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Brad Hughes

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Brad is a partner in Porter Wright’s Litigation Department and chairs the firm’s Appellate Practice Group. He represents clients in appeals, original actions and complex commercial litigation. Brad has assisted oil and gas clients and electric utilities in appeals before the Supreme Court of Ohio and in regulatory matters before the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

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Ohio’s Westfield v. Galatis test for overruling precedent

Nearly 25 years ago, the Westfield Ins. Co. v. Galatis decision established the Ohio Supreme Court’s three-part test for overruling its own precedent. This is an essential framework for understanding Ohio appellate law. In Galatis, the court emphasized that stare decisis remains the “bedrock of the American judicial system,” ensuring stability and predictability in the law.

Continue Reading Overruling precedent in Ohio: The Westfield v. Galatis test explained

Those pesky final, appealable order questions just never stop coming

I remember 30 years ago when I served as a law-student intern at Ohio’s Second District Court of Appeals, one of my primary jobs was to review incoming appeals to help the judges decide whether the orders being appealed were final, appealable orders (FAOs) under Ohio law.

Continue Reading Is denial of bifurcation a final appealable order? Maybe not, but the court isn’t telling why (yet)

Time may be of the essence, but the wheels of justice turn slowly

The Ohio Supreme Court has recently focused on initiatives to enhance the timelier administration of justice. The Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio, for example, impose time limits for appellate and civil cases as indicated on the Supreme Court’s case-management reporting forms. 

Continue Reading Does your judge need a nudge? Consider the Ohio Supreme Court’s recently launched Case Inquiry Form

In early 2023, Chief Justice Sharon Kennedy of the Supreme Court of Ohio announced the Court’s intent to streamline the legal citation process in Ohio. In furtherance of that goal, the Court formed a new committee tasked with proposing changes to The Supreme Court of Ohio Writing Manual, a guide for formatting legal citations in state court.

The Writing Manual Revision Committee’s proposed changes were adopted by the Court in Feb. 2024 and the new edition of the manual took effect on June 17th, 2024. The updated manual includes, among other things: stronger language directing lawyers to follow the manual; the introduction of a navigable homepage (presenting examples of properly cited sources); revisions to case and statute citation rules; and guidance on when to use a parenthetical phrase “(cleaned up)” in certain citations that has sparked recent debate within the legal community.

Continue Reading A new day for legal citation in Ohio

Prepare for a Challenge…

A recent decision by Ohio’s Second District Court of Appeals addresses a couple of topics that have been recurring features on this blog: final appealable orders and secrecy in litigation. As to the former, we have previously discussed the complexity of characterizing orders that either grant or deny preliminary injunctive relief as either final, appealable orders (or not), in our recent blog posts found here and here. As to the latter, in early 2022, we discussed an Ohio Supreme Court decision called State ex rel. Cincinnati Enquirer v. Shanahan, regarding whether a police officer could proceed under a pseudonym in his defamation case – and the Court in that case said no.

Continue Reading Seeking to proceed under a pseudonym in Ohio State Court? 

Benjamin Franklin remarked in Poor Richard’s Almanack that “three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” Keeping secrets is indeed a tricky business, and none the less so in civil litigation. Over the course of their careers in the law, the authors of this blog have perceived an increase in litigants’ attempts to maintain substantial amounts of information related to their cases under seal, even as they seek redress (or seek to defend themselves) in the ostensibly public forum of a courthouse. We addressed the “fine line between publicity and privacy in litigation” in this post early last year.

Continue Reading ‘Appealing’ from no sealing: Recent Fifth District decision highlights procedural wrinkle in rules of superintendence

As Ohio attorneys who focus on appellate issues, one of the trusty treatises we often consult in our practice is former First District Court of Appeals Judge Mark Painter’s seminal Ohio Appellate Practice handbook, published by Baldwin. If you don’t have it in your library but enjoy appellate work, we highly recommend it. And for years, in the section pertaining to administrative appeals taken under Ohio’s Administrative Procedure Act, commonly known as “Chapter 119 appeals,” Judge Painter’s treatise has noted that certain administrative appeals in Ohio had to be brought in Franklin County, including appeals regarding examinations and licensing by state agencies, and appeals of adjudicatory decisions by the Liquor Control Commission, State Medical Board Chiropractic Examining Board, or Board of Nursing.

Continue Reading Ohio General Assembly expands venues for administrative appeals

The COVID-19 pandemic introduced some new flexibility into the traditionally rigid legal workplace. For those working in downtown offices, the traffic on the daily commute was certainly better. And remote work options allowed counsel to take depositions from the comfort of their home offices. Got a hearing coming up on a motion? Fine, let’s conduct it via Zoom. Big oral argument coming up? No problem — the court says that can be done on Microsoft Teams. The pandemic and related stay-at-home orders certainly required some unprecedented understanding and adaptability from participants in the legal system, be they lawyers, judges, clients or court staff.

Continue Reading Two recent decisions by Ohio appellate courts caution counsel against undue reliance upon health emergencies to delay trials