Family Law Attorney serving Toledo, OH | Reliable & Trusted
Family law can be an overwhelming and stressful experience. Partner with an experienced attorney who only practices in Family Law and who will fight for you.
We Can Guide You Through Family Law Issues
Family law issues can turn your world upside down, leaving you with a whirlwind of emotions. The good news is that you don’t have to navigate the rocky terrain alone.
Allow Gaddy Family Law to help you forge a path to reclaiming your peace of mind and rebuilding your life. As an experienced divorce lawyer, Patricia understands the complexities you’re facing and is dedicated to providing the unwavering support you need. She offers comprehensive mediation services to resolve disputes amicably when possible, while always standing as an advocate for your rights, fighting on your behalf for the best outcome.
Gaddy Family Law handles a wide range of family law practice areas, including child custody, child support, alimony, and property division—ensuring you have knowledgeable representation no matter what challenges arise.
Divorce
A legal end to marriage, dividing assets and responsibilities. It addresses issues like asset division, debts, and alimony.
Dissolutions of Marriage
A mutual agreement to end a marriage less contentiously. It involves agreed-upon terms for assets and debts.
Child Custody
Determines parental rights and child care post-separation, including living arrangements and decision-making.
Pre-marital Agreement
A contract before marriage defining asset division and financial duties if the marriage ends.
Post-marital Agreement
Established after marriage, it outlines asset distribution and financial responsibilities upon separation.
Start Rebuilding Your Life with Family Lawyer's Guidance
Whether you’re facing a legal battle or need advice navigating your situation, we’re here to provide the support and advocacy you deserve. Take the first step towards clarity, peace of mind, and a stronger future by booking a free 15-minute telephone consultation with our family lawyer.
Areas of Family Law Practice
Child Custody Lawyer
Navigate Ohio’s complex custody laws and fight for your parental rights. We help establish custody arrangements based on the child’s best interests, considering factors like parental cooperation, the child’s adjustment to home and school, and each parent’s ability to facilitate relationships with the other parent.
Child Support Litigation
Ensure fair financial support for your children through proper calculation and enforcement of child support orders. We handle disputes over support amounts, modifications due to changed circumstances, and enforcement actions against non-paying parents.
Court Order Modifications
Life changes, and sometimes court orders need to change too. Whether it’s adjusting custody schedules, modifying support amounts, or updating parenting plans, we help you petition the court when circumstances have significantly changed since your original order.
Fathers’ Rights Lawyer
Protect your rights as a father in custody, visitation, and support matters. We understand that unmarried fathers face unique challenges in establishing legal parental rights and work to ensure you get the parenting time and decision-making authority you deserve.
Guardianship Litigation
When children need protection or care from someone other than their parents, guardianship may be necessary. We represent parties seeking guardianship and serve as Guardian ad Litem to protect children’s best interests in court proceedings.
Parental Relocation Lawyer
Moving with children after divorce or separation requires court approval in many cases. We help parents navigate Ohio’s relocation laws, whether you’re seeking permission to move or opposing a proposed relocation that could impact your parenting time.
Legal Separation Attorney
Sometimes couples need space without ending their marriage entirely. Legal separation allows you to live apart while addressing issues like property division, support, and child custody without the finality of divorce.
Paternity Lawyer
Establish legal fatherhood to secure parental rights and responsibilities. Paternity determination is crucial for custody, visitation, child support, and inheritance rights, especially for unmarried fathers who have no legal rights until paternity is established.
Grandparents’ Rights Attorney
Grandparents may have legal rights to visitation or even custody in certain circumstances. We help grandparents understand their rights and pursue court-ordered time with their grandchildren when family relationships have broken down.
Domestic Violence Legal Help
Protect yourself and your children from abuse through legal remedies. We assist victims in obtaining protective orders and ensure that domestic violence history is properly considered in custody and visitation decisions.
Protective & Restraining Orders
Secure immediate legal protection from harassment, threats, or violence. We help you obtain temporary and permanent protective orders and represent you in hearings to ensure your safety and that of your children.
Adoption Legal Services
Complete the legal process of welcoming a new family member. We handle all types of adoptions, ensuring proper termination of biological parents’ rights and establishing new legal parent-child relationships through court proceedings.
Emergency Custody Petitions
When children are in immediate danger, emergency custody orders can provide swift protection. We file urgent petitions when circumstances threaten a child’s safety or well-being and immediate court intervention is necessary.
Termination of Parental Rights Attorney
In cases involving severe abuse, neglect, or abandonment, terminating parental rights may be necessary to protect children. This serious legal action permanently severs the parent-child relationship and requires experienced representation.
Visitation Rights Attorney
Ensure meaningful relationships between children and non-custodial parents or other family members. We establish, modify, and enforce visitation orders while addressing issues like supervised visits when safety concerns exist.
LGBTQ Family Law Services
Navigate unique family law challenges facing LGBTQ individuals and couples. From adoption and surrogacy to custody disputes and relationship dissolution, we provide knowledgeable representation that understands your specific legal needs.
Juvenile Dependency Representation
When children are removed from homes due to abuse or neglect, all parties need strong legal representation. We represent parents, children, and other interested parties in dependency proceedings to protect rights and work toward family reunification when appropriate.
Prenuptial Agreement
Protect your assets and clarify expectations before marriage with a comprehensive prenuptial agreement. We draft agreements that address property division, spousal support, and other important matters while ensuring enforceability under Ohio law.
Post-Marital Agreement
Address changing circumstances in your marriage with a post-marital agreement. These contracts can modify property rights, establish support arrangements, or clarify financial responsibilities during marriage, providing security and clarity for both spouses.
The Family Law Attorney
Who Cares
Patricia is part of the Ohio State Bar Association, American Bar Association, and Women’s Law Association. She also serves as a Michigan SCAO-approved (Supreme Court Administrative Office) domestic relations mediator and trained as a mediator for general civil matters.
Patricia understands that each area of family law can overwhelm and stress you. The last thing you need is to feel like just another case file. For this reason, Patricia treats each case with the utmost patience and care. She’s committed to ensuring that all her clients are represented to the nth degree.
As an approved mediator in Ohio, Patricia aims to help parties find a mutually agreeable resolution to their issues. Mediation is not only more affordable and faster than going through a drawn-out legal process, it’s also geared to the parties participation in crafting their own partial or final resolution.
As a trained Guardian ad Litem, Patricia acts as a neutral third party appointed by the court to represent the best interests of children in cases involving the allocation or modification of parental rights and responsibilities or cases involving abuse, neglect, or dependency.
It’s essential to feel heard and feel like your interests are being considered. Rest assured that with Patricia, that’s exactly what you’ll get. You need a lawyer you can trust. Book a consultation with us today.
You need a lawyer you can trust. Book a consultation with us today.
- 1709 Spielbusch Avenue #108E Toledo OH 43604
- (419) 260-1795
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Areas We Serve
We proudly serve these communities in addition to Northwest Ohio:
- Lucas County
- Fulton County
- Wood County
- Perrysburg
- Sylvania
- Ottawa Hills
- Toledo
- Bowling Green
How does Child Custody Work in Ohio?
One of the most difficult things that happens with separate households is establishing a custody and parenting time arrangement for children. If parents cannot on a way forward on their own, it falls on the courts to decide. After weighing statutory best interest factors, the courts decide on one of the following arrangements:
Legal custody
This parent has the responsibility of being the primary decision maker for matters related to the child(ren) such as school, medical care, etc. This parent is also designated the child(ren)’s residential parent. Parenting time schedules can be any schedule agreed upon by the parties or ordered by the court.
Shared Parenting
Both parents are designated the residential parent of the child(ren) and are equally involved in decisions related to the child(ren), and remain equally involved in their child(ren)’s lives. The parents share the responsibilities and rights regarding the children. Parenting time is often split equally but can also be divided in any other manner agreed upon by the parties or ordered by the court.
Unmarried Parents
In Ohio, an unwed mother has sole legal and residential custody of her child “until a court of competent jurisdiction issues an order designating another person as the residential parent and legal custodian.
When a mother is unmarried, the father and other relatives of the child may file a complaint with the court where the child resides for an allocation of parental rights and responsibilities and parenting time or companionship time. The unwed father has no legally enforceable parental rights to the child for custody, parenting time, or decision making until recognized as the legal father through a court order, even if paternity has been established and the father is paying child support.
Child Custody Best Interest Factors
Child custody in Ohio is determined based on the best interests of the child under ORC 3109.04, a court will consider all of the relevant factors, including but not limited to:
(a) The wishes of the child’s parents regarding the child’s care;
(b) If the court has interviewed the child in chambers pursuant to division (B) of this section regarding the child’s wishes and concerns as to the allocation of parental rights and responsibilities concerning the child, the wishes and concerns of the child, as expressed to the court;
(c) The child’s interaction and interrelationship with the child’s parents, siblings, and any other person who may significantly affect the child’s best interest;
(d) The child’s adjustment to the child’s home, school, and community;
(e) The mental and physical health of all persons involved in the situation;
(f) The parent more likely to honor and facilitate court-approved parenting time rights or visitation and companionship rights;
(g) Whether either parent has failed to make all child support payments, including all arrearages, that are required of that parent pursuant to a child support order under which that parent is an obligor;
(h) Whether either parent or any member of the household of either parent previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to any criminal offense involving any act that resulted in a child being an abused child or a neglected child; whether either parent, in a case in which a child has been adjudicated an abused child or a neglected child, previously has been determined to be the perpetrator of the abusive or neglectful act that is the basis of an adjudication; whether either parent or any member of the household of either parent previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to a violation of section 2919.25 of the Revised Code or a sexually oriented offense involving a victim who at the time of the commission of the offense was a member of the family or household that is the subject of the current proceeding; whether either parent or any member of the household of either parent previously has been convicted of or pleaded guilty to any offense involving a victim who at the time of the commission of the offense was a member of the family or household that is the subject of the current proceeding and caused physical harm to the victim in the commission of the offense; and whether there is reason to believe that either parent has acted in a manner resulting in a child being an abused child or a neglected child;
(i) Whether the residential parent or one of the parents subject to a shared parenting decree has continuously and willfully denied the other parent’s right to parenting time in accordance with an order of the court;
(j) Whether either parent has established a residence, or is planning to establish a residence, outside this state.
(2) In determining whether shared parenting is in the best interest of the children, the court shall consider all relevant factors, including, but not limited to, the factors enumerated in division (F)(1) of this section, the factors enumerated in section 3119.23 of the Revised Code, and all of the following factors:
(a) The ability of the parents to cooperate and make decisions jointly, with respect to the children;
(b) The ability of each parent to encourage the sharing of love, affection, and contact between the child and the other parent;
(c) Any history of, or potential for, child abuse, spouse abuse, other domestic violence, or parental kidnapping by either parent;
(d) The geographic proximity of the parents to each other, as the proximity relates to the practical considerations of shared parenting;
(e) The recommendation of the guardian ad litem of the child, if the child has a guardian ad litem.
Our family law attorney will help you navigate this process and advocate for your parental rights.
Divorce and Dissolution of Marriage in Ohio
To file for a divorce in Ohio, the Plaintiff (filing party) must have been a resident of Ohio for at least six months immediately preceding the filing of the complaint for divorce and must also have been residing in the county where the divorce is filed for at least 90 days immediately preceding the filing.
To file for a dissolution of marriage in Ohio, one of the spouses must have been a resident of Ohio for at least six months immediately before filing the petition for dissolution and must also have been residing in the county where the petition is filed for at least 90 days immediately preceding the filing.
Legal grounds for divorce in Ohio under Section 3105.01 of the Revised Code:
(A) Either party had a husband or wife living at the time of the marriage from which the divorce is sought;
(B) Willful absence of the adverse party for one year;
(C) Adultery;
(D) Extreme cruelty;
(E) Fraudulent contract;
(F) Any gross neglect of duty;
(G) Habitual drunkenness;
(H) Imprisonment of the adverse party in a state or federal correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint;
(I) Procurement of a divorce outside this state, by a husband or wife, by virtue of which the party who procured it is released from the obligations of the marriage, while those obligations remain binding upon the other party;
(J) On the application of either party, when husband and wife have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation;
(K) Incompatibility, unless denied by either party.
What is considered when spousal support is calculated?
When calculating spousal support, the court considers factors contained in Ohio Revised Code 3105.18:
(C)(1) In determining whether spousal support is appropriate and reasonable, and in determining the nature, amount, and terms of payment, and duration of spousal support, which is payable either in gross or in installments, the court shall consider all of the following factors:
(a) The income of the parties, from all sources, including, but not limited to, income derived from property divided, disbursed, or distributed under section 3105.171 of the Revised Code;
(b) The relative earning abilities of the parties;
(c) The ages and the physical, mental, and emotional conditions of the parties;
(d) The retirement benefits of the parties;
(e) The duration of the marriage;
(f) The extent to which it would be inappropriate for a party, because that party will be custodian of a minor child of the marriage, to seek employment outside the home;
(g) The standard of living of the parties established during the marriage;
(h) The relative extent of education of the parties;
(i) The relative assets and liabilities of the parties, including but not limited to any court-ordered payments by the parties;
(j) The contribution of each party to the education, training, or earning ability of the other party, including, but not limited to, any party’s contribution to the acquisition of a professional degree of the other party;
(k) The time and expense necessary for the spouse who is seeking spousal support to acquire education, training, or job experience so that the spouse will be qualified to obtain appropriate employment, provided the education, training, or job experience, and employment is, in fact, sought;
(l) The tax consequences, for each party, of an award of spousal support;
(m) The lost income production capacity of either party that resulted from that party’s marital responsibilities;
(n) Any other factor that the court expressly finds to be relevant and equitable.
(2) In determining whether spousal support is reasonable and in determining the amount and terms of payment of spousal support, each party shall be considered to have contributed equally to the production of marital income.
Asset and Liability Division in Ohio
While the division process may start off with the intent of splitting everything equally, the application of family law may mean that it does not always end up being the fair outcome. Marital assets and liabilities are divided equitably.
Frequently Asked Questions about Family Law in Ohio
Explore our FAQs to find quick answers to your most pressing questions about family law processes, from divorce and child custody to pre- and post-marital agreements.
Family law attorneys in Ohio provide comprehensive legal services including divorce, dissolution of marriage, child custody, child support, legal separation, spousal support, child support, paternity, adoption, and prenuptial agreements. They help navigate Ohio’s family court laws on behalf of their clients with a high level of competence and compassion.
Your family law attorney needs to be experienced with Ohio family law, understand the specifics of your case, and offer you understanding and empathy. Ensure you are working with a family law attorney who can provide all that you need.
We work hard to make it easy for families by offering flexible payment options and free consultations.
Mediation in family law cases in Ohio is a process where a neutral third party helps resolve areas of dispute outside of court. We always advocate for mediation where we can because it saves both parties so much money and often leaves a significantly more amicable outcome – especially if children are involved. Mediation can be less expensive, quicker than the court process, less stressful than litigation, and allows for more control over the final outcome because parties are coming up with the agreements that will work best for them and their children.
The designation of a custodial parent grants that parent the right to be the decision maker for matters related to the child(ren). This parent is also the “residential parent” for public school purposes and for receipt of public benefits.
The term shared parenting means shared decision making. It grants both parents the right to an equitable sharing of parental rights and responsibilities, decision-making, and involvement in the child’s life. .in the decision-making responsibilities for the child(ren). At all times, each parent is considered the residential parent of the child(ren), regardless of where the child(ren) is residing.
While both divorce and dissolution are steps to end a marriage, they differ in process and requirements.
Divorce is the path under a number of circumstances: when parties agree to end their marriage but cannot agree upon one or more terms of their separation without the assistance of the court to work out their own agreement or let the court decide in a hearing or trial; when one party wants to end their marriage and the other party does not; when one party wants to end their marriage but they don’t know where their spouse is residing or located. During a divorce, one party alleges “fault” against the spouse as the reason for the termination of marriage.
Dissolution of marriage is possible when parties agree to end their marriage and AGREE upon ALL TERMS necessary to end their marriage. This means a division of all assets and liabilities, amount and duration of spousal support (if any), and all matters related to minor children, including but not limited to parenting time schedules and child support. The parties also agree upon the legal “grounds’ for the termination of the marriage.
A complaint for divorce and other required documents are filed with the court, a judge is assigned and a required filing fee is paid (differs by county). The defendant must then be properly served with a summons and the complaint and divorce according to the Ohio Rules of Civil Procedure and then given time to respond to the complaint.
The full agreement of the parties is filed with a petition for dissolution and other required documents, a judge is assigned, and a required filing fee is paid (differs by county). The court will schedule a date and time for final hearing and notify the parties of the same.
The Ohio Supreme Court timeline guidelines for a divorce without minor children is twelve (12) months and a divorce with minor children is eighteen (18) months, though complex cases may take longer in either scenario. Parties are always able to reach a mutual agreement at any time during the divorce process and end the litigation by doing so.
A final hearing for a dissolution of marriage must occur between 30 and 90 days from date of filing and it is required that both parties be present for that final hearing. If one party fails to appear, the case will be dismissed.
Even in simple divorce cases, having a family law attorney in Ohio can ensure that your rights are protected and all legal requirements are met. A family law attorney can also help with any unexpected complications that may arise.