State ex rel. Ooten v. Siegel Interior Specialists Co

In State ex rel. Ooten v. Siegel Interior Specialists Co. (1998), 84 Ohio St.3d 255, 1998 Ohio 534, 703 N.E.2d 306, the court excused the claimant's lack of a job search when he had secured part-time lucrative employment with a realistic possibility that his job would change to a full-time position. The court stated further: In determining whether to excuse a claimant's failure to search for another job, we use a broad-based analysis that looks beyond mere wage loss. This approach was triggered by our recognition that "wage-loss compensation is not forever. It ends after two hundred weeks. R.C. 4123.56(B). Thus, when a claimant seeks new post-injury employment, contemplation must extend beyond the short term. The job that a claimant takes may have to support that claimant for the rest of his or her life--long after wage-loss compensation has expired." Brinkman, 87 Ohio St.3d at 174, 718 N.E.2d 897. Id. at P25.