Cleveland Law Library Weblog

Court Filings Are Down in Ohio, According to Ohio Supreme Court

For the second year in a row, court filings are down in the state of Ohio. That is according to the latest Ohio Courts Statistical Summary and Report from the Ohio Supreme Court. Overall, case filings are down about 5%, with the greatest decline in municipal and county court cases. Click here to read the Court's press release summarizing the statistics.

LexisNexis.com No Longer Offers Credit Card Access on a Pay-As-You-Go Basis

I just read the LexisNexis notice that it is no longer offering pay-as-you-go credit card access. For those Lexis devotees who will miss this service, our Law Library offers a robust Lexis plan with the functionality to print, download and email search results to your office. Our plan is available for Law Library members who subscribe on an annual basis.

Ohio Supreme Court Creates New Page for Current and Historical Justice Biographies

The Ohio Supreme Court has just launched a new web page devoted to biographies of all of its current and historical justices. The new page is a joint project of the Court and the Ohio Historical Society. The available data includes a short bio of each justice, their full name, term, county of residence, and law school information if known. Not only can you sort the data by several of these criteria, but the Court's website also provides a general search engine where you can search by name. Click here to read the Supreme Court's press release about the new web page.

New Judgment Entry Forms for Divorce and Dissolution Are Now in Effect in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court

New judgment entry forms for divorce and dissolution became effective this week in Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Court. The new forms are available at the Court's website.

Ohio's Child Protective Services Initiative Is Expanding Again-But Not Yet to Cuyahoga County

Very soon, Ohio will be again expanding the Differential Response Program involving child protective services that it began in 2008. According to the Ohio Supreme Court:

"Differential Response gives caseworkers the freedom to use an alternative approach when investigating some reports of child abuse and neglect in Ohio. That freedom helps keep families together and reduces the number of children placed in out-of-home care, all without compromising child safety. Differential Response begins with a non-threatening, non-adversarial, family assessment. It allows caseworkers to guide the family to local social service programs that might meet the child’s and the family’s needs."

A great color-coded chart from Capital Law School shows how the program has been implemented and which counties are involved. However, Cuyahoga County is not on the current list nor in the new counties that are going to be added.

Happy Law Day Cleveland!

Our Law Library is celebrating Law Day this year today with the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. The CMBA is hosting American Bar Association President Stephen N. Zack as the featured speaker at The City Club of Cleveland. As part of our Law Day celebration, we held a trivia contest for an Amazon Kindle. Our lucky winner was Alicia W., who has already claimed her prize. Here is the question and answer in case you participated but were not selected as the winner:

Question: As an attorney, John Adams represented a British officer and soldiers who
allegedly fired into a crowd of protesters and killed five colonists involved in this 1770 event:

Answer: The Boston Massacre

New Federal Court Pilot Project to Allow Free Access to Federal Court Opinions from 12 Courts

Later this year, the opinions of 12 federal courts will become available through the federal government's new web portal, FDSys. This 1-year project is the brainchild of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the Government Printing Office (GPO), and the Judicial Conference. Although PACER currently provides access to federal court dockets and opinions, searching requires a password, it has a very simple search engine that does not allow full text or keyword searching, and opinions cost $.08 per page. The goal of the new pilot project is to provide a more robust search engine from an authoritative source for finding court opinions for free. The 12 courts that will be part of the initial project will include: the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and Eighth Circuits; the U.S. district courts for the Districts of Minnesota, Rhode Island, Maryland, Idaho, and Kansas, the Northern District of New York, and the Northern District of Alabama; and the U.S. bankruptcy courts for the District of Maine, the Southern District of Florida, and the Southern District of New York. In March, the Judicial Conference apparently approved the addition of 30 more courts. Hopefully, some of the federal courts in Ohio will be among them.

State Budge Cuts May Cause Backlogs and Layoffs in Courts, So Suggests Bloomberg BusinessWeek

According to Bloomberg BusinessWeek, state budget cuts may soon cause backlogs and layoffs in courts across the country. The article on the cuts quotes ABA President Stephen Zack, who will be in Cleveland tomorrow at the City Club for Law Day celebrations.

Ohio Supreme Court Dismisses Two Cases Challenging the Constitutionality of Red-Light Cameras

Yesterday, on May 4, 2011, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed two (2) cases from Cleveland and Columbus that challenged the constitutionality of red-light cameras. The Court simply dismissed the cases so there is no substantive opinion upon which either side can really hang its hat. Click here to read the Court's opinion in the Cleveland case, which sought writs of mandamus and prohibition and wherein the court denied class certification and a request for oral argument in 2 short paragraphs. Click here to read an article from the Columbus Dispatch about the decisions. Click here to read our prior post on the case when it was originally filed in Cleveland just 3 months ago.

277 Applicants Pass the Ohio Bar Exam

277 lucky candidates passed the most recent Ohio Bar Exam from February. The pass rate for 1st timers was almost 86%, and the rate for all takers was up to almost 70%. All of the new lawyers will be sworn in on May 9, 2011 at the Ohio Theatre in Columbus, Ohio. Click here to read the Ohio Supreme Court's press release, and click here to review the list of successful candidates.