Probate-Juvenile judge seeks re-election

VW independent/submitted information

Van Wert County Probate and Juvenile Court Judge Kevin H. Taylor has filed nominating petitions as a Republican candidate for re-election in the March primary election.

Taylor has served as judge since March 2012. He was appointed judge in 2012, elected to an unexpired term in 2012, and elected to a full term as judge in 2014.  He is currently serving as presiding judge of the Van Wert County Common Pleas Court. 

Taylor is a graduate of Bowling Green State University and the University of Toledo College of Law.  

As judge of the probate court, Taylor hears and administers estates, trusts, and guardianships of incompetents and minors, issues marriage licenses and delayed and corrected birth certificates, and hears adoption proceedings, minor settlement cases, and civil commitments proceedings. The Ohio legislature has placed over 200 separate duties on the Probate Court.  

As judge of the juvenile court, Taylor provides for the care, protection, and mental and physical development of children who are delinquent, unruly, dependent, or neglected. He also handles juvenile traffic and tobacco offenders.

Judge Taylor is a member of the Ohio Association of Probate Judges, Ohio Association of Juvenile Court Judges, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, National College of Probate Judges, Governing Board of the Juvenile Residential Center of Northwest Ohio, the Probate Law and Procedure Committee, the Juvenile Law and Procedure Committee, and currently serves as the chairperson of the Ohio State Bar Association Ethics Committee. For the past 25 years, Judge Taylor has been a legal instructor at the Vantage Career Center Police Academy.   

Taylor is a member of St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and currently serves as chairperson of the Mutual Ministry Committee. He is a board member of VNA Comprehensive Services Inc. and Family Health Care of Northwest Ohio. Taylor is also a member of Van Wert Optimist Club, Van Wert County Farm Bureau, Elks Lodge 1197, the YMCA of Van Wert County, and the Van Wert County Outdoorsmen Association.  

He and his wife, Kathy, reside in Van Wert and have four children: Adam, Zachary, Nathan, and Lauren, and three grandsons.