Sued Above Jurisdictional Limit in Muni Court

[AkronHB]

My question involves court procedures for the state of: Ohio

In 2002 (when I was 18) I was involved in a motor vehicle accident (driving my grandparents Mercedes), that resulted in the car being totaled. I was sued in 2004 for $68,000 by the insurance company. The judgment was granted, however, I have paid very little towards it due to school and other things. My drivers license is suspended indefinitely by the State due to the judgment. I need to get my license back, so I began researching the case in order to make payment arrangements.

It has come to light that several mistakes, on the part of the court, as well as the Plaintiff's attorney have come to light:

The Plaintiff's Mistake: The paperwork that the Plaintiff submitted to the court was for $68,000, far above the jurisdictional limit of $15,000 imposed on the Municipal court by State of Ohio law. I assume this case should have been transferred to the Common Pleas docket, or if that doesn't happen automatically, the Plaintiff should have filed in Common Pleas court to begin with.

The Court's Mistake: Despite the Plaintiff's paperwork being for $68,000, the court somehow misread it as $6,800, heard the case, and issued judgment in the amount of $6,800.

The Plaintiff then submitted paperwork to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for a judgment in the amount of $68,000, even though no such judgment exists, as the trial court can not hear judgments in that amount.

What can I/should I do? I've contacted an attorney already, but I'm hoping for some quick answers here as the attorney says he will get back to me after reviewing the case over the weekend. The statute of limitations in the case has been reached a long time ago, but I'm not sure if they can refile for the correct amount due to the errors made by the court. Should the Municipal court have transferred this to the Common Pleas docket, or is filing with the proper court the responsibility of the Plaintiff? Thanks for any insight folks!

[flyingron]

Your rights to appeal the jurisdiction or limitations on judgment appear to have been long past (not really statute of limitations).
Maybe your lawyer can find something to go on, buy I'm not hopeful.

[AkronHB]

I don't wan't to appeal anything, but I'm certain that the Plaintiff will! The judgement they WANTED was $68,000, they were only awarded $6,800 due to the mistakes - that's a definite good thing for me. However, they still think they were awarded $68,000, as does the Ohio BMV, despite the court issuing a judgement for $6,800 per the docket.

[Sir Jon]

Have you received legal help on this yet? Ohio Municipal Courts do not have subject matter jurisdiction in any case where the amount claimed is over $15,000. R.C. 1901.17. The court had no jurisdiction to act, regardless of the mistake on the lower amount. The court's action is a nullity. Subject matter jurisdiction is never waived, so any time limit for appeal does not matter. You should try a Civ. R. 60(B) motion for relief from judgment, based on the lack of subject matter jurisdiction.