The 2025 Burnside Memorial Scholarship invited law students to demonstrate their legal writing and advocacy skills by submitting an appellate brief challenging the constitutionality of Ohio’s statutory cap on noneconomic damages. Students were challenged to persuasively argue why the Ohio Supreme Court should reconsider its rulings in one of the following cases:

 

• Arbino v. Johnson & Johnson 

• Wayt v. DHSC, L.L.C. 

• Simpkins v. Grace Brethren Church of Delaware, Ohio 

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Applicants were invited to advocate for a reversal or reconsideration of the Ohio Supreme Court’s stance on statutory caps on noneconomic damages.