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Delaware County court may add domestic relations division

TIFFANY L. PARKS
Special to the Legal News

Published: September 16, 2014

State Reps. Margaret Ann Ruhl, R-Mount Vernon, and Andy Brenner, R-Powell, are jointly sponsoring a bill that would establish a domestic relations division of the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas and create a judgeship for the new division.

The proposed legislation, House Bill 595, was introduced into the Ohio General Assembly last month and calls for the new judge to be elected in 2016 and take office on Jan. 1, 2017.

A press release from Court News Ohio noted that earlier this year, Ohio Supreme Court staff issued a report following a review of Delaware County’s case docket at the request of Judges Everett Krueger, Duncan Whitney and Kenneth Spicer.

The review, which was done by the Supreme Court’s Case Management Section, examined the Delaware County Court of Common Pleas’ caseflow management and operations.

The statement said the report “supported the creation of a standalone domestic relations division with one judge to help with the court’s overall caseload efficiency.”

HB 595 states that the proposed judge and all successors would have the same qualifications, exercise the same powers and jurisdiction and receive the same compensation as the other judges of the county’s common pleas court.

The judge would be elected and designated as the judge of the court of common pleas, division of domestic relations.

The bill states that divorce, dissolution of marriage, legal separation and annulment cases, including any post-decree proceedings, and cases involving questions of paternity, custody, visitation, child support and the allocation of parental rights and responsibilities for the care of children, regardless of whether those matters arise in post-decree proceedings or involve children born between unmarried persons, would be assigned to the new judge.

The measure provides an exception for applicable cases that are assigned to another judge of the court of common pleas for “some special reason.”

There are currently two judges serving Delaware County’s general division and one judge serving the probate/juvenile division.

The CNO statement said the county’s common pleas court last added a judge in 1995.

HB 595 is awaiting a committee assignment.

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