How to Prevent an Absent Father from Re-Establishing Visitation

My question involves a child custody case from the State of Ohio.

My ex husband and I had a child together. We were only married a short time and split up right after I had the baby. We have shared parenting, but he has never really had a "relationship" with her and my daughter has no idea he exists. She just knows she doesn't have a daddy. He has been completely absent from her life for at least 3 years now with no communication between either party. Recently, he text me out of nowhere and said he was going to take me to court and that he loves my daughter so much. Well, come to find out from his own family, he had no intentions of ever coming back into my daughter's life. So my question is, what do I need to do to gain full custody of my daughter so he can't mess with us anymore? I don't have a lot of money for lawyers so I'm looking for the cheapest way to get help.

Realistically speaking, unless you can prove him to be a danger to the child, it's all-but-certain that a court would award him some amount of visitation.

If you have remarried, you can explore stepparent adoption as a possible way to terminate his rights. Given that he has contacted you and wants to establish contact, you should expect that you would need him to consent to stepparent adoption. If you're remarried and your new spouse is interested in adopting, I suggest discussing your case in detail with a lawyer.