Practice Area

The State of Ohio has considered that parents encounter situations where children are born to unmarried parents. When children are born to unmarried parents the Mother is automatically the residential parent and legal custodian by statute. This means that if a purported Father wants to establish and exercise his constitutional parental rights he must do so by filing a Complaint in the Court of Common Pleas. This is true even if the purported Father has signed the birth certificate of the child.

Upon filing a Complaint in the Court of Common Pleas to establish paternity and for allocation of parental rights and responsibilities the Court will initially order a genetic test to determine paternity if one is requested.  You have a right to a DNA test and should request one if you have any doubt about the parentage of your child. The same is true if a Mother files for child support with the local Child Support Enforcement Agency. Upon a filing for child support a Father or Mother can request the State of Ohio to perform the DNA test to determine parentage.  A Father has every right to file a Complaint with the Common Pleas court to allocate parental rights and responsibilities when a Mother files for child support.

The main reason a Father might want to file a Complaint to Establish Paternity and to Allocate Parental Rights and Responsibilities is to ensure he receives parenting time on a regular schedule ordered by the court and not one dictated by the Mother if the parties are in conflict. Another reason is for discovery purposes to ensure that child support payments are set correctly with all possible deviations considered.