Sean Alto

A Jefferson County jury awarded $82,105,345.70 to Michael Shank, a motorcyclist whose left arm and left leg were amputated after a commercial truck struck him near Steubenville. The verdict is reported as the largest trucking verdict in Ohio history, in a case the defense had offered $350,000 to settle.

A Cuyahoga County jury awarded a combined $42.4 million in October 2014 to Joshua Rojas ($34.6 million) and Kiara Torres ($7.8 million), two teenage passengers who suffered brain injuries when the car they were riding in collided with a Concrete Designs Inc. dump truck; Andy Young, now of The Law Firm for Truck Safety, served as trial counsel, and in 2019 Ohio's Eighth District affirmed the verdicts while vacating a later prejudgment interest award.

A federal jury in Detroit held Crossfire, LLC and its driver Logan Goodrich responsible for the April 2018 crash that killed 21-year-old Dillon Montie at a US-23 exit ramp intersection in Monroe County, Michigan, and the court entered judgment on May 24, 2023. Law360 reported that Montie's parents were awarded more than $15.7 million; the plaintiff's firm and the news service of a trucking-lawyer membership group put the total verdict at $18.5 million, and the verdict form is not in the free public record. The defense had blamed Montie for speeding, but the trial judge had already struck its cell phone and roadway design defenses as unsupported and ruled that Crossfire would answer for Goodrich's negligence. Crossfire and Goodrich then moved for a new trial, remittitur, or a present cash value reduction, and Law360 reported in January 2024 that the parties resolved that dispute on terms that are not public, and the next docket entry, on February 7, 2024, is an order docketed as a vacatur, so no judgment figure from this case is confirmed to stand and the result is published unranked. No appeal was taken.

A dump truck hauling dirt for Jurgensen Co. entered the fast lane of I-75 from a dead stop during nighttime highway widening in Warren County, Ohio, and was rear-ended by Nicholas and Amanda Poe's car, killing them both. A Warren County jury found the truck's mud-caked lights and reflective tape, its missing high-intensity lighting, and inadequate work-zone signage contributed to the crash alongside Nicholas Poe's own speed. Because Ohio law makes a defendant found less than half at fault severally liable for only its share, and bars an over-50-percent-at-fault plaintiff from recovering, only Amanda Poe's estate collected, and only from Jurgensen's 25 percent share of the jury's $16 million verdict. The Twelfth District Court of Appeals affirmed the resulting $4 million judgment against Jurgensen in 2015.