We often hear the phrase “words matter” in appellate practice, but rarely does a case turn so heavily on the specific grammatical function of a single transitive verb. In a decision released last month, Z.J. v. R.M., 2025-Ohio-5662, the Ohio Supreme Court resolved a long-standing district conflict regarding the menacing-by-stalking statute.…

Imagine a scenario: a municipality’s actions—say, noise and vibrations from a city-owned airport—effectively “take” a neighboring property. The catch? The property owner lives in a different jurisdiction. The municipality that “took” the property argues it has no authority to appropriate land outside its own borders, so a court can’t possibly order it to do so.…

Brief QC overview

On June 2, 2025, the Sixth Circuit rolled out its newest service, Brief Quality Control, or Brief QC. Brief QC is designed to prevent non-compliance issues with appellate briefs before they are formally filed with the Sixth Circuit. It is an additional step in the traditional ECF filing procedures that flags certain…

The Ohio Supreme Court’s Office of the Clerk recently released the Court’s Annual Statistics Report for the 2024 calendar year. Keep reading for the most up-to-date information on Supreme Court case volumes and trends in operational efficiency that have helped streamline case timelines.…

On April 16, 2025, the Ohio Supreme Court dismissed Crozier v. Pipe Creek Conservancy as improvidently accepted. Having a discretionary appeal dismissed as improvidently accepted means:

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When the Ohio Supreme Court accepts a proposition of law for jurisdictional appeal, it typically requires litigants to file merit briefs and present oral arguments before the Court. But what if the Ohio Supreme Court and an intermediate appellate court issue conflicting rulings almost simultaneously? In rare instances, after issuing its ruling in an already…