A paternity attorney is one who practices family law, but not all family law attorneys consider themselves paternity attorneys. Establishing the paternity of a child is critical to determining who is financially responsible for the child, who is entitled to custody of the child, and other legal issues related to the child’s welfare.
The attorney overseeing the father’s law issues with paternity may be trying to prove that the man is in fact the father of the child he is being asked to support. The fact that a couple was married does not mean that the man was the father of the children that the woman gave birth to. The law of the father is concerned with proving that his wife is correct and that the children she had during the course of the marriage were indeed her offspring.
Under the court systems of most states, if a child is born to a married woman, her husband is automatically considered the father of the child. When the couple dissolves the marriage, the court will automatically order the husband to provide financial support for all children born to the wife during the marriage. The man has to prove that the child is not his by means of a paternity test before the court will exempt him from child support payments.
The mother-in-law concerns are that the man she married will try to say the child is not his simply to avoid having to support the child. The lawyer who hears the mother’s law concerns will have to stop the alleged father of the child from ruining the mother’s reputation through false accusations. A mother needs to hire an attorney who is experienced in these types of court cases.
The only credible way to prove a child’s lineage is to perform a DNA test. Blood or saliva will be taken from the father in question, from the mother in question and from the child in question. The samples will be sent to a laboratory to be compared by experts. Each of us has unique DNA, but we share common DNA traits with our parents, siblings, and close blood relatives.
A DNA test will prove that the child is the child of the man and the woman. Once paternity has been established, the court will order the parents to make certain arrangements for the care and support of the child. These provisions will include custody arrangements, child support payments, health insurance coverage, and everything related to the welfare of the child.
Parents may share custody of the child, or one parent may be appointed as the child’s primary guardian. Joint custody only works if both parents live in the same school district, so the child can stay with one parent for a certain amount of time and then with the other parent for the same amount of time. When custody is shared in this way, neither parent is ordered to pay support to the other parent.
