Ohio

Recommendations Issued for Simplifying Ohio's Felony Statutes

By Cleveland Law Library

An article from the Columbus Dispatch reports on the Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission's latest recommendations to simplify Ohio's criminal code, using the felony statutes as an example. The recommendations include ways to pare the text down by over half and make it easier to read for both lay people and those employed in the legal field. Some of the key changes would include 1) changing legalese like "pursuant to" to "under" or "under" to "on," 2) simplifying internal cross-references to other statutes, and 3) shortening phrases such as "Revised Code" to "RC." Other welcome recommendations include a) reducing redundancies and preambles, b) enhancing clarity with captions, paragraphs, and parentheticals, and c) re-arranging sections and adding bullet points. Interestingly, the Commission provided a "Shrinkage Table" which tellingly shows how the verbiage in some statutes could be reduced by as much as 63%. (Report at page 9). The article suggests that these revisions are necessary because the legislature has added a lot to Ohio's felony laws since they were revised in 1996 with Senate Bill 2 (121st General Assembly), affecting ORC secs. 2929.01, 2929.11-.20, 2929.41, and 2953.08. The Commission's report claims that the Commission does not want a "mega bill" with sweeping changes to the RC, but rather amendments when sections are otherwise amended for substance. (Report at page 6).

Full post as published by Cleveland Law Library Weblog on July 10, 2008 (boomark / email).