As legal counsel to Geauga County Job & Family Services Child Support Enforcement Division (hereinafter CSED), the Child Support Division of the Prosecutor’s Office provides legal analysis for the caseworkers and supervisors when asked. Additionally, the prosecutor’s office provides legal support and oversight to the CSED when new legislative policies are enacted.
The Prosecutor’s Office has approximately 1100 active child support matters. The primary responsibility of the Child Support Divison is the enforcement of child support orders. The secondary responsibility is the establishment of paternity, child support and medical support orders.
The Prosecutor’s Office enforces child support in the Geauga County Court of Common Pleas General Division and the Juvenile Division. We draft briefs and provide oral argument for all child support cases that are appealed to the Eleventh District Court of Appeals and the Ohio Supreme Court.
We prosecute child support obligors who are not compliant with their child support payments or their medical support obligations. Prosecution involves hearings to determine contempt of the child support order or contempt as to failure to cooperate with the establishment of paternity or establishment of the child support obligation. Prosecution also involves hearings to impose jail and trials as to felony non-support. The Prosecutor’s Office also facilitates the modification and termination of child support orders.
The Prosecutor’s Office reviews interstate and intrastate child support and jurisdictional matters, files complaints and motions, intervenes as to matters of inheritance, and files the requisite paperwork in cases involving Veteran Affairs and Social Security and bankruptcy .