David W. Zoll

David W. Zoll is the founding partner of Zoll & Kranz and a longtime Toledo plaintiff trial lawyer whose career spanned personal injury, product liability, mass torts, antitrust litigation, and other complex civil cases.

Over nearly five decades in the legal profession, David represented people injured in car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, by defective products and dangerous drugs, and through other forms of negligence.

His work took him from courtrooms throughout Ohio to trials and major consolidated proceedings across the United States.

He obtained multiple verdicts and settlements exceeding $1 million and served in leadership roles in significant pharmaceutical and medical-device litigation.

David founded the practice that became Zoll & Kranz around a plaintiff-focused approach to civil litigation.

The firm continues that work today from its Toledo office, representing people injured in motor vehicle accidents, catastrophic injury cases, wrongful death claims,, product-liability matters, and complex litigation throughout Northwest Ohio and across the country.

 

A Toledo Plaintiff Trial Lawyer

David graduated from the University of Cincinnati in 1974 and earned his law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law in 1976.

He was admitted to practice in Ohio in 1977 and built his legal career in Toledo.

His practice developed across a broad range of civil litigation, including personal injury, insurance disputes, professional negligence, product liability, construction cases, pharmaceutical litigation, and complex commercial matters.

His personal injury work included car accidents, truck accidents, motorcycle accidents, brain injuries, premises liability, wrongful death, construction accidents, and claims involving defective products.

Trial work remained a central part of David’s career.

He tried cases to verdict in Ohio and in courts in Chicago, West Palm Beach, Little Rock, Ann Arbor, Detroit, and Lexington.

His case work included both individual claims and larger proceedings involving extensive medical, scientific, technical, and corporate evidence.

David also became a Board Certified Civil Trial Advocate through the National Board of Trial Advocacy.

He later served on the NBTA Board of Examiners, where his responsibilities included preparing and grading examination questions concerning evidence, legal ethics, and complex business litigation for attorneys seeking civil trial certification.

 

Personal Injury and Motor Vehicle Litigation

Personal injury was an important part of David’s civil litigation practice throughout his career.

He represented plaintiffs in claims involving car accidents, truck crashes, motorcycle accidents, serious physical injuries, wrongful death, unsafe products, and other forms of negligent conduct.

His work included cases in which questions of fault, insurance coverage, medical causation, long-term injury, and financial damages required substantial investigation and contested litigation.

David’s appellate work also included an Ohio Supreme Court case that became part of the state’s modern comparative-negligence law.

He represented the appellee and cross-appellant in Anderson v. Ceccardi, 6 Ohio St.3d 110 (1983), where the Ohio Supreme Court considered how implied assumption of risk should operate under Ohio’s comparative-negligence framework.

The case became one of several matters David handled before the Ohio Supreme Court during his career.

His experience at both the trial and appellate levels shaped the litigation practice he later developed at Zoll & Kranz.

 

National Product Liability and Mass Tort Litigation

As David’s practice developed, he became increasingly involved in complex product-liability, pharmaceutical, medical-device, and mass-tort litigation.

One of his most significant roles came in the federal litigation involving contaminated heparin. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio appointed David Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel in In re: Heparin Products Liability Litigation, MDL No. 1953.

He also founded and co-chaired the American Association for Justice Heparin Litigation Group.

David served as co-lead trial counsel in the first contaminated heparin trial against Baxter Healthcare and Scientific Protein Laboratories, which was tried in Cook County, Illinois in 2011.

Zoll & Kranz had filed some of the earliest lawsuits arising from the contaminated heparin litigation, and three firm clients later testified before Congress during an April 2008 hearing examining contaminated heparin and failures in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

His complex litigation work also included roles in the Sulzer Inter-Op Hip Prosthesis litigation, Vioxx Products Liability Litigation, Yamaha Rhino litigation, Text Messaging Antitrust Litigation, Polyurethane Foam Antitrust Litigation, Yaz and Yasmin litigation, and DePuy ASR Hip Implant litigation.

David and Zoll & Kranz represented hundreds of women in litigation involving Yaz and Yasmin and obtained tens of millions of dollars on behalf of those clients.

He also worked with Michelle L. Kranz during the DePuy ASR Hip Implant litigation, where Michelle served as Plaintiffs’ Liaison Counsel.

 

Building Zoll & Kranz

David’s influence on Zoll & Kranz extends beyond the individual cases he litigated.

His work as a Toledo trial lawyer created the foundation for a firm built around representing plaintiffs rather than defending corporations against injury claims.

The practice developed from local civil and personal injury litigation into national pharmaceutical, medical-device, product-liability, antitrust, and mass-tort cases while remaining rooted in Toledo and Northwest Ohio.

David also played an important role in Michelle Kranz’s development as a trial lawyer.

Michelle joined his practice after graduating from the University of Toledo College of Law and has described her admiration for David’s trial work and the opportunity to learn from him as significant reasons she remained in Toledo and ultimately formed a longstanding partnership with him.

The litigation practice David helped establish continues through Zoll & Kranz’s current attorneys.

The firm now represents people injured in car, truck, motorcycle, pedestrian, and bicycle accidents, along with clients in catastrophic injury, wrongful death, defective-product, pharmaceutical, and other serious personal injury matters.

 

Professional Leadership and Recognition

David’s work earned recognition from other trial lawyers and professional organizations throughout his career.

He was selected to the Ohio Super Lawyers list for multiple consecutive years, including a seventh consecutive selection in 2014.

He also received an AV peer-review rating from Martindale-Hubbell and was recognized among the Top 100 Trial Lawyers by the organization then known as the American Trial Lawyers Association.

His professional credentials included certification as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy and service as an examiner for lawyers seeking board certification.

David shared his litigation experience through presentations to legal and professional organizations, including the American Association for Justice, Ohio State Bar Association, Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, Lucas County Bar Association, Toledo Bar Association, and other professional groups and continuing legal education programs.

 

Service to Toledo and Lucas County

David’s involvement in Toledo extended beyond private practice.

The Lucas County Commissioners appointed him to the Lucas County Mental Health and Recovery Services Board.

He previously served on the Lucas County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services Board and participated in the committee responsible for combining that organization with the county’s mental health board.

He was also appointed to the Mental Health Board Review Committee.

His community service has included involvement with the Camp Storer-Toledo YMCA, Beach House Family Shelter, Christ Presbyterian Church, and the Toledo Council of Newspaper Unions-Toledo Blade Pension Plan.

David’s career has remained closely associated with Toledo: he attended the University of Toledo College of Law, built his practice in the city, represented plaintiffs throughout Northwest Ohio, served local organizations, and founded a law firm that continues to represent injured people from its Toledo office.

 

Current Status

After a legal career spanning nearly five decades, David has taken inactive status with the Ohio bar and no longer practices law. His work as a plaintiff trial lawyer and founding partner remains an important part of Zoll & Kranz’s history and the development of the firm’s personal injury and complex litigation practice.

 

Selected Court Admissions During His Practice

David’s admissions included the Supreme Court of Ohio, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, U.S. Tax Court, and United States Supreme Court.