Ohio Code 3105.17 – Complaint for divorce or legal separation
(A) Either party to the marriage may file a complaint for divorce or for legal separation, and when filed the other may file a counterclaim for divorce or for legal separation. The court of common pleas may grant divorces for the causes set forth in section 3105.01 of the Revised Code. The court of common pleas may grant legal separation on a complaint or counterclaim, regardless of whether the parties are living separately at the time the complaint or counterclaim is filed, for the following causes:
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3105.17
- Complaint: A written statement by the plaintiff stating the wrongs allegedly committed by the defendant.
- Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
- Counterclaim: A claim that a defendant makes against a plaintiff.
- imprisonment: means being imprisoned under a sentence imposed for an offense or serving a term of imprisonment, prison term, jail term, term of local incarceration, or other term under a sentence imposed for an offense in an institution under the control of the department of rehabilitation and correction, a county, multicounty, municipal, municipal-county, or multicounty-municipal jail or workhouse, a minimum security jail, a community-based correctional facility, or another facility described or referred to in section 2929. See Ohio Code 1.05
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
(1) Either party had a husband or wife living at the time of the marriage from which legal separation is sought;
(2) Willful absence of the adverse party for one year;
(3) Adultery;
(4) Extreme cruelty;
(5) Fraudulent contract;
(6) Any gross neglect of duty;
(7) Habitual drunkenness;
(8) Imprisonment of the adverse party in a state or federal correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint;
(9) On the application of either party, when husband and wife have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation;
(10) Incompatibility, unless denied by either party.
(B) The filing of a complaint or counterclaim for legal separation or the granting of a decree of legal separation under this section does not bar either party from filing a complaint or counterclaim for a divorce or annulment or obtaining a divorce or annulment.
(C) A decree of legal separation may be terminated by the court upon a motion signed by both spouses.
Last updated February 8, 2023 at 12:56 PM