Ohio

U.S. Supreme Court upholds Anti-terrorism law

Posted on June 21, 2010
The Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and Los Angeles Times all had articles this morning reporting the U.S. Supreme Court's upholding a federal law "knowingly providing material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization." [18 U. S...

Ohio Supreme Court pro hac vice rule amendments

Posted on June 21, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court last Friday reminded out-of-state lawyers doing pro hac vice work that, starting Jan. 1, 2011, some significant changes in the state's rules of court will take effect. Director of Attorney Services Susan Christoff said the changes implemented in Ohio bring the state in line with how other states have handled temporary appearances by out-of-state attorneys...

Bill privatizing Ohio prisons

Posted on June 18, 2010
Ohio Senate Bill 269 would create a regional council of governments; consolidation of boards and commissions for purposes of Central Service Agency support services; privatization of governmental functions; and restructuring of state government, but a Dayton Daily News article yesterday says it's already drawing fire from corrections employees in that city...

Ohio Attorney General's Office to provide representation to Court of Appeals/judges

Posted on June 18, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court has announced that "state appellate courts and their judges will now being able to turn to the Ohio Attorney General's Office to defend them against non-monetary civil lawsuits -- changes that were implemented under H.B. 10, which was signed into law on March 17 and became effective yesterday...

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Ohio bans "transfer fee covenants"

Posted on June 18, 2010
Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland last Monday signed a bill that will bar property developers from collecting transfer fees whenever a home in one of their developments changes hands. ( HB 292 ) A paper by the American Land Title Association earlier this year reported that "'private transfer fee covenants', as they are known, were a relatively new occurrence, originating in California and Texas over the

Ohio advanced energy tax bill

Posted on June 18, 2010
Gov. Strickland also signed SB 232 yesterday, which is hoped to strengthen Ohio's competitiveness in energy production industries and will make it easier for companies to do business in the state. "Under the bill," a USAToday article this morning said, "companies would get the break if they create Ohio jobs, begin construction before 2012 and produce energy by 2013 or 2017, depending on the type

Cincinnati sued over panhandling rules

Posted on June 17, 2010
The City of Cincinnati seems headed for another court showdown over panhandling rules with advocates for the homeless filing suit in U.S. District Court over a City Council?s recommendation two weeks ago to require homeless shelters to "discourage panhandling...

Bill giving collective-bargaining rights to state public safety workers near vote in Senate

Posted on June 17, 2010
The Wall Street Journal this morning discuses "The Senate's moving closer to passing legislation that would require states to grant public-safety employees, including police, firefighters and emergency medical workers, the right to collectively bargain over hours and wages...

Attorney misconduct may entitle prisoner's "equitable tolling"

Posted on June 15, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday "sympathized," as Law.com this morning put it, "with a Florida death row inmate whose lawyer had missed a deadline for his habeas appeal and failed to communicate with him for years despite numerous written pleas for help...

Congress-Supreme Court arbitration showdown

Posted on June 14, 2010
Marcia Coyle, in her Law.com article this morning, predicts "Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court appearing to be headed for a collision over mandatory arbitration in consumer and employment contracts, with two actions over the last month moving the branches closer to impact: The justices agreed to decide next term whether a class action ban in a cell phone arbitration agreement is unconscionable

Ohio Supreme Court holds involuntary commitment process civil in nature

Posted on June 11, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court last Monday held that "the involuntary commitment of a criminal defendant who is charged with a violent first or second-degree felony and who remains mentally incompetent to stand trial beyond the one-year statutory time frame for restoring competency does not violate that person's constitutional rights to due process or equal protection," and, further, that, because the

Ohio Youth Prisons

Posted on June 11, 2010
Ohio is leading the way in reducing the number of minors in prison, according to a Cleveland Plain Dealer article last weekend. "After struggling for years to treat young criminals in razor wire-ringed institutions, states across the nation are quietly shuttering dozens of reformatories amid plunging juvenile arrests, softer treatment policies and bleak budgets," the article says, with there

Ohio Health Care Intiatives

Posted on June 11, 2010
Tucked away in Ohio's 2009 operating budget (HB 1) are health care reforms provisions intended to directly decrease the number of uninsured in the state while increasing the number of small businesses that provide employee health insurance.The state?s Department of Insurance says "These recent law changes will provide health insurance access for more than 109,000 Ohioans over the next three years

Medigap/ MedSup

Posted on June 11, 2010
The Ohio Department of Insurance has a reminder posted "reminding Ohioans soon approaching or currently on Medicare, that recent law changes to ?modernize? Medicare supplemental insurance became effective June 1, 2010. The changes include the adjustment of some of the plan benefits, the addition of new plans, and a reduction of choices from 14 to 11...

Ohio clarifies "John Doe" lawsuit rule

Posted on June 08, 2010
Another Plain Dealer article, this morning, looked at the Supreme Court's clarification of "John Doe lawsuits" under Ohio Rule of Civil Procedure 15 --- interpretations often wrong."Some observers," the article said, "believed that court rules allowed suits with fictitious names and gave the person who brought the complaint up to a year -- even if that extended beyond the statute of limitations -

Supreme Court Approves Bureau of Prisons' 'Good Time Credit' Calculations

Posted on June 08, 2010
The United States Supreme Court by a 6-3 vote, yesterday, endorsed a long-standing Bureau of Prisons (BOP) method of calculating "good time credit" based on the length of time actually served, not the length of the term imposed by the sentencing judge, a Law...

Ohio AG 's statement re Bodyke decision

Posted on June 04, 2010
"The broad provisions of Ohio's Adam Walsh Act remain in place. In striking down a narrow portion of the act, the court has reinstated the classifications and community notification and registration orders imposed by judges under prior state law for certain offenders who had been sentenced before Jan...

Ohio's sex offenders "tiers" found unconstitutional

Posted on June 03, 2010
In a narrowly tailored decision, The Ohio Supreme Court this morning voided as unconstitutional two sections of the Ohio Adam Walsh Act (AWA) that authorized the state attorney general to reclassify sex offenders who had already been classified by judges under a previous version of the law, "Megan's Law...

"Miranda" update

Posted on June 02, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court last Monday held that suspects must explicitly tell police they want to be silent to invoke Miranda protections during criminal interrogations, the Associated Press reported yesterday morning, a decision Justice Sonia Sotomayor, dissenting, said turns defendants' rights "upside down...

Sex Offender "Travel Requirements"

Posted on June 02, 2010
The U.S. Supreme Court Monday held that, while the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (2006) "makes it a federal crime for any person (1) who 'is required to register under [SORNA],' and (2) who 'travels in interstate or foreign commerce,' to (3) 'knowingly fail to register or update a registration', 18 U...

Ohio Media Jury Instructions

Posted on May 26, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court made note this afternoon that the Ohio State Bar Association Jury Instructions Committee this week approved a new jury instruction to limit access to news media while Ohioans serve on juries. "The new instruction advises jurors not to obtain any information about a criminal or civil trial from outside sources such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or their iPhone while

Georgia Spotlight on Nation's Indigent Defense Systems

Posted on May 24, 2010
Jamie Weis, accused in 2006 of killing an elderly neighbor and now having been in the criminal justice system & county jail for four years, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to delve into what he claims is a breakdown of Georgia's public defender system...

Ohio Supreme Court holds sex offender classification appeals are criminal matters

Posted on May 21, 2010
The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday morning held that an appeal of a sexual-offender classification under RC Chapter 2950 was an appeal of a criminal matter that must be filed within 30 days after judgment in the case is entered, not a civil matter for which the 30-day deadline is tolled until the defendant has been served with a copy of the judgment entry...

Juvenile Life Sentences

Posted on May 21, 2010
As we all are aware of by now, the Supreme Court had a pair of major decisions handed down last Monday, the first being its holding that sentences of life in prison without parole for juveniles who committed non-homicide crimes was unconstitutional. [ Graham v...

Civil Committment of Sexually Dangerous Persons Upheld

Posted on May 21, 2010
As we were discussing above, the Supreme Court handed down two major decisions last Monday. This is the second, United States v. Comstock, 08-1224, in which the Court upheld the law passed by Congress ordering the civil commitment of a mentally ill federal prisoner who is a sex offender with the commitment to continue beyond the date the inmate otherwise would be released...

Juvenile Sex Offender Registration/ Notification Rule Amendments

Posted on May 21, 2010
The handling of juvenile sex offenders has been one of the most contentious issues for states trying to implement the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, Linda Baldwin, head of the department's compliance office told USAToday.com. last Friday...

Extention to IRS tax-exemption for charities

Posted on May 20, 2010
Following up on our posting from last Friday about Ohio charities possibly losing their tax-exempt status Monday, a Columbus Dispatch article yesterday now relates that the Internal Revenue Service is extending that deadline, with a guidance bulletin soon to be issued on how charities that missed the deadline can keep their tax-exempt status...

U.S. Supreme Court on International Custody Disputes

Posted on May 19, 2010
In a case that was closely watched by courts, and family and international law practitioners, the Supreme Court, last Monday, found that an order prohibiting the removal of a child from a country without the noncustodial parent's consent is enforceable under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction , a Law...

Ohio expanding its "Alternative Response" Child Abuse/Neglect Program

Posted on May 19, 2010
A pilot program giving caseworkers the freedom to use an alternative approach to reports of child abuse and neglect in Ohio is being expanded from its original 10 to 15 additional counties in the state because of it's having been demonstrated to result in better outcomes for children and families, the Ohio Supreme Court announced last Monday...

Local Legal Apps Workshop

Posted on May 18, 2010
Impress clients and shock opposing counsel by expertly using the legal applications available via your iPhone or other wireless device.On Tuesday, May 25, Emily Janoski-Haehlen from Chase College of Law will offer an "Introduction to Legal Apps."Bring your questions!What: Legal appsWhy: To learn about the different applications available to you via your mobile device...

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