Court Rules in City’s Favor

The city of Zanesville is celebrating a ruling in its favor by the Ohio Supreme Court.

In a unanimous decision Wednesday, the court ruled that a document is considered filed with the clerk of courts when it is deposited properly for filing and it does not require a time or date stamp.

Ronald Rouse Jr. raised the complaint against the city after he was convicted of a domestic violence charge.

"He pled not-guilty, and then changed his plea, and then got an attorney and asked to set it aside claiming that because it was not filed properly that the court did not have jurisdiction and therefore the whole case should be thrown out," says Scott Hillis, Zanesville Law Director.

Rouse believed that because his paperwork did not have a time and date stamp, it was not filed properly, and Zanesville Municipal Court did not have jurisdiction.

The Ohio Supreme Court disagrees. If they had sided with Rouse it would have had a huge impact on the city.
 

"In theory it could have meant that the thousands of criminal cases heard in the last twenty years were without jurisdiction and any fines collected could have been set aside and have to have been returned,"  says Hillis.

Hillis says, because of the controversy the clerk of courts office now time and date stamps all criminal cases.