Cleveland Municipal Court adheres to the rules established by the Ohio Supreme Court that govern the duration in which official court records, including case files, must be retained.

Several years ago, a task force appointed by the Ohio Supreme Court recommended modernizing the antiquated and non-standardized system by which courts throughout the state were keeping records. Among other suggestions later adopted by the court, it recommended permitting lower courts to:

• Rely on the Ohio Historical Society to help them determine which records might have historical importance and thus should be preserved
• Permit the move to electronic records, though in widely standardized format
• Allow optical scanning so that certain hard copy records could be converted to electronic form

You can learn more about these rules here