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The Assignment Office services a public counter which is staffed by the Assignment
Clerks. Personnel will assist Court and Clerk staff, Prosecutors, Attorneys, and the
general public. Assistance includes providing case information, such as schedule dates
and locations, accepting new attorney database registration and/or changes, notice of
appearance of counsel, party address changes, scheduling court dates, notary service,
and directions within the building, and other court information.
The Assignment Commissioner manages the single case judicial appointments made to
the Supreme Court of Ohio, in conjunction with the Court Administrator, from the Court’s
request, appointment, and through the termination of the case(s), and any subsequent
post-sentence hearings. Appointments occur when there is a judicial court recusal on an
assigned case(s). In 2020 the court had six cases that required judicial appointments,
four special appointments for bench conflicts, and five general requests for judicial seat
coverage.
The Franklin County Municipal Court in 2020, started the year with 5 of its 14 General
Division judges operating specialty docket programs along with their regular case docket
and currently have 4 of the General Division judges operating the 5 programs. The
specialty dockets are the CATCH (Changing Actions to Change Habits), MAVS (Military
and Veteran’s Docket), h.a.r.t. (Helping Achieve Recovery Together), L.I.N.C. (Learning
to Identify and Navigate Change), and Recovery Court. All pre-sentence and post-
sentence hearings are scheduled in the Assignment Office by the case coordinator
assigned to the judge who is elected to operating that particular program (Local Rule 8).
As COVID-19-19 restricted court appearances, the Assignment Office diligently supplied
reactive case management to the judiciary. Throughout the pandemic, Assignment's
official duties were considered essential to the overall functions of the court. During
shutdowns within the state and country, assignment staff continued in court duties as
attentively and efficiently as possible. In March, April, and May, judicial dockets were
rescheduled and incarcerated defendant cases were still assigned, processed, and
terminated. The court reopened to some minimal court appearances and arraignments
in June, following recommendations of State, County and City health officials and the
Supreme Court of Ohio. At this time cases are again being referred for assignment and
case management to the judiciary.
On all assigned cases, parties are notified of pending hearing dates by mail for all initial
hearings or by fax for incarcerated defendants. All subsequent hearings scheduled for
civil cases are issued by mail and when requested for criminal, traffic, and sealing of
record cases, otherwise, in-court notification is used for criminal, traffic, or sealing of
record cases. In 2020 the Assignment Office scheduled approximately 101,000 hearings
and mailed approximately 405,000 hearing notices to parties, which was only a reduction
of 9% from the previous year. Even though there was a 37% reduction in the new and
reactivated cases of 51,156 in 2019 to 32,277 in 2020. All case type categories in the
graph below saw a reduction from 2019 to 2020 the exception of the environmental
division traffic cases, which saw a 72% increase, from 136 assigned to 491.