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WARREN -- Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Judge Ronald Rice has resolved a dispute between a Mineral Ridge woman and Trumbull County Clerk of Courts Randy Law by waiving the woman's filing fees and indicating that a local rule of the common pleas court will be changed because it conflicts with state law.
Estella Rhinehart of Mineral Ridge filed a request Oct. 22 with the clerk of court's office in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court asking that filing fees for a legal action she wanted to file be waived because of her inability to pay, which is known as indigency.
But Clerk of Courts Randy Law advised her that the papers she wanted to file would not be time stamped or docketed or assigned a case number until after Rice, the common pleas court's administrative judge, made a finding that Rhinehart was indigent. The papers were forwarded to Rice's office.
Law cited a local rule of the Trumbull County Common Pleas Court indicating that the common pleas court's administrative judge is required to approve requests to be declared indigent "prior to acceptance of the initial pleading for filing."
But Rhinehart argued that the local rule is in conflict with Ohio law that states that "Upon the filing of a civil action or proceeding (that involves a request for a determination of indigency) “the clerk of the court shall accept the action or proceeding for filing.”
So on Oct. 26, Rhinehart filed a mandamus action with the Warren-based 11th District Court of Appeals, asking that court to compel Law to immediately file her earlier legal action and cited the arguments she made to Law about state law taking priority over local rules.
The appeals court had not given a final ruling on Rhinehart's request when Rice filed his judgment entry Tuesday, stating that the Trumbull County Clerk of Court's Office should have accepted the Oct. 22 legal action Rhinehart was trying to file on Oct. 22 "without prior approval from the administrative judge."
Following Rice’s ruling, Rhinehart's legal action was filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court Oct. 30, the same day Rice ordered it, his entry states. Rice’s judgment entry added that his "Court will take the necessary steps to proceed with amending the Local Rules to conform with the Revised Code."
Also on Tuesday, Trumbull County Assistant Prosecutor William Danso filed a motion to dismiss the mandamus action Rhinehart filed because Rice had already granted her what she sought -- for her legal action to be filed in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Danso argued that Rhinehart "no longer has a clear legal right" to the thing she sought and Clerk of Courts Randy Law "is no longer under a clear legal duty to provide it."