Ohio Municipal Courts are courts of limited jurisdiction that handle Cases involving traffic

Traffic court

Traffic court is a term that refers to a municipality's specialized judicial process for handling traffic ticket cases. In the United States, a person who is given a citation by a police officer can either plead guilty and pay the indicated fine directly to the court house, by mail, or in some...

, non-traffic misdemeanor

Misdemeanor

A misdemeanor is a "lesser" criminal act in many common law legal systems. Misdemeanors are generally punished much less severely than felonies, but theoretically more so than administrative infractions and regulatory offences...

s, evictions and small civil claims

Small claims court

Small-claims courts have limited jurisdiction to hear civil cases between private litigants. Courts authorized to try small claims may also have other judicial functions, and the name by which such a court is known varies by jurisdiction; it may be known as a county or magistrate's court...

 (in which the amount in controversy does not exceed than $15,000). These courts also conduct preliminary hearing

Preliminary hearing

Within some criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecutor, to determine whether there is enough evidence to require a trial...

s in felony cases. Ohio's municipal and county court

County Court

A county court is a court based in or with a jurisdiction covering one or more counties, which are administrative divisions within a country, not to be confused with the medieval system of county courts held by the High Sheriff of each county.-England and Wales:County Court matters can be lodged...

s are courts of limited jurisdiction

Limited jurisdiction

Limited jurisdiction, or special jurisdiction, is the courts' jurisdiction only on certain types of cases such as bankruptcy, family matters, etc....

 and court of record

Court of record

In common law jurisdictions, a court of record is a judicial tribunal having attributes and exercising functions independently of the person of the magistrate designated generally to hold it, and proceeding according to the course of common law, its acts and proceedings being enrolled for a...

). They are created by the General Assembly as provided in R.C.

Ohio Revised Code

The Ohio Revised Code contains all acts passed by the Ohio General Assembly and signed by the governor. The Ohio Revised Code replaced the Ohio General Code in 1953. However the current organization and form of the Ohio Revised Code Title 29 was completely re-written and issued into law by the...

 1901 and 1907, and have limited by subject-matter jurisdiction

Subject-matter jurisdiction

Subject-matter jurisdiction is the authority of a court to hear cases of a particular type or cases relating to a specific subject matter. For instance, bankruptcy court only has the authority to hear bankruptcy cases....

. The jurisdiction of municipal and county courts are identical: When municipal courts exercise countywide jurisdiction, there is no county court, and county court exist in places where an area of a county is not served by a municipal court. Judge

Judge

A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...

s of the municipal courts are elected to six-year terms on a nonpartisan

Nonpartisan

In political science, nonpartisan denotes an election, event, organization or person in which there is no formally declared association with a political party affiliation....

 ballot, although candidates may choose to run in partisan primary elections. In order to be appointed or elected to the court, a person must be an attorney

Lawyer

A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 with at least six years of experience in the practice of law

Practice of law

In its most general sense, the practice of law involves giving legal advice to clients, drafting legal documents for clients, and representing clients in legal negotiations and court proceedings such as lawsuits, and is applied to the professional services of a lawyer or attorney at law, barrister,...

.