Under rules adopted by the Ohio Supreme Court that go into effect July 1, the general divisions of Ohio’s 88 county common pleas courts will be the first courts to submit caseload statistics electronically.

Under rules adopted by the Ohio Supreme Court that go into effect July 1, the general divisions of Ohio’s 88 county common pleas courts will be the first courts to submit caseload statistics electronically.

On July 1, some local courts will begin to submit caseload statistics electronically under rule amendments adopted by the Ohio Supreme Court. Once fully implemented, the new system will streamline the report submission process and will allow more current data to be available to the public.

Currently, Case Management Section staff manually enters data from hard copy report forms submitted by judges across Ohio. This information forms the basis of the annual Ohio Courts Statistical Report. It is also used to analyze case filing patterns and trends to assist local courts in managing their resources.

Under the new amendments, local courts would continue to submit paper reports until notified by the Case Management Section. An information technology application is under development to capture the data.

According to Brian Farrington, statistics analyst in the Case Management Section, the first courts to submit statistics in electronic form will be the general divisions of Ohio’s 88 county common pleas courts. Case management staff members will communicate with local courts to plan for the roll out, to train local court personnel, and to allow plenty of lead time before submitting data.

As opposed to the paper-heavy process now, local courts will log in to a dedicated website and upload their data in electronic format into the Supreme Court computers, Farrington said. The website will also eventually include analytic reports so local courts won’t have to wait for the annual report to see trends.

Farrington also said the time case management staff now spends on data entry will instead be dedicated to analysis and feedback geared toward assisting local courts in monitoring trends and improving the administration of justice.

Courts should direct questions about the electronic submission process to casemgmt@sc.ohio.gov.

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