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State of Ohio Court Statistics

Statistics are collected monthly (or quarterly, for probate courts) from each judge and submitted to the Case Management Section of the Supreme Court of Ohio in accordance with Sup.R.37. Please click here to see the reporting forms to understand the types of data elements collected, a definition of case types, and the directions for reporting these statistics. The case statistics reported to the Supreme Court, and used in the dashboards here, are aggregate summaries of the numbers of cases in particular categories. The Supreme Court does not collect information on individual cases.


Interactive Data Dashboards

About
These dashboards were created to assist the public, media, and courts in accessing and using case statistics. They are intended to be a tool for courts to monitor and improve case management processes as well as to increase transparency and accessibility to the operation of the courts by the media and public.

The data reported in these dashboards comes from the reports submitted to the Supreme Court. Validations are in place to help ensure consistent reporting procedures, though errors still happen. If you notice a reporting error, please follow the procedure outlined in the FAQ to correct the error.

Current Year Data and General Completeness
In addition to data going back 10 years, because the dashboards also contain data for the current year—and that necessarily means partial-year data—it is important for users to understand that current year data is incomplete, and not solely because it is partial-year data.

Although the courts are required under Sup.R. 37 to provide their reports monthly (or quarterly, for probate courts), situations can arise that cause a delay in reporting. This issue is particularly important when looking at data in multi-judge courts. For example, if one of the judge’s monthly reports in a two-judge court are delayed, that court’s caseload statistics are incomplete, which may not be immediately evident when viewing that court’s current year statistics. In addition, data for full calendar years is typically not completely compiled until around the end of the first quarter of the following year. Users are encouraged to confer at any time with the Case Management Section if they have any questions concerning the completeness of the statistics appearing in the dashboards.


Frequently Asked Questions

Data dashboards visually depict a data trends. These specific dashboards visually depict a court’s trends in incoming caseloads as well as its performance in efficiently moving cases forward. The dashboards include the key performance indicators of the courts’ overage rates and clearance rates. Users can select specific courts or view statistics for the state as a whole. Below are screen shots of the State of Ohio Interactive Data Dashboards.

Infographic of a Caseload and Performance Measures dashboard for Ohio courts of common pleas, juvenile division
Infographic of a Dispositions dashboard for Ohio courts of common pleas, juvenile division

Dashboards are available for all of Ohio trial courts except the Ohio Court of Claims. Select from the following courts:

  • Common Pleas, General Division: Felonies and civil cases with amounts in controversy that exceed $15,000
  • Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division: Divorce, dissolution, and other family-related matters
  • Common Pleas, Juvenile Division: Delinquency, juvenile traffic, and family-related matters involving unmarried persons
  • Common Pleas, Probate Division: Estates, guardianships, marriage applications, and other probate matters
  • Municipal and County Courts: Felonies (preliminary matters only), Misdemeanors, O.V.I., other traffic, civil cases with amounts in controversy of $15,000 or less, and small claims cases.

The dashboards are designed to provide the user with “self-service analytics.” There are filter controls at the top of the screen allowing you to control the content of the various visualizations. You can choose to view the data for all courts statewide, or select a specific county or court using the dropdown filter controls. In addition, the time frame for the data can be selected as well as any narrowing of the case type. The dashboards for each court type include a Caseloads and Performance Measures page as well as a Dispositions page. If you would like to download data to analyze on your own, click on a visualization and then select “Download” at the bottom right of the screen.

Infographic of a Caseload and Performance Measures dashboard for Ohio courts of common pleas, juvenile division
Infographic of a Dispositions dashboard for Ohio courts of common pleas, juvenile division

An explanation of terms and measures used on the dashboard are provided in the Data Dictionary.

Caseload statistical reports from the trial courts, submitted pursuant to Sup.R. 37, are received electronically through the Supreme Court’s eStats Web portal.

All of the data supplied to the Supreme Court pursuant to Sup.R. 37 is publicly-available, including the dashboards.

There are two main reasons that this may happen:

  1. A visualization may not appear because of adjustments to the size of the dashboard to fit the screen on which it is being viewed. The dashboards are programmed to adjust to the screen, though that may not always work. If you run into this problem, there are a couple potential solutions:
    • Check your browser. The dashboards generally look best in Google Chrome.
    • Select the “Full Screen” icon in the bottom right corner to expand the display size, as shown in the image below.
    • To return to a browser window, simply hit “ESC.”
    Infographic of an example of a Dispositions dashboard for Ohio courts of common pleas, juvenile division, with the 'Full Screen' icon circled

  2. A second reason visualizations may be blank is that you have chosen a Judge/Court/Year combination that is not valid. For example, if Judge Smith was a judge in Fairfield County Municipal Court from 1998 through 2004, but you select the filters to show Judge Smith's data in Franklin County Municipal Court in 2008, the visualizations will be blank. If there are parentheses around the filter selections, this indicates that those selections are not valid, as in the image below. The dashboards work best if you operate the filters left to right (in other words, choose a court, then judge, then year).Infographic of a dashboard visualization showing parentheses around the filter selections, indicating they are invalid
  • Some courts, usually single judge courts, do not move cases from the Administrative Judge (AJ) form to the Individual Judge (IJ) form. Please check the Courtwide Municipal and County Court dashboard to see if there are cases for the case type that you are searching for. Please visit the Data Dictionary for an explanation of the difference between the AJ and IJ form.

Click anywhere within a particular visualization (e.g., the map, a bar chart, etc.) and then on the Download button on the bottom right of the screen, as shown below.

Several download options will appear, as shown in the image below. The “Data” and “Crosstab” options will permit you download and save the data. The “Image” and “Download PDF” options create static files that can be used in a variety of ways.

When a court determines an error in their data exists, the Case Management Section of the Supreme Court should be notified by email at casemgmt@sc.ohio.gov or by phone at 614.387.9413. The Program Assistant will help correct any reporting errors.

The Case Management Section of the Supreme Court offers a variety of services to assist Ohio’s courts. You may reach them by phone at 614.387.9413 or email at casemgmt@sc.ohio.gov.

Please direct your questions to the Case Management Section of the Supreme Court. You may reach them by phone at 614.387.9413 or email at casemgmt@sc.ohio.gov.

Contact Information

Case Management Section
Supreme Court of Ohio
65 South Front Street, 6th Floor
Columbus, Ohio 43215-3431

Manager:
Chris Geocaris, Esq.
614.387.9414

Policy Counsel:
Sarah Schregardus, Esq.
614.387.9417

Policy Analyst:
Diane Hayes
614.387.9416

Program Assistant:
Olivia Chadwick
614.387.9410

Word files may be viewed for free with Office Online.

PDF Files may be viewed, printed, and searched using the Free Acrobat® Reader. Acrobat Reader is a trademark of Adobe Inc.