Muskingum County Court Records Lookup

The following is for information purposes only

Muskingum County is named after a native American word mshkikwam meaning “swampy ground”. It is located East of Columbus, the state's capital and as of the 2022 population census, it had 86,393 inhabitants. It comprises 673 square miles and its county seat is Zanesville. Muskingum County is a republican party county and is the fourth largest county in Ohio by land area. The Courts of Common Pleas, a County Court, a Municipal Court, and the Mayor's Courts collaboratively work together to ensure that all litigation matters are sorted efficiently and judiciously.

There are four Divisions of the Courts of Common Pleas. The General, Domestic Relations, Juvenile, and Probate Divisions are located in Zanesville. The Courts of Common Pleas have jurisdiction over criminal, civil, traffic, misdemeanor, family law, probate of wills, guardianship, and administration of estate cases. The Domestic Relations Division issues civil protection orders, and stalking protection orders and handles termination of marriages, child support, and paternity cases. The Probate Division appoints guardians and conservators, handles adoptions, name changes, safekeeping of wills, allows beneficiaries to contest wills, and issues marriage licenses. The Juvenile Division handles juvenile delinquency matters. The Muskingum County Court is a court of limited jurisdiction in Zanesville. It comprises a Criminal Division and a Civil Division. The Criminal Division handles traffic cases and misdemeanor criminal cases. The Civil Division handles cases in which the amount of money in dispute is $15,000 or less, small claims cases amounting to $6,000 or less, and eviction cases. The Municipal Court Zanesville, handles municipal ordinance violations and traffic violations within the City of Zanesville. The Mayor's Courts are found in New Concord, Roseville, Frazeysburg, Dresden, and South Zanesville. They handle village-codified ordinance violations.

The number of civil (432) and criminal (865) case filing for the fiscal year 2023 amounted to 1,297 cases and 1,318 cases were disposed of according to the State of Ohio Court Statistics report. A total of 112,397 cases were filed in all divisions (General Division, Probate, Juvenile, and Domestic Relations) of the courts of common pleas and 283,627 cases were disposed of. The Ohio Public Records Act grants interested persons access to court records statewide. Court records are automated and stored in indexes at the Office of the Clerk of Court of Common Pleas/the Clerk of Courts. The public, attorneys, and law enforcement agents can access court records conveniently on the Muskingum Clerk of Courts Online Records System except for expunged records and juvenile records.

The case management system provides for the prompt and fair disposal of cases in all courts in Muskingum County. It enables the efficient resolution of cases, quick access to court records, and readiness of cases for pre-trials, trials, and other court proceedings. Court records provide historical records of judicial actions in the county. The County Court, Courts of Common Pleas, Municipal Court, and Mayor's Courts are distinguished within their designated jurisdictions.