Judges and magistrates can start taking a new online course studying fines, fees, and court costs.

Judges and magistrates can start taking a new online course studying fines, fees, and court costs.

Ohio has been a national leader among state courts in providing education to judicial officers on the issue of fines, fees, and court costs.

Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor has focused on these issues as the co-chair of the National Task Force on Fees, Fines, and Bail Practices and as past president of the National Conference of Chief Justices.

Now the Court’s Ohio Judicial College has unveiled an online course to give tools to Ohio judges and magistrates on determining whether to grant pre-trial release in criminal cases.

“Judges have a great deal of discretion, appropriately so, in establishing bail for those charged with criminal offenses,” Chief Justice O’Connor said. “It is important that judges exercise that discretion appropriately in each case brought to them.”

In the course, judges learn about new risk assessment tools they can use to determine the degree of risk for failure to appear and risk to community safety when establishing bail.

The course provides compelling researched-based evidence that cash or bond (surety) may be necessary in many cases, and shouldn’t necessarily be imposed as a default option to ensure a defendant’s appearance in court.

The course also teaches methods to ensure community safety by using electronic monitoring devices, imposing curfews, and placing restrictions on travel as conditions of bail with or without the cash or bail bond element.

Lakewood Municipal Court Judge Patrick Carroll and Lucas County Court of Common Pleas Judge Gene Zmuda explore state Criminal Rule 46, which sets the parameters for judicial decisions in cases where bail is an issue.

They also examine statutory law and case law applicable in those types of cases.

As a result of participating in this course, viewers should be able to:

• Understand the purpose of bail and its impact on access to justice
• Apply Criminal Rule 46, Ohio statutes, and relevant case law to pretrial proceedings
• Describe pretrial supervision and other methods to reduce the possible risk posed by defendants.