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Under current law, most appeals of agency decisions against a professional license or application for a professional license are made to the Court of Common Pleas in the county where the business is located or where the licensee or applicant resides. Appeals from decisions of the Liquor Control Commission, the Casino Control Commission, the State Medical Board, the State Chiropractic Board, the Board of Nursing, and certain decisions of the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, however, are required to be made to the Court of Common Pleas in Franklin County.

This has led to, arguably, an outsized role for the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and the Tenth District Court of Appeals in establishing precedent in these types of cases; simply because they deal with more of these appeals than any other courts in the state.

This outsized role is about to change. Maybe.

Starting October 3, 2023, appeals from the agencies that currently are required to be made to the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas may also now be made to the Court of Common Pleas in the county where the business is located or where the licensee or applicant resides. In other words, appeals from, for example, the State Medical Board can now be made in 1 of 2 counties: either Franklin County or the county where the licensee or applicant resides.

Potentially further diminishing the role of the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas and the Tenth District Court of Appeals, the legislation making these changes instructs courts that they are not required to follow precedents established by the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas or the Tenth District Court of Appeals.

At first blush, this seems obvious. Generally speaking, courts are only required to follow decisions issued by courts with authority over them (i.e., the Court of Appeals to which their decisions are appealed and the Supreme Court of Ohio). However, the Tenth District Court of Appeals has been the authority on administrative appeals from these agencies for decades and there are several significant opinions of that court that have never been affirmed by the Supreme Court of Ohio. This clear instruction from the General Assembly authorizes the courts of common pleas which could now be considering their first, for example, Board of Nursing appeal in decades to ignore the decisions of courts with significant experience with this type of appeal.

These upcoming changes to administrative appeals will provide a new strategic decision for appeals from decisions of these agencies, especially in the near future when case law in Courts of Appeals other than the Tenth District is sparse.

If you have been sanctioned by a state agency and would like to discuss your appeal options, you should consider contacting one of the licensed attorneys at Graff & McGovern, LPA. Attorney Brandon Smith is available at (614) 228-5800, x. 7 and brandon@grafflaw.com.