Ohio Family Legal Questions

While you cannot gain guardianship without parental rights being voluntarily or involuntarily terminated, the parents may be willing to sign a Temporary Power of Attorney for Our Minor Child allowing you to take care of the child, take him to the doctor, enroll him in school, etc.  This can be revoked.  But once you have cared for the child for six months without either parent trying to see him, you can ask CPS to grant you custody.... Read More

I'm sorry, it's difficult to tell what you are asking.  Are you referring to division of assets in a divorce or dissolution?  If so, the short answer is, it depends.  An attorney will need to take a detailed look at the entire situation before he or she can answer that question for you. Best of luck.... Read More

To change the child's last name all you need is for the father to receive notice of the proceedings through the probate court, where you would file the request to amend the birth certificate. If you wanted the father's parental rights terminated, you would need to seek a stepparent adoption. Lack of contact for a year is a means to establish abandonment that will allow the court to grant the stepparent adoption.... Read More

You have two options. The simplest option is to file for eviction and have him removed from the property. He doesn't pay rent and has a drug issue, so take your pick on causes for eviction.   Your other option could be to file for a temporary restraining order that would make him vacate based on the threat to you or the children. There is no reason you can't do both of these at the same time.... Read More

The process begins like any other divorce and both the business and the house are treated as assets of the marriage, what's called "marital property." The goal of the divorce is to equitably (not EQUALLY, equitably) divide the marital property the unwind the divorce as best as possible.   The complication with going concerns as part of the marital property is that every asset has really only three options. 1) Buy the other out; 2) Sell the asset and split the equity/profit; 3) continue to jointly own the asset as individuals. Of the three, courts prefer the first two options and really dislike the third option.   However, at the end of the day the court is just looking to come to an equitable conclusion. If you and your spouse can come to an agreement as to how you will split (or not split) the marital assets the court will likely approve it.... Read More

You can petition the court or reasonable visitation or custody under these facts. Grandparents, generally have no rights to visitation or custody for an intact family (married spouses). They may obtain rights when it is in the best interest of the child in other circumstances. These include the type of circumstances you are describing wherein custody is held by another grandparent and they are not using their parenting time.   I recommend filing a petition for an allocation of rights and responsibilities under the existing parenting order to assert a claim for grandparent visitation.... Read More

Because you are the presumptive father (you signed the birth certificate) you do not need to wait for child support in order to establish visitation. Instead, petition the court for an order for custody and to establishparental rights and responsibilities. If there is a risk of danger to your child from the boyfriend, you may also be able to move for a temporary custody order and support order. Based on his convictions alone most courts would award this. You may also need to move to have a guardian ad litem appointed due to the risk of danger to the child if they stay with the mother.... Read More

You will need to file a petition in court for child support modification. You can represent yourself in court to keep the costs low by using prepaid legal services like we provide. We are based in New York but we do provide services in your state, as well as have monthly payment plans available. Above answer and comments to questions are for general purposes only. Feel free to call 1-877-866-8665 Ahsan Syed, Case Manager. ... Read More

I understand how you feel. As long as you know where your son and grandkids live we can ask the court to grant you visitation rights so that you can spend some time with your grand kids. Give me a call on Thursday to go over the case details and how best we can assist you. You can call me on Thursday at 212-387-8001. Will do our best to unite you with your granddaughter ... Read More

You leave much unsaid, in particular, whether you are still married and whether there are current child custody orders in place.  If there are custody orders in place awarding joint or sole physical custody to the mother of your child and you have taken or kept the child out of the United States to avoid complyig with the Orders, you are essentially asking for advice from American attorneys on how best to continue violating an American state court order.  Does that seem about right?  If so, do you really expect legal help in continuing to violate a court order?  ... Read More

You should be able to get the social security numbers from the Soccial Security Administration.  If you file and claim the children, and she has done the same, you may both get audited. Was there something in the plan about you two exchanging forms to permit the taking of the exemptions?  Was there something about being "substantially" compliant in payment of support before  you could take the exemption?  You need to take  your plan to an attorney and discuss all of this. The mother may be in contempt.... Read More

If you know where the assets are you can ask the court for a judgment on the arrearage and then try to collect the judgment yourself.  The downside of that is once the arrearage is reduced to judgment he may be able to wipe out the arrearage in a bankruptcy.  Also, once its reduced to judgment the agency may refuse to continue to collect on the arrearage.... Read More

What rights he has will be determined by the laws of the state that granted the divorce.  In Ohio he would only be able to assert his right to visitation if he completed the mandatory parenting class required of all divorcing parents.  Once he completed the class he would be able to file a request for visitation rights through the courts.   If she is the custodial parent and he was given no visitation rights he needs to go to court, not try to contact his daughter directly.... Read More

No, you will need to go through the court because part of the child support obligation is for medical insurance and there is a "cash medical" cost assessed if there is no private health insurance covering your son.  The reason everyone is now required to go through the court system (CSEA) is that they did not do it as promised on their own and parents who were perfectly capable of supporting their children were not doing so forcing the parent with the children to do it all on their own or seek help through public assistance.  It is the obligation of both parents to support their children, not just the parent with the children and not the taxpayers who make public assistance possible. ... Read More

It sounds like you don't have a custody order/parenting schedule in place.  If not, you need to get one.  When you divorced your wife there had to be some language dealing with support of the children.  You need to request a modification of the prior order and seek a set parenting time schedule.  Most every county in Ohio will have a local rule dealing with parenting times.  In Franklin County, its Rule 27.  This rule sets out the minimum standard for parenting time.  By getting such orders in place, you should be able to avoid some of the arguments, but if not, you can hold her accountable.... Read More

To start, you need a domestic relations attorney, and you need one who has significant experience in juvenile and domestic relations litigation. Do NOT try to handle this yourself. This is a relatively new area of the law in Ohio, created by the Ohio Supreme Court case of Castle v Castle in 1984. The Castle Doctrine says: "The moral and legal obligation to support disabled children does not stop simply because a disabled child turns 18." Whether your situation will allow a person to seek a court order on behalf of the disabled person is a judgment call for a lawyer with all of the facts at hand. This article does not create a lawyer / client relationship, nor may it be relied upon as legal advice. This article is intended solely for entertainment purposes.... Read More