Ohio medical malpractice damage caps | Toledo medical malpractice lawyer

No matter how unfair it may seem, under Ohio law there are some “caps” on the amount of money that a medical malpractice victim can recover.  First, the good news:  there is no cap on the amount of “economic damages” available to a medical malpractice victim.  Economic damages compensate the victim for the quantifiable monetary losses that he or she suffered as a result of the malpractice such as medical bills, lost wages, and other “easy to add up” losses.

The bad news is that there is an absolute cap on the amount of “non-economic damages” available to the plaintiff.  Non-Economic damages compensate the victim for non-quantifiable losses such as pain, suffering, and emotional distress.

The basic cap on non-economic damages is the larger of (a) $250,000 or, (b) three times economic damages (subject to a maximum of $350,000 per plaintiff and a maximum of $500,000 per malpractice occurrence).  These maximum amounts increase to $500,000 per plaintiff and $1 million per occurrence if the plaintiff has suffered a permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb, loss of a bodily organ system, or permanent physical injury that prevents the victim from being able to independently care for self and perform life sustaining activities.

For example, let’s say that you are the unfortunate victim of medical malpractice and your economic damages (medical bills and lost wages) add up to $50,000.  Because you are potentially entitled to either (1) the larger of three times your economic damages (here, $150,000) subject to a $350,000 maximum, OR (2) $250,000, in this situation your non-economic damages would be capped at $250,000.

Continuing with this example, if your economic damages were $100,000, your non-economic damages would be capped at $300,000 (three times your economic damages).

Continuing further with this example, if your economic damages were $500,000, your non-economic damages would be capped at the $350,000 maximum.

Again, it is important to keep in mind that the higher $500,000 and $1 million caps come into play if the plaintiff can meet the “permanent and substantial injury” threshold.  Although these caps on non-economic damages do not apply to cases brought under the wrongful death statute, they do limit recovery by a deceased victim’s estate for non-economic damages that the decedent experienced prior to death.

For example, the amount of non-economic damages that a victim’s next of kin could recover for their own personal loss resulting from the victim’s death would not be subject to any caps if the case was filed as a “wrongful death” action.  However, the amount of non-economic damages that the victim’s next of kin could recover on the victim’s behalf for the victim’s own personal pain and suffering experienced prior to death would be subject to the caps.

At our office, we regularly utilize the services of vocational experts and economists in order to prove the level of damages and lost wages in a given case.  A vocational expert is an expert in the areas of vocational rehabilitation, vocational and earning capacity, lost earnings, the cost of replacement labor, and loss of ability to perform household services.  An economist is an expert who applies theories and concepts from economics ranging from financial statement analysis, statistics, computational models, and mathematics.  When analyzing a medical malpractice case, the vocational expert identifies what the victim could have earned prior to the incident, compared to what the victim is likely to earn following the incident.  The economic expert then comes into play and calculates the value of those earnings over time so that the difference between the two is clearly understood by the jury.

Our office has an excellent working relationship with some of the best vocational experts and economists in the state.  Should you choose the Charles Boyk Law Offices, LLC to handle your medical malpractice claim, these experts will become an important part of your case and will help see to it that you get the compensation that you deserve.

Call 800.637.8170 to request a free copy of The Ohio Medical Malpractice Book and set up a free consultation with one of our Toledo medical malpractice lawyers.