$82.1 Million for a Motorcyclist Who Lost Two Limbs, the Largest Trucking Verdict in Ohio History

On September 18, 2017, Michael Shank was on his motorcycle at the intersection of State Route 7 and State Route 213 in Jefferson County, Ohio, waiting to make a left turn, when a commercial truck struck him. The driver, Robert Gerner, worked for Hilltop Energy, an explosives company affiliated with the concrete supplier D.W. Dickey & Son, and part of his job was maintaining vehicles for the sister company.

Shank nearly died at the scene. His left arm was amputated above the elbow and his left leg above the knee. He also suffered a traumatic brain injury that left him with no memory of the crash, fractured ribs, collapsed lungs, and internal bleeding, and he went through surgeries spanning roughly eighteen months.

Liability was sharply disputed. The impact happened close to the unmarked centerline of the intersection, and the defense maintained throughout the case that Shank himself had caused the crash. The case was tried in the Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas as Case No. 2024 CV 00270. Before trial, plaintiff counsel demanded the defendants' insurance policy limits, represented at $37 million. The demand was refused. At a judicial settlement conference, the highest offer from the defendants and their insurers was $350,000.

Michael Leizerman and Jon Bond of The Law Firm for Truck Safety tried the case with co-counsel Aaron DeShaw, Jeff Bruzzese, and George Sidiropolis. At trial, the plaintiff team drew out that D.W. Dickey had no company safety policy for its commercial drivers beyond instructing them to follow the law, and that Hilltop Energy likewise had no safety program for its commercial drivers. The jury found Gerner negligent, found the two companies vicariously liable, and assigned Shank zero percent of the fault.

In late September 2025, the jury returned a verdict of $82,105,345.70. Of that, $79,105,345.70 went to Shank, who was 33 at trial, covering past and future medical care, prosthetic needs, lost earning capacity, and noneconomic losses recognized under Ohio law. His wife Brittany was awarded $3 million on her loss of consortium claim. The award has been reported as the largest trucking verdict on record in Ohio, the largest personal injury verdict in Jefferson County history, and the state's largest amputation verdict, and analysis of it was published by the national defense firm Lewis Brisbois as well as plaintiff-side outlets.

As of September 2026, no appeal, remittitur, or reduction of the verdict has been publicly reported. The jury's award came out to more than 230 times the defense's best settlement offer.