Court fight: Littner beats out Sundermann

Kimball Perry reports:

A City of Cincinnati Solicitor will become the newest Hamilton County Magistrate as soon as he agrees on a salary for his new job.

Jay Littner, a former assistant Hamilton County prosecutor before he began working for Cincinnati, was the unanimous choice today by a group of Hamilton County Municipal Court judges in a private hearing.

Littner admitted he’d been offered the job and accepted this afternoon.

Now making $67,500, Littner will be paid $76,000 when he takes the Magistrate seat.

A magistrate is a quasi-judge. There are six Hamilton County Municipal Court magistrates and 14 judges.

In this case, Littner will be hearing eviction and other cases. He is taking the slot vacated with the upcoming resignation of Anne Erwin.

Littner, 46, of Clifton, grew up in Westwood and graduated from LaSalle High, University of Cincinnati and then the University of Dayton law school. He’s been an attorney since 1986.

He beat out two other Cincinnati assistant solicitors for the job as well as assistant Hamilton County prosecutor Betsy Sundermann, daughter of Cincinnati-based 1st District Court of Appeals Judge J. Howard Sundermann.

Sundermann withdrew her name from consideration, she said, to avoid a fight after the judges were split between giving the job to her or Littner.