Ohio Criminal Records

Ohio has no public search of its state criminal history. The Bureau of Criminal Investigation runs fingerprint checks for the employers and licensing bodies the statutes name and for nobody else, so an Ohio criminal record, for everyone else, is a court record, found one clerk of courts at a time in 88 counties, plus the municipal and county courts that hear the misdemeanors. This page gives the Ohio rule and the Ohio search for each record, with government sources only.

The Ohio Attorney General's background check page explains who uses the state file: "Many public and private employers require background checks for employment purposes. State law mandates that schools, day care centers, health care facilities, and others require such checks as part of the hiring process," and the checks run through the Bureau of Criminal Investigation by fingerprint, through WebCheck locations across the state. There is no name search for the public. The Attorney General's questions page makes the limit plain: "BCI can only process FBI background checks for specific types of Ohio employment. If you need a FBI background check for personal use, please contact the FBI." A person can obtain their own BCI record by fingerprint, and the criminal records page on this site explains why the fingerprint copy is the one that settles a dispute. For anyone else, the Ohio record is what the courts show.

Felonies are heard in the courts of common pleas, whose files are kept by each county's elected clerk of courts; misdemeanors are heard in the municipal courts and county courts, which keep their own dockets. The large clerks post their indexes: the Franklin County Clerk of Courts runs Case Information Online "for the purpose of obtaining public record information regarding Criminal and Civil cases filed in the General Division" of the common pleas court in Columbus, and the Hamilton County Clerk of Courts runs a name search for Cincinnati. Both carry the same caveat, from the Supreme Court of Ohio's rules: "Pursuant to Rule 45(C) of the Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio, a clerk of court is not required to offer remote access to a particular case file or case document. If you believe a case file or particular document exists but is not available online, please visit the Clerk's" office. Ohio has no statewide court search. Each of the 88 clerks, and each municipal court, is linked from the county pages on this site, and several search only at the counter.

Ohio's record sealing statute, R.C. 2953.32, was rewritten effective April 4, 2023 to widen who qualifies and to add expungement, which destroys the record, alongside sealing, which closes it to the public. Waiting periods run from final discharge, meaning the end of any prison, probation or post-release control and payment of what is owed: shorter for minor misdemeanors and fourth and fifth degree felonies, longer for third degree felonies, and first and second degree felonies and the offenses of violence and sex offenses the statute lists cannot be sealed. A person arrested for a misdemeanor who forfeited bail "may apply to the court in which the misdemeanor criminal case was pending when bail was forfeited for the sealing or expungement of the record," in the statute's words, and a dismissed or acquitted case may be sealed on application without a waiting period. The application goes to the court that heard the case, and a sealed case leaves the clerk's public index; a copy that left before the order is reached through the federal rule on complete and up to date public records.

Ohio's Public Records Act, R.C. 149.43, makes records kept by any public office open to anyone, without a stated reason, and excepts "confidential law enforcement investigatory records," which the courts have read to protect the investigative file and not the fact of an arrest, the incident report or the booking. Who is in custody is posted by the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction's offender search, which "lets residents look up people currently serving time in an Ohio prison or under release," and for a county or city jail, as the state's page says, "contact your local court or law enforcement agency," most of which post a jail roster online. The arrest records page covers how those rosters feed the databases.

An Ohio judgment goes dormant on a five-year clock. Under R.C. 2329.07, if neither an execution is issued nor "a certificate of judgment for obtaining a lien upon lands and tenements is issued and filed" within five years, the judgment becomes dormant and cannot be enforced until revived, and a revival action must be brought within ten years of dormancy. A certificate of judgment filed with the clerk of common pleas in a county makes the judgment a lien on the debtor's land there. The court records page covers where the civil dockets are searched.

Ohio is divided into two federal judicial districts under 28 U.S.C. 115. The Northern District's Eastern Division covers the counties of Ashland, Ashtabula, Carroll, Columbiana, Crawford, Cuyahoga, Geauga, Holmes, Lake, Lorain, Mahoning, Medina, Portage, Richland, Stark, Summit, Trumbull, Tuscarawas and Wayne, with court at Cleveland, Youngstown and Akron, and its Western Division covers Allen, Auglaize, Defiance, Erie, Fulton, Hancock, Hardin, Henry, Huron, Lucas, Marion, Mercer, Ottawa, Paulding, Putnam, Sandusky, Seneca, Van Wert, Williams, Wood and Wyandot, with court at Lima and Toledo. The Southern District's Western Division covers Adams, Brown, Butler, Champaign, Clark, Clermont, Clinton, Darke, Greene, Hamilton, Highland, Lawrence, Miami, Montgomery, Preble, Scioto, Shelby and Warren, with court at Cincinnati and Dayton, and its Eastern Division covers Athens, Belmont, Coshocton, Delaware, Fairfield, Fayette, Franklin, Gallia, Guernsey, Harrison, Hocking, Jackson, Jefferson, Knox, Licking, Logan, Madison, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Morrow, Muskingum, Noble, Perry, Pickaway, Pike, Ross, Union, Vinton and Washington, with court at Columbus, St. Clairsville and Steubenville. A federal case from any Ohio county is on one of those dockets and on PACER, whose prices and gaps are on the criminal records page.

Whether a person has an Ohio conviction: the clerk of courts in each county where the person lived answers it, by name, with the docket; the state's fingerprint file answers it only for the person and the employers the statutes name.

Whether a person is in custody now: the county jail roster answers it, and the Department of Rehabilitation and Correction answers it for state prison.

Whether an old case can still be found: a sealed case is out of the clerk's public index, an expunged one is destroyed, a judgment goes dormant at five years without execution or a certificate, and a copy that predates a sealing order is reached through the federal rule.