DIVORCE WITH CHILDREN

A complaint for divorce may become necessary when the husband and wife cannot agree on a divorce or cannot accomplish a dissolution because the spouses cannot agree on how to handle property division, child custody, child support, and spousal support.

To obtain a divorce in Ohio, the complaint for divorce must state the grounds for the divorce. Regardless of whether you and your spouse have children together, the following are the possible grounds for divorce in Ohio under Ohio Law.

A Domestic Relations court may grant a spouse a divorce for the following reasons:

• Either party had a husband or wife living at the time of the marriage from which the divorce is sought;
•  Willful absence of the adverse party for one year;
•  Adultery;
•  Extreme cruelty;
•  Fraudulent contract;
•  Any gross neglect of duty;
•  Habitual drunkenness;
•  Imprisonment of the adverse party in a state or federal correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint;
•  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;
•  On the application of either party, when husband and wife have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation;
•  Incompatibility, unless denied by either party. 

When a divorce complaint is filed in Portage County or Summit County Domestic Relations Court, the court will normally place mutual restraining orders into effect until the divorce is finalized.