In Ohio, the father of a child born to an unmarried woman has
no legal rights to the child until he obtains a court order granting him parenting
time and/or custodial rights. When a
child is born to an unmarried woman, she is the sole residential parent and legal
custodian of the child pursuant to Ohio Revised Code §3109.042 . This is a rebuttable statutory presumption. Single
mothers do not always retain “sole custody” in Ohio.
A father must petition a court for parenting time and/or
parental rights and to establish paternity.
A juvenile court will the exercise jurisdiction over the parents and the
minor child and issue orders that it determines are in the best interest of the
minor child. Depending on the facts of
each case, a father may obtain equal rights to make decisions in the life of
the minor child (also known as shared parenting). It is a myth that unmarried fathers will only
be awarded “visitation” with their child.
In many cases, fathers are able to obtain shared parenting and equal
decision making in regards to their child.
In order to obtain parenting rights to a child born to an
unmarried mother, a father must establish paternity. There are several ways an unmarried father can
establish paternity in Ohio.
Paternity may be established by affidavit which is usually done at the hospital time of the
child’s birth. This can also be done later
at a local registrar, health department or Child Support Enforcement Agency.
Establishing paternity through the Child Support Enforcement Agency is
not usually recommended unless the parents want to start child support
proceedings. If paternity is established via affidavit, the mother’s
consent is required, and the father gives up his option to have DNA testing
before paternity is established. This is method is not recommended if the
father has any doubts regarding his paternity of the child and can have
long-lasting effects if it is later determined that he is not the father of the
child.
Another
method to establish paternity is to participate in DNA testing either through
the child support enforce agency (which requires the mother’s consent unless
the agency initiates child support collection action on its own) or by filing
an action in court to establish paternity as part of the complaint to establish
the allocation of parental rights and responsibilities (formerly known as
custody). A court can then order
paternity testing and the mother’s consent is not required. This method alleviates any doubt regarding
paternity of the minor child at the beginning of any legal proceedings.
It is important to request an
order establishing parenting time with the minor child when requesting the
court to determine custody as unmarried fathers have no rights to parenting
time until they obtain an order from the court.
Ohio law provides that once parentage has
been established, a court must consider the mother and father as on equal
standing when determining the allocation of parental rights and
responsibilities. Again the court is
guided by statutory factors to determine the parenting time of each parent with
the minor child that is in the minor child’s best interest.
Contact Joseph Stafford, 216.241.1074, to further discuss your rights and to
determine a plan of action that is best for you and your child.
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