Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC

About Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC

At Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC, we are committed to our clients, our families and the law. Jon A. Lafferty - Jon A. Lafferty and his wife Pam have been married for 35 years and have four grown children and three grandchildren. Jon is a past president of the Men's Golf Association at Brandywine Golf Club and is presently the secretary of his homeowners association. Thomas W. Gallagher - Thomas W. Gallagher and his wife Kitty have been married for 39 years. They have seven grown children and ten grandchildren. Tom has served on numerous school, athletic and church boards and councils. He has also served as a coach for football, soccer and baseball over the years, as well as attended countless baseball, basketball, football and soccer games with his children. Tom continues to follow his grandkids in their activities. Robert M. Scott - Robert "Mickey" Scott and his wife Kim have been married for 20 years. They have two children. Over the years, Mickey has coached soccer, basketball and softball, and he continues to coach baseball. Mickey has been involved in a number of community boards and events, including the Muscular Dystrophy Association Lockup and the Sylvania Metro Area Hockey League Rules and Disciplinary Committee. Our Commitment to Quality In our practice of personal injury law, we have been fortunate to have enjoyed considerable success for our clients, and in the process have attained high levels of achievement within our profession. Jon, Tom and Mickey all have AV ratings by Martindale Hubbell, evidencing the highest level of ethical and professional conduct. All three attorneys have been very active within the legal profession, serving on numerous committees and boards, as well as lecturing on the law throughout Ohio. All of our attorneys are members of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum. Contact our Toledo office today to schedule a free consultation with one of our experienced attorneys. Throughout our website, you will see verdicts and settlements that we have obtained on behalf of our clients. Although we are certainly proud of our accomplishments in obtaining these outcomes, it is more important that these verdicts and settlements have provided the necessary funds to enable our clients to lead their lives with dignity, self-respect and financial security. Tort Reform At Lafferty, Gallagher & Scott, LLC, we are committed to overturning the so-called "tort reform" laws that have been enacted in the State of Ohio. In 2003, the Republican-controlled Ohio State legislature passed, with little deliberation or thought, medical malpractice tort reform. This was followed in 2005 by a general overall "tort reform" law that affects all personal injury cases. These "tort reform" laws contain many anti-consumer and anti-patient provisions. Perhaps the most onerous provision is the denial of the right to trial by jury. Both the United States Constitution and the Ohio Constitution guarantee citizens the right to trial by jury. The 2003 Ohio Medical Malpractice Tort Act basically takes this right away from all Ohio citizens by placing caps, or limits, on the amount of money that a patient injured as a result of medical malpractice can recover for pain and suffering. In non-catastrophic injuries, the patient can only recover $250,000.00. In catastrophic cases, such as paraplegia, quadriplegia and comatose patients, the legislation allows the injured patient to recover only $500,000.00 for his or her pain and suffering. This means that a 25 year-old patient who is rendered quadriplegic due to medical malpractice, and has a normal life expectancy to 75 years of age, is going to receive only $10,000.00 per year for his or her pain and suffering. Not surprisingly, the Ohio State legislature does not want jurors in medical malpractice cases to know of these caps or limitations. The law specifically provides that jurors in medical malpractice cases cannot be told of these limitations. A jury in a medical malpractice case could find that an injured patient is entitled to receive $1,000,000.00 as compensation for his or her pain and suffering. However, the law provides that the judge presiding over the case must reduce the verdict to $250,000.00 in non-catastrophic cases or $500,000.00 in catastrophic cases. This denies the injured patient his or her right to a trial by jury. Clearly, the Ohio State legislature does not believe in the right to trial by jury guaranteed to all Ohio citizens, and the members of the legislature evidently do not trust the wisdom of the citizens/jurors who voted them into office. A study of medical malpractice by Harvard University, known as the Harvard Medical Practice Study reveals some astonishing numbers. As part of an interdisciplinary study of medical injury and malpractice litigation, the Harvard researchers reviewed 30,121 randomly selected records from 51 randomly selected hospitals in New York State. In reviewing the records, the researchers found that in 3.7% of the cases r