Ohio Premises Liability Settlement Calculator

Ohio's 51% bar for comparative fault means you can still recover in a premises liability case as long as you are not more than 50% at fault. In a two-party incident where fault is split 50/50, you can still recover 50% of your damages. This is slightly more favorable than 50% bar states, where equal fault eliminates recovery entirely.

The statute of limitations for this type of claim in Ohio is 2 years — in line with the national average of 2.7 years. This is a standard timeframe, but acting sooner preserves evidence and strengthens your position.

Ohio caps non-economic damages (pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life) at the greater of $250,000 or three times economic damages, up to $350,000 per plaintiff ($500,000 per occurrence) for this type of case. With $60,000 in economic damages the cap is $250,000; with $150,000 or more it is $350,000. Catastrophic injuries (a permanent and substantial physical deformity, or the loss of use of a limb or a bodily organ system) are treated separately under the statute. (Ohio Rev. Code § 2315.18(B)(2)-(3))

Ohio follows the traditional invitee/licensee/trespasser framework for premises liability. The duty owed varies by category: business invitees are protected from all hazards the owner knew or should have known about; social guests are protected from known hazards; and trespassers receive the most limited protection. A slip-and-fall at a grocery store, for example, is evaluated very differently than the same fall at a friend's home.

To win an Ohio slip-and-fall or hazard-based premises case, you generally must prove the property owner had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition. Constructive notice means the hazard existed long enough that a reasonable owner exercising reasonable care would have discovered it. Evidence of the condition's duration — timestamps on security footage, maintenance logs, witness accounts — is frequently decisive in Ohio premises cases.