Ohio

Supreme Court review of Sixth Circuit ruling in indigent's civil rights case

Posted on May 16, 2013
As the National Law Journal?s Tony Mauro phrased it earlier this week, ?the Supreme Court's running feud with the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals resumed Monday, May 13th., with the justices' decision to grant review in a Tennessee case involving civil rights complaints filed by prison inmates, and it's also taking the unusual step of granting that review -- filed an indigent former inmate -

New Ohio Supreme Court Probate Forms

Posted on May 15, 2013
The Ohio Supreme Court will be accepting public comment on probate court forms relating to Medicaid estate recovery, real property certificates of transfer, foreign adoption, and disinterment applications until June 11, 2013. The Supreme Court?s news service relates that the following three existing probate court forms would be revised, under the proposed amendments: ?Form 7...

Ohio Firearm Protection Order Bill

Posted on May 14, 2013
A bill was introduced in the Ohio House last week that would ?require persons subject to civil or criminal domestic violence temporary protection orders surrender all firearms in their immediate possession or control to a law enforcement agency or federally licensed firearms dealer...

Ohio Violent Career Criminal Act

Posted on May 09, 2013
Jim Hughes and Frank LaRose yesterday introduced the Violent Career Criminal Act in the Ohio Senate which seeks to: ? to double the mandatory prison term for an offender who is convicted of a firearm specification and previously has been convicted of a firearm specification; ? to similarly double the period of authorized or mandatory commitment to the Department of Youth Services of a

To access this complete feed in the blog feed reader login or register for free.

Ohio Supreme Court?s Reconsideration of Woman's Death Sentence

Posted on May 07, 2013
The Ohio Supreme Court this morning heard State v. Roberts, the appeal of a case of a Trumbull County woman whose death sentence for the aggravated murder of her ex-husband was remanded to the trial court for re-sentencing ? the questions now asked being whether on remand for new sentencing and alocution of a capital defendant, the trial court must consider mitigation adduced from the

Sixth Circuit Revives2010 RICO Suit

Posted on April 29, 2013
The National Law Journal this past week reported that the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed a trial judge's July 2010 grant of summary judgment to the defendants on two Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act claims, reviving the borrower's civil racketeering claims against a lender, mortgage broker and two principal brokerage employees for allegedly inflating his home

FastCase Invigorated

Posted on April 26, 2013
Legal research service/ publisher, Fastcase, has released its own new software version to identify overturned or reversed case law in its "Authority Check" application, Law.com's Law Technology News yesterday reported. Fastcase, the article recounted, "has provided data visualization timelines, citation analysis and integrated citation history into search results, but, up to now, had no flags

California?s ?gay therapy? bill in Federal Appeals Court

Posted on April 19, 2013
While the Supreme Court in Washington is busy mulling over the fates of California's Proposition 8, which amended that state's constitution to eliminate the right of same-sex couples to marry in Hollingsworth v. Perry, and United States v. Windsor, challenging federal Defense of Marriage Act ("DOMA"),which defines marriage as being between a man and a woman, the Ninth Circuit out if San

Same Sex Legal Issues: Free Program April 19

Posted on April 15, 2013
Free You and the Legal System program for the public Friday, April 19 at 12 noon at the Hamilton County Law Library: Same Sex Legal Issues Speaker: Scott KnoxPlease call to register in advance: 513.946.5300. The discussion will focus on: ? If someone gets married in another state, does it affect her/his rights in Ohio? ? Updates on the US Supreme Court case Please note that this is not a CLE

Federal mandatory minimum sentence bill introduced

Posted on April 11, 2013
The National Law Journal/Law.com last month had an article about Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) having introduced the Justice Safety Valve Act which seeks to allow judges sentence offenders below the statutory requirements "if the court finds it necessary to do so" -- an option currently available in some drug cases, this law would extend that discretion to all federal

Ohio debtor prisons' re-emergence

Posted on April 05, 2013
An article in the Sandusky Register yesterday morning again brought up the question of "debtors' prisons" still in fact being in existence in the United States, not in name, but rather, in essence, fact, with The American Civil Liberties Associated having asked for action from the Ohio Supreme and appeals courts to stop supposed illegal practices...

Ohio sentencing law revisions

Posted on April 03, 2013
At once being hailed as landmark legislation and the first substantive revision & updating of Ohio sentencing law in 15 years, Ohio House Bill 86, two years ago, also generated its share of concern, apprehension, and confusion as well -- so much so that the General Assembly and Ohio Criminal Sentencing Commission were early on being reported as being in the process of weighing those changes even

Hamilton County Domestic Relations Domestic Dispute Center

Posted on March 29, 2013
    Ohio's supreme Court news service yesterday reported the Hamilton County Domestic Relations Court is continuing to change the way residents? resolve disputes with its newly formed Dispute Resolution Center, which it started working to implement last year and plans to incorporate Early Neutral Evaluation (ENE) -- a type of alternative dispute resolution that will allow parents and their

Ohio Legacy Trust Act

Posted on March 29, 2013
     Ohio House Bill 479, passed in December, adopting the Ohio Legacy Trust Act, went into effect last Wednesday, March 27, 2013, making substantial changes ? modifying certain property rights in the Ohio Trust Code; to require the recording of personal property transfers with the county recorder upon request; to regulate the temporary conveyance of trust real property for financing

New Ohio assault amendments in effect

Posted on March 25, 2013
We remind our criminal attorneys this morning that amendments to Ohio's assault statute (ORC 2903.13) brought about by the passage of HB 62 last year went into effect last Friday, March 22, 2013. The Legislative Service summarizes that "Preexisting law, unchanged by the act, prohibits a person from knowingly causing or attempting to cause physical harm to another or to another's unborn or

Traffic Lights & Cameras, Good Buddy

Posted on March 22, 2013
[The entry below is intended as an overview with respect to the increased & wide-spread interest in the various issues surrounding speed, traffic and red-light cameras around the nation albeit with our particular concern of the Cincinnati,southwest Ohio region of the country ] You can almost hear the diesel whine and air-brakes, the refrain of Burt Reynolds, Jackie Gleason, "Snowman," "Frog," "

Simplifying Ohio municipal tax codes

Posted on March 21, 2013
A few sparks are beginning to be seen as Ohio's House Ways & Means Committee undertakes deliberations HB 5, which is intended to simplify the state's tax structure and help businesses that operate in multiple communities by reducing where they have to pay taxes, simplifying the forms they use and standardizing definitions & deductions...

Reminder Ohio attorneys: Late CLE Compliance Deadline Approaching

Posted on March 19, 2013
The Ohio Supreme Court Office of Attorney Services today reminds attorneys practicing in the state with last names beginning with the letters M through Z that they have until April 30 to make up their continuing legal education hour deficiencies. See announcement @ http://www...

Murder conviction & death sentence overturned by "unconstitutionally prosecutorial silence?

Posted on March 15, 2013
The timing of this report is uncanny in view of yesterday's posting. CNN this morning carried a story about an Arizona woman, now 49 years old, convicted by in a jury trial of murder, conspiracy to commit murder, child abuse and kidnapping on October 12, 1990, less than a year after her 4-year-old son was found dead, and being sentenced to death a few months later, is now having those

Ohio Statute of Limitations -- Rape & Sexual Battery

Posted on March 15, 2013
Two noteworthy bills were introduced in the Ohio legislature this week we wanted to pass along advance notice on to our readers. The first is HB 99, which would prohibit "any agency, its employees and/or agents, from seizing or authorizing the seizure of any firearm from a person lawfully in possession or control of a firearm, except when a law enforcement officer reasonably believes the

Common Wrongful Conviction Factors

Posted on March 14, 2013
Mounira Al Hmoud over at the Blog of Legal Times, Tuesday morning, posted that a three-year study conducted by the Washington Institute for Public and International Affairs Research at American University, funded by the U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice, identified 10 factors common in wrongful convictions, as opposed to cases in which innocent defendants were acquitted or

Cancelled: What's New in Tax Law, March 15

Posted on March 13, 2013
With apologies for any inconvenience, the Hamilton County Law Library announces the cancellation of the You and the Legal System program, "What's New in Tax Law", scheduled for Friday, March 15, due to very low registration. We just couldn't justify asking a tax attorney come at this busy time of year to present to only one or two people...

Recently introduced Ohio legislation

Posted on March 04, 2013
Ohio Senate Bill 44, introduced back on Feb. 20 and now in the Criminal Justice Committee , seeks to authorize the civil commitment of sexually violent predators,require sexually violent predators who are released from prison be monitored by global positioning system devices, and require those prisoners so released to pay the cost of monitoring by global positioning system devices if they are

Federal Sentencing Guidelines "law" or "advice" ex post factoly?

Posted on March 01, 2013
"As constitutional landmark cases go, Peugh v. United States, also heard by the Supreme Court on Tuesday, Feb. 26th., has flown well under the radar thus far," ScotusBlog's Rory Little posted Mon, February 25th., "but at issue is no less than the appropriate constitutional test for identifying an 'ex post facto' law...

King vs. Maryland, DNA Collection & Privacy

Posted on March 01, 2013
Lyle Denniston at ScotusBlog on Tueday, February 26th. related "Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., pronouncing that it was 'the most important criminal procedure case the Court has had in decades,' upon hearing arguments in Maryland v. King (docket 12-207), even while letting on that he has no difficulty making up his mind on it as the Supreme Court returned to the idea of how much leeway the

A Very Busy Supreme Court?

Posted on February 26, 2013
The United States Supreme Court has been especially busy these last two last weeks, so much forewarned, perhaps, that when Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. made a rare appearance in the U.S. Supreme Court?s ground-floor press room last Tuesday, welcoming back reporters after the court?s long winter recess, he quipped the press corps that if anyone had scheduled a lunch, they might want to push it

Court case legalizing prostitution in Ohio?

Posted on February 25, 2013
"Dennis Green admits he offered another man $20 in 2011 for sex," a Cincinnati.com article yesterday morning said, but "Green's defense in the criminal case could have a far-reaching impact if his attorneys win their argument ? legalizing prostitution in Ohio...

Ohio violent offender legislation

Posted on February 22, 2013
We made mention last week of a couple of bills introduced in the Ohio Senate, one of which was Senate Bill 7, dubbed the "Deputy Suzanne Hopper Act," in honor & memory of the Springfield, Ohio sheriff's deputy shot to death two years ago while investigating a report of gunfire at an Ohio trailer park...

Ohio GPS monitoring bill of Sexually Violent Predators

Posted on February 20, 2013
 Ohio State Sen. Kevin Bacon introduced a bill yesterday, Feb. 14th., that would "authorize the civil commitment of certain sexually violent predators, and require that sexually violent predators who are released from prison be monitored by global positioning system devices and require sexually violent predators to pay the cost of monitoring by global positioning system devices if they are able...

Ohio Mental Illness, Civil Commitment Bill

Posted on February 20, 2013
A second bill, introduced in the Ohio Senate on February 14th., is making a number of "changes to the laws governing the civil commitment and treatment provided to mentally ill persons." (See Senate Bill 43) There is no analysis of the bill at this early point, but provisions within the bill are going to affect statutes pertaining to Juvenile Court, including "amending the version of section

Bloggers, promote your law blog by nominating your blog for inclusion in USLaw.com's Law Blog Directory and RSS Reader. Benefits described.