Ohio Association for Justice (OAJ)

The Ohio Association for Justice ("OAJ") is the only statewide association of attorneys whose mission is to protect access to the civil justice system for all Ohioans through advocacy in the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Statehouse, and Courthouse. The OAJ works to strengthen the civil justice system so that deserving individuals can get justice and wrongdoers are held accountable.

The roughly 1,500 lawyer members of the OAJ focus on specialty areas of the law including workers’ compensation, personal injury, medical negligence, products liability, family law, consumer law, insurance law, employment, and civil rights law, environmental law, and general negligence.

While continuing the ongoing battle against tort reform, the OAJ give voice to Ohioans who have been wronged.

The OAJ is headed by a board of trustees consisting of 9 executive members and 50-60 trustees. The main purpose of the board of trustees is to oversee the actions of the association and guide decision making on legislative action and business practices.

In 1954, the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Claimants' Counsel was founded to educate claimant attorneys representing injured workers. The name of the organization changed in 1962 to the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers. The organization became affiliated with the Association of Trial Lawyers of America in 1968.

In 1994, the staff was brought in-house and the OATL moved its headquarters to East Broad Street in Columbus, OH.

In 2007, the organization changed its name to the Ohio Association for Justice to coincide with the new name of its national affiliate, the American Association for Justice. Three years later, OAJ moved its headquarters to Dublin, a suburb of Columbus.