The Job of Justice Part II

On May 14, 2021, the Ohio State Bar Association (“OSBA”) held its annual General Assembly and Council of Delegates Meeting. I serve on the OSBA Council of Delegates with attorneys from around the state. As part of the OSBA annual General Assembly meeting, Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor shared a number of updates as well as some forecasting. 

Here are my notes I thought worthy of sharing with you:

• The Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedures is conducting a review of changes made to Civil Rules 16 and 26. The changes being reviewed are changes that went into effect last summer. They address civil discovery and the consistency of Ohio’s system with the federal system. Over the next year, the Commission will provide comments and make suggestions to tweak these recent changes so Ohio courts operate more efficiently. 

• While we see a light at the end of the tunnel in the pandemic with vaccinations, in the legal world, there are still challenges ahead. Justice O’Connor predicts we will likely see a surge of evictions and foreclosures. An online dispute resolution pilot project was launched to tackle these issues, as well as small claims and family cases. 

• On the cusp of the pandemic, court staff researched and wrote a foreclosure report and an evictions report to provide local courts with guidance. 
• A pilot project called “Online Dispute Resolution” has been created. Working online increases the capacity for mediators to get their cases resolved. It’s another example of how technology has helped and will continue to help post-pandemic. 
• Evictions and small claims case pilots will start soon in the Cleveland Housing Court and Municipal Courts in Akron, Youngstown, Franklin County, Darke County, Garfield Heights, Hamilton County, and Van Wert County. 
• Foreclosure cases will be piloted in the Common Pleas Courts of Franklin, Montgomery, and Warren counties. 
• Grants from the Federal State Justice Institute will fund domestic relations courts in Champaign, Cuyahoga, Delaware, Hamilton, Summit, and Tuscarawas counties. 
• Defendants will be referred to the free, online platform when they receive a summons. Litigants have a right to their day in court even if they start their case online. The online program does not replace a hearing. But it is a supplementary process that may result in resolution, without a hearing. In many instances there will be no need for traditional proceedings. 

• The COVID crisis has caused setbacks for some in Ohio’s drug courts and Ohioans who struggle from addiction and mental health issues. COVID placed many restrictions upon Ohio’s specialized dockets and their participants who thrive with consistent, in-person accountability and connection. Ohio’s programs and their participants rose to the occasion, implementing virtual hearings, drug testing, recovery supports, and supervision. Dockets are now planning the return to pre-pandemic practices, learning from the past year and adjusting to a new normal, which will include the long-term use of virtual platforms to enhance and expand capacity. 
• Just recently, the Ohio Supreme Court made a significant ruling. The Court voted to amend rules expanding bail reform. One new rule requires that the 28 counties with more than one municipal or county court adopt a uniform monetary bail schedule. If the courts in the county can’t agree on a uniform schedule, they’ll use a model bail schedule developed by the Ohio Supreme Court. These changes take effect July 1, 2021. 

Before the pandemic hit in 2020, on what seemed like a normal day in my office in downtown Cincinnati, David Lefton (who is now OSBA President) called and asked me to join the Council of Delegates. It was the result of a serendipitous interaction: I’d met Cincinnati Bar Association past president Doloris Learmonth at a CBA event in 2019, who recommended me for the role. The 2020 Council meeting was delayed and ultimately canceled. Reading the Council’s governing bylaws and the access to justice charge, I worried about justice delayed. 

May 14, 2021 was my first call of duty to vote on Council of Delegates proposals to set the agenda for the OSBA Government Affairs team to work with the Ohio General Assembly, U.S. Congress, and the Ohio Supreme Court, as appropriate. During the Council meeting, I heard reports and proposals from the Access to Justice committee, the Family Law committee, and the Military and Veterans’ Affairs committee. 

On the Military and Veterans’ Affairs proposal, we passed a resolution to permit transfer of jurisdiction from one court in a jurisdiction without a specialized docket to another court with a specialized docket. Within Family Law, we approved a proposal for government affairs representatives to work with the General Assembly to amend seven sections of the Ohio Revised Code pertaining to child support for disabled children who are beyond the age of majority prior to their parents filing for divorce, in order to allow courts to award or determine child support for such disabled children. We also approved the Access to Justice committee’s recommendation to empower government affairs representatives to work with the Ohio General Assembly to amend various sections of the Ohio Revised Code pertaining to debt-based driver’s license suspensions.  

As Justice O’ Connor said, this is all about looking forward. I am proud of the work that we do through the Cincinnati Bar Association and through our statewide association. I’m excited to hear about your new ideas. Cheers to getting back to serendipitous interactions.