Legal Question in Family Law in Ohio

In Ohio, you don't have any rights to see your child if you are not married to the mom unless you establish paternity with the local Juvenile Court and get child support and a visitation schedule set up.

Child support and visitation rights are separate legal concepts however. Just because you are behind on child support does not mean that the mom can stop you from having your court ordered child support. If she does not adhere to the court's schedule, then you can bring contempt of court charges against her and the court will use its powers to enforce your visitation rights.

If you are behind on child support, then the court will likely require you to start paying the full monthly amount, plus a small added on amount called an "arrearage" amount, which if paid long enough, will get you back up to current. For example, if your child support payment is $500 per month, and you are behind by $10,000.00, then the Court will require you to pay $500.00 per month plus an arrearage amount of, say, $75.00 per month so your total payment would be $575.00 until the entire $10,000.00 arrearage was paid off. So long as you pay the current amount and the arrearage amount every month, then the court would consider you current for the purposes of defending any contempt of court action brought against you for not being fully paid.

Lastly, you should know that if you do not consent to the adoption, then the child cannot be adopted.