Ohio Child Custody Legal Questions

Probably not. CSEA will likely require at least a minimum payment from Obligor to Obligee absent a mammoth event such as an inheritance. Please contact an Ohio Domestic Relations attorney before proceeding with this matter for an in depth review that this issue requires. This information may not be construed as legal advice and is for entertainment purposes only.... Read More

You need to get to a lawyer right now. I will say it again: call a lawyer today. Your ex is playing you. She is currently the sole residential and custodial parent pursuant to ORC 3109.042. To gain any rights to see your son, or co-parent your son, you need an order of the court. Absent that order you can pay all of the child support required and never see your son. Please contact a lawyer. This information is not intended as legal advice, but rather is intended only for entertainment.... Read More

Wow...a loaded question if I ever saw one. What problems will you have as a single teen-age father. Well let's start with the fact that when identified as the father, you can be compelled to pay child support. This will continue until your child is eighteen and graduates from high school. If the average child support payment is just $200 per month, this will cost you over the eighteen years at least $43,000. Would you like to see the child? Be nice to the mother. You see child support is separate from visitation. You can pay child support, and if you do not go to court to establish paternity and get an order for visitation, you will not have the right to see your child except for when the mother feels like allowing you a visit. She will also get to establish the terms of the visit (a few minutes, over night, her house, your house, supervised, unsupervised) unless you get the order for visitation from the court. Now you can try to get the order on your own, but to succeed you will likely need a lawyer. Figure another $1500 or so for that. Now let's say you don't pay the child support order. Sooner or later the Child Support Enforcement Agency will catch up with you and order you to court. If you don't show, they will find you and arrest you. If you do show you will be charged with not paying support and given 90 days to cure the arrearage with a one time lump sum payment (usually $1000). Don't have the money still? After one more chance you go to jail for two weeks. County jail, that is. Now you are concerned about the parenting affidavit. If you don't sign it you will find establishing paternity more difficult, and that means seeing your child more difficult. Oh, and then we have the times (assuming you get the order of visitation) when you have the child and have to go somewhere. No dumping the child back on mom, you will have to arrange child care. Costs for child care can be several hundred dollars per month. You mention that your girlfriend is in the state of Ohio. Obviously, you are not here. Don't worry about it. The Uniform Child Support Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act means that the states can make deals to collect child support with each other. And they do collect it it. And then (if you get the visitation order) you will have times when it is just you and your child. And the child will defecate in its diaper and you will get to wipe the excrement off its tush and re-diaper the child. And feed the child a bottle, which the child will quite probably spit up on you. Of course you will want your child to have a better chance at life than you do. So you will need to start saving for college for the child. Estimated costs for four years at the time when your child will be in college is somewhere around $300,000. Get a big piggy bank. And you were worried about the child getting your name. You, young man, are not ready to be a father, and were not ready to have sex if you could not take the steps necessary to prevent impregnating your girlfriend.... Read More

In Ohio, the rights of the father and the mother are established by ORC3109.042: *An unmarried female who gives birth to a child is the sole residential parent and legal custodian of the child until a court of competent jurisdiction issues an order designating another person as the residential parent and legal custodian.* ** If the father has not been to the court for an order of custody modification or visitation, AFTER establishing he is the father, then he has no custodial or visitation rights to the child. Please consult with an Ohio Domestic Relations attorney before proceeding in this case. The information published here is for entertainment purposes only and may not be taken as legal advice.... Read More

You are constrained to continue to comply with the custody and visitation order which is currently in effect. If you wish to change that you should engage in attorney and bring a motion for modification. At age 10 it is possible, even probable that your son will be interviewed confidentially regarding his position on visitation. In any case, until there is a modified order, it is up to you to make sure the current order is adhered to.... Read More

I assume you are not married. Until you have completed the mediation and have a shared parenting plan approved by the court and entered into an order of the court, you are the custodial and residential parent. You take the child on the taxes for last year unless an order of the court from the paternity case says to the contrary. Please consult a family law attorney who may consider your entire situation before filing your taxes.... Read More

Actually, you are correct. Ohio Revised Code Section 3109.042 states: *An unmarried female who gives birth to a child is the sole residential parent and legal custodian of the child until a court of competent jurisdiction issues an order designating another person as the residential parent and legal custodian.* For the father to obtain visitation rights to the child, he must establish paternity and then seek either visitation or a modification of custody. Please see a family law attorney in Ohio for further information.... Read More

I will never understand why people expect a nice, simple result from a highly complicated situation. Please gather up all of the documents for this case and go to a lawyer. Between the journal entry from the court hearing you described, and your papers granting you paternity, custody, visitation and support and using all of the documents I have identified, your lawyer may still need more information before a definitive answer can be obtained.... Read More

You don't provide enough information to provide a complete answer. Since you don't say what kind of case resulted in what you call "custody", it is not clear what rights the child's father has. Generally, if the father has any rights to be involved in the child's life that will be affected by the relocation, the mother must provide him with notice before leaving Colorado. Then, it will up to the father to decide whether to ask the court for some modification of the parenting time or even to try and prevent the move. Perhaps contacting the guardian ad item will be a quick way to find out whether the last court order created any obligation to notify the father.... Read More