The Ohio Supreme Court has issued proposed amendments to the Rules of Superintendence, the Ohio Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure, and the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure. The key proposed Superintendence change would modify the eligibility requirements for magistrates with 2 new restrictions: 1) magistrates would have to be engaged in the practice of law for at least 4 years, and 2) they would have to be in good standing with the Ohio Supreme Court. The Ohio Supreme Court's press release provides a good summary of the proposed changes to the Appellate, Criminal and Civil Rules. Generally, the new appellate changes would require parties to request oral argument and would affect the entry of judgments and en banc determinations. Criminal changes would allow judges to use teleconferening and alternate jurors. New civil rules would address revivor and e-discovery parallel to the new changes to the comparable Federal Rules. Click here to read the text of these 3 new proposed sets of rules. Click here to read the current text of all of the Court rules mentioned above. The Ohio Supreme Court also provides a rule amendment search at the following link: Rule Amendment Search.