Ohio Jury Awards $82 Million to Motorcyclist Hit by Company Truck After $350,000 Offer

Published October 8, 2025 · Verdicts & Settlements

Before trial, the defense offered $350,000. After a four-day trial, a Jefferson County jury awarded $82,105,345.70.

That gap is the story of the verdict in Shank v. D.W. Dickey & Son, Inc., Jefferson C.P. No. 2024 CV 00270, announced October 2, 2025, by the trial lawyers for Michael J. Shank, a motorcyclist who lost his left arm and left leg when a commercial truck hit him. His lawyers describe it as the largest trucking verdict on record in Ohio. For any rider in the Miami Valley who has been told the crash was "probably your fault," it is worth understanding how that happened.

What was reported

According to the October 2 announcement by the plaintiff's trial firm, the case was tried before Judge Michelle Miller in the Jefferson County Court of Common Pleas, which sits in Steubenville. Mr. Shank, described as a husband and father who still volunteers in his community, was riding his motorcycle when he was struck by a commercial truck. A separate announcement by the firm that served as local counsel describes the vehicle as a commercial utility truck and says liability was "fiercely contested."

The jury found that the truck driver's negligence caused the crash and assigned Mr. Shank no fault at all. It found the driver's employers, D.W. Dickey & Son, Inc. and Hilltop Energy, vicariously liable. The damages, according to the announcement, cover past and future medical care, prosthetics, lost earning capacity, and noneconomic losses. Eight jurors signed the verdict.

Two facts in the announcement stand out. First, the highest offer before trial was $350,000. Second, the plaintiffs presented evidence that countered an initial law-enforcement finding against the injured rider, including testimony from an eyewitness, along with medical, prosthetics, and damages experts.

We report only what the published announcements say. We were not involved in the case, and nothing reported so far addresses post-trial motions or an appeal.

The initial report was not the final word

Before I practiced law, I spent 19 years as a Dayton police officer and sergeant. I wrote crash reports and supervised officers who wrote them. A crash report is an officer's best judgment made quickly, at a chaotic scene, often while the injured person is being loaded into an ambulance and cannot give a statement. The driver who walks away usually gets to tell the story first.

Motorcyclists feel that more than anyone. A rider who is seriously hurt cannot speak for himself at the scene. The other driver says "he came out of nowhere" or "he turned in front of me," and that version can end up in the report. Insurance adjusters then treat the report as gospel and value the claim accordingly. A $350,000 offer on a double-amputation case suggests how heavily the defense was leaning on fault.

The way past that is evidence: independent witnesses, scene measurements, vehicle damage, roadway marks, and, when needed, an accident reconstruction expert who can show where and how the vehicles met. We explained what reconstructionists do, and why their work so often decides contested cases, in our 2022 post on crash reconstruction. Our guide chapter on gathering evidence while it still exists covers what has to be preserved in the first days after a truck crash, before company vehicles are repaired and data is overwritten.

Why the companies were responsible

The jury found the companies vicariously liable. Under that doctrine, often called respondeat superior, an employer is responsible for an employee's negligence committed within the scope of the job. That matters enormously in practice. An individual driver rarely has the resources or insurance to answer for a catastrophic injury. A company with commercial vehicles on the road usually carries commercial liability coverage, often with much higher limits.

Commercial truck cases also open the door to evidence that does not exist in ordinary car crashes: driver qualification and training files, maintenance records, company safety policies, and vehicle data. Our truck accident page explains how we pursue those records.

What a catastrophic injury case is worth

Ohio caps noneconomic damages (pain, suffering, loss of enjoyment of life) in most injury cases at $250,000, or three times economic loss up to $350,000 per plaintiff. R.C. 2315.18(B)(2). But the cap does not apply when the injured person suffers "permanent and substantial physical deformity, loss of use of a limb, or loss of a bodily organ system," or a permanent injury that prevents independent self-care. R.C. 2315.18(B)(3). Losing an arm and a leg is exactly the kind of injury the legislature placed outside the cap.

That exception is why a case like this can support a verdict in eight figures. The damages for someone who loses two limbs include a lifetime of prosthetics, which must be replaced and refitted for decades, plus surgeries, therapy, and lost earning capacity. They also include the daily, permanent loss of the ability to work, drive, ride, carry a child, or live without help. Juries can and do put real numbers on those losses when they are proven with expert testimony and the injured person's own story. Our guide chapter on what your case is worth explains the categories of damages and the cap exceptions.

Spouses have their own claim, too. When a serious injury changes a marriage, the uninjured spouse can seek damages for loss of consortium: the loss of companionship, help, and the relationship as it was before.

What this means for you

If you were hurt on a motorcycle by a work truck, a delivery van, or any company vehicle:

• Do not accept the crash report as the final answer. Reports can be challenged with better evidence.
• Do not judge your case by the first offer. In this case, the jury's verdict was more than 200 times the best offer.
• Act quickly. Company vehicles get repaired, data gets overwritten, and witnesses scatter. A preservation letter should go out within days.
• Get a lawyer who will try the case. Insurers price claims based on whether they believe the case will actually go to a jury.

Our motorcycle accident page explains how we approach rider cases.