How do I get custody in Ohio?

Depends on where you stand and if you are married or unmarried. If you are an unmarried couple, the mother automatically, from the day of birth, is presumed to be the legal custodian residential parent of the child. The father, because he was – the parties were not married – we need to establish his rights as a father and have parenting time granted to him through the court. Upon filing with the court, we need to show that he is the biological father whether that be through a DNA test. And then the parties could hopefully come to an agreement of the parenting time. If they cannot, the court will make that decision for them.

If the parties are married and the child is born during the marriage, both parties have automatically the same types of parental rights of the child. If somebody desires to file for a divorce, they would file with the domestic relations court. The parties would decide who would be the primary legal custodian of the child, whether they could dome to a shared parenting plan.

So depending on if you were married or unmarried, it depends on which court you go to. If you are married, you go through a divorce process. If you are unmarried, you go through the juvenile court process.