Legal Question in Family Law in Ohio
My children's father was quite abusive to me in our relationship. Although never convicted, several police reports were made and ultimately my children and I left to a battered women's shelter. I filed and was granted a CPO. He filed for custody and after about a year the magistrate dismissed the case because he kept missing hearings and was filing a lot of ridiculous motions and not showing up for the hearing. I agreed to enter a parenting time share agreement after the fact and it was allowed. Fast forward through the nearly 2 years of harassment I've received from him and his parents, he left to Florida (I'm in Ohio) for work. He is a flight instructor. He did not notice the court of this move, or the one 3 months before that to another Ohio county, and has missed 18 of the last 20 visitations. I have filed an intent to relocate to Washington state since I have no family and no support here in Ohio. I am 1 strike away from loosing my job since I am the only parent of 3 children who has to leave work if they're sick or have a dr. appointment. Since my ex left for Florida I have urged him to "file something leting the court know why you aren't taking your visitation" but he will not, nor will he provide an address to me where he is in Florida and claims his "domicile" is still Ohio since his lease was paid in full for the entire year from September 2013. Hehas promised he will "never allow" me to move with the children and constantly badgers me, calling me pathetic, a terrible mother, psychotic, and threatens that I can't afford to fight him with my "shitty job" and it gets much much worse. My question is, isn't he in violation of Summit county Ohio law since he didn't file intent to relocate? He was named a "residential parent but with mother having primary residential custody for school purposes" also, since HE chose to unilaterally forgo visitations for his new job in Florida, doesn't that make my relocation more likely to be approved? I'm so scared, all these threats from him and honesty I just want the kids to be around family, more stability and support, ultimately a better life for them. But I feel my children's father just wants to keep me here so that I do not thrive as a means of control. I can not afford an attorney, I had one for our parentage case but I can not again pay for one. Please give me some ray of hope that this will be approved.
1 Answer from Attorneys
In Ohio, if a party does not live up to the Court's orders in a Shared Parenting Decree, then the party who is living up to the Decree can bring a Motion to Show Cause why the other party should not be held in contempt of court. Without being able to read your decree, I can't tell for sure what parts of the decree, if any, his conduct violates. But if he were to be found in contempt of court, then you would be entitled to recover whatever attorneys fees you incurred from him. If he makes a lot of money, it usually not too hard to sell an attorney on taking on such a case if there is a clear violation of the decree and deep pockets on the other side.
The Court will not put much consideration into his conduct when it comes to allowing you to move to Washington or not. Rather the Court is going to look at what is best for the children. However, the fact that he does not often exercise his visitation would be a strong argument in your favor if he tries to tell the court that your moving to Washington would hurt him in some way.
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