2011 Ohio Supreme Court's Ohio Courts Statistical Summary

The Ohio Supreme Court announced last Tuesday that the 2011 Ohio Courts Statistical Summary showed the total number of new cases filed in Ohio courts last year reached a 10-year low.

"All combined," the Court's announcement said, "the number of new cases decreased by 4 percent over 2010, with traffic cases in municipal and county courts constituting 43 percent of all new filings across all courts. The last time this few new cases were filed was 26 years ago in 1985.

"Another significant trend contained in the report concerns general divisions of common pleas courts. Each one of the case categories (administrative appeals, criminal, foreclosures, other civil, other torts, product liability, professional tort and workers' compensation) declined compared to 2010 with those in criminal, professional & other torts, product liability, and workers' comp. experiencing 10-year lows."

Also released was the Court's companion publication – the Ohio Courts Statistical Report – which includes raw statistical tables of activity in Ohio's courts from trial courts to appellate courts including statistics about caseloads, case terminations and clearance rates from the previous year.