OH · rules
Ohio Crim.R. 17.1
Pretrial Conference
At any time after the filing of an indictment, information or complaint the court may, upon its own
motion or the motion of any party, order one or more conferences to consider such matters as will
promote a fair and expeditious trial. At the conclusion of a conference the court shall prepare and
file a memorandum of the matters agreed upon. No admissions made by the defendant or
defendant’s counsel at the conference shall be used against the defendant unless the admissions
are reduced to writing and signed by the defe ndant and defendant’s counsel. The court shall not
conduct pretrial conferences in any case in which a term of imprisonment is a possible penalty
unless the defendant is represented by counsel or counsel has been waived pursuant to Crim.R. 44.
In any case in which the defendant is not represented by counsel, any pretrial conference shall be
conducted in open court and shall be recorded as provided in Crim.R. 22.
History
Effective Date: July 1, 1973 Amended: July 1, 2000 Staff Note (July 1, 2000 Amendment) Rule 17.1 Pretrial Conference The prior rule prohibited courts from conducting pretrial conferences in criminal cases until the defendant was represented by counsel. The amendment to Crim.R. 17.1 permits a court to conduct a pretrial conference with an unrepresented defendant in certain circumstances. Specifically, in cases in which a term of imprisonment is not a possible penalty, the court may conduct a pretrial conference with an unrepresented defendant when the defendant has waived counsel pursuant to Crim.R. 44. In such a case, the pretrial conference must be conducted on the record in open court.
Provenance
- Source
- supremecourt.ohio.gov
- Retrieved
- 2026-09-14
- Edition
- 2026-09-14
- Content hash
dce72e78a7a2782e2346a64c10c795b489764e2331a4de1a7218b2440a3e8afc
The link goes to the issuing authority’s own document — the one we read to produce this record. Where a source publishes whole titles rather than sections, your browser may need a moment to jump to the provision.
Unofficial copy of government-published law, reproduced from official sources with full provenance. Not an official publication; verify against official sources before relying on it in a filing. Records in the 'guidance' corpus, and only that corpus, are sub-regulatory (interpretive guidelines, survey procedures) and are not binding law. Validity bounds follow each jurisdiction's declared temporalBasis.