Alarming court statistics ...

It is often written that justice delayed is justice denied. Often times, in the business context, this is very true. Recently, the Ohio Supreme Court published some alarming statistics that may shed some light on why it takes a year or two (or longer) to be have your day in Court.

In 2018, in Cuyahoga County, there were over 34,000 new cases filed in the Court of Common Pleas. This amounts to over 1,000 new cases per judge, or an average of 84 new cases each month. Given that there are about 21 working days in any given month, in order to stay current with the number of cases being filed, the judge must dispose of 4 cases each and every day.

This means that a judge has, on average, 2 hours (including bathroom breaks!) to attend to your case, from start to finish. From reading the initial complaint to saying “Case dismissed”, the judge has, all total, only 120 minutes.

Living in a litigious society, everyone loses when a lawsuit is filed. As a business owner, it is imperative to avoid problems from the get go. Avoiding problems is a far better solution than fixing problems after the fact.