Lakewood Municipal Court Has Fewer Cases in 2012

There were 13,538 cases before the Lakewood Municipal Court in 2012.

That’s down 550 from the year before.

Traffic and criminal cases dropped by 411; civil cases dropped 139; and the number of traffic cases was down by 197.

That’s all according to the Lakewood Municipal Court’s annual report released last week.

In the report, Judge Patrick Carroll wrote that although the total number of cases has decreased, “the annual case load remains overall consistent.” 

He said that the number of cases filed doesn’t fully explain the court’s workload. For example, a traffic or criminal case may contain more than one charge.

The number of cases has fluctuated only slightly going back to 2005. The exception was in 2008, when the court had more than 16,000 cases.

One exception to the trend of an overall decrease in cases at 12650 Detroit Avenue was in the housing court, where there was a jump from 2011 to 2012.

Spike in the Number of Cases Before the City’s Housing Court in 2012

To see the court’s entire annual report, click on the PDF at right. But here are a few of the interesting trends in 2012:

Court finance

In an attempt to “spend cautiously,” the court had $71,000 of its allocated budget returned as unspent to the city’s general fund in 2012.

“Changes with the city of Lakewood and the overall condition of the economy has made all of us more conscious of spending,” Carroll wrote.

The revenue collected by the court dropped by $11,000 from 2011. However, the court’s revenue exceeded its operating expenses, resulting in a surplus of $621,000 to the state of Ohio, the county and the city.

The court also administered changes to how fines and fees are collected, with a “greater emphasis on payment plans, collection agency referrals and driver’s license forfeitures” for nonpayment.