Court of Appeals Ohio Sixth District

Court of Appeals Records, Ohio Sixth District

Searching for Court of Appeals Records in Ohio�s Sixth District

The Sixth Appellate District in the State of Ohio services eight counties, including Erie, Fulton, Huron, Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky, Williams and Wood. It�s primary location is in Toledo, located in Lucas County. Appeals that are filed in the Sixth District Court of Appeals are matters of public record. Aside from the unusual occurrence of a sealed file, these records may be viewed by members of the public.

When an appeal is taken from a case before one of the trial courts in the Sixth Appellate District, the lower court�s case file is joined with the appellate case file, so that the appellate file will not only include appellate briefs, the appellate court�s final opinion, and any other matters that were filed before the appellate court, but will also include all of the documents that were filed in the case before the trial court, including pleadings, motions, entries and orders. For this reason, after a matter has been appealed, you will need to view the appellate file in order to see documents that were filed before the lower court.

While the primary seat of the Sixth District Court of Appeals is located in Lucas County, there are clerks in all eight counties functioning as Clerks of Court for the Sixth District Court of Appeals. For this reason, if you wish to view a Court of Appeals file, or a particular item from a Court of Appeals file, it is a good idea to verify the location of that file or item prior to traveling to the court�s location to view it. The Clerks of Court and their contact information may be found at this page of the Sixth District Court of Appeals� website: http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/Appeals/Clerks.asp .

If you wish to attend an oral argument before the Sixth District Court of Appeals, the calendar for upcoming events may be found here: http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/Appeals/Calendars.asp .

Unfortunately, the Sixth District Court of Appeals website does not at this time include a searchable database providing access to the dockets of the cases pending before the court. However, at least one county in the district, Huron County, maintains a website which includes the ability to search Court of Appeals matters that were appealed from Huron County cases. This search page may be found here: http://www.huroncountyclerk.com/html/case_search.html .

Additionally, the Opinions rendered by the Sixth District Court of Appeals are available online. To search for an opinion, begin at the main page of the Sixth District Court of Appeals website, found here: http://www.co.lucas.oh.us/Appeals/ . Then, select the option marked �Decisions� under the heading �Sixth District Court of Appeals Links.� This will take you to a search page where you may enter your search criteria. You may include a search term or party name, and may also restrict the search by the date the decision was rendered. If you prefer to browse, the Opinions of the court will appear listed further down the page, beginning with Opinions rendered in the year 2000.

After inputting your search criteria and clicking on �Search,� the search results will be returned in the form of a list, including the names of each case. The decision numbers to the left appear in blue and are also clickable links. Clicking on one of these links will open a new window where you can read the entirety of the Opinion in that case. The Opinion will also show the name of the case, the Court of Appeals case number, the Trial Court case number, and the date on which the decision was rendered. If you are unable to locate an opinion for a recent Court of Appeals case, it is possible that no Opinion has yet been rendered in that case. Bear in mind that Opinions are rarely rendered immediately after the filing of briefs or the presentation of oral argument. If you suspect that no Opinion has yet been rendered in a case, this can be verified by contacting the appropriate Clerk of Court.