Cooper Elliott

A Franklin County jury awarded $27 million to the estate of Gregory Coleman Jr., a 37-year-old bartender beaten to death by security workers outside the Julep bar in Columbus's Short North, finding the bar's ownership 80 percent at fault for negligent hiring and supervision.

A New Jersey court entered a $20 million judgment for Keziah Lewis, half of it punitive, against ride maker KMG for the 2017 Ohio State Fair Fire Ball failure that left her with catastrophic injuries.

Cincinnati's Metro transit agency paid $10 million to the estate of Beverly Kinney, an 87-year-old struck and killed in a marked crosswalk by a bus driver with a suspended license, and agreed to overhaul its driver training.

Cooper Elliott won a $6.525 million judgment against the former Pi Kappa Alpha president whose chapter hazed Bowling Green State University student Stone Foltz to death in 2021.

A Franklin County jury found World Harvest Church and a daycare worker liable for beating Michael and Lacey Faieta's 2-year-old son, returning a verdict of nearly $6 million that was later capped and settled for $3.1 million.

Bowling Green State University agreed to pay $2.9 million to the family of Stone Foltz, a 20-year-old fraternity pledge who died after being made to drink a full liter of bourbon during an initiation, in what the family's attorneys called the largest hazing settlement paid by an Ohio public university.

A federal jury found two Columbus police officers used excessive force and unlawfully detained ATF agent James Burk during a 2020 call, awarding him and his wife $1.6 million.

A Franklin County jury found a J.B. Hunt truck driver and her employer liable after diesel fuel leaking from her semi caused a fatal motorcycle crash on an I-71 ramp in Columbus in August 2001. The jury awarded $1,449,000 for wrongful death, $69,000 for the widow's emotional distress and $5.5 million in punitive damages. The Tenth District reversed the punitive award and the attorney fees tied to it, and the $1,518,000 in compensatory damages stood.

A Franklin County jury in June 2003 found a Rush Transportation driver liable for the death of motorcyclist Robert L. Beavers Jr., who was run over on Groveport Road in Columbus in October 2001 while the driver fled. The jury awarded $767,600 in compensatory damages plus punitive damages against the driver and the company. The Tenth District later threw out the punitive award against Rush but left the compensatory award, the driver's punitive award and the attorney fees in place.

In March 2005 a Delaware County, Ohio jury awarded the estate of Jeffrey Heintzelman $1,014,186 for his wrongful death, finding no comparative fault. Heintzelman was electrocuted in July 2002 by an unprotected outlet feeding an air conditioner condensate pump that contractor Thomas Martel had installed. The jury separately awarded his widow $2,650,000 for emotional distress. In 2006 the Fifth District upheld the estate's award and struck the widow's.