In the beginning of my husband's battle with his ex, (they were never married) he was told that when he signed the birth certificate, that that established paternity. We also live in Ohio. My advice would be to file for joint custody. That is exactly what my husband did. He was paying support and was granted joint custody with the mom being residential parent. After some time and the mom not taking care of the kids, he went back and got temp custody. IMO, I think that most judges want to try the shared parenting or joint custody. They want the child/ren to have equal time with each parent. So, unless your ex has proof that you are not a fit parent, or could not handel the resposibility, I would think that you would not need a lot of proof to make her look bad. Just the fact that you are the father and want to be more involved and want to take on more resposibility should be enough.whitedoveh said:
Good Luck!