Clerk of Court’s shares year-end report

COSHOCTON – The following is the Coshocton County Clerk of Court’s Year-End Report for 2012 reflecting figures compiled from the Clerk of Courts Legal Department, Fifth District Court of Appeals and the Coshocton County Title Department.

Legal Department

Case Review

Total cases filed in the Legal Department were down in 2012 from 885 in 2011 to 757 this year. We had 183 foreclosure cases with 67 of those cases being delinquent land tax cases. Judgment liens numbered 569 compared to 678 filed in 2011.

Open Items

The Open Items balance at the end of 2021 was $53,590.79. This amount is monies that are deposited with the court at the time a case is filed and are held by the Clerk until the case is closed. When the case is closed, court costs are figured and these monies are disbursed into the appropriate accounts. This amount is normal for the number of open cases on file.

Legal Revenue

Legal Fees collected in 2012 were $120,874.83 with a total of $151,062.36 total fees paid into the General Fund for 2012. In addition to these fees, the Clerk collects fees for other entities though court costs billings that are also paid into the General Fund. These include fees for Computer Fund, Domestic Violence Fund, Dretac, Courts Special Projects, the Law Library, Mandatory Drug Fines, Public Defender Reimbursements, Indigent Defendant fees, and Adult Probation Supervision fee. The total of those fees collected in 2012 was $80,224.35. The Clerk also collects fees for the State of Ohio and remits these fees monthly. The total of those fees collected in 2012 were $17,353.55. Fees collected and remitted to the Sheriff’s Department through court costs bills were $28,236.80. Notary fees collected and remitted to the Coshocton County Bar Association were $931.88.

The Clerk of Courts Office issued 97 passports in 2012. The Clerk’s Office receives $25 (less postage to mail in the passports) for each passport application processed resulting in approximately $2,400. Because of new regulations mandated by the Passport Agency it was determined not to be cost effective for the Title Office to accept applications. However, the Legal Office at the Courthouse does continue with this process.   Each deputy clerk must complete annual training and pass a test to be certified to accept passport applications.

Title Department

The Title Department issued 21,323 titles in 2012 paying $2,542,134.00 to the State of Ohio and $211,020.00 to the County in fees and sales tax. These figures were up from 2011. The Title Department operates on fees collected and is not a General Fund operation. If a vehicle is purchased “out of County” our County does receive the sales tax, but does not receive the fees for the title transaction.

Year-end Review

Effective May 18, 2012 the State of Ohio began electronic filing of state tax liens to us. A total of 237 state tax liens were filed in 2012 by this method. Deputy Clerk Kathy Revay processes these liens on her computer and sends back information to the state via the computer when they are filed in our system.  

The Clerk of Courts Office continues to contract with CBCS collection agency to collect overdue court costs. Last year they collected $4,204.91 for the Clerk’s Office with no expense to the Clerk’s Office.  CBCS uses national credit reporting data bases to find persons who owe monies to the court. They collect the monies owed to the Clerk’s Office first and then they add 33 percent onto the account for their fees.

The success of the Clerk of Courts office is due to the outstanding staff. The Legal Department currently has four, full-time Deputy Clerks – Sheryl Murray (22 years of service), Kathy Revay (21 years of service) Donna Ryan (20 years of service) and Camila Graham (four years of service) and one part-time Deputy – Stephanie Brill (nine years of service). The Title Department has three full-time Deputy Clerks – Kathy Stone (39 years of service), Phyllis Carnes (seven years of service) and Jody Conley (five years of service) and two part-time Deputy Clerks – Marilyn Shaffer (45 years of service) and Edith Harris (23 years of service). With my 20 years of service we have a total of 215 years in the Legal and Title Offices! It is a pleasure to work with such experienced, efficient and dedicated employees. 

In closing, I would like to thank the Board of County Commissioners for their continued support. I commend our Commissioners for their money management of our tax dollars. And as always, I appreciate your support of computer technology and our IT Department. Their assistance to our office is so critical as more and more we are using computer technology in our daily operations. I receive email requests daily from the public and we do a lot of scanning of documents and then email them to people. This allows us to serve the public in a timely manner.

Contributed to The Beacon by Janet S. Mosier, Clerk of Courts

Category: Government