Ohio's Apportionment Law and Asbestos Litigation

An Ohio-based environmental law firm, McMahon DeGulis LLP, recently tried an asbestos case to verdict, which was instructive in how a court may apply Ohio's apportionment statute in a trial. Ohio has only been an "apportionment" state since 2003. The law permits a jury to assign a percentage of fault to any entity which contributed to causing a plaintiff's harm and can greatly impact asbestos litigation, where a plaintiff often sues numerous defendants. Under Ohio's apportionment law, in a mass tort lawsuit that results in a verdict favorable to the plaintiff, the defendants are now obligated to pay only their assigned portion of fault. Given how relatively new the law is, it has not been fully tested at trial yet.

An overview of McMahon DeGulis' experience in the Ohio asbestos trial and in a Federal court trial that followed soon afterwards, can be found in their newsletter, foryourconsideration.