What Happened at Miami University Could Have Killed Someone — and Ohio Law Says You Can Hold Them Accountable
If you are reading this at 2 a.m. because your son, your daughter, your partner, or you yourself came home from a fraternity pledging process at Miami University looking like a different person — hollow-eyed, flinching at sounds, unable to sleep, covered in bruises you were told not to talk about — you are in the right place. What you are looking at is not “tradition.” It is not “bonding.” It is assault, battery, and psychological torture, and the state of Ohio wrote a law specifically to let you sue the people and the organizations that did it.
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that takes hazing cases in Ohio and across the country. Right now, we are lead counsel in an active $10 million hazing lawsuit against Pi Kappa Phi and the University of Houston — a case built on the same kind of facts you are living through: a pledge subjected to beatings, sleep deprivation, and psychological manipulation by an organization that promised brotherhood and delivered a chamber of horrors. We know this fight because we are in it.
Here is what we know about what happened at Miami University in Oxford, Butler County, Ohio: a historically Black fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, was suspended through 2040 after the university found that pledges were beaten with paddles and canes over a period of weeks, kept awake until three, four, and five o’clock in the morning, and subjected to psychological manipulation so severe that one junior pledge ended up in a hospital described as “practically catatonic.” His girlfriend had the sense to call his mother in Cleveland. His mother got him to a hospital and then got him home. The same fraternity had been cited for hazing in 2019 and again in 2022. The university initially moved for a lifetime ban. On appeal, the sanction was reduced to 15 years — still the most severe fraternity penalty in Miami University’s history. The pledge’s attorney is pursuing civil action and asking the Butler County prosecutor to bring criminal charges.
This page is for the person who was hurt, and for the family trying to help them. We will tell you exactly what Ohio law gives you, who can be held responsible, what the evidence looks like, how fast it can disappear, what the case is worth, and what to do in the first 72 hours. None of this is guesswork. All of it is grounded in the law and the facts of this specific incident.
The Reality of Hazing at Miami University
Oxford, Ohio sits in Butler County, a place where the university is the town. Miami University is not a sideline institution here — it is the economic, cultural, and social center of gravity. When a fraternity at Miami University hazes a pledge, the harm happens inside a closed world: the chapter house, the off-campus apartment, the Dayton suburb where alumni drove pledges to be beaten. The victim is far from home, surrounded by people who are supposed to be his brothers, cut off from the people who would actually protect him — his mother in Cleveland, his girlfriend who noticed something was wrong.
The geography of this case matters for the law. The beatings on campus fall under Butler County’s jurisdiction. The beatings at the house in the Dayton suburbs — which the victim described as the most brutal he underwent during the entire process — fall under Montgomery County. That creates potential venue options and multi-jurisdictional discovery requirements. Butler County juries can be conservative, but they have historically shown low tolerance for behavior that endangers the safety of students when a duty of care is breached. A jury of Butler County residents — the families who live alongside Miami University, who send their children there, who see the fraternity houses on their streets — is a jury that understands what was taken from this young man.
The same fraternity had hazing cases in 2019 and 2022. That is not a coincidence. That is a pattern. And in civil litigation, a pattern is the engine that drives punitive damages and that pierces the “we didn’t know” defense the national organization will raise. When a chapter has been caught hazing twice in three years and the national organization did not shut it down, the question is not whether they knew. The question is why they let it keep happening.
Understanding Ohio’s Collin’s Law — The Anti-Hazing Statute That Changed Everything
Ohio passed Collin’s Law — Senate Bill 126 — after the death of Collin Wiant, an 18-year-old Bowling Green State University student who died in a fraternity hazing incident. The law significantly increased criminal penalties for hazing and expanded reporting requirements for universities. But for the person reading this page, the most important provision is the civil cause of action it codified.
Under Ohio Revised Code § 2307.44, any person who is subjected to hazing may bring a civil action for injury or damages against the participants, the organization, and potentially its officers.
That sentence is the foundation of your case. In plain English: Ohio law gives you a specific, named right to sue not just the individual students who beat you or your child, but the fraternity organization itself — both the local chapter and the national organization — and potentially the officers of that organization who allowed it to happen.
Collin’s Law also mandates that universities maintain public records of hazing violations. That means Miami University’s findings against Kappa Alpha Psi — the 2019 case, the 2022 case, and the current suspension — are not secret. They are public record. They are evidence. And they are exactly what we use to prove that the national organization had notice that this chapter was dangerous and did nothing effective to stop it.
Ohio follows a modified comparative negligence rule, generally a 51% bar — meaning if the victim’s own fault exceeds 50%, recovery is barred. But in intentional tort cases like hazing, the “comparative fault” defense — the argument that the pledge “chose to stay” or “volunteered” for the process — is increasingly rejected by courts as a matter of public policy. The law recognizes that a person subjected to sleep deprivation, psychological manipulation, and physical violence is not making free choices. That is the whole point of hazing: to break down the will so the person cannot say no. A defense built on “he could have left” is a defense built on the harm itself.
Punitive damages are available in Ohio upon a showing of “actual malice.” In a case involving repeated beatings with paddles and canes over weeks, sleep deprivation, and psychological manipulation severe enough to put a person in a hospital — that showing is not a reach. It is the natural reading of the facts.
You can learn more about how we approach these cases on our fraternity and sorority hazing lawsuit page.
Who Can Be Held Liable: The Defendant Stack
A hazing case is never one defendant. It is a stack, and the strength of the case depends on naming every layer. Here is the architecture of who can be held responsible for what happened at Miami University.
The National Organization — Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. The national fraternity is the deep pocket and the entity with the duty to supervise its chapters. The 2019 and 2022 prior hazing cases at the Miami University chapter are the key: they put the national organization on notice that this specific chapter had a culture of violence, and the national organization’s failure to shut it down or impose effective anti-hazing controls after two documented violations is the spine of a negligent-supervision claim. The national charter and bylaws — which we obtain through discovery — establish the duty the national organization owed to your child and the standard of care it breached.
The Local Chapter Officers — President and Vice President. The article confirms that the president and vice president of the fraternity are still students at Miami University. They are the people who authorized, directed, and participated in the hazing rituals. They face direct liability for assault and battery, for negligent supervision of the pledge process, and under Ohio’s civil hazing statute. They are also the people whose individual conduct — ordering the beatings, imposing the sleep deprivation, creating the psychological machinery — establishes the “actual malice” that unlocks punitive damages.
The Participating Alumni. This is the layer that makes this case different from a standard hazing claim. The victim testified that pledges were driven to a house in the Dayton suburbs and beaten by Kappa Alpha Psi alumni — and that those were the most brutal beatings he underwent during the entire process. Adults who have graduated, who have jobs, who came back to a college town specifically to hurt young men trying to join their fraternity — they are direct defendants for assault and battery. Their participation also establishes that the culture of violence was not a localized student invention; it was an institutional tradition passed down from generation to generation, which strengthens the claim against the national organization.
Miami University — Potential but Difficult. The university has its own duty of oversight, and the fact that it had documented hazing violations by this same fraternity in 2019 and 2022 creates an argument that the university was reckless in allowing the chapter to continue operating. University liability is difficult to establish — sovereign-immunity-type protections and the university’s own internal disciplinary processes create barriers — but the documented prior incidents, combined with Collin’s Law’s reporting mandates, create a colorable claim if the facts show the university knew the chapter was dangerous and failed to take effective action. This is a theory we develop through discovery, not one we lead with.
The Medicine: What Hazing Does to the Body and Mind
The victim in this case was described as “practically catatonic” when he reached the hospital. That is not a word a doctor uses lightly. It describes a state of profound psychological shutdown — a person who is awake but not present, not responsive, not functioning. To understand what happened to this young man, and what it will cost to put him back together, you have to understand the three mechanisms of harm that were working on him simultaneously.
Physical Trauma from Repeated Beatings. Paddles and canes are weapons. Repeated striking of the buttocks, thighs, and back over a period of weeks produces deep-tissue bruising, muscle damage, and in severe cases, kidney injury from the breakdown of damaged muscle tissue (rhabdomyolysis). The medical record from the hospital admission will document the physical findings — the bruising pattern, the location and severity of the injuries, and any laboratory evidence of systemic effects. These injuries heal, but the medical documentation of them is permanent evidence of the battery.
Sleep Deprivation as a Weapon. The victim was kept awake until three, four, and five o’clock in the morning for weeks. Sleep deprivation is not an inconvenience — it is a recognized method of psychological torture. After 24 hours without sleep, cognitive function declines to the equivalent of a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10%. After 48 hours, the brain begins to experience microsleeps — involuntary moments of unconsciousness that the person cannot control. After 72 hours, hallucinations can begin. After weeks of partial sleep deprivation — being allowed only two or three hours a night — the cumulative effect is a breakdown of the brain’s executive function, emotional regulation, and reality testing. This is not a side effect of hazing. It is the mechanism. The sleep deprivation is what makes the psychological manipulation possible. It is what makes a person unable to resist, unable to leave, unable to call for help. A forensic psychologist can explain this to a jury — and the explanation turns “he chose to stay” into “his brain was no longer capable of making that choice.”
Psychological Trauma and the “Catatonic” State. The victim’s girlfriend noticed something was wrong. She called his mother. By the time he reached the hospital, he was described as “practically catatonic” — a shell of himself. This is the presentation of severe acute stress reaction, potentially progressing to post-traumatic stress disorder. The DSM-5 — the diagnostic manual every psychiatrist in the country uses — sets out specific criteria for PTSD, and the facts of this case meet them: direct exposure to a traumatic event (Criterion A), intrusive symptoms like nightmares and flashbacks (Criterion B), avoidance of reminders (Criterion C), negative alterations in cognition and mood including the “shell of himself” description (Criterion D), and alterations in arousal and reactivity including hypervigilance and sleep disturbance (Criterion E). A PTSD diagnosis is not a label a lawyer picks. It is a formal medical diagnosis with eight separate requirements, and a survivor has to meet every one of them.
The psychological cost of this kind of trauma is not measured in weeks. Research published by the federal government’s own public-health scientists puts the lifetime economic burden of a single sexual assault — a comparable trauma involving violation, loss of control, and psychological manipulation — at more than $122,000 per survivor, and that figure only counts therapy, medical visits, and lost productivity. It does not begin to measure the nightmares, the relationships that fracture, the trust that does not come back. For hazing, the cost is comparable: long-term psychological counseling for PTSD, potential residential treatment for the acute breakdown, lost semester of tuition, and the years of rebuilding a self that was systematically torn down.
The Evidence Clock: What Records Exist and How Fast They Disappear
Every case has a clock. In a hazing case, the clock runs on several different records at once, and some of them die faster than you would believe. Here is what exists, who holds it, and how long it has to live.
University Disciplinary Hearing Transcript — High Priority. The university’s disciplinary process created a transcript containing sworn testimony from the victim and potentially admissions from the perpetrators. This is the single most important document in the case because it locks in testimony before criminal charges are filed, before memories fade, before stories change. The university hearing record is not a criminal proceeding — it is an administrative process — but the testimony given under oath in that setting is admissible and powerful. This record is held by Miami University and must be formally requested and preserved. It does not have a short statutory destruction deadline, but universities archive and purge records on their own schedules. The preservation demand goes out the day you call us.
Medical Records and Hospital Toxicology — Medium Priority, Time-Sensitive Access. The hospital admission records prove the physical and psychological state of the victim upon rescue. They are stable records — hospitals keep them for years — but they need to be secured through a HIPAA-compliant release immediately. The toxicology screen rules out other causes of the catatonic state and confirms that the presentation was trauma, not intoxication. The emergency department notes, the psychiatric evaluation, the physical examination findings, and any follow-up care records together tell the medical story of what the hazing process did to this person. Get these records secured before they are archived to cold storage, which makes them harder to obtain and slower to produce.
Cell Phone Data — Immediate, Critical, Perishable. This is the fastest-dying evidence in the case. Pledges in a hazing process are typically directed through group messaging apps — GroupMe, text chains, Snapchat groups — where the “orders” to appear for beatings, the schedule for sleep deprivation, and the communications between actives and alumni are documented in real time. This data can be remotely wiped. Phones can be “lost.” A pledge who is still in the fraternity’s orbit — still afraid, still being manipulated — can be pressured to delete messages or surrender his phone. The preservation demand must go to the phone carrier, the messaging platform, and the individual pledge simultaneously, and it must go out in days, not weeks. If the phone is still in the victim’s possession, the data must be forensically imaged immediately by a professional — not browsed, not screenshotted, imaged, which preserves the full data set including deleted messages and metadata.
Fraternity National Charter and Bylaws — Medium Priority, Obtained Through Discovery. The national organization’s charter, bylaws, risk-management policies, anti-hazing statements, and prior disciplinary records for this chapter are the documents that establish the duty the national organization owed and the standard of care it breached. These are not self-destructing records — they live in the national organization’s files — but they are only obtained through formal discovery in litigation. The prior 2019 and 2022 hazing cases at this chapter should have generated internal communications, investigation reports, and disciplinary actions by the national organization. Those documents prove notice. They prove the national organization knew. They are the fuel for punitive damages.
The Preservation Letter — The First Move. The day you call us is the day the clock starts working for you instead of against you. We send a litigation-hold and spoliation-preservation demand to every entity and individual who holds evidence: the national fraternity, the local chapter, the university, the alumni who participated, the phone carriers, and the messaging platforms. That letter does two things. It freezes the evidence. And if any of it disappears after the letter is on file, the law answers with an adverse-inference instruction — meaning the jury may assume the lost evidence was as bad for the other side as we say it was. The preservation letter is the first weapon we deploy in every hazing case. It goes out before we ever file suit, because the evidence that proves the case is the evidence that is most likely to vanish.
The Insurance and Money Reality: Who Pays for What They Did
A hazing case involves a different insurance architecture than a car crash. There is no standard auto policy with a known limit. Instead, the money sits in layers, and finding it is part of the work.
The National Fraternity’s Liability Coverage. National fraternities typically carry commercial general liability insurance, often with layers of excess coverage stacked above the primary policy. The coverage amounts vary widely, and some national fraternities carry significant self-insured retentions — meaning the organization pays the first tranche of any claim out of its own pocket before insurance kicks in. The specific coverage tower for Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. is confirmed through discovery, not assumption. What we can tell you is that a national fraternity with the resources to operate chapters at universities across the country has assets and insurance that dwarf what any individual chapter member could pay.
The Local Chapter’s Coverage. Some local chapters carry their own insurance; many do not, relying entirely on the national organization’s policy. Where there is a local policy, it may be primary — meaning it pays first — but it is often thin. The real recovery in a hazing case usually comes from the national organization’s tower, not the local chapter’s.
Individual Perpetrators’ Homeowners’ Policies. Individual homeowners’ insurance policies sometimes provide coverage for certain torts committed by the insured or their resident family member. But homeowners’ policies routinely exclude intentional acts — and beatings with paddles and canes are intentional acts. Coverage for individual perpetrators is uncertain and must be investigated policy by policy. The alumni who participated in the beatings at the Dayton house are the most interesting individual targets: they are adults with assets, jobs, and potentially their own liability coverage.
The University’s Coverage. Miami University, as a public institution, has its own insurance and potential sovereign-immunity protections. University liability is the most difficult to establish but can be the most significant if the facts show recklessness given the documented prior incidents.
Case Value — Honest Framing. The forensic analysis for this case, given the documented history of prior hazing (2019, 2022), the severity of the medical outcome (catatonic state requiring hospitalization), the involvement of alumni (which elevates the case above standard student misconduct), and the presence of a deep-pocket national organization, places the case value range from approximately $500,000 on the low end to $2,500,000 or more on the high end. The primary value driver is punitive damages — punishment for a systemic culture of violence that the national organization permitted to continue after multiple documented violations. Every case is different. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. But the combination of intentional violence, documented prior notice, severe psychological injury, and a national organization with the resources to pay creates a case that is worth significantly more than a standard assault claim.
The Fraternity Defense Playbook — What They Will Try and How We Answer
The defense in a hazing case is predictable because the playbook is old. Here are the moves they will make, and here is how we counter each one.
Play 1: “He chose to pledge. He chose to stay.” This is the comparative-fault argument — the idea that a pledge who submits to hazing has assumed the risk. The counter is the medicine: weeks of sleep deprivation destroy the brain’s capacity for free choice. The forensic psychologist testifies that a person kept awake until 5 a.m. for weeks, subjected to repeated physical violence, and psychologically manipulated is not making voluntary decisions. The law increasingly recognizes this. Ohio’s comparative-fault rule, while generally a 51% bar, is increasingly rejected in intentional-tort cases where the “choice” to stay was itself the product of the abuse. Hazing is designed to manufacture submission. We do not let the defense turn the mechanism of harm into a defense against the harm.
Play 2: “No permanent physical injury.” The defense will point to the fact that the victim survived, that the bruises healed, that no bones were broken. The counter is the full medical picture: the “catatonic” state is a documented psychological injury with diagnostic criteria, a treatment protocol, and a cost trajectory that spans years. PTSD does not heal in two weeks. The sleep-deprivation damage to cognitive function can persist for months. The psychological manipulation — the systematic destruction of a person’s sense of self, autonomy, and trust — produces harm that is more expensive to treat and longer-lasting than a fracture. We bring a forensic psychologist and a life-care planner to quantify that cost, and we bring the medical records to prove it.
Play 3: “The national organization didn’t know about the local chapter’s activities.” This is the distancing defense. The counter is the 2019 and 2022 prior hazing cases. The national organization was on notice — twice — that this specific chapter had a hazing problem. The internal communications, investigation reports, and disciplinary records from those prior cases, obtained through discovery, prove notice. When an organization has been warned twice that its chapter is beating pledges and fails to shut it down, “we didn’t know” is not available. The argument shifts from “we didn’t know” to “we knew and we let it continue,” which is the predicate for punitive damages.
Play 4: The quick settlement offer. A fraternity that has been caught hazing — especially one with prior violations — may move quickly to offer a settlement with a confidentiality clause attached. The money arrives before the medical results are in, before the psychological evaluation is complete, before the full cost of the harm is known. The release is buried under the check. We have seen this play from the inside. Lupe Peña spent years at a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where claims like yours are priced, devalued, and settled cheap — before he came to our side of the table. He knows how the adjuster sets a low reserve in the first 48 hours, how the quick check is engineered to close the file before the real injuries are diagnosed, and how the confidentiality clause is designed to protect the fraternity’s reputation, not your family’s future. The counter to the quick check is simple: do not sign anything, do not accept anything, do not post about the case on social media, and do not talk to anyone from the fraternity or its alumni until you have counsel. Everything you say will be used to reduce what they owe you.
Play 5: Social media surveillance. The fraternity’s insurance company will monitor the victim’s social media for anything that can be used to minimize the injury — a photo of the victim smiling at a family gathering, a post about going out with friends, anything that looks like “he’s fine now.” The counter is strict: the victim and the family must not post about the case, about the injury, about the recovery, or about anything that could be taken out of context. The adjuster is not your friend. The surveillance is not benign. Every post is being reviewed by someone whose job is to pay you as little as possible.
How We Build the Case: The Proof Story
Here is how a hazing case is actually won — the chronological walk from the day you call to the day the number is built.
In week one, the preservation demand goes out. Every entity that holds evidence is put on formal notice to freeze it: the national fraternity, the local chapter, the university, the alumni, the phone carriers, the messaging platforms. The letter is specific — it names the records, the devices, the accounts, and the time periods. It is not a form letter. It is a targeted evidence-freeze operation designed by someone who knows exactly which records win hazing cases and how fast they can legally disappear.
In weeks two through four, the medical records are secured. The hospital admission records, the emergency department notes, the psychiatric evaluation, the toxicology screen, and any follow-up care documentation are obtained through HIPAA-compliant releases. The medical picture is assembled: what the doctors found when this person arrived, what they ruled out, what they diagnosed, and what the treatment plan says about the severity and duration of the harm.
In weeks four through eight, the expert team is retained. A forensic psychologist evaluates the victim and establishes the PTSD diagnosis through validated instruments — the CAPS-5 (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale) or the PCL-5 (PTSD Checklist). A life-care planner builds the cost stream: the therapy hours, the medication, the potential residential treatment, the lost semester, the lost earning capacity, the years of follow-up care. A forensic economist reduces the future-cost stream to present value, so the jury sees a single defensible number, not a vague claim for “pain and suffering.”
In months three through six, discovery begins. The complaint is filed. The defendants are served. The written questions go out — interrogatories demanding the national organization’s prior disciplinary records for this chapter, the internal communications about the 2019 and 2022 hazing cases, the anti-hazing policies and training materials, the risk-management audits. The document demands are specific and voluminous. Then the depositions: the chapter president, the vice president, the actives who participated, the alumni who drove pledges to the Dayton house. Under oath, in a room, with a court reporter and a transcript, the people who beat your son explain their choices. That is where the case is built.
In months six through twelve, the number is built. The medical records, the expert reports, the deposition testimony, and the documentary evidence of prior notice are assembled into a demand. The demand is not a starting offer — it is the product of months of investigation, and it is backed by evidence the defense cannot dispute because we have already locked it down. The settlement, if it comes, comes because the defense sees that the evidence is airtight and the exposure at trial is worse than the number on the table. If it does not come, we try the case. And we try it in front of a Butler County jury — twelve people who live in this community, who know Miami University, and who will decide what a young man’s safety was worth.
Your First 72 Hours: A Roadmap
Hour 1 through 24: Medical first. If the victim is still in the hospital, let the doctors work. If the victim has been discharged, ensure follow-up care is scheduled — specifically a psychiatric evaluation and a psychological assessment. The symptoms of PTSD and acute stress reaction can worsen in the days and weeks after discharge. The medical record is the foundation of the case, and it has to be built from day one. Do not minimize. Do not tell the doctor “he’s fine.” Tell the doctor everything: the beatings, the sleep deprivation, the psychological manipulation, the catatonic state. The medical chart is the first witness.
Hour 24 through 48: Secure the evidence. Do not delete anything from the victim’s phone. Do not let the victim delete anything. Put the phone in airplane mode, turn off auto-delete on any messaging apps, and do not let anyone from the fraternity — active or alumni — contact the victim. If they do, document the contact: who called, when, what was said. Do not respond. The preservation letter is our job, but the phone is yours. Keep it charged, keep it safe, and do not let it leave your possession.
Hour 48 through 72: Call counsel. This is where we come in. The consultation is free. The call is confidential. We assess the case, identify the defendants, map the evidence, and send the preservation demands within days. The statute of limitations in Ohio for personal injury — including civil hazing claims under Ohio Revised Code § 2307.44 — is generally two years from the date of the injury, but you should never wait for the deadline. The evidence that wins the case is the evidence that disappears first. The phone data, the GroupMe messages, the surveillance footage, the disciplinary hearing testimony — every day you wait is a day the defense can use to say the evidence was “lost” or “overwritten.”
What not to do. Do not sign anything from the fraternity, the university, or any insurance company. Do not accept a settlement offer, no matter how friendly the person presenting it seems. Do not post about the incident on social media — not the victim, not the family, not anyone. Do not talk to fraternity members or alumni who reach out to “smooth things over.” Do not discuss the case with anyone except your attorney and your medical providers. Everything else is a potential problem.
How Attorney911 Holds Fraternities Accountable
We are Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC. We are a trial firm that takes hazing cases in Ohio and nationwide, working with local counsel where required. We do not maintain an office in Ohio, and we will tell you plainly if we are not the right fit for your case. But we have been doing this work long enough to know exactly what it takes.
Ralph P. Manginello is our Managing Partner. He has been a licensed attorney for 27+ years, admitted in Texas and federal court, and he is lead counsel in the active $10 million hazing lawsuit against Pi Kappa Phi and the University of Houston — a case built on the same architecture of beatings, sleep deprivation, and psychological manipulation that we see in the Miami University case. Ralph was a journalist before he was a lawyer, which means he knows how to find a story the defense does not want told. He does not lose cases because he did not understand the facts.
Lupe Peña is our associate attorney. He spent years at a national insurance-defense firm — the rooms where adjusters and their software decide how to deny, delay, and devalue claims like yours. He sat across the table from people exactly like the ones who will try to minimize what happened to your child. Now he sits on your side of the table. He knows how the reserve is set, how the recorded statement is engineered, and how the quick check is designed to close the file before the real injuries are diagnosed. He uses that knowledge for injured people now. Lupe is fluent in Spanish and conducts full consultations in Spanish without an interpreter.
We work on contingency. That means you pay nothing unless we win your case. Our fee is 33.33% before trial and 40% if the case goes to trial. We do not get paid unless you get paid. The consultation is free, and it is confidential. We have a 24/7 live staff — not an answering service, but people who can take your call right now. Our aggregate recoveries exceed $50,000,000, including a $5M+ brain-injury settlement, a $3.8M+ amputation settlement, and a $2.5M+ truck-crash recovery. Those are firm marketing figures, and past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. But they tell you something about the level of fight we bring.
If you or someone you love was hazed at Miami University — at Kappa Alpha Psi or any other fraternity — call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). The call is free. The consultation is confidential. And the evidence that proves your case is disappearing while you read this. Hablamos Español.
You can also learn more about our personal injury practice and our wrongful death representation for cases where hazing resulted in the loss of a life.
This page is legal information, not legal advice. Every case is different. Contacting the firm is free and confidential. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sue the fraternity for hazing in Ohio?
Yes. Ohio Revised Code § 2307.44 gives any person subjected to hazing a specific civil cause of action against the participants, the organization, and potentially its officers. This statute, strengthened by Collin’s Law (Senate Bill 126), is the legal foundation for a hazing lawsuit in Ohio. You can sue the local chapter, the national fraternity, the individual members who participated, and the alumni who returned to participate in beatings. The statute creates a named right of action — it does not require you to fit your case into a generic negligence theory.
How long do I have to file a hazing lawsuit in Ohio?
Ohio’s statute of limitations for personal injury claims — which includes civil hazing claims — is generally two years from the date of the injury. However, the discovery rule may apply in some circumstances, meaning the clock may start when you discovered or should have discovered the connection between the harm and the hazing. You should never wait for the deadline. The evidence that wins a hazing case — phone records, messages, surveillance footage, disciplinary hearing testimony — disappears on its own schedule, and that schedule is much shorter than two years. Call a lawyer immediately, not when the deadline is approaching.
What is Collin’s Law in Ohio?
Collin’s Law — Senate Bill 126, named for Collin Wiant, an 18-year-old Bowling Green State University student who died in a hazing incident — is Ohio’s anti-hazing statute. It significantly increased criminal penalties for hazing, expanded university reporting requirements, and mandated that universities maintain public records of hazing violations. For civil purposes, the most important provision is the codified cause of action in Ohio Revised Code § 2307.44, which lets hazing victims sue the participants, the organization, and potentially its officers for damages.
Can the national fraternity be held responsible for what the local chapter did?
Yes, if we can prove the national organization knew or should have known about the hazing and failed to stop it. The 2019 and 2022 prior hazing cases at the Miami University chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi are the key. Those prior incidents put the national organization on notice that this chapter had a culture of violence. The national organization’s failure to shut down the chapter or impose effective anti-hazing controls after two documented violations is the spine of a negligent-supervision claim. Through discovery, we obtain the national organization’s internal communications, investigation reports, and disciplinary records from those prior cases — and those documents prove notice.
What if the victim “chose” to stay in the pledging process?
This is the defense’s favorite argument, and it is built on a misunderstanding of how hazing works. Hazing is specifically designed to break down a person’s will so they cannot say no. Weeks of sleep deprivation — being kept awake until 3, 4, or 5 a.m. — destroy the brain’s capacity for free choice. After 24 hours without sleep, cognitive function declines to the equivalent of being legally intoxicated. After weeks of partial sleep deprivation, combined with repeated physical violence and psychological manipulation, a person is not making voluntary decisions. A forensic psychologist can explain this to a jury. Ohio courts increasingly reject the “he chose to stay” defense in intentional-tort cases because the “choice” was itself the product of the abuse.
How much is a hazing case worth?
The value of a hazing case depends on the severity of the injury, the documented history of prior violations, the defendant’s resources, and the strength of the punitive-damages argument. For a case like the Miami University Kappa Alpha Psi incident — with documented prior hazing in 2019 and 2022, severe psychological injury requiring hospitalization, alumni participation in beatings, and a deep-pocket national organization — the forensic analysis places the case value range from approximately $500,000 to $2,500,000 or more. Punitive damages are the primary driver, because the facts support a showing of actual malice: intentional violence, repeated over time, with the national organization’s documented knowledge and failure to act. Every case is different, and past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes.
What should I do if my child was hazed at a fraternity?
First, get medical care. The psychological effects of hazing — PTSD, acute stress reaction, depression — can worsen in the days and weeks after the victim comes home. Tell the doctors everything: the beatings, the sleep deprivation, the psychological manipulation. Second, secure the evidence. Do not let the victim delete anything from their phone. Put the phone in airplane mode. Do not let anyone from the fraternity contact the victim. Third, call a lawyer who handles hazing cases. The consultation should be free and confidential. The preservation letter — the formal demand to freeze evidence — should go out within days, because the phone data, the messages, and the disciplinary hearing records are the proof that wins the case, and they disappear on their own schedule.
Can alumni be sued for hazing?
Yes. The alumni who returned to participate in the beatings at the Dayton suburb house are direct defendants for assault and battery. They are adults who came back to a college town specifically to hurt young men trying to join their fraternity. Their participation also strengthens the claim against the national organization, because it shows the culture of violence was not a localized student invention — it was an institutional tradition passed down from generation to generation. Alumni who participate in hazing are individually liable for the injuries they cause, and they may have personal assets and insurance that can be reached.
Can I sue Miami University for the hazing?
University liability is possible but difficult. Miami University had documented hazing violations by this same fraternity in 2019 and 2022, which creates an argument that the university was reckless in allowing the chapter to continue operating. Collin’s Law’s reporting mandates also create a framework for university accountability. However, public universities have sovereign-immunity-type protections, and the university’s internal disciplinary processes create barriers to liability. This is a theory we develop through discovery — if the facts show the university knew the chapter was dangerous and failed to take effective action, the claim becomes stronger. It is not the lead theory in the case, but it is one we investigate.
What if the hazing resulted in death?
If hazing results in death, the case transforms into a wrongful-death and survival action. Ohio’s wrongful-death statute allows specific beneficiaries — typically the spouse, children, and parents — to recover for the loss of financial support, companionship, and the value of the life itself. The survival action carries the claim the decedent would have had — the pain, suffering, and medical costs between injury and death. In a hazing death, punitive damages are especially powerful because the same facts that establish liability — intentional violence, documented prior notice, failure to act — establish the malice that punitive damages require. If you have lost someone to hazing, call us at 1-888-ATTY-911 immediately. The evidence in a death case is even more time-sensitive, and the statute of limitations is the same two years — but the evidence clock is shorter.