Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, General Division Filing Rules

If the plaintiff's attorney fails to provide the required title evidence, an interested party may seek leave to furnish and file it within the ensuing 30 days.

A motion to withdraw an order of sale that references a specified settlement must attach proof of that settlement to the motion.

Before the default-judgment hearing, plaintiff’s counsel must provide an affidavit establishing that the defendant is not an active member of the military.

Opposing briefs on motions in limine must be filed no later than seven days before trial.

Counsel must prepare written stipulations of all uncontested jury facts and file them no later than one week before trial.

The clerk must notify the court and public when an E-filing malfunction lasts more than one hour.

A jury-waiver request must be filed and served on opposing counsel and the court at least 14 days before trial.

If a served defendant does not answer or respond, the plaintiff must timely move for default judgment or risk dismissal for want of prosecution.

Joint and disputed proposed jury instructions, interrogatories, and verdict forms must be filed at least seven days before trial.

motions in limine must be filed 21 days before trial begins.

The assigned-counsel fee for a withdrawal-of-guilty-plea proceeding is $820.

A filing fee is required for a debtor-examination submission.

A continuance motion based on a conflicting trial assignment will not be considered unless it includes a copy of the conflicting assignment and is filed at least 30 days before the scheduled trial.

Any request to continue a matter other than a CMC must be made by motion at least 14 days before the scheduled event, supported by good cause, and filed and delivered to the Court and opposing counsel on the filing date.

Every continuance request must be made by motion.

Every motion to continue a trial must identify alternate trial dates within four weeks of the scheduled trial date.

If the Court cannot rule on summary judgment before the final pretrial, it may continue the trial date for at least sixty days upon a party’s motion.

Electronic service sends notice of a filed document through the E-Filing system to all other electronically registered case participants.

At least 7 days before final pretrial, defendant’s counsel must fax plaintiff’s counsel and the Court a responsive letter identifying agreements and disagreements, stating a settlement offer, and explaining the offer with an itemization of each damages component.

Trial briefs must be served and filed at least seven days before trial.

Proof of mailing must be presented at the default hearing.

Service on a nonresident pro hac vice attorney must also be made on local counsel, and service on local counsel is deemed service on the nonresident attorney.

Pleadings may not be amended through interlineation or obliteration.

An electronic Excel copy of every Excel attachment to a filing or trial exhibit must be emailed to the staff attorney.

In addition to hard copies, proposed jury instructions, stipulated statements, interrogatories, and verdict forms must be emailed to the court's staff attorney as Microsoft Word documents.

Any pleading exceeding five pages must be hand-delivered.

Counsel should place exhibits in three-ring binders with marked divider tabs, and each binder must include a table of contents.

Pro se litigants may not communicate with chambers by email.

Substantive criminal issues must be addressed with all parties at a pretrial, through group communications, or by motion on the public docket.

Criminal-case questions should be directed to the bailiff during business hours.

Plaintiff’s counsel must initiate the case management telephone conference with defense counsel and then Judge Russo’s Staff Attorney at the stated number.

Plaintiff’s counsel must initiate the telephone hearing for default judgment.

Only one captioned document may be included as the filing in each e-filing, although attachments may be included.

Pro se litigants must electronically file motions and responses through the e-filing system.

Civil and criminal motions must be filed electronically and appear on the court’s filing queue.

Proposed orders may optionally be submitted through the Clerk of Court’s electronic filing system.

Courtesy copies of all pleadings and motions must be delivered to Judge Nancy Margaret Russo’s office on the filing date, except that paper discovery requests and responses do not require courtesy copies.

Courtesy copies of dispositive motions must be delivered to the judge’s chambers on the filing date.

Courtesy copies must be provided to the court for every motion exceeding 10 pages.

Motions are e-filed and appear on the court’s filing queue; court should be provided a courtesy copy of any civil or criminal motion, or any response thereto, more than 20 pages in length; parties are reminded to timely file and respond to all motions in accordance with the criminal and civil rules.

Counsel must provide the Court with a courtesy copy whenever a motion is filed.

For motions other than summary judgment or motions in limine, the opposition brief is due 14 days after filing and the reply brief is due seven days after the opposition brief.

For summary judgment, opposition is due within 28 days and reply within 7 days after opposition; oral argument is available upon request, with disposition posted on the docket absent another arrangement.

Before filing any discovery motion, the parties must promptly contact the Staff Attorney and arrange a telephone or in-person attorney conference.

Before contacting the court about a discovery dispute, attorneys must attempt to resolve it with opposing counsel as required by the cited rules.

Parties must confer before filing a non-dispositive motion and indicate agreement where possible.

Documents filed under seal must be submitted in paper form unless the court directs otherwise.

A party seeking to file an agreed confidential document must move for sealing, and the court will decide the request case by case.

Civil reply briefs may be filed without prior court approval, but responses to them will not be accepted.

The investigator’s bill must be filed with assigned counsel’s attorney-fee application and paid as part of counsel’s expenses.

When an opposing party responds to a motion, the Court will rule only after the matter is fully briefed.

Trial briefs may not exceed 10 pages unless good cause is shown and the court grants leave.

Trial briefs may not exceed three pages.

Final pretrial statements, including exhibits, may not exceed 10 pages.

The Court encourages active participation by less-experienced lawyers and may allow bifurcated oral argument or relax the one-lawyer-per-witness rule to facilitate it.