can anyone out there find out if Ohio law allows Indemnificationn agreements. In particular, agreements that would allow one party to say “you will be responsible for all of my negligent acts, no matter what” to another party.
This is a specific legal question. It can’t be answered to your satisfaction in the typical way that us legal-professional types give off-the-cuff responses on message boards. Why do you expect us to give up time we could be billing our clients to do your legal research for free and expose ourselves to malpractice? Get a lawyer.
–Cliffy
Honestly, it merely requires some familiarity with the Ohio statutes and/or case law. We insurance types can usually give a pretty straight answer which is why I am not seeking in house counsel on this. His answer to everything is, it depends on what happens at trial.
What do you get paid for surfing the web?
Seriously, this should be searchable in a legal database of Ohio law. Someone with lexis/nexis should be able to get teh relevant case law pretty quickly.
If you enter key words “ohio indemnification agreements” in a Google box, you get some hits & clues.
Fine print: This is not legal advice!
Do you realize that Lexis and Westlaw charge per minute?
There’s a reason your in-house counsel won’t give you a straight answer – there isn’t one.
CLIFFY, if you don’t know or don’t want to answer, just say so. You’re not required to critique the OP.
MR. Z – I don’t know, and don’t want to answer. 
Jodi, I’m with Cliffy on this one. I’ll answer a legal question from time to time, but this one is (a) too specific; (b) would cost significant time and/or money to look up; and © almost certainly doesn’t have a clear, bright line answer. Said another way, the answer is probably “it depends.”
And he’s right about Lexis/Westlaw too. Yeah, some firms (including mine) have an annual, flat-rate contract, but online hours still cost. I’m currently negotiating our 2002 contract, and the bids we’re getting are based upon this year’s usage.
Jodi, I’m with Cliffy on this one. I’ll answer a legal question from time to time, but this one is (a) too specific; (b) would cost significant time and/or money to look up; and © almost certainly doesn’t have a clear, bright line answer. Said another way, the answer is probably “it depends.”
And he’s right about Lexis/Westlaw too. Yeah, some firms (including mine) have an annual, flat-rate contract, but online hours still cost. I’m currently negotiating our 2002 contract, and the bids we’re getting are based upon this year’s usage.
Arg. Sorry 'bout that.
Sheesh. I thought that maybe, someone out there would have worked in Ohio and had handled most any kind of contract that they could have answered the question. I belong to an e-group of risk managers and very often this is the case.
There is no need to lecture on the value of legal advice or opine about how definite an answer there is. The truth is that the state statutes very often speak directly to this. There are also appelate decisions from the state that could give a very simple answer.
For example if I had said that this contract involved a contractor and a subcontractor, the ansewr is very, very simply “no, the contract is not legal.”
This is why I don’t bother with attorneys half the time. Just forget about it.
RANDOM –
Then you say “this question is too specific; it would take too much time to look up; the answer is too complicated to get into.” You don’t have to say “Why do you expect us to give up time we could be billing our clients to do your legal research for free and expose ourselves to malpractice? Get a lawyer.” If you don’t want to answer the question, then don’t answer it. Or explain politely why you’re not answering it. It’s not necessary to be a jerk about it. Not to mention that CLIFFY can speak for himself regarding what we (not us) legal-professional types are willing to do.
MR. ZAMBEZI –
Probably not. Indemnification agreements are very often subject to challenge, for reasons that should be obvious. They are not subject to bright-line tests or definitions. You may think you posted an easy question, but you didn’t.
If you had asked a different question than the one you did ask, yes, you might have received a different answer. Big surprise.
Why? Because we don’t give our services away for free, to people who apparently think it’s just no problem to look up the answer to questions they’re too lazy or cheap to look up themselves? You don’t like the answer you get on a message board, so you slam attorneys for it?
Damn right I’ll forget it. I’ll forget about defending you the next time someone takes a swipe at you, too.
I didn’t want to open a new thread to say this - mods please feel free to delete this:
I agree that the OP is a little too specific to get a decent response, but if you don’t want to answer somebody’s question, please either remain silent, or explain, in a nice way, why you can’t answer.
One other thing - I have a feeling that Cliffy is not yet admitted to the practice of law. (Please feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.) If I’m right, you might consider adding the famous “IANAL” to your posts.
I’m not yet admitted (although I found out today that I passed! Yay!), which is why I typically sign my law-related posts: Cliffy, law school graduate. (IANAL, while technically correct, has a connotation that I’m a duffer which, in the law, I’m not.) However, I did feel perfectly qualified to speak on this topic because I wasn’t answering a legal question but was declining to do so for exactly the same reason I would so decline a month from now after my swearing-in.
–Cliffy
P.S. Maybe I shouldn’t have presumed to speak for the profession, but this was the third post in a row (one on another forum) asking a specific legal question and I was ticked off that so many people felt that I’d be happy to take money out of my colleague’s pockets for them and expose myself to malpractice at the same time.
Congratulations Cliffy.
CLIFFY –
With all due respect, you are not the only lawyer around here, so I doubt that anyone was asking you personally to deign to answer if you didn’t feel like it. I’m an “at law.” So is BRICKER. And MINTY GREEN. And KELLY M and DSYOUNG and SUA SPONTE and DINSDALE and DOREEN. And a bunch of other people I’m no doubt forgetting. A bunch of others are paralegals. We are actually pretty thick on the ground around here.
Congratulations on passing the Bar. 
I sat for the Washington State Bar this summer and should find out tomorrow or Monday if I passed.
In many states it is against public policy to pass on liability for one’s own negligence. I was hoping that this would be the case in ohio. IT can be a very cut and dried thing. Certain cases can make things abundantly clear such as the Pontzer case in Ohio. The entire world is not grey.
[quote]
Why? Because we don’t give our services away for free, to people who apparently think it’s just no problem to look up the answer to questions they’re too lazy or cheap to look up themselves?
[quote]
I did not ask anyone to work for free. I asked for someone to offer an answer.
Even if I were cheap, I am the risk manager for a $400 million dollar company. It is not my money. I asked because there are so many knowlegeable, smart and kind people on the board. I certainly do not see other people saying “What? Spend my valuable time looking up the origin of the word Kumquat? Are you crazy?”
No, we all offer to answer questions for free here. And I doubt that we all ask questions because we are cheap or lazy. Honestly, I do not know why you guys are getting so hot under the collar.
I did not get an answer. I was told that attorneys cost money (duh), that I was cheap, that the question was probably to hard to answer, that there was no answer…etc. Even you noted the tone. Yes I took a shot back, but mainly because of the snooty condescending tone. I appologize.
Dont worry, I can’t afford to pay for a legal defense anyway 
I would point out that in most states there are circumstances where it is legal to “pass on liability for one’s own negligence.” That’s pretty much the point of auto liability insurance, no?
(standard disclaimer about legal advice)
I find it kind of scary that a risk manager is using general info from this board. I can only hope that this info is for your personal use, and not the basis of an allowance or disallowance of a claim (although it perhaps explains some of the denials of coverage I have seen in recent years). With that said (and without the preaching about the necessity of paying lawyers), you might want to have your in-house counsel pull Coulter v. Dayton Power & Light Co., 134 Ohio App. 3d 620 for your review. BTW, if your in-house won’t answer your legal questions, can I have his job?
[hijak]
Cliffy, congratulations on passing the bar. But:
I’m a paralegal (soon to be certified). I am required by law and my code of professional conduct when delving into any law-related area to specifically state that I am not an attorney and that I am not offering legal advice. Were I to offer legal advice I would open myself up to a UPL prosecution.
So please, don’t assume that those of us who state “IANAL” are “duffers” or impute any negative connotation to us. Some of at least are required to say it. And when you do start practicing, be nice to your paralegals! We’ll save your ass more times than you’ll be able to count.
[/hijak]