Legal Question in Family Law in Ohio

In Ohio, if you already have a divorce decree or some other court ordered visitation schedule, and you want to switch this to joint custody (better known as "shared parenting") then you would have to make a motion to the court for this.

But be warned. Most people think of joint custody or shared parenting as a 50/50 split of the time with the child. While that is in some rare instances the case, mostly, even if the court grants shared parenting, the court will still assign the child to one parent (the residential or school placement parent) for most of the time and the other parent will get the child for an amount of time that will likely be every other weekend, every other holiday, and six weeks during the summer.

The significance of shared parenting will be that the important decisions in the child's life will need to be made in consultation with both parents. Thus when the child comes to school age, both parents will need to put their heads together about whether to send the child to private school or public school. When it comes to selecting a pediatrician, both parents will need to agree. When it comes to deciding what sports will be played (or in some cases, not played) or what church the child will attend, both parents will have to agree.

The primary requirement of shared parenting though is that the parents will have to have a relationship that makes working together on the major decisions of the child's life possible. The Court is not going to force itself into constant disagreements over these decisions. If the court senses that the parents can't agree on anything, then it will likely find shared parenting inappropriate and either refuse to grant it, or, if it has been granted, terminate shared parenting in favor of one parent having custody and being given the power to make all the important decisions.