June 29, 2009
Amendments to Rules of Procedure Take Effect
Several amendments to the Rules of Procedure for appellate, civil, criminal and juvenile matters take effect this week. Justices voted 7-0 in approving the amendments earlier this week.
The proposed amendments were published for two rounds of public comment. Following the second comment period, the Supreme Court revised the proposed amendments to Juv. R. 25 and Civ. R. 33 and 36 and filed the revisions with the General Assembly on April 30. All amendments filed by the Supreme Court take effect on July 1, unless the General Assembly adopts a concurrent resolution of disapproval before that date.
Amendments to the Ohio Rules of Appellate Procedure
- Appeal as of Right – App. R. 4 – The amendments correct cross-references to the Ohio Civil Rules of Procedure and the Ohio Juvenile Rules of Procedure that concern action on a magistrate’s decision by the Court.
Amendments to the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure
- Service of process – Civ. R. 4.2 – The amendments add a provision for service of process on a limited liability company that is similar to service on corporations.
- Electronic Discovery – Civ. R. 33, 36 – The amendments accommodate discovery of electronically stored information and enforce the duty of the party propounding interrogatories and requests for admissions to provide an electronic copy while prohibiting the responding party served with a printed copy to use the failure to receive an electronic copy as reason to disregard the response time designated in the printed copy.
- Alternate jurors – Civ. R. 47 – The amendments delete language suggesting that prospective jurors must be empanelled prior to questioning. The amendments also remove language to make clear that both the “strike and replace method” and the “struck” method are permitted.
Amendments to the Ohio Rules of Criminal Procedure
- Alternate jurors – Crim. R. 24 – Identical to amendments in Civ. R. 47.
- Judgment – Crim. R. 32 – The amendments clarify that a judgment of conviction must set forth the plea, verdict or findings upon which the conviction is based, and the sentence. The change is based on the Supreme Court’s decision in State v. Baker, 2008-Ohio-3330.
Amendments to the Ohio Rules of Juvenile Procedure
- Depositions – Juv. R. 25 – The amendments bring some measure of uniformity to depositions in juvenile courts by requiring that depositions in parentage and custody proceedings are conducted pursuant to the Rules of Civil Procedure. In addition, the Rules of Civil Procedure would also control depositions taken during post-decree litigation when the State is no longer involved.
Contact: Chris Davey or Bret Crow at 614.387.9250.