2009 Ohio Courts Summary

The Ohio Supreme Court publishes two reports annually: the Ohio Courts Statistical Summary, which, this year, examines data from Ohio courts for the years 2000 to 2009, and the Ohio Courts Statistical Report . Raw data is published in the Statistical Reports, while the Summaries analyze the data from the reports and identifies trends.

"Marked by a decrease in new traffic filings, last year saw the lowest total number of new cases filed in Ohio courts in 10 years," the newly-released 2009 release reported yesterday.

Other notable trends from the report include:

• Breach of contract cases and similar non-tort related civil cases show marked growth over the past 10 years. In 2009, 224,180 new breach of contract cases were filed in municipal and county courts, representing a 68 percent increase over 2000. Also, in common pleas courts, 68,965 new “other civil” cases were filed, representing an 88 percent increase over 2000. This figure is slightly down (4 percent) from the 10-year high of 72,121 cases filed in 2008.


• The highest number of new domestic violence (civil protection order) cases filings in the past 10 years: 20,551.


• The lowest number of new abuse, neglect, and dependency cases filed in the past 10 years: 12,727

"Ten years of data from Ohio courts was included for the first time in the 2008 report.," the Court's announcement yesterday said. "Previously, the annual Ohio Courts Summary contained the raw statistical tables of activity in Ohio's courts – from trial courts to appellate courts to the Supreme Court – including statistics about caseloads, case terminations and clearance rates from the previous year, that're now published as the Statistical Reports. (Mayor's courts' statistics, also published in a separate reports, are released later this year.)."

This year's Summary also includes a special section on foreclosures that examines 20 years caseload statistics.

Ohio Court Summaries from previous years are available on the Court's website.