Ohio Rev. Code » Chapter 2931
Ohio Revised Code

Ohio Rev. Code § 2931.02 (2026)

Criminal jurisdiction - county courts

✓ current as of May 2026
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Effective:
April 6, 2023
Latest Legislation:
House Bill 281 - 134th General Assembly
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A judge of a county court is a conservator of the peace and has jurisdiction in criminal cases throughout the judge's area of jurisdiction. The judge of a county court may hear complaints of the peace and issue search warrants. Judges of county courts have jurisdiction on sworn complaint, to issue a warrant for the arrest of a person charged with the commission of a felony where it is made to appear that such person has fled or is outside this state and it is necessary or desirable to extradite such person. Judges of county courts have jurisdiction within their respective areas of jurisdiction in all cases of violation of any law relating to:

(A) Adulteration or deception in the sale of dairy products and other food, drink, drugs, and medicines;

(B) Prevention of cruelty to animals and children;

(C) The abandonment, nonsupport, or ill treatment of a child under eighteen years of age by the child's parents;

(D) The abandonment, or ill treatment of a child under eighteen years of age by the child's guardian;

(E) The employment of a child under fourteen years of age in public exhibitions or vocations injurious to health, life, or morals, or which will cause or permit the child to suffer unnecessary physical or mental pain;

(F) The regulation, restriction, or prohibition of the employment of females and minors;

(G) The torturing, unlawfully punishing, ill treating, or depriving anyone of necessary food, clothing, or shelter;

(H) Any violation of Chapters 4301. and 4303. of the Revised Code, or keeping a place where intoxicating liquor is sold, given away, or furnished in violation of any law prohibiting such acts;

(I) The shipping, selling, using, permitting the use of, branding, or having unlawful quantities of illuminating oil for or in a mine;

(J) The sale, shipment, or adulteration of commercial feeds;

(K) The use of dust-creating machinery in workshops and factories;

(L) The conducting of a pharmacy, or retail drug or chemical store, or the dispensing or selling of drugs, chemicals, poisons, or pharmaceutical preparations therein;

(M) The failure to place and keep in a sanitary condition a bakery, confectionery, creamery, dairy barn, milk depot, laboratory, hotel, restaurant, eating house, packing house, slaughterhouse, ice cream factory, or place where a food product is manufactured, packed, stored, deposited, collected, prepared, produced, or sold for any purpose, or for the violation of any law relating to public health;

(N) Inspection of steam boilers, and of laws licensing steam engineers and boiler operators;

(O) Prevention of short weighing and measuring and all violations of the weights and measures laws;

(P) Laws relating to the practice of medicine or surgery, or any of its branches;

(Q) Laws relating to the filling or refilling of registered containers by other than the owner, or the defacing of the marks of ownership thereon;

(R) Offenses arising from or growing out of the violation of conservation laws.

Last updated March 10, 2023 at 11:20 AM

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 12 cases (3 in the last 5 years), 1955–2025 · leading case: State v. Logan, 2025 Ohio 1772 (Ohio 2025).
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State v. Logan, 2025 Ohio 1772 (Ohio 2025). “IV, § 1, 4; R.C. 2931.02; R.C. 2931.03. {¶ 31} For these reasons, I would affirm the judgment of the Eighth District Court of Appeals sitting en banc, and I therefore respectfully dissent.”
State v. Neguse, 594 N.E.2d 1116 (Ohio Ct. App. 1991). “The criminal law jurisdiction of common pleas courts is defined by R.C. 2931.02 and 2931.03, which grant common pleas courts general original subject matter jurisdiction over the prosecution of all crimes which take place within their geographical limits except for minor…”
State v. Cornelius, 2011 Ohio 2564 (Ohio Ct. App. 2011). “The term is also employed in R.C. 2931.02, criminal jurisdiction of county courts; R.”
State v. Parks, 2016 Ohio 4920 (Ohio Ct. App. 2016). “" R.C. 2931.02 and R.C. 2931.03 establish that the common pleas courts have general original subject matter jurisdiction over prosecution of crimes that take place in their -2- Butler CA2016-02-032 geographical limit unless the offense is minor and jurisdiction is vested in an…”
State v. Staffrey, 2025 Ohio 2889 (Ohio 2025). “IV, § 1, 4; R.C. 2931.02 and 2931.03. And the General Assembly changed the felony-sentencing scheme with a clear purpose and intent “‘to reduce the state’s prison population and to save the associated costs of incarceration by diverting certain offenders from prison and by…”
State v. Bonilla, 2014 Ohio 623 (Ohio Ct. App. 2014). ““The criminal law jurisdiction of common pleas courts is defined by R.C. 2931.02 and 2931.03, which grant common pleas courts general original subject matter jurisdiction over the prosecution of all crimes which take place within their geographical limits except for minor…”
Welsh v. Ohio State Med. Bd., 165 N.E.2d 658 (Ohio Ct. App. 1960). “Under the provisions of §13422-3 GC (now §2931.02- R. C.), a Justice of the Peace (in effect in 1932) was given special jurisdiction to try violations of the Medical Practice Act.”
Savage v. Warden, Pickaway Corr. Inst. (S.D. Ohio 2022). · cites it 2× “” See Ohio Rev. Code §§ 2931.02, 2931.03. The existence of probable cause has no impact whatsoever on the trial court’s subject matter jurisdiction.”
State v. Ruebusch, 174 Ohio St. (N.S.) 422 (Ohio 1963). · cites it 6× “However, in view of our conclusion with respect to Section 2931.02, Revised Code, it is not necessary for us to determine whether such a relationship can be implied upon the theory that watercraft congestion in a body of water could affect the animal or plant life therein or…”
State, Ex Rel. Chapute v. Weaver, 131 N.E.2d 451 (Ohio Ct. App. 1955). “the respondent in criminal matters is the same as that of a justice of the peace, we shall therefore refer to §2931.02 R. C., which defines his jurisdiction as follows: “A justice of the peace is a conservator of the peace and has jurisdiction in criminal cases throughout the…”
State v. King, 166 Ohio St. (N.S.) 293 (Ohio 1957). · cites it 2× “Such jurisdiction of justices of the peace in criminal matters is defined in Section 13422-2, General Code (Section 2931.02, Revised Code). It confers such jurisdiction over 18 offenses outlined in the section, of which the offense with which we are concerned is not one.”
State ex rel. Brooks v. Miller, 2015 Ohio 3755 (Ohio Ct. App. 2015). “First, he contends the effective date of the statutes under which he was convicted occurred after the alleged wrongful acts.”
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