Archives for July 2008

Ohio Parents who are not married

July 31, 2008

A Columbus Ohio Attorney who represents Unmarried Parents – Mothers or Fathers – article about the rights of unmarried parents in Oho.

In Ohio, when a child is born to parents who are not married, the mother has sole custody of the child. The father has no right to see the child at all until he goes to court to obtain those rights. See the father’s rights section of this website, under Answers to Your Questions.

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When a couple who is not married splits up, they often struggle about when or if the father is going to see the child. Emotional issues get in the way, and power struggles result, placing the child squarely in the middle. Many times, fathers try to avoid going to court to get court ordered time with their child because of the cost involved, or because they are afraid they will formally have to start paying child support.

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Here’s the thing – fathers of children who were not married in Ohio have no rights UNTIL THEY GO GET THEM. So, bottom line, there is nothing for it but through it. Often, once parenting orders are in place, relations between the parents become less difficult because boundaries are established and there is no need for a contstant power struggle. So mothers and fathers alike need to ask themselves this question: Are we going to do this now, while we can reasonably get along, or later, after years of arguments because there are no guidelines and boundaries regarding when each parent will see the child? The longer you wait, the more difficult it may become.

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Court does not have to be a battle. Parents can set court orders by agreement. If the parents need help preparing an agreement, one or both can hire an attorney (each attorney can only represent one parent). If parents need help reaching agreement, they can utilize counseling, mediation, even friends and family members to help them talk things out. The important thing is not to delay dealing with the issue, allowing hostility to increase.

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Parents who were never married may also be interested in the following pages on our website:

For more information about UNMARRIED PARENTS IN OHIO, see our page regarding UNMARRIED PARENTS.

For more information about FATHER’S RIGHTS, see our page regarding FATHER’S RIGHTS IN OHIO.

For more information about MOTHER’S RIGHTS, see our page regarding MOTHER’S RIGHTS IN OHIO.

For more information about GRANDPARENT RIGHTS see our page regarding GRANDPARENTS RIGHTS IN OHIO.

For more information about obtaining CUSTODY, SHARED PARENTING, OR VISITATION in Ohio, see our post about OHIO CUSTODY.

For more information about DNA testing, see our post regarding DNA TESTING.

For more information about SHARED PARENTING, see our post regarding SHARED PARENTING IN OHIO.

CALL NOW at (614) 225-9316 or contact us by e-mail.

DISCLAIMER

Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorneys providing free document notarization – notarized, notary public

July 30, 2008

The Law Offices of Virginia C. Cornwell is a law firm of Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorneys.

As a public service, our Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorneys provides free notarization and notary public services in Columbus, Ohio on Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. to noon. If you want to make sure that our office is open and a notary is available on the day you plan to come, you can CALL, NOT E-MAIL, 24 hours in advance. YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE A FORM PREPARED THAT WE CAN NOTARIZE FOR YOU. IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU NEED TO HAVE NOTARIZED, OR WHAT THE FORM SHOULD LOOK LIKE, YOU MUST RESOLVE THAT ON YOUR OWN BEFORE YOU COME IN TO HAVE YOUR DOCUMENT NOTARIZED. If you come in without the form you need notarized already prepared, we will have to ask you to come back when you have it.

Although we are Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorneys, we will not give you legal advice unless you schedule a consultation and your legal matter relates to Ohio Family Law. Having a lawyer or law office employee notarize your document does NOT give your document any additional legal significance or authority.

If you need documents notarized for an international adoption or for some other purpose for which you will need documents authenticated or apostilled by the Ohio Secretary of State, please call us to make sure an attorney is present to notarize your documents.

Clients can have documents notarized for free at any time.

DISCLAIMER

SHARED PARENTING IN OHIO

July 21, 2008

A Columbus Ohio Shared Parenting Attorney article about shared parenting in Ohio.

Shared Parenting – what is that? Shared parenting does not have a single definition. For the legal definition, click here to view a page containing questions and answers about shared parenting in Ohio. For the statutory definition, you can find it in this statute.

For the real world definition of shared parenting, shared parenting is what you make of it. Shared parenting works as well or as poorly as the parents are willing to make it work. I know, I know, you’ve probably read a lot of touchy – feely articles about shared parenting designed to make you just burst into song. Just hang on for a few more minutes – I promise to make it worth your time.

When a couple splits up, their children almost always want them to get back together. Once they realize that can’t happen, the children just want their parents to get along. No matter how much the other parent gets on your nerves – you are stuck with them. They will always be the parent of your child. If you are going to have the legal right to have shared parenting of your child, you are going to have to work to minimize conflicts with the other parent.

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There are websites designed to minimize conflicts and maximize accountability. One such site is called Our Family Wizard. Click here to look at Our Family Wizard. The page I linked to lists some of the things people most commonly fight over in both shared parenting and sole custody cases. Currently, the site costs about $100 a year. Unfortunately, it has been our experience that families that co-parent well don’t really need the site, and families that are struggling with shared parenting don’t want that level of accountability. Although the expense of the site is often given as the reason not to use the site, but a whole year of membership is cheaper than one hour of a lawyer’s time. This site, and similar sites, allow a non-confrontational medium for exchanging schedules, documents, contact information, etc. It is my understanding that the site tracks communications between the parties, document and receipt exhange, etc. No more arguing about who told whom what, and when – it’s all right there preserved in perpetuity. This is a tool that takes he said/she said out of the equation. This has the effect of encouraging everyone to be on their best behavior. It’s something to think about.

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Another often overlooked resource for shared parenting is mediation. To read our post about mediation, click here.

The bottom line is that shared parenting is not about a title, it is not about ownership, and it is not about child support. Shared parenting is about co-parenting. This means treating the other parent as an important part of your child’s life.

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Unfortunately, some parents are or become unwilling to co-parent. When that happens, you have five choices:

Ignore the problem
Try to work out the problems with the other parent through discussion, mediation or perhaps even counselling (if both parties are willing)
Return to court to enforce the shared parenting plan that you have (contempt of court ),
Return to court to modify the shared parenting plan that you have
Return to court to terminate shared parenting.

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Once shared parenting is put in place, Ohio courts are generally in favor of maintaining shared parenting if at all possible. If shared parenting is to be substantially changed, (either to terminate shared parenting or to change the school placement parent), Ohio courts must first find that there has been a change in circumstances.

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If the court finds that there has been a change in circumstances since the time of the last parenting decree, in order to terminate shared parenting or change the school placement parent, a court must ALSO find that the benefit of the change outweighs the detriment of the change. For example, if the court is going to change the school placement parent and make the child change schools, then the court will first want to know that the benefit of changing the child’s school is going to outweigh the distress of changing schools.

Shared parenting used to be much more difficult for fathers who were not married to the mother of their child to obtain. Courts are progressively moving toward the idea that a fit parent has a right to be fully involved in their child’s life.

CALL NOW at (614) 225-9316 or contact us by e-mail.

For additional important information about establishing paternity in Ohio please visit the web page for Ohio Paternity Enhancement by clicking here.

For more information about MOTHER’S RIGHTS, see our page regarding MOTHER’S RIGHTS IN OHIO.

For more information about GRANDPARENT RIGHTS see our page regarding GRANDPARENTS RIGHTS IN OHIO.

For more information about obtaining CUSTODY, SHARED PARENTING, OR VISITATION in Ohio, see our post about OHIO CUSTODY.

For more information about DNA testing, see our post regarding DNA TESTING.

For more information about SHARED PARENTING, see our post regarding SHARED PARENTING IN OHIO.

For more information about the rights of UNMARRIED PARENTS OR NEVER MARRIED PARENTS, see our post regarding UNMARRIED PARENTS IN OHIO.

For more information about DISSOLUTION, see our page regarding DISSOLUTION IN OHIO.

For more information about DIVORCE, see our page regarding DIVORCE IN OHIO.

CALL NOW at (614) 225-9316 or contact us by e-mail.

DISCLAIMER

OHIO MEDIATION

July 21, 2008

A Columbus Ohio Family Law Attorney article about mediation in Ohio Family Law Cases.

The phrase AMICABLE DIVORCE or an AMICABLE SPLIT does not necessarily have to be a contradiction in terms. An often overlooked resource in family law is mediation. Mediation is a non-binding meeting with the other party and a person who is trained to facilitate communication. For example, if you can’t stand to talk to each other, you can talk to the mediator who will present your concerns to the other party. A mediator will make sure each party is treated respectfully and allowed an opportunity to speak. The mediator’s job is to help the parties reach an agreement. Your attorney can accompany you to mediation if you would like, but it is often more successful if attorneys are not present.

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Unfortunately, some parties experience resistance when they advise the mediator that they can only come to a final decision after consulting their attorney. This may be more likely to occur with mediation which is court ordered, rather than mediation which the parents seek out on their own, but practices vary from county to county and from mediator to mediator. In Columbus, I have been impressed with the work of Community Mediation Services of Central Ohio. To find Ohio mediation services in your county, click here. For family law matters, most counties have mediation services associated with their domestic and/or juvenile courts, but parties do not necessarily need to rely upon those departments to mediate their differences.

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Mediation communications are supposed to be privileged. This means the mediator should NOT be allowed to discuss what was said during mediation with anyone, including your judge or magistrate. To learn more about mediation privilege click here or here.

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DISCLAIMER

How do I sign up or apply for child support in Ohio?

July 17, 2008

A Columbus Ohio Child Support Attorney article about Ohio child support, and how to get started.

First and foremost, you need to check out the website for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, or ODJFS. Start by clicking here. Child support is governed by State Law, not County or City Law, so you want to know what the State of Ohio says about how child support should be handled. If what the county Child Support Enforcement Agency, or CSEA, office tells you is different from the State Law, then you should ask to speak to a supervisor to discuss your concerns.

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After you’ve read through the frequently asked questions section of ODJFS, if you think you want to sign up for child support services, you can download the form to get started from this page. This form is for people who are NOT already on public assistance. This form will be available in your local child support office, but you might need access to some information you have at home to fill it out, so it’s a good idea to fill the form out before you go to your local CSEA.

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If you have applied for public assistance, it is fairly certain that the County was all over the child support issue from the get-go and signed you up when you applied for public assistance. If you have any doubt as to whether the County signed you up for child support, ask the local county CSEA in the County where you applied for public assistance. You can get a list of child support offices and children services offices in every county in Ohio by clicking here. Call your local county CSEA to find out when is the best time to come down to their office and submit your application for child support services.

CALL NOW at (614) 225-9316 or contact us by e-mail.

DISCLAIMER