Scioto County, OH Probate Information

A Scioto County fiduciary carries the statewide Ohio duties, which the Ohio state page covers, plus local obligations the court enforces through its case management and delinquency rules. These are the additions worth putting on your calendar.

Scioto County files the statewide forms and adds two local estate items. Ohio uses one set of Standard Probate Forms prescribed by the Supreme Court of Ohio and used in all 88 counties, and Local Rule 30.1 directs that the standard forms be used when applicable, with local, non-standard forms for particular situations available on the court's own website. The local estate items on the court's Resources page are a Statement of Intent, on which the attorney for the applicant certifies which procedure applies to the estate, from a full administration through will preservation only, admission of the will with or without relief from administration, or an appointment solely to pursue a wrongful death claim, and a Notice to the Court of Decedent's Medicaid Status, a sworn checkbox certification of whether the decedent was over 55 or permanently institutionalized and a Medicaid recipient, and whether the Medicaid estate recovery administrator was notified.

The load-bearing statewide items for a decedent's estate are Form 1.0 (Surviving Spouse, Children, Next of Kin, Legatees, and Devisees), Form 2.0 (Application to Probate Will), Form 4.0 (Application for Authority to Administer Estate), Form 4.5 (Entry Appointing Fiduciary; Letter of Authority), Form 5.0 (Application to Relieve Estate From Administration) with Form 5.1 (Assets and Liabilities of Estate to be Relieved from Administration), Form 5.10 (Summary Release From Administration), Form 6.0 (Inventory and Appraisal), Form 7.0 (Certification of Notice to Administrator of Medicaid Estate Recovery Program), Form 12.0 (Application for Certificate of Transfer) and Form 13.0 (Fiduciary's Account). Confirm the current version on the Supreme Court of Ohio forms page before you file.

Presentation rules matter here. Local Rule 37.1 requires legible, single-sided 8 1/2 by 11 inch filings in 10 to 12 point type, the case number in the caption, the addresses of the parties on anything that opens or reopens a case, and the telephone number and email address of every filer who has no attorney. Documents that require the fiduciary's signature must actually carry it; the attorney may not sign for the fiduciary. Filings needing service must carry a request for service or proof of service, and the court will not return file-stamped copies by mail unless you include copies and a postage-paid, self-addressed envelope.

Scioto County publishes its court costs in two matching places: the deposit schedule in Local Rule 58.1 of its local rules effective February 1, 2026, and the Pricing page on the court's own site, sciotocountycourt.com, read July 2026. Deposits must be prepaid before any type of case is opened. Once a deposit is exhausted, costs are billed intermittently or at the end of the proceeding and are due on receipt, and counsel or unrepresented parties must make an additional deposit if needed so all costs are covered before the final accounting is approved. The rule states that deposit amounts, court costs and fees may be changed by the court without amending the local rules, so treat every figure below as the published figure, and confirm the current amount at (740) 355-8360 before you file.

For context, Ohio fixes the underlying fee items statewide: $35.00 to appoint a fiduciary, $15.00 to probate a will, $60.00 to relieve an estate from administration or grant a summary release, and $1.00 per page for certified copies (R.C. 2101.16(A), effective September 30, 2025). The advance deposit a probate court may require by local rule when an application for appointment is made or a will is presented is capped at $125.00 (R.C. 2101.16(E)), and courts may add computerization and dispute-resolution charges (R.C. 2101.162, R.C. 2101.163). The county deposit lines below are case deposits against total costs, which is why several run higher than the statutory per-item fees.

Copies of the court's public records cost $0.25 per page for standard size documents, mailed only if copies, postage and mailing costs are prepaid (Local Rule 35.1, verified July 2026). The court accepts cash, check, money order, credit card or debit card, and card payments carry an additional fee from the payment processor (Local Rule 32.1). Attorneys e-filing a new case must pay the deposit by credit card inside the e-filing system (Local Rule 37.2(I)).

1. Opening: unless everyone interested in the estate has consented to the applicant, an application for appointment as administrator is set for hearing within 21 days of filing, oral or non-oral as the court determines (Local Rule 78.1). A waiver of the right to administer on Form 4.3 does not by itself signal agreement that the applicant is suitable.
2. Will admission: where notice is required before probate of a will, at least 3 days written notice of the hearing goes to the surviving spouse and next of kin, or 5 days where the spouse or any of the next of kin live more than 100 road miles from Portsmouth (Local Rule 59.2(E)).
3. Release from administration: at least 5 days written notice of the hearing to the surviving spouse and heirs unless waived or found unnecessary, plus 3 weeks notice to interested parties by publication unless waived; where no heirs are known, the hearing is set at least 3 weeks out with publication required (Local Rule 60.3).
4. Remote appearance: a written motion to appear by the court's videoconferencing software must be filed no later than 10 working days before the hearing and include the approval of all parties; in-person appearance is otherwise presumed (Local Rule 33.1).
5. Inventory: due within 90 days of the issuance of the letters of authority, with the hearing on it, ordinarily non-oral, set not less than 14 nor more than 30 days after filing (Local Rule 78.3, R.C. 2115.16).
6. Accounts: the final and distributive account is due within six months of appointment (R.C. 2109.301); where a statutory exception defers it, a first partial account is due within nine months of appointment and yearly after that (Local Rule 64.1(B)(1)).
7. Long-running estates: an estate open more than 13 months from appointment requires a written status report from the fiduciary and the attorney, and every 6 months thereafter, with a possible status review hearing (Local Rule 78.4(C)).
8. Delinquency: the court applies the statutory schedule strictly, sends a written delinquency notice to the attorney of record, then a second notice to the attorney and fiduciary, then may cite both into court, with a $5.00 citation fee added to costs (Local Rule 60.2, effective February 1, 2026) and removal of the fiduciary among the possible outcomes.

Ohio's smaller-estate routes are statewide, and the state page explains which one fits: a release from administration on Forms 5.0 and 5.1 for estates of $35,000 or less, or $100,000 or less where the surviving spouse takes everything (R.C. 2113.03), and a summary release on Form 5.10 (R.C. 2113.031). What is local is the procedure Scioto County wraps around a release. The deposit is $85.00, listed as release of assets, with a parallel $85.00 release of information line for a decedent's records (Local Rule 58.1, effective February 1, 2026), against the $200.00 deposit for a full administration. The hearing takes at least 5 days written notice to the surviving spouse and heirs unless waived or found unnecessary, plus 3 weeks notice by publication to interested parties unless waived, and where no heirs are known the hearing is set at least 3 weeks out with publication required (Local Rule 60.3). Where there is a will, the will is still presented for probate, and the release application may be filed in lieu of appointing the executor named in it; where administration has already begun, the release entry dispenses with the final account and discharges the fiduciary and surety (Local Rule 60.3(B) and (C)).

Two cautions. First, no insolvency proceeding runs inside a release: if the debts look larger than the assets, the applicant, the commissioner or the court can convert the case to a full administration (Local Rule 62.1(C)), so an estate that may be insolvent should be planned as a full administration from the start. Second, a release does not escape the estate recovery and creditor rules: the Medicaid estate recovery notice is due within 30 days of filing the release application where the program applies (R.C. 2117.061), Scioto County's own Medicaid status certification accompanies the estate paperwork, and the six-month claim bar runs from death regardless of the release (R.C. 2117.06).

Page last reviewed: July 2026.