As used in sections 3105.41 to 3105.54 of the Revised Code:

(A) "Collaborative family law communication" means any statement that occurs after the parties sign a collaborative family law participation agreement and before the collaborative family law process is concluded and that is made for the purpose of conducting, participating in, continuing, or reconvening a collaborative law process.

(B) "Collaborative family law participation agreement" means an agreement by persons to participate in a collaborative family law process.

(C) "Collaborative family law process" means a procedure intended to resolve a matter without intervention by a court in which parties sign a collaborative family law participation agreement and are represented by collaborative family lawyers.

(D) "Collaborative family lawyer" means a lawyer who represents a party in a collaborative family law process but does not include a lawyer who is a public official and who does not represent individuals other than public officials in their official capacities.

(E) "Collaborative matter" or "matter" means a dispute, transaction, claim, problem, or issue for resolution that arises under Title XXXI of the Revised Code and is described in a collaborative family law participation agreement. The term includes a dispute, claim, or issue in a proceeding.

(F) "Family or household member" has the same meaning as in section 3113.31 of the Revised Code.

(G) "Law firm" means an association of lawyers who practice law together in a partnership, professional corporation, sole proprietorship, limited liability company, or other association, lawyers employed in a legal services organization, the legal department of a corporation or other organization, or the legal department of a government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality.

(H) "Nonparty participant" means a person, other than a party and the party's collaborative family lawyer, that the parties expressly designate in writing, in a collaborative family law participation agreement or an amendment to that agreement, to participate in a collaborative family law process.

(I) "Party" means a person that signs a collaborative family law participation agreement and whose consent is necessary to resolve a matter.

(J) "Person" means an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, joint venture, public corporation, government or governmental subdivision, agency, or instrumentality, or any other legal or commercial entity.

(K) "Proceeding" means a judicial, administrative, arbitral, or other adjudicative process before a court, including related prehearing and posthearing motions, conferences, and discovery.

(L) "Public official" means an officer or employee of the state or any political subdivision of the state.

(M) "Record" means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in perceivable form.

(N) "Related to a collaborative family law matter" or "related to a matter" means involving the same parties, transaction or occurrence, nucleus of operative fact, claim, issue, or dispute as a matter.

(O) "Sign" means, with present intent to authenticate or adopt a record, to do either of the following:

(1) Execute or adopt a tangible symbol;

(2) Attach to or logically associate with the record an electronic symbol, sound, or process.

Added by 129th General AssemblyFile No.185, HB 461, §1, eff. 3/22/2013.