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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowAttorney Edgar Bayliff, former president of the Indiana Trial Lawyers Association, died Jan. 4. He was 84.
Bayliff was admitted to practice in Indiana in 1954 and had been a member of the Kokomo firm Bayliff Harrigan Cord and Maugans for nearly 40 years. Beginning in the early 1970s, Bayliff helped lead a team of ITLA attorneys that lobbied against the passage of no-fault legislation. Because of those efforts, Indiana’s Comparative Fault Act was passed in 1983, resulting in sweeping changes to how juries award damages in Indiana. Micki Wilson, ITLA executive director, said, “Ed didn’t just practice law, he made law.”
In 1966, Bayliff served as president of ITLA. Later in his career, the association honored him with the Trial Lawyer of the Year award and Lifetime Achievement Award. The ITLA also recognized him with the Hoosier Freedom Award; other recipients of that award have included the late Gov. Frank O’Bannon, Sen. Richard Lugar and Indiana Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard. For many years, Bayliff served on the Board of Governors for the American Trial Lawyers Association. And in 1990, he received a Distinguished Service Award from the Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law, his alma mater.
Bayliff was a United States Army veteran of World War II and the Korean War and was a member of Main Street United Methodist Church in Kokomo for more than 50 years.
He is survived by wife Betty Lou (Whitman) Bayliff; son Brad (Lisa) Bayliff of Austin, Texas; daughter Dixie (Jeff) McKean of Indianapolis; grandchildren Corby and Carly McKean and several nieces and nephews.
Visitation is 2 to 6 p.m. Sunday at Shirley and Stout Funeral Home, 1315 W. Lincoln Road, Kokomo, with a memorial service at 6 p.m.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association of Greater Indiana or Main Street United Methodist Church, Kokomo.
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