April 25, 2007
Chief Justice Announces Joint Initiative with Governor to Host 2008 Ohio Summit on Children
Chief Justice Delivers Address on State of the Judiciary Before Ohio General Assembly
In an address to a joint session of the Ohio General Assembly, Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer today endorsed judicial reform legislation, urged lawmakers to fund a statewide court information network, and announced that he and Ohio Governor Ted Strickland will jointly host an Ohio Summit on Children next year to improve Ohio's children services system.
Chief Justice Moyer delivered his State of the Judiciary address before the members of the Ohio House and Senate, Gov. Strickland and other statewide elected officials in the chambers of the Ohio House of Representatives at the Ohio Statehouse. Once during each of his three previous terms, the Chief Justice has addressed the members of the General Assembly on the state of the judiciary. He last addressed the General Assembly in 2001.
The Chief Justice used the speech to urge passage of House Bill 173, introduced this week by Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Cincinnati, and Rep. T. Todd Book, D-McDermott. The measure would increase judicial qualifications, institute training for Ohio judicial candidates, create the Judicial Allotment Review Commission to study the allocation of judgeships in the courts, create the Judicial Appointment Review Commission to make recommendations of persons to fill judicial vacancies, and increase the compensation of Ohio judges.
“House Bill 173 will assist us in attracting to the bench and retaining more highly competent and experienced attorneys. It increases the number of years a lawyer must be in practice before she or he becomes a judge, provides for some level of education regarding the responsibilities of being a judge before one takes office, and creates an institutional process for determining the number of judges required to meet changing demands and populations,” Chief Justice Moyer said.
“The role of a judge in Ohio, the value to our citizens of highly competent judges is no different than it is in Michigan, in Pennsylvania, in Indiana, in Illinois, in Florida, Arizona, Arkansas. And yet, a comparison reveals in some instances vast disparities in the compensation of Ohio judges versus the compensation of judges in more than a majority of the states. One could conclude that the citizens of those states place a higher value on the role of the judge in their community than do the citizens of Ohio. Most of us would not agree with such a conclusion. House Bill 173 presents an opportunity to correct that perception.”
A joint initiative of the Chief Justice and Governor, the Ohio Summit on Children, will be held in May 2008 and include teams from each Ohio county, including juvenile court judges, representatives from children services or job and family services boards, county commissioners, teachers and other school officials. Each county will be required to submit an action plan within 90 days after the summit detailing steps they intend to take to improve their county's response to children at risk. A follow-up conference is proposed for 18 months later to track progress.
“If a neighbor or a teacher notices that a child's clothes are consistently not clean or the child is missing too many days of school….child welfare officials in the pilot project will be able to make a first attempt at intervention. The family might only need access to a washing machine or predictable transportation,” Chief Justice Moyer said. “Supporters of the project hope it will reduce the adversarial nature of the current system and encourage parents to seek help before there are legal troubles. If effective, it should reduce court dockets and most importantly, reduce the amount of time children spend in foster care.”
Chief Justice Moyer also commended the legislature for passing House Bill 238 last session, which provided funds for the program Alternative Response to Reports on Childhood Abuse Neglect and Dependency. The measure funds early intervention pilot projects in 10 counties that will allow a family to receive assistance before a matter involving abuse, neglect and dependency is filed with the courts.
The Chief Justice also urged lawmakers to include in the next biennial budget currently under consideration $10.5 million the Court has requested to fund the Ohio Courts Network, a project, first proposed by Ohio judges in 2002, to build an integrated, statewide justice information network.
“Currently in the state of Ohio a system does not exist that ensures that the courts and law enforcement have instant access to complete information,” Chief Justice Moyer said. “This information gap is detrimental to efforts to combat a broad range of problems including domestic violence, drunk driving and sexual offenses.”
The Ohio Courts Network will not replicate every piece of information in a local court system, but rather identify information that is critical to investigations, dispositions and sentencing, Chief Justice Moyer explained. “The goal is to gather specific information to share, and by doing so, enhance and streamline the legal process. A Web portal will allow all Ohio courts to access internet resources, share new application technologies and provide a single point of contact. It will also give justice system partners access to critical court information, and improve public access to appropriate court resources.”
Editors: The text of Chief Justice Moyer's speech is available online at: www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/Communications_Office/speeches. For a publication quality photo of Chief Justice Thomas J. Moyer, please visit the following link: www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/PIO/news/images/justices/moyer_highres.zip. Video is available at: www.supremecourt.ohio.gov/videostream or www.ohiochannel.org 
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