My custody case, Summit County Domestic Relations Court, DR-2022-03-0667, passed through many professional hands. Each page in this series documents what I believe went wrong with one of them: what they did or failed to do, the dated records behind it, and the rules I believe apply. Each one is written as my belief and my experience, tied to the evidence. None of it is a finding by any court or disciplinary body.
What Ohio must change so this never happens to another child
Every page in this series ends in the same place: a child who was not heard and a parent who was not protected. These are the changes I am asking for.
- Lawyers: signed fee and engagement agreements in every family case; written disclosure of any personal relationship with the judge, a recusal ruling and the client's written consent before any hearing; no appeal dismissed and no closing argument waived without the client; the complete file returned within a set deadline.
- Notice: a minimum notice period before any hearing that can change where a child lives, with a continuance when a parent's lawyer is new to the case.
- The child's voice: both parents told in writing that the court must interview a child on request (R.C. 3109.04(B)(1)), before any custody order.
- Guardians ad litem: deadlines for first contact, interviewing each child alone and reporting before temporary hearings; returned calls; monthly fee statements; a statewide complaint and discipline process.
- Counselors: equal records access for both parents without a fight; both parents notified before a child starts counseling during a custody case; a duty to report to the court and the guardian ad litem, with copies to both parents.
- Protection orders: obeying a protection order, or a lawyer's safety advice under one, never counted against the protective parent.
Senate Bill 174
Senate Bill 174 of the 136th General Assembly, sponsored by Senators Theresa Gavarone and Paula Hicks-Hudson, rewrites Ohio custody law. It replaces "residential parent," shared parenting and sole custody with court-approved parenting plans. It passed the Senate on November 12, 2025, and it is now in the House Judiciary Committee, which last heard it on June 10, 2026. It is not law yet. Section numbers below are the bill's new numbers, taken from the Legislative Service Commission analysis of the version as passed by the Senate.
The bill already keeps the mandatory interview on request, requires interviews to be recorded, bars presumptions from temporary orders, and gives guardians ad litem a duty of candor. I am asking the House to add deadlines and fee terms for guardians ad litem, notice of the interview right, protection for parents who obey protection orders, conflict disclosure, client consent before a custody appeal is dropped, and penalties for denying a parent the child's records.
What it cost me: money, time and resources →
Kimberly Valenti
My lawyer the week I lost my sons overnight, the daughter of the man I was in business with, and the lawyer who withdrew five weeks before trial.
John Chapman
The lawyer who tried the hearing where I lost my sons, filed the emergency motion nobody ruled on, and was fired, at my first lawyer's direction, six days after the custody order.
Brendon Kohrs
The first guardian ad litem for my sons: 13.3 hours in seven months, never alone with either boy, no report, and then a new job as a magistrate.
Lori Long
The counselor my ex-husband chose for my sons. She took his account of me at intake, testified "I don't know mom," wrote to the court about me a year later, and would not release my sons' records without redactions.
Scott Stutler
The supervisor of my visits with my sons. He was briefed by my ex-husband's lawyer before he had the court order, swore my parenting was "child focused," and quit by text, which stopped my visits.
St. Barnabas School
My sons' Catholic school. The principal left me a voicemail about my request for my son's homework, then swore she was given "no explanation." The school took my ex-husband's word for my rights, held meetings about my Younger Son without me, and told me there were no behavior records while sending his behavior plans to my ex-husband.
Young Explorers Montessori of Twinsburg
The preschool that knew who his parent was. It sent every daily report, bill and notice to me, and none to my ex-husband. In 2023 it would not say who dropped him off and picked him up, and it never gave me the records I asked for. No one ever subpoenaed his teachers.
Coming soon
In progress