SIDNEY — The year 2015 was another busy one for the Shelby County Common Pleas Court.
“On the administrative side, 2015 saw the implementation of a new computer case management system,” said Judge James F. Stevenson. “The upgrading of computer systems has been a joint project of the common pleas court, the juvenile/probate court and the municipal court. This has been an ongoing project for the last couple of years and is finally coming to completion. The final phase of the project will be the conversion to e-filing in the court. It is expected that voluntary e-filing will start by the middle of this year with e-filing becoming mandatory by 2017.”
His report continues:
E-filing will accomplish several goals. First, it will provide parties and their attorneys the convenience of remote filing of document and the remote reception of pleadings and court orders. Secondly, it will permit the court to move to a more paper-less, digital environment which will provide cost and time savings for the court. Electronic filing will significantly reduce costs in the time and money required to handle, store, catalog and retrieve paper. Ultimately, the costs of archiving and storing paper will largely disappear as electronic files replace paper files.
The courts are here to serve the citizens of this community in their justice needs. When access is limited or prevented because of citizens’ inability to afford basic services then that goal is not accomplished. Unfortunately, the current legal aid system does not make legal services available to many of our citizens. Legal Aid of Western Ohio lacks the funding and staff to meet the growing needs of low-income people in Shelby County. The Ohio State Bar Association and Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice O’Connor have made developing means to provide access to justice to all citizens a priority.
In that spirit this court has taken steps to assist citizens with an inability to hire an attorney in processing of their domestic relations cases; keeping in mind, of course, the court’s obligation to treat all parties fairly and equally regardless of whether represented by an attorney. Magistrate Gary Carter, with the assistance of volunteer attorneys from the Shelby County Bar Association and Legal Aid of Western Ohio, established a free clinic for low-income Shelby County residents trying to file a divorce without the aid of an attorney. The clinic is for parties seeking an uncontested divorce, with or without children, who have been separated for at least 60 days. Volunteer attorneys assist parties in filling out forms so that participants are able to get their cases heard in court. The volunteer attorneys do not represent the parties and do not appear in court; they merely assist in the preparation of the forms so that the parties can get their cases before the court. If more legal representation is needed, the parties are referred to Legal Aid.
The court’s criminal docket is always a large part of our caseload. In 2015 there were 330 new felony cases filed. This is a significant increase over the 275 cases filed in 2014. Many of those cases are drug related, either drug possession, drug trafficking or crimes committed to further the person’s drug habit. There was also an uptick in violent crimes including robberies and burglaries; again most associated with the drug culture. Fortunately, foreclosures continue to drop from the high number of several years ago.
In domestic relations court, Magistrate Gary Carter conducted 432 hearings. There were 316 new or reopened cases and 129 persons attended the parenting class.
Overall 2015 was another successful year for the court is serving the needs of the Shelby County community.
