Editor's Note:
This is the first part in a series of three stories that defines an attorney shortage issue across Ashland County and Ohio, and how local judges are responding. Part II will be published on April 23. Part III will be published on April 24.
Judge Dave Stimpert’s office is quiet these days.
Correction: the second floor of the courthouse, where common pleas court is located, is quiet. But don’t mistake the silence for an absence of work.
In 2023, the Ashland County Court of Common Pleas logged a record number of criminal cases. Thus far, 2024 doesn’t seem to be slowing down. Trials have already been scheduled into July.
“It’s a lot coming at you every day,” Stimpert said, sitting in his office on a gray Friday, the hum of incandescent rods filling in for the silence.
But most of what comes at Stimpert on a daily basis — arraignments, bond hearings, change of pleas — is carried out in the form of video conferencing.
The Numbers
In 2023, there were:
- 217 civil cases
- 352 domestic relations cases
- 182 sentences
- 114 offenders sent to prison
- 38 interventions in-lieu-of conviction dispositions (a one-year drug program for eligible offenders)
- 4 civil trials
- 3 criminal trials
- 215 supervisions and 1,872 drug screens performed at the probation department
- 4,082 “Stimpert” signatures stamped on each judgement entry
“I’ll even do sentencing on the computer,” he said.
Mondays are the busiest days for that kind of stuff, Stimpert said.
“I’ll get done and (wonder) ‘did I see another human being — like, a person — today? Or was it just the screen?’” he said.
It’s a distinction that Stimpert perhaps is still getting used to. It wasn’t long ago he was one of the several attorneys present on any given day at Ashland Municipal Court — where there are no video hearings.
Stimpert still conducts trials and evidentiary hearings in person. “Zoom has its limitations” for those types of court proceedings, he said.
“But it’s the world we live in,” Stimpert said. Video conferences began under Judge Ron Forsthoefel’s leadership, who retired in February 2023.
Video conferencing allowed the court to continue conducting important court business through a pandemic that brought cases to a standstill.
Now, just under a year following the official end to the COVID-19 pandemic, the court continues to hold most hearings behind a screen.
But this story isn’t about technology and the judges’ utilization of online tools. It turns out the cause behind the court’s silent halls has a different, more disquieting, explanation:
Ashland County has a dangerously shallow pool of attorneys able to represent its people, which leads to a number of symptoms felt throughout the county’s justice system.
In addition, Ashland County Court of Common Pleas isn’t the only court — in Ashland and in Ohio — experiencing these symptoms.
Diving into the shortage
There are 43 members listed on the Ashland County Bar Association. Of those, 23 are active attorneys.
Four of them have an “inactive” status, according to the Supreme Court of Ohio Attorney Directory.
Another four work in the Ashland County Prosecutor’s Office, two work at the Ashland law director’s office, two work at the Ashland County Department of Jobs and Family Services, seven are judges or magistrates and four are retired.
That means there are 20 lawyers practicing in Ashland County, population 52,181. And for every one of those lawyers, there are 2,609 potential clients.
Residents looking to hire attorneys in Ashland hit barriers because those practicing are stretched thin. Sometimes, conflicts of interest prevent lawyers from taking a case.
“The numbers have dwindled over the years … there’s not an influx of young, new attorneys,” Stimpert said.
In fact, the county’s newest practicing attorney is Brian Kellogg, who became active in 2018.
Sarah Stika began practicing in 2015, but she resigned from her assistant director post at the Ashland County Department of Job and Family Services earlier this month. Her last day was April 5.
Who hurts the most?
Those really hurt by the attorney shortage are people who cannot afford legal representation, Ashland judges have said. In those cases, where a defendant is found “indigent,” judges appoint lawyers.
Currently, there are 12 attorneys on the Ashland County Court of Common Pleas list that are available and willing to take court-appointed felony cases. None of them live or practice in Ashland County.
That’s why, Stimpert said, it makes sense to have video conferences. What attorney really wants to drive 30 minutes to court for a three-minute hearing?
Downstairs, in juvenile and probate court, the list includes five. In municipal court, there are 11. But, according to Ashland Municipal Judge John Good, he can only really count on four to take every case.
“When I started, judges never had to think twice about court-appointed attorneys,” said Joe Kearns, one of the handful of attorneys still practicing in Ashland.
However, this attorney shortage isn’t just affecting Ashland County Court of Common Pleas.
read part ii below
A shallow pool of local attorneys impacts Ashland County courts
The number of practicing attorneys nationwide is actually growing, according to the American Bar Association. The ABA states that over the past year, from 2022 to 2023, there were 4,000 more lawyers across the U.S. Ohio was among the states who gained the most, with 3,000 new attorneys practicing. Over the past decade (2013-2023), there’s…
