Do’s and Don’ts

1. Do not cancel any insurance on your spouse, medical, auto or otherwise.
2. Do not leave the marital home if custody of child(ren) is going to be an issue.
3. Do not harass your spouse in any way, text, facebook, voicemail etc. If you do it will come back to haunt you. All of this is admissible in court.
4. Do not harass your spouse on the phone. Remember in Ohio as long as one party is involved in the conversation, recording the phone call is legal and admissible in court.
5. Do not discuss you case in any way with your children.
6. If you have been the primary income earner for the family and you leave the household, continue to support the household as you had been doing in the past. This is not always possible, but try to the best of your ability.
7. If you are not in the household keep a calender of daily activities including when you have the children, expenses paid for the children and household (keep receipts) and any other thing you feel is relevant.
8. Do not move.
9. Do not change the child(ren) schools.
10. You can cancel credit cards if you feel this may be an issue, but refer to number 6 above.
11. Do no disconnect your spouses phone, electric, cable etc.
12. Do not go to your spouses place of employment or contact their employer.
13. If you and your spouse are going to physically separate, prior to terminating the relationship, work out and follow a schedule for the children prior to separating. In addition have a plan for how you are going to divide household expenses and expenses for the child(ren).