City awarded Ohio Supreme Court grant for video conferencing

Judges Gary Bennett and Robert White announced the Elyria Municipal Court was awarded an Ohio Supreme Court grant of over $23,000 to implement video conferencing and remote access court proceedings in response to the COVID 19 pandemic.

Ohio Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor has repeatedly stressed the importance of maintaining the operation of Ohio’s court system through this crisis and has stated that “closing the courts is not an option.”

She announced the grant opportunity at Governor Mike DeWine’s daily press conference on March 19 and released the application the next day.

“We have been working for several weeks with Clerk of Court Eric Rothgery’s office to develop video conference capabilities. The concept was to conduct and record court proceedings in the event one or both judges were required to be quarantined or became ill. We knew that if this happened, the continued operation of the court could be in jeopardy.” Judge White said.

The grant will also allow prosecutors, attorneys, criminal defendants and civil litigants to participate remotely without appearing in person and potentially exposing themselves and others to the virus.

“Chief Justice O’Connor’s grant announcement came at the perfect time.” Judge Bennett said. “This system will allow us to keep the most critical functions of the Court operating either in-person or via teleconference, while less critical matters may be continued or rescheduled. If we simply postponed our entire dockets to limit personal contact at the courthouse, our caseload would be unmanageable once the crisis has passed. We want to do everything possible to make sure our citizens get their day in court.”

An initial system has been set up in Judge White’s office and will go live March 25.

The system will become operational with both Judges and the Magistrates once the emergency grant money is received and the necessary equipment is purchased.

The Elyria Municipal Court’s District includes the cities of Elyria and North Ridgeville; the villages of Grafton and LaGrange; and the townships of Carlisle, Columbia, Eaton, Elyria, Grafton and LaGrange.