury
lawsuit will be responsible for 100 percent of the damages awarded
to the plaintiff, regardless of the percentage of liability assessed
against the defendant. For example, a defendant will be responsible
for paying 100 per cent of the judgment even if they are found to be
only 1 percent responsible for the damages caused to the plaintiff
if other defendants are unable to pay.
Plaintiff's lawyers have used this system to go after defendants with
"deep pockets" without regard to the relative degree of involvement
by that defendant. This tactic is used to extract unfairly large settlements
from defendants, who settle out of court rather than face the prospect
of being responsible for the entire judgment.
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SB 120
SB 120 (Hottinger, R-Newark), eliminated joint and several liability
for defendants found to be less than 50 percent responsible for damages
in a tort lawsuit. Instead, the most these defendants would be assessed
is their proportional share of liability for any damages. The bill
also applied comparative fault principles to product liability cases.
Prior to SB 120 becoming law, an individual could have contributed
to injuring himself or herself by misusing or using a product in way
unintended by the manufacturer without their culpability counting against
their recovery. In order to address this issue, SB 120 proscribed
important affirmative defenses for a company when a lawsuit is filed
against a product manufacturer alleging their product caused an injury.
SB 120 requires the court to reduce any compensation recovered
by the plaintiff by an amount that is proportionally equal to the percentage
of the plaintiff's contribution to the injury. The bill also provided
that if it is determined that the plaintiff expressly or impliedly
assumed the risk of injury from the product and the risk of harm was
related to the injury then the plaintiff is barred from recovering
those damages.
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125th General
Assembly (2003-04)
SB
120 (Hottinger, R-Newark)
Final
Bill Text
Final
Bill Analysis
LSC Summary
of Committee Changes
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