Custody

Custody

Many parents are adamant that their children not be adversely affected by a divorce. It is usually the most important factor for parents in a divorce, and many questions have to be addressed in any family law case involving children.

Those questions include:

• Who will have primary custody and possession of the children?
• What are each parent’s legal rights and duties concerning the children under Ohio law?
• How will parenting time with the children be shared between the parents?
• What geographic area will the children live in?
• Who will pay child support and children’s expenses?
• How will major decisions be made affecting the children?

While you educate yourself on the divorce process itself, it is very important that you become familiar with the processes regarding your children.

Under Ohio law, custody is broken into two different concepts, each with different legal rights and duties: (1) conservatorship and (2) possession/access to the child. These are not the same. A parent, other adult (i.e. grandparent, other relative, etc), or agency may have one, both, or neither.

Legal custody means that you have both the right and the obligation to make decisions about the upbringing and welfare of your child. Physical custody means that you have the right to possess or have access to your child. Legal and physical custody are not the same, because while one person may have physical custody of the child, they may have limited, or no, legal custody.

In most cases, parents are awarded joint custody, where both are given the right to be involved in the decision making process. This does not necessarily mean that the parents share equal time with, or have equal access to the child.

In some cases, one parent may be appointed as the sole managing conservator, with the majority of the rights and duties of a parent, while the other parent is appointed as a possessory conservator, meaning that person only has the right to possession and/or access to the child and limited rights or duties. In other words, one parent will have sole legal custody, while the other has visitation rights.

Often, when you initiate a suit for child custody or for a divorce, a temporary order is set in place to define the terms of custody, possession, access, rights and duties, until a final order or final decree of divorce takes the place of the temporary order. Both parties may agree on the temporary order and it may not be the same as the final order.

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