Source: http://ohiolawinfo.blogspot.com/2005_05_08_archive.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 11:12:51+00:00

Document:
The folks who passed the February 2005 bar exam and were sworn in on May 9th were afforded the opportunity of being the first attorneys to take advantage of the Supreme Court of Ohio's new online attorney registration system.
For those not included within the new admittees group, instructions for online registration will be included in the Certificate of Registration packet that is mailed to attorneys in July 2005 for the 2005/2007 attorney registration biennium.
Consult this FAQ for more information.
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer called for the elimination of mayor's courts and part-time judges in Ohio in his annual address to the members of the Ohio State Bar Association yesterday. Chief Justice Moyer urged the General Assembly to change Ohio law to eliminate mayor's courts and part-time judgeships in Ohio and reallocate their cases to municipal and county courts.
Chief Justice Moyer said that mayor's courts are an inherent conflict of interest because the revenue from fines goes into the budget controlled by the same entity adjudicating the fine.
There are 333 mayor's courts in 67 Ohio counties. About 25 percent of these are in the three largest counties of Franklin, Cuyahoga and Hamilton. Nearly 60 percent of the 325,079 mayor's court cases are handled in these counties.
The full text of the Chief Justice's remarks can be found here.
Ohio Auditor of State Betty Montgomery declared yesterday that the Struthers City School District (Mahoning County) is in fiscal emergency.
“Today’s fiscal emergency declaration triggers the appointment of a state commission to oversee district finances and assist in the development of a workable recovery plan,” Montgomery said.
The emergency declaration is based on the forecasted deficit of $1.9 million for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2005. The district also met the conditions for fiscal emergency because they were unable to pass a levy to eliminate the deficit.
In other school news...I saw yesterday that the Buckeye Local School District, where consecutive levies have failed, turned down by a 3-2 vote a plan by a parent boosters association to save the district's athletic programs. The group was willing to put up $50,000 to pay for a part-time athletic director, coaches, and facilities rental. Students would still have had to pay approximately $400 per sport to participate. One of the board members voting against the measure stated that they really needed to pass a levy and the offer would not help accomplish that. I guess sacrificing a year or two of extracurricular participation along with destroying the senior season of athletes and wrecking the latter's chances of receiving college scholarships is worth it if the levy passes. How ticked off are the voters going to be now that the board turned down free money? Time will tell.
Although I posted the links to the opinions yesterday, this document contains a few merit decisions without opinions and other procedural rulings.
2003-0346. State v. Turner, 2005-Ohio-1938.
Franklin C.P. No. 01CR-06-3615. Judgment affirmed.
2004-0403. Young v. Cincinnati Ins. Co., 2005-Ohio-1941.
Cuyahoga App. No. 82395, 2004-Ohio-54. Sua sponte, cause dismissed as having been improvidently accepted.
2004-1436. Slone v. Allstate Ins. Co., 2005-Ohio-1940.
Richland App. No. 2004CA0021, 2004-Ohio-3990. Sua sponte, cause dismissed as having been improvidently accepted.
2004-1944. Dunning v. State, 2005-Ohio-1939.
Cuyahoga App. No. 84982. Judgment affirmed.
An editorial in today's Columbus Dispatch brings attention to Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro's support of Ohioans for Concealed Carry in filing a brief last week in Sandusky County Common Please Court. In it, Petro states that the city of Clyde and other Ohio cities don’t have the right to restrict people who are licensed to carry concealed guns from taking those weapons into public parks. The Dispatch states that this view "defies common sense and is anti-democratic."
The Smoke Clears in Georgia - Ohio's Future?
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue signed a bill Monday which effectively bans smoking in almost all public places in the tobacco-growing state. The Georgia Smokefree Air Act of 2005 [PDF text] would still allow smoking in bars that exclude children under 18, certain workspace areas with independent air systems, and designated smoking hotel/motel rooms. Violators of the new smoking ban face fines anywhere from $100 to $500 dollars.
2003-P-460 Board of Education of the Westerville City Schools v. Franklin County Board of Revision, Franklin County Auditor and ARFO Eastwind LLC. Real Property Tax. Remanded with instructions. Board members concur.
2003-A-1153 MLP Associates LP v. Wood County Board of Revision and Wood County Auditor. Real Property Tax. Value found. Board members concur.
The U.S. 6th Circuit has revamped its web site and it looks pretty good. Here is a link for opinions released today.
The Supreme Court of Ohio will hear arguments tomorrow concerning the attempt by the Columbus Dispatch to obtain the home addresses of all Ohio state government employees.
One of the questions being bandied about the media is whether the Department of Administrative Services (DAS) can decline to disclose home addresses of state troopers and other law enforcement personnel under a 2003 statute that exempts "residential and familial information of public safety officers" from the definition of public records. The newspaper contends the law contains a "journalist exception" that specifically authorizes release of such information to news organizations.
Here is a summary of the issues and background information on the matter. All oral arguments are streamed live over the Internet. Check this page tomorrow between 9am and Noon. The streams are archived for later viewing from the same page.
Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer announced last Thursday the appointment of 20 Ohio judges to a new national program to train judges on how to successfully incorporate emerging science and technology into trials and proceedings. Here is the link for the complete news release.

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