Summit County's budget hearings on Nov. 4 included presentations from the Probate Court, Juvenile Court and the Law Library.

The Probate Court thanked council for medical-insurance support, noted internal cost savings and warned that state reimbursement for mandated mental-health/competency hearings had been cut roughly in half compared with prior years. The judge said the state had previously provided about $150,000 to reimburse such costs and that the county was recently notified the reimbursement would be reduced by about half; the court said it would try to avoid asking for additional funds this year but warned future requests could be necessary if the reduction persists.

Juvenile Court representatives said the 2026 budget "really stays the course" from 2025 with small salary-and-benefit increases, security camera upgrades, and ongoing expungement and other community programs. Bob Bickett and the juvenile-court judge noted staff efforts on expungement clinics and security assessments of the building.

The Law Library reported it is funded by fines, fees and memberships rather than the general fund, noted a relaunched website and a new self-help page that links residents to legal clinics (including juvenile-court expungement clinics), and said the library has seen increased traffic to those referral resources.

Council members asked questions about help-desk availability at the probate court and thanked staff for outreach and service delivery. The presentations were informational as part of the budget hearings process.