The ‘Appealing’ Nature Of Lawsuits

Worthington Cylinder Corp., a subsidiary of Columbus-based Worthington Industries, will now have to decide whether to appeal a $3.66 million jury award in a wrongful death lawsuit to the Ohio Supreme Court. According to a story published in the Times-Reporter on January 31, 2012, the Ohio 5th District Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by Worthington over the award from a Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court jury to the estate of truck driver Robert Romig. The 64-year-old Romig died in June 2005 when he was crushed by a 2,600-pound cradle and empty propane tanks while trying to attach the hook of a hydraulic crane for unloading the cradles. The jury returned a verdict that the Times-Reporter said was considered one of the largest verdicts in Tuscarawas County history on February 2, 2010, following a three-week trial.

While $3.66 million is certainly a sizable amount of money, we should keep in mind that it has been nearly seven years since Romig’s widow and four children experienced their loss. That is close to seven years in which the family has been living without a father and husband’s income and living with an emotional pain that will never completely go away.

We mention this case because like so many wrongful death and workplace injury lawsuits, reaching resolutions takes time and requires patience. Appeals are one way that the process can be stretched out, although discovery, settlement negotiations and even finding an attorney can take much longer than most people imagine. This is important to keep in mind when filing any type of personal injury lawsuits, as rushing to conclude your case can substantially affect the size of the award—if anything at all—that you receive. For the remainder of the week, our Cincinnati injury attorneys will examine some of the stages of a personal injury lawsuit that you should be familiar with in order to take the right actions and help try to assure yourself a favorable outcome.