Ohio Legal Research Blog

Lawriter sold to SSN Holdings Inc.

2009-10-26T23:34:00.011-04:00

The legal research provider, Lawriter LLC, has been acquired by SSN Holdings Inc. Lawriter became a subsidiary of Collexis Holdings in early 2008.

According to a Sept. 6, 2009 blog post on The Cottonboll Conspiracy:

"Collexis acquired Lawriter, which provides online legal research to a consortium of bar associations, for $9 million ... Collexis sold Lawriter to SSN Holdings Inc. for a little more than $2.1 million in cash ... ."

Lawriter currently maintains the Ohio Revised Code web site for the Ohio Legislative Service Commission.

Report on invasive species in Ohio

2008-10-28T17:11:00.000-04:00

The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a report called Invasive Species in Ohio: Pathways, Policies and Costs. It covers economic impacts as well as the environmental costs, and is full of charts and data that illustrate the damage in the Great Lakes region of the U.S. In addition, the report discusses the inadequacy of federal laws and the weakness of Ohio's laws (see: Table 5 - Ohio's Incomplete Legal Authority).

Judgepedia

2008-10-24T21:17:00.006-04:00

Judgepedia is a wiki encyclopedia about judges and courts, brought to you by the same sponsors of ballotpedia. Judgepedia is a newer project, opening its doors in the spring of 2008. It has a Federal judiciary portal and a State Supreme Court portal. The State Supreme Court Elections page gathers all the upcoming judicial office changes for all fifty states.

The Judges in the news section for Ohio contained a link to a newly released report The New Politics of Judicial Elections in the Great Lake States, 2000-2008, issued by the Justice at Stake Campaign.

New document on public records law

2008-10-24T20:04:00.004-04:00

The Legislative Service Commission issued a new Members Only Brief entitled Public Records Law in Ohio, updating all earlier versions. The document offers a concise explanation of the law, with an appendix listing exceptions from the public records law.

ballotpedia

2008-10-20T18:00:00.015-04:00

To locate a quick list of all of Ohio's ballot issues, try out the information compiled by ballotpedia.org. For Ohio it lists both the certified issues on the ballot and those that did not make it. In addition, there are links to news stories, case law references, and key facts on the current issues. A list of all Ohio ballots (from 1913 to 2007) has been compiled, along with summary information on Ohio's ballot procedures and history. All in all, a great research starting point.

Ballotpedia.org is a wiki, containing data for all 50 states. There are state-by-state charts, and lots of statistics. Anyone may contribute to the wiki after registering. The project started in May 2007 and has two paid editors. It is currently sponsored by the Sam Adams Alliance.

Report on poverty in Ohio

2008-09-29T13:52:00.003-04:00

The Real Bottom Line, The State of Poverty in Ohio 2008 is a report issued at the State of Ohio's first poverty summit. The research was done by Community Research Partners for the Ohio Association of Community Action Agencies. Researchers can look at the executive summary, the full report with appendices, and a power point presentation of the report.

Researchers may want to make note of Community Research Partners for the data, reports and other information compiled on their web site. The nonprofit is located in Columbus, and is affiliated with the City of Columbus, United Way of Central Ohio, the John Glenn School of Public Affairs at The Ohio State University, and the Franklin County Commissioners.

Uniform laws

2008-06-03T15:02:00.005-04:00

One web source for current uniform state laws information is done by the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL). The site contains a database of uniform laws that can be narrowed by state. This database will help to identify active state legislation regarding a uniform law. There is current activity on three uniform laws for Ohio, including a new uniform law, the Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act. For a complete list of uniforms laws for the state of Ohio, it's best to use a combination of sources, including the paper set Uniform Laws Annotated.

Temporary AG appointed

2008-05-28T12:16:00.006-04:00

The Ohio governor announced the temporary appointment of Nancy Rogers as the Ohio Attorney General. At the time of her appointment, she was the Dean of Ohio State's Moritz College of Law. According to the list of Ohio Attorneys General past and present, Nancy Rogers is the second woman to serve in this position. Congratulations!

The Great Lakes Compact and Ohio

2008-05-27T16:45:00.010-04:00

Ohio is about to officially join the Great Lakes Compact. Hearings have been held by the Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee, leaving the Ohio Senate to move on the legislation (SB291; HB416 passed by the House). "Who Owns Our Water," a series from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, follows the historic agreement complete with maps and charts. With Wisconsin's governor just signing legislation, Pennsylvania and Michigan are the remaining states left to join the compact. The illustration is from Our Waters at the Great Lakes Water Institute.

A governor's veto power

2008-05-22T16:44:00.006-04:00

Stateline Midwest reports on Wisconsin's recent tussle over balancing their governor's veto power (ending the "Frankenstein veto"). The article's illustrative map shows the variations in veto power for each of the Midwest governors. The Ohio governor does not have the power of the line-item veto for any type of legislation except the budget bill. The article, "New veto law latest strike in battle over balance of powers," by Tim Anderson, is on page three of the May issue of the newsletter.

The story behind the gavel

2008-05-20T21:02:00.006-04:00

The Supreme Court of Ohio has added the final touch of public art to their refurbished downtown Columbus home. One of the art objects is a 30-foot gavel located on the south side of the building. The artist is Andrew Scott, a foundations and sculpture professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD). It took him six years to finish the stainless steel and concrete gavel. For the full story, see District.

On a lighter note

2008-05-15T07:41:00.000-04:00

In 1933, the state of Ohio declared the cardinal to be the official state bird. The laws for state symbols and insignia are codified in General Provisions (sec. 5.03 for the state bird). This wonderful drawing was published in 1808 in American ornithology, or, The natural history of the birds of the United States : illustrated with plates, engraved and colored from original drawings taken from nature, by artist Alexander Wilson. The illustration can be found in the Library of Congress digital collection, The First American West, contributed by the Special Collections Research Center, University of Chicago Library.

Documents regarding the state AG

2008-05-13T17:25:00.006-04:00

Transcripts concerning the Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann controversy have been posted on Openers, The Plain Dealer politics blog. Today, articles of impeachment were filed against Dann by the Ohio House Democrats. A copy can be found here. He is expected to resign soon.

Some new books on Ohio history

2008-05-11T16:43:00.018-04:00

Ohio's rich history brings a flow of interesting books to the table. Ohio Oil and Gas by Jeff Spencer (Arcadia Publishing, Feb. 2008) looks into the history of the discovery of oil in Ohio. Ohio was once the leading oil-producing state (from 1895-1903). Marathon Oil (formerly the Ohio Oil Company) still operates out of some locations in Ohio.

Built to Move Millions: streetcar building in Ohio, by Craig Semsel (Indiana University Press, March 2008). The book "examines the manufacture of streetcars and interurbans within the state of Ohio between 1900 and 1940." It was during this time that Ohio "had more interurban tracks than any other state in the union."

Resource for Ohio economic data

2008-05-07T15:50:00.012-04:00

The Cleveland-based Center for Community Solutions provides loads of economic, health and social data for the state of Ohio. The organization issued a new report yesterday on Employment and Productivity in NE Ohio, 2000-2007, Indicators of Industry Sustainability. The web site is a good source for state budgeting information, including a regularly issued publication State Budgeting Matters. Check their Public Policy Blog for updates. Community Solutions is a United Way agency, so it is no surprise to find a useful database of Ohio Nonprofit Financial Data.

Interstate compacts

2008-05-06T20:32:00.009-04:00

Looking for a good list of interstate compacts? Try the American Bar Association's book: The Evolving Use and the Changing Role of Interstate Compacts: a practitioner's guide (published in 2006). The appendix contains a list of interstate regulatory compacts. While the list is a few years out of date already, (updated through July 1, 2005), it works as a master research tool to start.

Tracking Great Lakes Legislation

2008-05-05T22:30:00.005-04:00

The Great Lakes Legislative Caucus tracks legislation for the states and provinces bordering the lakes. To keep up on the latest actions, federal and state see these pdf lists.

New edition of legislative guidebook

2007-05-07T20:53:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Legislative Service Commission has issued its tenth edition of A Guidebook for Ohio Legislators (2007-2008). This is a most useful and detailed guide on the legislative process in the state.

Fav Chapters:

Ch. 2 The Legislative Branch
Ch. 5 Enacting Legislation
Ch. 6 Tools for Understanding a Bill
Ch. 8 The Ohio Budget Process

and Appendix C:
Directory of Legislative Information

Do not discard

2007-04-26T22:00:00.000-04:00

Alert librarians will have already noticed that the LexisNexis annotated version of the Ohio Revised Code is missing old features as each volume is revised. When the Appendix volume and the General Provision volume were combined into one volume, some genius editor decided to remove the General Code to the Ohio Revised Code comparative section table. It's still available in the other annotated code, including its online version.

Addendum to the new online ORC

2007-04-11T20:32:00.006-04:00

The two things that are missing on the new Lawriter version of the Ohio Revised Code are:
1) the Ohio Constitution, and;
2) the Ohio Rules of Court.

It was convenient to find the Ohio Constitution and the court rules together with the statutes (on the old Revised Code site operated by the Anderson Publishing Company). That web site is no longer operating (onlinedocs.andersonpublishing.com).

Now it is necessary to go to separate sites:
for the Ohio Constitution (Ohio General Assembly), and
for Court Rules (Supreme Court of Ohio).

Lawriter's new ORC

2007-04-10T17:28:00.000-04:00

Wow!!! That was fast. The new Lawriter web site is in action, posting the text of both the Ohio Revised Code and the Ohio Administrative Code for the State of Ohio. The news came out in March 2007, announcing that Lawriter has "been awarded an exclusive contract as web publisher" of the online codes as provided to the public by the Ohio Legislative Service Commission. Lawriter publishes Casemaker Law Libraries, a product available for free to Ohio State Bar Association members.

As promised, the new web version of the code is easier to read. The text of the law is clearly set out and is not buried in frames and folders. Legislative history notes are very limited, not providing more than the most recent date of amendment. There is no reference to the specific legislation that changed the section. Search by word or code section number. No need to agonize over which screen to use for what. The ORC will be updated quarterly, while the OAC will be updated monthly.

Warning: infrequent posts ahead

2007-03-31T20:50:00.000-04:00

The book is in progress and deadlines draw near. There will be infrequent posts for a while until the book is out. New discoveries are made with every sentence. Will share later.

Direct democracy in action

2006-11-07T22:04:00.000-05:00

The initiative petition process has been brought to the fore for this Election Day in Ohio and other states. The Initiative and Referendum Almanac (Carolina Academic Press, 2003) by M. Dane Waters details the process for all fifty-states and other government entities. The bulk of the book is Chapter 4, a state-by-state history and overview; the complete table of contents is here. A useful reference chart is in the Appendix, Section E: listing of statewide initiatives since 1904. The author of Chapter 3 has posted his work "I&R in American Cities: basic patterns," along with more readings on direct democracy.

Constitutional amendments for 2006

2006-11-06T15:01:00.000-05:00

Ohio's fall 2006 General Election brings a number of constitutional amendments to the ballot. Issue one votes will not be counted as it has been ruled that "petitioners failed to timely file sufficient signatures to qualify for the ballot;" (See Mahaffey v. Blackwell, 2006 Ohio 5475, appeal denied by the Ohio Supreme Court on Oct. 20, 2006 and earlier 2006 Ohio 5319, decided Oct. 11, 2006 in the Franklin County Court of Appeals). Issues 2,3,4, and 5 have all been proposed by the initiative petition process, while Issue one used the referendum process. For a basic list of all the Issues on the ballot, see the Directory of Ohio State Issues posted by the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

Ohio's digital state ranking

2006-10-06T19:36:00.000-04:00

The Center for Digital Government has released the findings of its 2006 Digital States Survey, ranking Ohio as number three. Michigan is ranked as the number one state, with Virginia coming in second. Ohio has made great progress in the 2006 survey as the state has been ranked as 20th overall in the first five years of the digital survey. The survey looks at data for eight categories: Law Enforcement and the Courts, Social Services, Electronic Commerce and Business Regulation, Digital Democracy, Management and Administration, Taxation, Education and GIS and Transportation.

Ohio's trust laws as Title 58

2006-09-16T18:59:00.000-04:00

A fellow Ohio Legal Researcher reminds us that Ohio's new Trust Code and other trust related statutes are to be Title 58. This is a landmark addition to the Ohio Revised Code as it has been a state code with a tradition of only using odd numbers for the broad subjects of its Titles (nos. 1 through 61). The even numbers have been saved for growth of the ORC. And grow it has. The new Title 58 was enacted into law during the 126th G.A. by Substitute House Bill 416 (Sub. HB 416). It will become effective on Jan. 1, 2007.

A complete analysis of the new law is availabe in Report on HB 416: The Ohio Trust Code. The report lays out the structure of Title 58:

Chapters 5801 to 5811 contain the Ohio Trust Code with Uniform Prudent Investor Act (former sections 1339.52 to 1339.61) included as Chapter 5809;

Chapter 5812 contains the Uniform Principal and Income Act (former sections 1340.40 to 1340.91)

Chapter 5813 contains the Institutional Trust Funds Act (former sections 1340.31 to 1340.37)

Chapter 5814 contains the Uniform Trusts to Minors Act (former sections 1339.31 to 1339.39)

the remaining provisions of 1339 and 1340 will be moved to Chapter 5815, and all existing statutes in Chapters 1339 and 1340 are repealed.

Further analysis of the new law:

The evolution of Ohio trust law from the English common law to the Ohio Trust Code

Cleveland Law Library Association links/FAQs about the law.

LSC Final Bill Analysis for HB 416

Uniform Environmental Covenants Act

2006-07-20T21:08:00.000-04:00

Ohio was the first state to adopt the Uniform Environmental Covenants Act (UECA), done on Dec. 22, 2004 by HB 516. This law addresses the re-use of brownfields. The National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws has created a UECA web site devoted to further developments with the law. The site has a map showing the latest legislative activity among the fifty states regarding adoption of the uniform law. To track all pending and recently enacted uniform laws by state, search the Final Acts and Legislation database on the NCCUSL web site.

Ohio Channel

2006-07-16T21:22:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Channel offers live streaming video of Ohio Senate and House of Representative legislative sessions. Archives can be searched by specific parameters, down to the level of document type, keyword, date, and General Assembly number. The video and audio quality is decent, with detailed identification of each speaker or action, bill numbers, and length of time for each activity. Archives go back to 1997 for both legislative house. Those intersted can purchase a DVD or a VHS of any session available on the Ohio Channel. These video sessions mirror the legislative proceedings recorded in the Journals of the House and Senate. The Ohio Channel videos offer the verbatim dicussion, while the journals do not.

Blog: 13th Floor

2006-07-15T20:27:00.000-04:00

Governing magazine has a group blog authored by the magazine's writers and editors. It's called 13th Floor and it focuses on the topic of state and local government. It's been around since October 2005. 13th Floor has a substantial statehouse blogroll listing "the most interesting blogs covering state capitols ... !"

State legislative monitoring

2006-07-12T22:05:00.000-04:00

Stateside Associates a state legislative monitoring service, offers a few free items on its web site. A web page called "About the fifty states" includes a state session calendar and a chart of bill introduction deadlines for each state. There are several state tracking publications that can be viewed regularly including, This Week in the States, State Environmental Highlights, and State Policy Check-up, a state health care legislative publication.

Ohio's pandemic web site

2006-07-07T23:51:00.000-04:00

A group of Ohio agencies have joined forces to prepare for the potential worldwide flu pandemic. A web site, Ohio Pandemic Flu, (http://ohiopandemicflu.gov/) helps to disseminate information to the public. The site posts Ohio's preparation plans, details about vaccines and medicines, how the outbreak will monitored, and how to take precautions.

RSS feeds for the Ohio Supreme Court

2006-07-06T21:53:00.000-04:00

The Supreme Court of Ohio began to offer court news and opinion summaries as RSS feeds starting on June 29, 2006 (press release). A nicely composed informational page about how to subscribe to the court's RSS feeds is here. There is a separate feed for news items and one for opinion summaries.

Legislative detail missing

2006-06-26T22:31:00.000-04:00

Dates on web sites are useful. For productive visits to Ohio legislative web sites, certain pieces of information should be in possession: first and foremost, be ready with the General Assembly number. Both the Legislative Service Commission web pages and the General Assembly session law web pages arrange their information by General Assembly session number. The researcher faces some frustration due to this missing detail: the two-year period associated with that G.A. assembly number ...

Common legal citation to Ohio legislative information does not include the G.A. sesssion number, but rather, session law volume number, a bill number, and an effective date. The federal web site Thomas does a good job of providing both bits of information for quicker access. Ohio government web sites should add the years for each General Assembly to its data. Here's a table that will help in the meantime:

119th G.A. 1991-1992 ... v. 144 ... Laws of Ohio

120th G.A. 1993-1994 ... v. 145 ... Laws of Ohio

121st G.A. 1995-1996 ... v. 146 ... Laws of Ohio

122nd G.A. 1997-1998 ... v. 147 .... Laws of Ohio

123rd G.A. 1999-2000 ... v. 148 ... Laws of Ohio

124th G.A. 2001-2002 ... v. 149 ... Laws of Ohio

125th G.A. 2003-2004 ... v. 150 ... Laws of Ohio

126th G.A. 2005-2006

Book: Heavy lifting

2006-06-11T22:01:00.000-04:00

Ohio is one of five states profiled in the book Heavy Lifting: the job of the American legislature, by Alan Rosenthal.

One book review notes that the book "gives masterful insights into the acutal workings of legislatures in legislator-constiutuency relations, legislative processes and relationships between legislators and governors;" (Source: 78 Spectrum: the journal of state government 31, Winter 2005). To read a chapter of the book, further reviews of the book and table of contents, see the CQ Press web site.

Ohio's legislative history documents

2006-06-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

The Legislative Service Commission posts Conference Committee Synopses and Synopses of Committee Amendments, starting with the 2001-2002, 124th General Assembly. Westlaw has recently added these files to their Ohio databases with identical coverage. Lexis does not carry these Ohio legislative documents at this time.

The Westlaw legislative history databases for Ohio, OH-LH, OH-LH-REP, OH-LH-JRNLS, and OH-LH-MSG are designated as Premier Advantage databases. Ohio is not alone. Other state legislative databases on Westlaw are Premier Advantage databases, meaning it will cost more ("... per-minute or per-document charges in addition to the cost of printing") if they are outside the Westlaw user's contract. This new Westlaw development is noted by Bill Manz in his Mar./April 2006 New York State Bar Association Journal article about the latest changes in New York legal research options.

The contents of the Ohio Westlaw Premier Advantage legislative databases are:
OH-LH
Bill analyses, Committee synopses, Conference Committee synopses, House journals, Senate journals, Governor's messages
OH-LH-REP
Bill analyses, Committee synopses, Conference Committee synopses
OH-LH-JRNLS
House journals, Senate journals
OH-LH-MSG
Governor's messages

The First American West

2006-06-03T17:06:00.000-04:00

For a look at the past in Ohio, try visiting the Library of Congress web site collection called The First American West: the Ohio River Valley, 1750-1820. That time period encompasses the development of the State of Ohio and its government. The project is based on the holdings in the University of Chicago Library and the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky.

A search of the collection turns up numerous works by adventurous individuals who traveled the new territory. One title is: A history of the State of Ohio, natural and civil, by Caleb Atwater, published in 1838. Another is: A journal of a tour into the Territory Northwest of the Allegheny Mountains ... made in the spring of the year 1803. It was published in 1805. Each page of these works can be viewed in full, as the original pages have been digitized. Both of these titles include appendices containing copies of important documents, such as the first Constitution of the State, acts of Congress, Indian treaties and maps.

Book: The legislative branch of state government

2006-05-30T23:33:00.000-04:00

Thomas Little and David Ogle are the authors of a new ABC-CLIO book, The Legislative Branch of State Government : people, process and politics. This work is third in a series of About State Government titles. The book is described to have general information and comparative details on how that branch operates in each state, and a concluding chapter that looks at characteristics that make each of the 50 state legislative bodies fascinating and unique. The other titles in the series cover the executive branch and the judicial branch of state governments.

Bill volume for 2004

2006-05-28T16:52:00.000-04:00

StateNet has posted a Bill Volume map on its web site. The map shows how much legislation was handled by each state legislature in 2004. Ohio falls in the range of handling 2001-3000 legislative documents according to this map from StateNet. Source of map: http://www.statenet.com/resources/

That count is correct if resolutions and concurrent resolutions are part of the final tally. The totals from the Appendices and General Index of the Journals ... for the 125th Ohio General Assembly (2003-2004) are:

Senate bills introduced: 283
House bills introduced: 591
Bills passed by Senate: 83
Bills passed by House: 190
Senate resolutions adopted: 1,980
House resolutions adopted: 304
Total Senate bills becoming law: 37
Total House bills becoming law: 91

Legislative blog and podcasts

2006-05-23T21:40:00.000-04:00

The Thicket at State Legislatures is a new blog from the National Conference of State Legislatures. It's a blog "by and for legislative junkies." They're posting about legislative culture, staff, and members, elections, ethics, term limits, and the media. NCSL is also sponsoring the The Conference Report which posts periodic podcasts on "trends from America's state legislatures." Some of the podcast topics: gasoline prices, the avian flu, and immigration.

More Ohio forms

2006-05-20T12:28:00.000-04:00

LexisNexis has also released a new subscription database of Anderson's Ohio Forms, containing 10,000 forms drawn from 20 major titles published by Anderson. The forms can be filled-in online, printed and saved. Other features allow for customizing the forms using common word-processing copy and paste steps. More functions are demonstrated in the online tour. For a complete list of the forms included in the database, go here. This collection remains available as a CD-ROM product.

Anderson's Ohio Forms added to Lexis

2006-05-11T10:33:00.000-04:00

LexisNexis Product Postings for May 2006 notes that Anderson's Ohio Forms is a new legal source added to the Ohio file. The trail to find this source is Legal tab: Ohio: Treatises & Analytical Materials: Forms. Anderson's Ohio Forms file on Lexis contains more than 5,000 forms culled from the many Anderson publications now owned by the LexisNexis company. New sources added to LexisNexis can be found here.

Stories of statehood

2006-05-09T19:29:00.000-04:00

The Uniting States, from Greenwood Press, collects the stories of statehood for each of the fifty states. Ohio's essay is authored by Michael Mangus and Susan Mangus. Sample pages from The Uniting States are here.

This narrative essay is a good companion piece to the primary sources listed in the new Prestatehood Legal Materials research guide. Details on the making of the Maxwell Code are explored here. The Maxwell Code was the first collection of laws for the Northwest Territory.

Encyclopedia of Appalachia

2006-05-08T20:06:00.000-04:00

The Encyclopedia of Appalachia has been published by the University of Tennessee Press. It's been a project of the Center for Appalachian Studies and Services at the East Tennessee State University. The encyclopedia is a comprehensive reference with over 2,000 entries. One of the editors was interviewed on NPR about the book on May 7, 2006. Listen to the interview or read excerpts of the encyclopedia on NPR's All Things Considered, "Celebrating the History of Appalachia."

New Enactments

2006-05-05T23:59:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Judicial Conference added New Enactments to their web page. It's a convenient way to track the latest Ohio bills that have become law. The compilations start with the 125th General Assembly. The New Enactments page separately tracks the very latest additions. For the full list, each entry shows the effective date, links to the bill, and provides a brief summary of the new law. Compare to the General Assembly's collection of recently enacted law and the lists created by the Ohio Secretary of State.

Podcasting at the Ohio Channel

2006-04-20T23:41:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Channel, known for producing the video broadcasts of Ohio General Assembly and Supreme Court sessions, is now posting podcasts. Currently, one video podcast is available. It's called Around the World in Ohio, where the host visits internationally named cities in Ohio. The site promises to add more content in the coming months. An RSS feed will be created for regular delivery of these podcasts to your desktop.

Prestatehood Legal Materials

2006-04-10T20:45:00.000-04:00

Haworth Press has just issued the two-volume set, Prestatehood Legal Materials. It's a fifty-state compilation of bibliographic essays that describe and list prestatehood documents and the publications that contain them. Ohio is covered in Chapter 37, authored by Thomas Heard, from the University of Northern Kentucky. The editors of the work plan to create a web site that will post updates to the publication.

Third largest university in Ohio

2006-03-31T21:56:00.000-05:00

The governor of Ohio signed HB 478 today, creating the state's third largest university. Effective July 1, 2006, the University of Toledo will merge with the Medical University of Ohio. The Ohio State University remains the largest university, followed by the University of Cincinnati. Brief story in Beacon Journal (3/31/2006).

Gongwer is 100

2006-03-22T20:13:00.000-05:00

The Gongwer News Service celebrates its one hundredth birthday this year, established in 1906 by Charles Scott Gongwer. The Centennial story relates the Gongwer company history. It verifies that there is no archive of the first issues of Gongwer's legislative newsletter, the Ohio Report. Some of the earliest copies of the Ohio Report are housed at the Supreme Court of Ohio Law Library, starting with coverage of the 89th General Assembly on Jan. 31, 1931.

New web site for the Ohio Supreme Court

2006-03-10T10:45:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Supreme Court has wanted to revise their web site for many years. Finally, the new site was unveiled in early February 2006 (see press release). The new web site is a beauty, easier to navigate, much more content and plenty of images. There's a fresh web address http://www.supremecourtofohio.gov, but the old one http://www.sconet.state.oh.us/ still works. Other recent innovations added to the court's web site include the ability for the public to search the court's docket and attorney registration information (press release). In the near future oral argument transcripts will be searchable. And for the first time, the Ohio Judicial Center also has a web site (see press release).

State Business Tax Climate Index

2006-02-27T21:56:00.000-05:00

The Tax Foundation has issued a survey that rates state tax codes for businesses. The State Business Tax Climate Index (SBCTI) lists New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Ohio, Maine, Kentucky, Nebraska, Iowa and Arkansas as having the "least hospitable" tax environment for businesses. Each state was evaluated on five aspects of its tax system. CNN Money also reports on the story.

Casemaker vs. Fastcase

2006-02-12T20:50:00.000-05:00

A few weeks ago, the Ohio State Bar Association announced the addition of New Mexico to the Casemaker Consortium of Bar Associations. Kansas joins the Consortium this week. Kentucky will go active with Casemaker in April 2006 with this content. Casemaker is a free legal resource for Consortium state bar members, where the content of the database is customized for each bar association. This brings the total to twenty-four bar associations that have joined the Casemaker Consortium, where the goal is to include all fifty states.

But, there is competition from Fastcase. The Florida, Iowa, and Louisiana bar associations use Fastcase. And Fastcase shows up in other venues like Boston's Social Law Library, the San Francisco Law Library, the Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, the Cincinnati Law Library Association and in the federal government.

To read more see: Web wars: online legal research at the crossroads; Casemaker: Ohio incubates another legal information service; and an evaluation of Fastcase.

SOS web site

2006-01-21T18:31:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Secretary of State's web site has been refreshed with a new design. A few kinks still need to be worked out; some of the site's text has to be reconciled with its Adobe content. Otherwise, the site has a tighter organization and uses Adobe Acrobat more for its publications. The site retains the main business search tools (Corporate, UCC and Nonprofit filings) and all the campaign finance databases. The site also has a Minister License search and a Notary search tool.

Appalachia

2006-01-18T20:27:00.000-05:00

The Appalachian Regional Commission web site provides a portal of information about the states lying in the 200,000 square-mile region "that follows the spine of the Appalachian Mountains from southern New York to Northern Mississippi. It includes all of West Virginia and parts of 12 other states: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia."

Regional data can be easily located using the site's database and will retrieve information on the population, income, unemployment, poverty, education, economic status and geography.

iPods and courts

2006-01-17T20:43:00.000-05:00

The U.S. District Court in Toledo is allowing the use of iPods by defense attorneys and their clients in a federal drug case. The Toledo Blade article ("Defense to use iPods to review evidence ..." Jan. 17, 2006) details the practical reasons for bringing iPods in for listening to over 100 hours of evidence:

13 CDs of wiretaps are condensed and downloaded into the iPods

defendants are in scattered locations but can easily access the information

the devices are easy to use and ensure that the recordings cannot be reproduced, a concern of the court

access to the devices are controlled out of the clerk's office in the federal court

the cost to the taxpayer is minimal as compared to other methods of formatting information

State Constitutions Project

2006-01-17T09:37:00.000-05:00

Update on the NBER/Maryland State Constitutions Project: the web site has a new web address: http://www.stateconstitutions.umd.edu/index.aspx.

New Ohio judges

2006-01-08T22:30:00.000-05:00

The November 2005 election brings a group of new judges to the Ohio bench. The Ohio Judicial Conference has conveniently created a web page that tracks the new judges starting their positions in January 2006.

Tax amnesty

2006-01-06T18:39:00.000-05:00

The State of Ohio has declared tax amnesty days for Ohioians from January 1 through Feb. 15, 2006. The Tax Amnesty Web Site describes the whole process for the taxpayer and the tax professional. See the Tax Amnesty Check List to see if you qualify or not.

Columbus Dispatch online

2006-01-05T10:38:00.000-05:00

The Columbus Dispatch has decided to allow free online access to some of its newspaper content again, without a subscription. Hurray! There are still subscriber levels that provide access to more features, but basic access is no longer blocked. The Dispatch web site has a new design as well. According to a Dec. 29, 2005 story in The Other Paper this move will help improve web traffic to the Dispatch site which had earlier introduced a new search feature. Powered by Planet Discover, a search on the Dispatch site will also include stories from over 400 other news sources including sites from the Dispatch family of web sites, Central Ohio business sources and many other Ohio news sources.

Great Lakes pact is signed

2005-12-15T11:47:00.000-05:00

The Great Lakes Water Management Initiative was signed on Dec. 13, 2005. From an AP news item, the governors of eight states and two Canadian provinces reached this agreement after four years of talks. The agreement becomes law only after the eight states' legislatures approve the agreement. Then it would move to Congress for final action. The Council of Great Lakes Governors web site posts all the relevant documents.

Accountancy board disciplinary actions

2005-12-02T21:13:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Accountancy Board doesn't take frequent disciplinary action, but when they do, it's posted on the Consumer Tips page. There are two places to check: the disciplinary hearings web page (from 1990 to present) and the court cases web page (from 2001 to present).

Ohio Civil Rights Commission adds case archive

2005-11-30T19:48:00.000-05:00

A Case Archive has been added to the Ohio Civil Rights Commission web site. It's been promised for a while, but finally, the Case Archive includes the full text of the Administrative Law Judge hearing reports from 2000 to the present.

Water law

2005-11-21T22:55:00.000-05:00

The Great Lakes Radio Consortium is running a series called "Ten Threats to the Great Lakes." The web site carries the archived reports in the form of slide shows with some narrative, and if you've missed the radio broadcasts, each one can be downloaded as a podcast. The radio broadcasts make a timely debut as the governors of the Great Lakes states plan to sign the water management agreement on Dec. 13, 2005 in Milwaukee. The draft agreements are posted on the Council of Great Lakes Governors' web site.

Administrative code archive on Lexis

2005-11-15T14:07:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Administration Code (OAC) will now be archived on Lexis. They are starting with the year 2004. This means that the 2004 version of the OAC will be archived as a whole.

Historical state constitutions

2005-08-04T21:21:00.000-04:00

The NBER/Maryland State Constitution Project is building a considerable web resource that will eventually "provide searchable and indexed text for every one of the roughly 150 state constitutions from 1776 to the present." They are also developing databases that will ennumerate the characteristics of state constitutions. Some of the base documents used for this collection come from Francis Newton Thorpe's The Federal and State Constitutions ... (1909). The project is correcting any errors found in the original set. Ohio's 1802 and 1851 Constitutions are already proofed.

Indiana legal blog

2005-07-27T20:04:00.000-04:00

Ohio practitioners that need to keep up on Indiana law can tap into the Indiana Legal Blog. The author, Marcia Oddi, comments on legal and government developments in Indiana and beyond.

New legal blogs

2005-07-20T20:49:00.000-04:00

There are several new legal blogs for Ohio legal researchers. The Sixth Circuit Blog is written by a group that does analysis of federal criminal decisions out of the Sixth Circuit. There's a similar blog for the Second Circuit. The blogs are from the Federal Public Defender offices, in their respective locales.

And from a neighboring state comes the Kentucky Law Blog: "eLegal commentary on Kentucky law: statutes, laws, regulations, appeals, trials ... "

Ohio Constitution of 1802

2005-07-09T16:55:00.000-04:00

Ohio's first constitution was drafted in 1802. G. Alan Tarr, from the Center for State Constitutional Studies, writes this introduction to The Ohio Constitution of 1802.

Great Lakes water management

2005-06-30T20:55:00.000-04:00

The Council of Great Lakes Governors has released a draft agreement to protect the Great Lakes on June 30, now open for public comment. The draft agreement suggests a near ban on water diversion and other environmental protections of the Great Lakes region. This Globe and Mail story reports on the proposal.

Budget bill and 27 vetoes

2005-06-30T20:51:00.000-04:00

Governor Taft signed the budget bill (HB 66) for the 2006-2007 fiscal year on June 30, including 27 vetoes (see Governor's veto message). The budget documents are here.

Uniform Mediation Act

2005-06-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

The new Uniform Mediation Act (UMA) will govern the practice of mediation in Ohio. House Bill 303 will become effective on October 29, 2005. For information about the new law see the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resoution and Conflict Management UMA web page.

Administrative rules feed for ODMRDD

2005-06-10T10:46:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Dept. of Mental Retardation and Development Disabilities (ODMRDD) now has an RSS feed for its new administrative rules. Look for the orange RSS feed button on their Final Rules Quick Index. For updates on rules notices, MRDD has a subscription service. To subscribe send an email to join-rules.notice@odmrdd.state.oh.us.

New book

2005-05-25T15:12:00.000-04:00

The Ohio University Press announces the publication of The Black Laws: race and the legal process in early Ohio, by Stephen Middleton. These laws were abolished in 1886.

Official Roster of Federal State and County Officers

2005-05-05T16:34:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Secretary of State's office now publishes the Official Roster Of Federal State and County Officers on the web. It's always been a difficult publication to obtain in paper. So now everyone has access. Navigate the tables from the left side of the web page. The latest is the 2003-2004 edition.

Ohio Newspaper Index

2005-04-25T19:09:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Newspaper Index is an index of microfilmed Ohio newspapers available at the Ohio Historical Society's reading room. The Index covers the years 1793 to 1996 and can be searched by newspaper title, city or county. From the Newspaper Index web page, there is a link to a Newspaper database which is a complete list of all newspapers at OHS, filmed and unfilmed. Individual articles cannot be searched in these services.

Government Information Online

2005-04-18T12:30:00.000-04:00

Government Information Online (GIO) is a new national project for providing reference service for government documents. Kent State is one of the thirty government depository institutions involved in the project. Questions can be answered via online chat or through e-mail correspondence. (Source: State Library of Ohio newsletter, March 2005)

Ohio prescription drug comparison site

2005-04-09T10:28:00.000-04:00

The Ohio Attorney General's office has introduced a drug comparison shopping web site called AGRx.

Grading the States 2005

2005-04-02T09:40:00.000-05:00

Ohio receives an overall grade of "B" in state government performance in the Grading the States government performance project. States are graded separately on how they manage their money, people, infrastructure and information. Ohio's grades in these categories are B+, B-, A- and C+, respectively. From another perspective, the Cato Institute, a conservative think-tank, gave Gov. Taft an "F" in their annual fiscal policy report card.

RSS service from State Library of Ohio

2005-03-31T20:34:00.000-05:00

Here's an unusual twist to promoting the use of RSS. The State Library of Ohio has announced a new Current Awarness Service for state employees. The State Library will either set up the journal monitoring service or the state employee can follow instructions on their own. The service is provided by OhioLINK's Electronic Journal Center. The library has published a newsletter article describing the service in detail.

Law review articles

2005-03-24T18:01:00.000-05:00

A recent issue of the Akron Law Review (v.38 no. 1, 2005) contains two articles of interest to Ohio legal researchers: 1) Questioning The Necessity Of Concealed Carry Laws by William J. Michael, p. 53 and 2) Being The Government Means (Almost) Never Having To Say You're Sorry: The Sam Sheppard Case And The Meaning of Wrongful Imprisonment by Jonathan L. Entin, p. 139.

Games of chance

2005-03-15T19:51:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Attorney General's office has announced that the Charitable Law Section has published guidelines for charitable organizations that may sponsor games of chance.

Public records law redux

2005-03-09T10:38:00.000-05:00

Ohio HB 9 proposes to strengthen Ohio's public records laws. The effort has been ongoing for at least a decade. Maybe this time around some progress will be made. The driving force behind this piece of legislation is the result of an 88 county audit conducted last year by the Ohio Coalition for Open Government. The audit found that only 52% of the requests were promptly fulfilled. Tabulation of the audit results are here. For a detailed look at Ohio's public records law issues, see the Coalition's newsletter Open Records Report: Special Edition.

Credit reports for Ohioians

2005-02-27T17:41:00.000-05:00

Starting March 1, 2005, Ohioians can start requesting their free annual credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com. Ohio is among the eligible Midwest states in the second stage of the credit disclosure service "rollout." The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports on the details in this Feb. 27, 2005 story "Credit reports now will be free." The story offers this alternative tactic: "Order from either TransUnion or Equifax now (which are more relevant to Midwest consumers), then get the other in a few months and get the Experian report toward year's end."

Top Tech Cities

2005-02-19T19:19:00.000-05:00

Columbus, Ohio ranks number seven in the list of Top Tech Cities according to a survey by Popular Science magazine. Their criteria included 36 technology indicators such as wi-fi hot spots, university research and development funding, and use of robotic technology. For more on the methodology see Techopolis Found. Other Ohio cities on the list are: Cincinnatti (38th); Cleveland (72nd); Dayton (93rd) and Toledo (101st).

RSS feeds from PUCO

2005-02-17T16:25:00.000-05:00

The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio is the first and only Ohio agency to offer RSS feeds. Those interested can subscribe to two RSS feeds so far. One feed is for Recent PUCO New Releases, and the second is for keeping track of What's New on the PUCO web site.

Ohio Center for the Book

2005-02-17T16:05:00.000-05:00

The Scout Report (Jan. 7, 2005 issue) has posted a great review of the Ohio Center for the Book (Cleveland Public Library). From the Scout Report: "The Center promotes books, reading, libraries, and literacy throughout the entirety of the state, and also serves as a catalyst for collaboration among readers, authors, publishers, educators, and other bibliophiles; " and "Overall, a lovely site and one that merits several visits." Find literary landmarks and authors by geographic location throughout the state.

Online directory of Ohio judges

2005-02-03T15:39:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Judicial Conference has created an online Directory of Ohio judges. Judges can be located by name, by county or, by court. The directory reflects information for currently sitting judges and is based on the paper directory produced by the Ohio Judicial Conference for Ohio's judges. Newly elected judges from the 2004 election are already listed in the online directory.

Blawg of the day

2005-02-03T15:20:00.000-05:00

Many thanks to Tom Mighell over at inter-alia for listing the Ohio Legal Research Blog as "Blawg of the Day" back on January 10, 2005. He asks who the Ohio Legal Researchers are. We are the librarians who are revising the Ohio Legal Research Guide last published in 1997. The original authors (Putnam and Schaefgen) are now joined by a third author, Kathy Hall from Ohio State.

Tobacco Directory

2005-01-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Attorney General web site has a Tobacco Directory which provides the details of Ohio's tobacco settlement of Nov. 28, 1998. Researchers will find the text of the Master Settlement Agreement, and a collection of the forms and laws now required due to the settlement. The Tobacco Directory is a searchable database of the manufacturers and brands that may now be sold in Ohio.

Ohio Legal Gateway

2004-12-17T17:42:00.000-05:00

A new fifty-state legal web resource (Legal Gateway) has just completed loading all fifty states. Here's the link to the Ohio Legal Gateway. It has basic links to state government resources for legal research, guidebooks that work like a topical legal encyclopedia, and an attorney search. The Guidebooks for Ohio don't function properly serving up error messages at the moment. Other states had Guidebooks that worked. The "Find an Attorney" feature pulls up selective results. The Legal Marketplace is not yet ready. AttorneysAnswer conveniently leads to a lawyer referral service. The site does not make it easy to figure out who they are. Consider yourself warned.

The Finder

2004-12-13T11:36:00.000-05:00

The Ohio Dept. of Taxation has released a new tool called The Finder. Use it to find local taxation information by zip code. Currently it covers Sales and Use Taxes and the Public School District Income Tax. The school district tax results include the School District Number that is needed to fill out Ohio tax forms. Eventually, The Finder will also work for other taxes such as Municipal Income Tax and Real and Personal Property Income Tax.

Ohio Constitution reference guide

2004-12-08T11:25:00.000-05:00

Greenwood Press will be publishing The Ohio Constitution: a reference guide as part of their series Reference Guides to the Constitutions of the United States. The work is authored by Steven H. Steinglass and Gino J. Scarselli with a forward by Chief Justice Thomas Moyer. The anticipated date of publication is Dec. 30, 2004. The new reference guide will provide section-by-section commentary on the Ohio Constitution, similar to the Ohio Constitution Handbook by Thomas Swisher, published in 1990.

Ohio History Central online encyclopedia

2004-11-18T18:50:00.000-05:00

Only the Ohio Historical Society could create this terrific online encyclopedia in Ohio History Central. It's already a comprehensive resource which will be continually enhanced. There are hundreds of entries on people, events, documents and locations with timelines, maps, and images. Legal references include the constitutional conventions, the Northwest Ordinance, Maxwell's Code, and many judicial biographies.

New history of Ohio law published

2004-11-04T23:50:00.000-05:00

The Ohio University Press has recently published a comprehensive reference work in The History of Ohio Law. The collection of essays "describe Ohio's legal institutions, legal procedures, and the substance of Ohio law as it has changed over time."

Ohio legislative history on Westlaw

2004-10-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

Westlaw has created a short document summarizing Ohio legislative history documents available in its database. The two-page .pdf summary is posted here. This is a continuing expansion of its StatutesPlus features. Ohio's files on Westlaw include material from current legislative sessions; each file varies in coverage.

The new files are:
OH-LH (Ohio Legislative History file of all 10 databases)
OH-LH-REP (Ohio Legislative Service Commission bill analyses)
OH-LH-JRNLS (Legislative Journals from the House of Representatives)
OH-LH-MSG (Ohio Legislative Messages from the governor)

The following files have previously been on Westlaw, but are now also gathered in the Legislative History database:
OH-BILLTXT
OH-BILLTRK
OH-BILLS
OH-BILLS-OLD
OH-BILLTXT-OLD
OH-BILLTRK-OLD

Sixth Circuit title added to Lexis

2004-10-26T10:42:00.000-04:00

Lexis has added the Sixth Circuit Criminal Handbook to its Matthew Bender files; its in the MATBEN Library; file name SCCRHA.

Symposium issue on Ohio's Constitution

2004-10-25T21:36:00.000-04:00

CLEVELAND STATE LAW REVIEW
VOLUME 51, NUMBERS 3 & 4 2004

Contents of the Symposium Issue:

THE OHIO CONSTITUTION--THEN AND NOW:
AN EXAMINATION OF THE LAW AND HISTORY OF THE OHIO CONSTITUTION ON THE OCCASION OF ITS BICENTENNIAL

FOREWORD: THE OHIO CONSTITUTION ON THE OCCASION OF ITS BICENTENNIAL
Kevin Francis O'Neill p. 333

STATE CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, NEW JUDICIAL FEDERALISM, AND THE REHNQUIST COURT
Shirley S. Abrahamson p. 339

OHIO'S CONSTITUTIONS: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
Barbara A. Terzian p. 357

AN OHIO DILEMMA: RACE, EQUAL PROTECTION, AND THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE OF A STATE BILL OF RIGHTS
Jonathan L. Entin p. 395

THE NEW JUDICIAL FEDERALISM IN OHIO: THE FIRST DECADE
Robert F. Williams p. 415

OHIO CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRETATION
Richard B. Saphire p. 437

OHIO JOINS THE NEW JUDICIAL FEDERALISM MOVEMENT: A LITTLE TO-ING AND A LITTLE FRO-ING
Marianna Brown Bettman p. 491

SEPARATION OF POWERS IN OHIO: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS
Curtis Rodebush p. 505

RECALIBRATING JUSTICIABILITY IN OHIO COURTS
Michael E. Solimine p. 531

OF DISUNITY AND LOGROLLING: OHIO'S ONE-SUBJECT RULE AND THE VERY EVILS IT WAS DESIGNED TO PREVENT
Stephanie Hoffer and Travis McDade p. 557

THE CONSTITUTIONAL COMMON SCHOOL
Molly O'Brien and Amanda Woodrum p. 581

WRITING CHECKS OR RIGHTING WRONGS:ELECTION FUNDING AND THE TORT DECISIONS OF THE OHIO SUPREME COURT
James T. O'Reilly p. 643

ORDINANCE OF THE NORTHWEST TERRITORY (1787) p. 659

CONSTITUTION OF OHIO, 1802 p. 665