Clerk of Courts Update: Evictions Summons

In January of this year, the Clerk of Courts launched two new tools to help landlords and tenants navigate the eviction process. A newly designed eviction summons was sent out starting in early January. The previous summons was written in difficult to understand legalese and was confusing regarding the basic eviction process. The new summons is more readable and easier to understand. The Clerk of Courts partnered with the Stanford Legal Design lab to redesign the new summons and will be observing its effectiveness in increasing appearance rates at evictions hearings.

At the beginning of January, the Clerk of Courts in partnership with Stanford, launched a newly designed Help Center website and a one of a kind Eviction Help website. The new Help Center website was created to increase access to legal information and step-by-step guides covering all Municipal Court issues. The Eviction Help website covers housing issues in depth. It provides step by step guides to landlords and tenants through each step of the eviction process as well as sample forms and “how-to” maps. COVID has made the need for greater access to remote options more important. The website is on a platform that is designed specifically to communicate complex legal issues in an understandable way. Check out the new Help Center Website at cincyhelpcenter.org and the Eviction Help Website at cincyhelpcenter.org/housing.

To download a sample of the newly designed form(s), click here.