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Daniel Gigiano Blog

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Parental Rights

I often get asked what parental rights parents have when they are married, unmarried or have a child support order in place.  These are the common questions and the answers to those questions.

 

What is a putative father?

 

A putative father is a man who may be a child’s biological father but who is not married to the child’s mother at the time the child is born or who has not established paternity of the child in a court or administrative hearing.

 

Does a putative father have parental rights?

 

The putative father has no legal relationship with the child until he petitions the court for an order establishing a father-child relationship and an order regarding parenting time.

 

What rights does an unmarried mother have?

 

Unmarried mothers are the sole legal custodian and residential parent of a child, unless this is changed by court order.  Read more about this in Ohio Revised Code 3109.042 (R.C. 3109.042).

 

What rights do married parents have?

 

Parents who were married at the time of the birth of a child are both residential parent and legal custodian of that child, unless this is later changed by an order of the court.  Read more about this in Ohio Revised Code 3109.03 (R.C. 3109.03).

 

What is shared parenting?

 

The parents discuss issues about their child and attempt to reach an agreement prior to proceeding further.

 

What is a sole legal custodian?

 

One parent may make all major decisions regarding the child, without consulting the other parent.

 

What types of decisions would a sole legal custodian or shared parents make?

 

There are numerous decisions that a parent must make in the best interests of his or her child.  Some of the major decisions include educational decisions, major medical decisions, extracurricular activity decisions, and religious upbringing.

 

What is a residential parent for school purposes?

 

The children will attend the public school district corresponding to that parent’s residence address, unless the children attend private school.

 

Take a look at some of my articles, where I talk at length about these words and how they relate to divorce, dissolution, and child custody: can I move my child out of Ohio away from the other parent, Ohio grandparents’ rights, is there a minimum amount of child support in Ohio, can I get my child back in Ohio, how child custody is decided in Ohio, and numbers are not the only thing that changes Ohio child support.

 

Attorney Gigiano is a Medina Child Custody Attorney in Wadsworth, and has litigated child custody issues in Medina County Domestic Relations Court, as well as Wayne County, Summit County, Ashland County, Holmes County and Cuyahoga County Courts.  Attorney Gigiano’s aggressive representation has earned him a number of positive reviews on a number of  sites.  If you have questions about this or other questions you  need answered by a Wooster child custody attorney near Orrville or Akron child custody attorney near Barberton, please call Attorney Daniel F. Gigiano at 330-336-3330.