Supreme Court of Ohio Expands Negligent Hiring Claims

OMA Connections Partner Calfee reports on this week’s Supreme Court of Ohio decision that expands the cause of action for negligent hire, retention and/or supervision to allow for customers (and presumably other third parties) to sue businesses — even if there is no underlying civil or criminal finding that the employee at issue engaged in wrongdoing.

In a separate report on the case, OMA Connections Partner Roetzel said the court’s ruling means employers need to ensure that they “are being thorough and diligent in the hiring process, have supervisors in place doing their job and dealing with misconduct, and do not hold on too long to an employee with a tendency to act in an inappropriate or violent manner.” 12/10/2020