Allen Tittle Pushes to Adjust Ohio Damage Caps for Inflation

Tittle, the founding partner of Tittle & Perlmuter, emphasized that the state's noneconomic damage caps have remained unchanged since 2005. He contended that while the General Assembly routinely adjusts figures like campaign contribution limits and income tax exemptions for inflation, the compensation available to those with life-altering injuries has been effectively diminished by two decades of rising costs.

Senate Bill 292 proposes a middle-ground approach: it preserves the statutory framework while introducing an annual inflation adjustment and eliminating hard caps in specific medical malpractice scenarios. Tittle highlighted the constitutional mandate that the right to a jury trial remains inviolate, noting that current law forces judges to slash jury-awarded damages to fixed, outdated limits regardless of the injury's severity. He cited cases involving traumatic brain injuries and sexual assault survivors to underscore the arbitrary nature of these restrictions. Describing the proposal as a move toward fairness rather than radical change, Tittle insisted that the legislature must honor the original value intended for these damage caps when they were first enacted.