OHIO
Columbus Dispatch
By Randy Ludlow
Columbus lawyer John K. Fitch calls it “a horrific injustice for children who are raped or otherwise sexually abused.”
If victims and their parents turn to court seeking pain-and-suffering damages from their assailants, and those who enabled them, they are limited by Ohio law to the recovery of $250,000.
“A child could be raped 50 times and limited to $5,000 per rape under Ohio law. It’s outrageous,” Fitch said.
He is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to rule that state law unconstitutionally deprives childhood sexual-abuse victims of adequate compensation for mental trauma that could last a lifetime.
His appeal involves a case last year in which a Delaware County jury awarded $3.5 million in “ non-economic” damages to a woman who was 15 years old when she was raped by her pastor at Delaware Grace Brethren Church in Sunbury.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.