No Learning Curve. Our Cuyahoga program is a stand-alone, standard Windows program that follows standard Windows programming conventions. It is not a simple template, HotDocs or script, but instead is a true Windows program. What this means is that opening, saving and printing files is done just like it is in your word processor. You won’t need to learn needlessly different or complex new ways to do the same old thing. If your program doesn’t have an immediately recognizable menu bar and interface, it’s not following Windows protocol.
 

Notices, Consents & Waivers

Over half the standard probate forms involve the spouse, kin and legatees, so you’ll be wanting your probate program to fully complete all the necessary notices, consents and waivers. Cuyahoga does just that! If you have 20 beneficiaries, Cuyahoga completes all the notices, etc. automatically - one for each individual or entity that needs one. No work-arounds or cutting and pasting.

Quality Not Quantity

Instead of paying for thousands of forms that you never use or that are incorrect, we give you the complete set of “Standard Probate Forms” as defined and promulgated by the Ohio Supreme Court under Rules 51 and 52 of the Rules for the Superintendence of Common Pleas Courts. You might ask yourself, what good is a Motor Vehicle Transfer form that is either the wrong form or that you need to fill out manually? If all you want is dumb, PDF templates, you can usually find them free at most probate court or government web sites. If a program supplies a motor vehicle form, shouldn't it complete the form? Some probate programs we're familiar with don't include the correct local form AND don't complete it!

Scrollable 2-Sided Forms

Front and back sides of the same form are viewed together in a single, scrollable format. There’s no need to jump through hoops and waste time just because you want to work on or view the back side a form.

What You See Is What You Get. When you look at our Inventory or Accounting, you see the form as it would be printed. You don’t need to go through a preview process (similar to word processors in the 80’s) to see what your form will look like.

All screens and printouts are designed in strict compliance with the Supreme Court's typographical specifications set forth in Rules 51 and 52, supra.
 

Additional Features

• The Next Generation program designed and customized for Windows XP, although it runs in all Windows 32-bit environments, i.e., 2000/ME/98/95 & NT.
   
• Handles calculations automatically; most forms complete themselves! This includes not just the mathematically-oriented forms like the inventory and accounting forms, but also all consents, waivers and notices will contain the beneficiary name and address information automatically.
   
• Exports probate files to the Ohio Estate Tax program that can, in turn, export a file to the U.S. Estate Tax program - a true single entry system.
   
• Capable of sending forms to your word processor for final review, formatting and printing. This facilitates emailing, faxing, making PDFs, etc. The functionality of your word processor is your only limitation.
   
• Inventory and Accounting forms can be sorted and printed in the order that you entered items or by category.
   
• Multiple forms. If there are 10 kin, in 10 different states, and each needs a particular notice, you can prepare all 10 notices in one step.
   
• Saves and loads probate estates as ordinary simple files. There is no need to follow ridiculous procedures like saving save each form or page individually. Your entire set of forms is saved and opened just as you would any word processing file - after all you don't save each page of document individually do you? Of course not, your word processor saves all the pages at the same time.
   
• Click here to try free, fully functioning demo.
   

We’ve added special Cuyahoga County specific forms as well as various transfer documents and enclosure letters. We took a survey of Cuyahoga County law offices and incorporated every suggestion of forms they wanted to see added to WBOPF. The wish list is in the box to the left. Not 2,000 forms that you don’t need and won’t use, but all of the key forms that you’ll use for every estate you handle. For example, transferring real estate to the surviving spouse, transferring motor vehicles, transferring stocks and bonds and a core set of handy enclosure letters that can be customized to look like your office stationary. If it’s useful, you’re going to find it in Cuyahoga’s inventory of forms. Note that many of the probate forms come in multiple pages. An inventory for example can be up to 80 pages long, or you could send Form 2.2 Notice to Probate to 80 different heirs!

Print Shop Perfect Probate Forms

Every form is fully formatted, picture perfect and ready to file. Strict compliance with the typographical specification set forth in Rules 51 and 52 of the Supreme Court Rules for Superintendence for Courts of Common Pleas assures acceptability in all Probate Courts.

No Repetition - Automated Forms

You enter basic information one time. Cuyahoga automatically completes the forms based on your single entry (i.e., decedent's name, address, date of death; applicant or fiduciary's name, address and telephone number; attorney's name, address, telephone number and registration number; surviving spouse's name, address and telephone number; all court information, county name, court title, presiding judge, etc.). Enter assets and liabilities once. Then simply direct the entries to the appropriate forms by pointing and clicking. That means you type lengthy legal descriptions a single time. Enter any information you want and use it as a default over and over in different decedent files without retyping!

Word Processor Compatibility

You'll love this exciting new feature. With it you can send a form to your word processor so you can disguise your forms to be indistinguishable from the Court's own "approved" forms. What's that? You say all Probate Courts must, by law, accept forms that comply with the typographical specifications set forth in Rules 51 and 52 of the Supreme Court's Rules of Superintendence for the Courts of Ohio? Guess you don't get around much! It doesn't always work that way and you've probably heard the maxim "You can't fight city hall." So in addition to printing forms that comply with each of the hundred or more specifications in Rules 51 and 52, Cuyahoga also lets you change the forms in your word processor to include any county- or office-specific modifications you desire.

Compatibility With Ohio Estate Tax for Windows

Better yet is Cuyahoga's compatibility with our Ohio Estate Tax for Windows (WOET) software. Cuyahoga files can be converted into nearly complete WOET files that you need only check over and then print. This, in itself, saves hours of time and reduces errors that may occur in the preparation of the Ohio Estate Tax form. The process is extremely easy. Simply mark an asset or debt to direct it to a particular schedule of the Ohio Estate Tax form. Our new WOET program can read the codes you enter and import the contents of the probate file into a WOET file. It's no harder than opening a file!

A Complete, Stand-Alone Probate System

Cuyahoga is not a WordPerfect add-on or macro. Cuyahoga is a complete system in itself. It automatically completes and formats the probate forms based on information you enter in the worksheets. It prints picture perfect probate forms on all printers—laser, ink jet, even dot matrix printers. All printer fonts are part of Windows and maintained internally and automatically. Additional software fonts or hardware font cartridges are unnecessary.

Regardless of being a stand-alone Windows program, Cuyahoga can turn your finished forms into word processing documents, emails, faxes or pdf files.

User Friendly, No Prohibitive Learning Curve, No Expensive Training Needed

When we say we use the standard Windows interface, it means that our program looks and feels like your word processor. It has a file menu with saving and printing commands in the customary locations. for the user this means that you can dive right in instead of having to learn new ways to do things you already know how to do. Unconventional buttons and interface gimmickry are okay for games, but business and legal software should always stick to the Windows interface you're familiar with. Cuyahoga does just that.

User Friendly Prices

When you realize that other legal software (i.e., bankruptcy packages, probate software, office management systems, etc.) start at about $500 and up, you can appreciate the price-conscious value of Cuyahoga. Like all the other software in the Puritas Springs Software legal library, we designed and priced Cuyahoga to give you maximum bang for the buck! No other legal software gives you the same specialized, comprehensive assistance so inexpensively.