Many of our clients have asked us how their cases and parenting arrangements will be impacted by the State of Ohio’s response to the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak. While the situation is fluid and ongoing, we now have a better idea of how one court system will react.
Effective March 16, 2020, and for the next four (4) weeks, the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas – Division of Domestic Relations will be postponing all non-essential, non-emergency hearings. The Court will retain the ability to decide on a case-by-case basis whether hearings constitute an emergency, but by and large anything scheduled between now and April 10, 2020 will be continued. The Court’s statement on the matter can be found here.
While not absolute, the Court’s statement also gives guidance for those parents and parties operating under parenting arrangements who have questions about how the state’s response to the virus affects their plans. The Court notes that parents should continue to follow those orders “to the best of their abilities and in the spirit intended by the Court,” while continuing to abide by all holiday and spring break schedules laid out in those plans.
UPDATE 3/16/20
Here’s Delaware County’s COVID-19 response. That court likewise notes that the outbreak doesn’t fundamentally alter parenting plans or extend “spring break”, despite the statewide closure of schools.
Fairfield County doesn’t have specific instructions for its domestic court, but the general division notice would seem to apply to most domestic relations matters.
We’ll add more to this post as we get them.
If you’ve got questions about how your court-ordered parenting arrangements may be impacted by the state’s response to the virus outbreak, give us a call.
