In September of 2008, Ohio became one of the first states to make a Next of Kin registration program available to its residents. The Ohio state legislature established the program in response to situations where police and emergency personnel had been unable to locate or contact family members of people who had been fatally injured. Several accidents occurred where people had been severely injured but not killed instantly. Tragically, their relatives were unable to spend time with their injured relatives during their last hours due to the difficulty police had in identifying exactly who to notify.
The law specifies that anyone who has a valid Ohio driver’s license, temporary instruction permit, or non-driver identification card may voluntarily participate in the program. The program allows an individual to provide the name and contact information of a person who they wish to be notified in the event the individual is involved in a crash or emergency and is otherwise unable to communicate with the contact person. If someone under the age of 18 wishes to sign up for the Next of Kin program, one of their emergency contacts must be a parent or guardian.
The Next of Kin program requires an individual … Read More... “Ohio’s Next of Kin Notification Program”
By now, I’m sure that most of you have read how Facebook, and every similar social networking site, makes posting “too much information” on the internet just too easy. Do a quick Google search for “Facebook and Divorce” and you’ll find links to many articles discussing the correlation of postings on internet social networks to an increase in divorce. The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers says that 81 percent of its members have used or gone up against evidence in court plucked from Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn over the last five years.
The concept of “paternity” refers to the process of going to court to establish a legal relationship between a father and his child. The process exists because society has created laws to make sure that children are supported by their own biological parents whenever possible. A paternity action will help determine who should be paying for that support and how much they should be paying. In Ohio, a paternity action will only apply to a mother and father who were never married because any child born during a marriage is presumed to be the husband’s legal child. Paternity actions between unmarried people are typically heard in a county’s juvenile court.
Have you ever had a dispute with that grumpy neighbor next door or across the hall to the point that the two of you were ready to exchange words…or blows? Ever have a dispute with a shady landlord who was trying to evict you for no good reason? Have you ever had intense disagreements with your family members over when or where to send one of your elderly parents after it became just too hard to provide proper care for that parent at home anymore? If you can answer “yes“ to those or to any other stress inducing interpersonal conflict you may have, resolving that conflict at the Dayton Mediation Center is an option you may not have known was available.
“Wait a minute! Did I read that right? Marriage ‘building’ advice and links to what sounds like a marriage ‘strengthening’ organization on a Divorce Attorney’s website…what’s up with that?” Those thoughts and questions may have run through your mind as you have explored our law firm’s blog and website, but you read correctly. The desire to help strengthen marriages and prevent divorce, if at all possible, may be unusual in our industry, but saving marriages and strengthening families is good for society! To that end, our website, as well as our Ohio Family Law Blog, provides people with links to pro-family organizations like Marriage Works! Ohio, an organization whose mission is helping couples strengthen their relationships.
Most of us are familiar with Child Protective Services, or CPS. CPS, or an agency with a similar name, is the agency in each state that has assumed the task of protecting our kids from abuse or neglect by adults, especially their own parents. A recent study explained in the October 2010 issue of 
Obtaining a divorce or dissolution is a process which often needs to be broken down into stages. Once you have reached the stage when you know that the marriage is “over”, you will need to then start the process of finding a divorce lawyer. Don’t overlook the importance of this step! There are a lot of divorce lawyers out there and finding the “right” one for you can be critically important. To read our suggestions about that subject click