My sons father decided to leave us, and not have anything to do with our son. I know the law in Ohio is no contact/visitation for 90 days to be considered abandonment. His father is currently facing jail time for writing fraudulent checks. He has not been sentenced yet, he hides from the police. He was taken to jail a month ago, had to stay over night, and was given 30 days to pay the money back. That was about 2 months ago and has not seen our son since. My question is, if he goes to jail, am I able to file for full custody of my son on abandonment? He has not provided anything for him since birth, he does not have a place to live or even sleep, not responsible with bills, all in all an unfit parent. But I know many court systems will just see things as a "he said she said" kind of case. Would I likely get full custody of our son, or no? I am not receiving child support, have never filed. His father did sign the birth certificate, and we all live in Ohio. Father has two other children, is behind hundreds of dollars in support, and has not seen the oldest in over 6mo.

Until a Court says something else you do have full custody now. What do you want to accomplish by charging the father with abandonment?

Were you aware that he was not responsible where his other children are concerned when you were in a relationship with her or is this all new?

As Judy said, you have defacto full custody. I don't think you need to waste your time or money to have it formalized by a court.

I guess what I want is to stop visitation rights. I was not even aware of his oldest child for the first 8 months we were together, he went that long without seeing him. If he were a responsible, active father I would want him in my sons life as much as possible. But I saw what the oldest of his children goes through, and I do not want my son to constantly get his heart broken in the same way.

Has he asked for visitation? If not, then why bother? Wait until he asks then you can deal with it.