You ask the court to name you the residential parent and legal custodian, Ohio's version of full custody. You request it in your divorce or legal separation case, or in a custody case if you're not married. The court decides on your child's best interest, weighing things like each parent's relationship with the child and who is more likely to support the other parent's time. The other parent usually still gets parenting time.

The mother does, until a court orders otherwise. An acknowledgment of paternity makes the father the legal parent, but he needs a court order for custody or parenting time. Once in court, both parents stand on equal footing.

If you're married, custody is decided in your divorce, dissolution, or legal separation case. If you're not married, you usually file in juvenile court. In some counties, it's the domestic relations division. An unmarried father typically needs paternity established first, often through the county child support agency.

Ohio courts can act quickly in two main situations. During a divorce or legal separation, the court can make temporary parenting orders before the case is final. If domestic violence is involved, a civil protection order can include temporary parenting orders, with a first hearing the same day you file. Other procedures vary by county.

Only in specific situations. Ohio calls it "companionship or visitation." A grandparent can ask during a divorce, dissolution, legal separation, annulment, or child support case, after a parent has died, or when the child was born to an unmarried mother. In that last case, the father's parents must wait until paternity is established. The court weighs the child's best interest and the parents' wishes.