Generally speaking, that's true here as well. The problem is the shooter will have to hire a competent lawyer to represent him through the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, which is backed up six months or more on some cases. The average civil case might have five or more hearings where all you do is show up, wait two hours and then have the judge postpone the hearing. Your lawyer bills you for three hours of trial time and you come back two weeks later to try again. You will ultimately win, but have to pay your lawyer handsomely for your efforts. Filing a counter suit against Bubba is out because he's unemployed and has no assets.seamusTX wrote:Unless Ohio has some bizarre civil liability laws, the value of an animal is its market value. IOW, if the average adult Rottweiler sells for $200, that's the most that someone could be liable for if they kill the dog. If it's a mutt, the value may be zero. No lawyer will take a case like that.
There have been some efforts to allow pet owners to sue for loss of companionship or emotional distress; but as far as I know, none have been successful.
I wish I could say no lawyer would touch the case, but there are a few up here who routinely get in on cases like this where they have no chance of winning but they just enjoy seeing their names in the paper.
Hopefully this thing is done and over with - but when you get a person with no assets being told by a scumbag lawyer that they have nothing to lose and it won't cost them anything but some time...
