Licking County
Situated in central Ohio, Licking County occupies about 682 square miles of land area, making it the state's largest county by total area. The county was founded in 1808. It is inhabited by an estimated 184,000, and the county seat is Newark.
The judicial structure in Licking County consists of the Common Pleas Court, Municipal Court, Probate/Juvenile Court, and Domestic Relations Court. Generally, the Licking County Common Pleas Court exercises jurisdiction over all felony criminal matters and several civil cases, including breach of contract, professional malpractice, and foreclosures. On the other hand, the county's Municipal Court has jurisdiction over all criminal and traffic misdemeanors that happen within the county. The Municipal Court has a small claims division that hears disputes for money damages only in which the amount in dispute is $6,000 or less. In addition, this court has jurisdiction over civil cases involving claims that do not exceed $15,000 and hears preliminary matters in felony cases.
Linking County's Probate/Juvenile Court is a division of the Common Pleas Court. The Juvenile Court hears cases of alleged unruliness, delinquency, juvenile tobacco offenders, child abuse, juvenile traffic offenders, and neglect and dependency. It also has jurisdiction to hear certain adult criminal misdemeanor cases, such as contributing to a child's unruliness or delinquency and sexual imposition in which the victim is a minor. On the other hand, the Probate Court hears cases involving the administration of decedents' estates, adoptions, changes of names, and appointment of guardians for minors and incapacitated adults. The Domestic Relations Court is another division of the Linking County Common Pleas Court, but a special one. It hears all law actions involving marriage dissolution, legal separation, civil domestic violence, divorce, child support, visitation, division of spousal support and debts, paternity cases, and termination of marriage or domestic violence that includes child custody.
The Licking County Clerk of Courts is responsible for storing and maintaining court records within the county. The clerk's office is obliged to disseminate court records to members of the public, provided the records are not sealed or classified as confidential. Interested persons can obtain records of cases such as criminal cases, civil cases, traffic infraction cases, family law cases, and juvenile matters at the clerk's office. The County Clerk of Court also maintains court electronic records and provides the TAGCPM Court Record Search Portal to enable public access to records of legal proceedings that occur in the county.
