RULE 18                                COURT APPOINTMENTS

  1. "APPOINTMENT" and APPOINTEE" mean the same as defined in Rule 8 of the Rules of Superintendence of the Courts of Ohio.

  2. The Court shall maintain the lists of appointees from which appointments shall be made. The person responsible for selecting an appointee shall do so at random for each appointment, but appointments shall be equitable so that all prospective appointees have an equal opportunity to receive appointments, considering the skill and expertise of the particular appointee in the designated area of appointment, the management of the appointee’s current caseload and the difficulty of the particular matter.

  3. The General Division and Domestic Relations Division shall keep separate lists of appointees.
    1.  The Domestic Relations Magistrate shall keep the Domestic Relations appointee list which shall include lists of the following for appointment:
    1. Counsel available for appointment to contempt’s
    2. Sentence reviews and other matters as deemed necessary by the Magistrate
    3. Arbitrators
    4. Mediators
    5. Guardian Ad Litem
    6. Organizations who provide forensic psychological evaluations
    7. Alcohol or drug dependency evaluations

                                        and on direction of the Court, a list of qualified appraisers.

    2.  The General Division shall maintain the following lists of appointees to be kept in a central location designated by the Administrative Judge:
    1. Counsel available for assignment to criminal cases
    2. Arbitrators
    3. Guardians Ad Litem not related to Domestic Relations mattersand the following organizations providing services to the Court
    4. All public defender officers serving Columbiana County
    5.  Organizations providing forensic mental health examinations
      and services in criminal cases
    6. Organizations providing alcohol and drug evaluations and treatment in criminal cases
    7. Organizations providing forensic scientific testing andevaluations in criminal cases.

Appointments shall be on a case by case basis from the members of the bar association at large or such other persons as the Court deems appropriate.

  1. Yearly the Judges of the Court shall review the appointment lists to determine if the persons or organizations on those lists are still qualified and are providing adequate service and that equitable division of appointments are being made

  2. The Court by other Rules has set qualifications for the various appointees and will from time to time determine by Court Order or Rule other qualifications for other appointees.

  3. If a party or other person is required to pay all or a portion of the fees payable to the appointee, the appointee shall notify the party or person of the appointment and the applicable fee schedule and provide an estimate of the costs of the service. The Court reserves the right to approve, prior to the providing of the services by an appointee, the rate and the maximum fee of all appointee. The appointee shall file with the Court and serve upon all parties or persons required to pay all or a portion of the fees an itemized fee and expense statement on a regular basis and at the conclusion of the service. If the fees charged by the appointee are contested or deemed unreasonable by any party, the appointee bears the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence the reasonableness of the fees. The burden of going forward with the evidence, however, will rest with the party ordered to pay.

  4. This Rule shall be automatically modified at any time the Supreme Court of Ohio modifies Rule 8 of the Rules of Superintendence of the Courts of Ohio.