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 … Read More... “Ohio’s Next of Kin Notification Program”
After years of intense pressure from the United States government and governments of the European Union, the government of Japan recently announced its intention to join the Hague Convention relative to child custody. At the present time, Japan is the only major industrialized country that has not signed the treaty. And, Japan is the only member of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading nations which is not a party to the treaty. The G-7 countries which have adopted the Hague Convention are France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
I posted a blog article titled 
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.
Due to the sputtering economy, the baby boomer generation approaching retirement age, and the ever increasing life expectancy, multi-generational households are becoming more common than they have been in decades. Due to the need to combine family incomes or in order to take care of an elderly or ill relative, grandparents, parents and children are sharing living space in increasing numbers. According to the Pew Research Center in Washington, D.C., in 2008, 49 million Americans or 16 percent of the population lived in households with at least two adult generations, an increase of 17 percent from 2000. This trend comes with numerous legal implications and issues, some of which are discussed below.
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.
My wife and I have raised two (2) sons and we personally experienced the terror of a child becoming lost in a public place. Fortunately, ours ended like most of these situations with our son being located and returned safely. So, that being said, I want to thank Keith Kepler, the Vice President and General Manager at AlliedBarton Security Services, for sending the Ohio Family Law Blog these important tips about protecting our children from becoming lost or missing. I think that his advice is spot-on. Please take a moment and read his practical suggestions: