The Family Law Concerns of a Paternity Attorney

A paternity attorney is one that practices family law, but not all family law attorneys are considered to be a paternity attorney. Establishing the paternity of a child is critical in determining who is financially responsible for the child, who has the right to custody of the child, and other legal issues concerning the welfare of the child.

The attorney that is overseeing the father’s law issues with paternity may be trying to prove that the man is indeed the father of the child they are being asked to support. Just because a couple were married does not mean that the man fathered the children the woman gave birth to. The father’s law issues concern proving that their wife is correct and the children she had during the course of the marriage were indeed his offspring.

According to the court systems in most states if a child is born to a married woman then her husband is automatically considered to be the father of the child. When the couple dissolves the marriage the court will automatically decree that the husband provide financial support to all children who were born of 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 excuse them from child support payments towards the child.

The mother’s law concerns are that the man she was married to will try and say the child is not his simply to keep from having to support the child. The lawyer attending to the mother’s law concerns will have to stop the alleged father of the child from ruining the reputation of the mother through false accusations. A mother needs to hire a lawyer that has experience in this type of court case.

The only credible way to prove the lineage of a child is for a DNA test to be performed. Blood, or saliva, will be taken from the father in question, the mother in question, and the child in question. The samples will be sent to a lab to be compared by experts. Each of us has a unique DNA, but we share common DNA traits with our parents, our siblings, and our close blood relatives.

A DNA test will prove that the child is the child of the man and the woman. Once the paternity has been established then 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 all things concerning the well-being of the child.

Parents can share custody of the child, or one parent can be named the managing conservator of the child. Shared 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 an equal amount of time. When custody is shared in this manner neither parent is ordered to pay support to the other parent.