Common Pleas Court

The Common Pleas Court has four divisions: General, Domestic Relations, Juvenile and Probate. There are two Judges elected to the Court. Each Common Pleas Judge is elected for a term of six years. Judge Stelzer oversees the General and Domestic Relations divisions, which includes civil cases, felony criminal cases and domestic relations cases. Judge Gallagher oversees the Juvenile and Probate divisions, which includes estates, guardianships, adoptions, juvenile abuse, neglect and dependency cases and juvenile delinquency cases.

General Division

  • All Felony Criminal cases including grand jury
  • Civil cases including personal injury, contracts, torts, real estate including foreclosures, malpractice, appeals from state and county administrative agencies, and other special statutory remedies and proceedings.

Domestic Relations

  • Annulment, legal separation, divorce and dissolution of marriage proceedings, post legal separation, divorce & dissolution of marriage proceedings.
  • UIFSA ( Uniform Interstate Family Support Act) proceedings, civil Domestic violence proceedings, conciliation proceedings

Probate Division

  • Estates, Testamentary Trusts, Wrongful death actions, Guardianships and Conservatorships, Adoptions, Adult Protective services cases, Birth registrations and corrections, Complaints for civil actions, Mental illness competence, Minor settlement cases, Name changes and Marriage licenses.

Juvenile Division

  • Delinquency proceedings, unruly child proceedings, juvenile traffic offender proceedings, juvenile tobacco offender proceedings, abuse, neglect and/or dependency proceedings, proceedings against adults for contributing to the delinquency or unruliness of a child or for failure to send a child to school, parentage, allocation of parental rights & responsibility & child support proceedings for those parents who have not been married to one another.