Ohio Legal Issues Blog

We recently represented a hard-working single father with no criminal record who is thirty-seven years old. His girlfriend told him that she would accuse him of domestic violence if he ended the relationship. When he ended the relationship, she followed through with her threat and called 911. She told the arresting officer he hit her a few times in the back of the head and pulled her hair. Our client denied harming her or any woman. Even though the officer noted in the complaint that he did not observe any injuries, he felt as though he had probable cause to charge and arrest our client and charge him with first degree misdemeanor domestic violence based solely upon the ex-girlfriend's statements.

Attorney Steve Kilburn spoke with our client's employer who received a call from a strange individual accusing his client of smoking marihuana. She called back and told his employer she had lied about the false accusation concerning the marihuana. There was no doubt in our mind this was our client's disgruntled ex-girlfriend who had falsely accused him of domestic violence around that same time. Additionally, while the case was pending, our client received a text message explicitly stating the ex-girlfriend had falsely accused him of domestic violence. The text message was sent from a phone number that matched the phone number on the ex-girlfriend's written witness statement. 

Reading your homeowner's insurance policy can be a daunting task. The policies often feel intentionally designed to get you not to read them. One reason might be so that you do not realize all the occurrences that happen in your daily life that may be covered. This primer is designed to go over some basics of reading your policy and ensure that you start maximizing the value that you get for diligently paying premiums.

Let's start with exclusions. Most of us know that insurance companies do everything they can to keep from paying a claim. The good news is that under Ohio law "an exclusion in an insurance policy will be interpreted as applying only to that which is clearly intended to be excluded."¹ In other words, if your policy does not explicitly say that a certain occurrence is excluded, then you have a good argument that it should be covered. We recently had a case where a woman was denied coverage when her house burned to the ground because she did not reside in the home at the time of the fire. The good news is that the exclusion section of the insurance policy did not explicitly discuss fire damage when the home was vacant, and the insurance company is attempting to deny the claim based on the definition section of the policy. We believe we have a good argument to get our client coverage.

105A Intoxication and Prohibited Use of Liquor 

As part of its updated 2018-2019 Code of Student Conduct ("Code"), Miami University made significant changes to its alcohol policy. The most noteworthy change is the Code's new distinction between "fermented alcoholic beverages" and "distilled liquors."

Under recent versions of the Code all alcoholic beverages were treated the same. But under the 18-19 Code underage consumption or possession of "distilled liquors" is a higher-level offense than consuming or possessing "fermented alcoholic beverages" underage. 

Earlier this year the City of Cincinnati was inundated with Bird scooters. The pilot started in Over-the-Rhine, The Banks, and Downtown. Recently the scooters have been seen in Oakley, Mt. Lookout, and surrounding areas of Cincinnati. Another company, Lime-S, also introduced similar scooters downtown.