Legal Question in Family Law in Ohio

Requesting advice pro-bono, I cannot afford an attorney, but I desperately need some advice on what my rights and options are. I lost custody of 2 of my children (girls) 13 years ago to a maternal aunt. All of the allegations were false, found to be false, yet childrens services interfered in anything I did to try and get them back and pushed for adoption from day 1. I was allowed to visit them for about 5 years, then my aunt cut off all contact because they wanted to be with me. I had another child 7 years ago and have custody of him. About 3 years ago my aunt contacted me and my son and I have had visitation with my daughters for the past 3 years. Recently paternity was established (encouraged by my aunt) for my oldest daughter, and as soon as her father tried to see her my aunt cut off all contact with him, bragged how SHE only had legal rights to kids, and then cut me out with no explanation. She abuses and neglects both of my daughters and has had more involvement with social workers then I ever did. I am trying to find out legally what can I do, can I even try to get custody of them back at this point? I am 32, and she is almost 70, her husband is almost 80 and has dementia. They are clearly not fit, and I am. I have a stable home, enough income to support them, I homeschool my son and am a great parent, I have numerous witnesses willing to speak on my behalf as well. If I cannot sue for custody, do I have any legal grounds to at least request partial custody or court ordered visitation? Did my aunt establish legal visitation by allowing them to see me and their brother for almost 3 years? What can I do?


Asked on 5/02/14, 12:32 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Eric Willison Eric Eastman Willison

In Ohio, you can certainly petition the court to return custody of the children to you. Though it would be ten time easier to do it with an attorney than to attempt to do it yourself, you can still file the motions yourself and represent yourself. There are attorneys who will work on such cases pro bono, and they are mostly to be found at your nearest Legal Aid Society and/or if there is a law school near you, that law school may have a legal clinic that could handle the matter for you.

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Answered on 5/02/14, 2:30 pm


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