Recent actions by the Ohio Supreme Court and the Ohio General Assembly significantly change Ohio law concerning the unauthorized destruction of records (ORC 149.351).House Bill 153 (the 129th General Assembly’s budget bill) limits public office liability for the unlawful destruction of records by restricting who can bring these lawsuits and the total amount of damages a public office may face.Similarly, in Rhodes v. New Philadelphia,¹ the Ohio Supreme Court also restricted the persons entitled to recover against a public office for the unauthorized destruction of records to only those truly “aggrieved” by the destruction of a record.