Ohio App. R. 25

As amended through March 13, 2024

Rule 25 - Motion to Certify a Conflict

(A) A motion to certify a conflict under Article IV, Section 3(B)(4) of the Ohio Constitution shall be made in writing no later than ten days after the clerk has both mailed to the parties the judgment or order of the court that creates a conflict with a judgment or order of another court of appeals and made note on the docket of the mailing, as required by App. R. 30(A). The filing of a motion to certify a conflict does not extend the time to appeal from the judgment of the court of appeals to the Ohio Supreme Court. A motion under this rule shall specify the issue proposed for certification and shall cite the judgment or judgments alleged to be in conflict with the judgment of the court in which the motion is filed.

(B) Parties opposing the motion shall answer in writing within ten days of service of the motion. The moving party may file a reply brief within seven days after service of the answer brief in opposition. Copies of the motion, answer brief in opposition, and reply brief shall be served as prescribed for the service and filing of briefs in the initial action. Oral argument of a motion to certify a conflict shall not be permitted except at the request of the court.

(C) The court of appeals shall rule upon a motion to certify within sixty days of its filing.

Ohio. App. R. 25

Effective:7/1/1994; amended effective 7/1/2010;7/1/2011.

Staff Note (July 1, 2010 amendment)

The amendment to division (A) is intended to ensure that the ten-day period for filing a motion to certify a conflict begins to run at the time the court of appeals first enters a judgment or order that creates an intra-district conflict. Subsequent motion practice under App. R. 26 does not extend that ten-day period if the conflict was already present in the court's original judgment. On the other hand, the ten days begin to run with the entry of a judgment or order ruling on an application for reconsideration or en banc consideration under App. R. 26(A) if the intra-district conflict first arises in the court's ruling on that application.

The amendment to division (B) ensures a responding party's full ten-day response period, even if that party does not receive the motion on the day it is filed. Because the ten-day response period now begins to run from the date of service, a party served by mail now has an extra three days to file an opposition. See App. R. 14(C). The amendment to division (B) also permits the moving party a reply in support of the motion within seven days of service of the opposition; this clarification avoids any ambiguity about the right to file a reply in support of a motion under App. R. 15(A).

Staff Note (July 1, 2011 amendment)

App. R. 25(A) has been amended in two ways. The first amendment changes the event that starts the running of the ten-day period for filing a motion to certify an inter-district conflict. Under the former rule, the motion was due within ten days of the entry of the judgment or order first creating the conflict; under the amended rule, the motion is due within ten days of the clerk's compliance with the mailing and docketing requirements of App. R. 30(A).

The second amendment is merely a clarification that any subsequent appeal, the time for which is not extended by a motion to certify a conflict, lies in the Ohio Supreme Court. No substantive change is intended by this clarification.