Paternity

Paternity is an important deciding factor in custody and child support litigation. A lawyer can assist you in understanding what will be required of you legally regarding your paternity case and can help you reach your desired outcome.

First, What Is Paternity?

To put it simply, paternity means that you are someone’s father. In legal terms, this means you have certain rights and obligations regarding your child. At a minimum, you have a responsibility of providing financial support for your child. More importantly, this also gives you the right to fight for custody, and other legal rights, as the parent of your child.

For a child born to married parents, there is an automatic legal presumption that the Husband is the biological father of the child born during the marriage, and therefore their parental rights are assumed. However, for unmarried parents, there is no automatic presumption that you are the father of the child, therefore paternity must be established through the court, in order to establish your legal rights as a father. In such cases, paternity can be determined by either the agreement of the parties or with a DNA test. Being listed as the child’s father on their birth certificate does not necessarily establish paternity rights, or the right to legal or physical custody of the child.

Establishing paternity through the court protects your rights as a father to be involved in your child’s life and is the first step towards a fathers rights to custody. Even if everyone knows and agrees that you are the father, you may find that without the mother’s ongoing consent, that you do not have any legal paternity rights until without establishing paternity and custody through the court.

What Is a Paternity Attorney?

A paternity lawyer is an individual who helps their clients prove that they are the father of the child in question, or transversely, helps ensure that their client does not get stuck paying child support for a child that is not theirs.  A lawyer familiar with paternity cases knows the relevant laws and the common pitfalls to which unrepresented fathers often fall victim. Being recognized legally as the father of your child and being ordered to pay child support is not the only outcome you can achieve. And in fact, that is a common trap that unrepresented men fall victim too, thinking that paternity and child support alone establish the right to custody. They do not. A lawyer who specializes in these types of cases can help you fight for custody rights and to be able to spend as much time with your child as possible, and ensure that the court considers and receives the evidence necessary to get the best outcome for you.

How Does Paternity Win Cases?

According to Alabama law, unmarried father’s do not have automatic legal paternity rights to their children until they are established through the court system. A father can be active in his children’s lives, taking them to and from school, helping them with their homework, attending their sporting events, etc. But without establishing paternity and getting a custody order from the court, the mother can take away the father’s access to his children in a heartbeat.

Establishing paternity and custody rights means that your ability to see and spend time with your children is legally protected.

Do not wait until the relationship between you and the mother begins to deteriorate, or until there is an emergency, to file for the establishment of paternity and custody. In a situation where the Mother decides to keep you from your children, and there isn’t already a court order in place establishing custody rights and that you are the father, it could make the legal process to get these things more expensive and can take months or even years to be resolved. Having a preestablished paternity and custody order can make your case much easier if the mother tries to diminish your time with your children, or in the worst case scenario tries to run away and hide the children from you.

Your Child, Your Rights

Just because the child is yours, it does not mean that your rights as a father are protected. Even if you are spending lots of time with your child and you have a healthy relationship with the mother, there is no certainty that dynamic will last forever. Establishing paternity and getting a custody order from the court means your rights are protected if your relationship with the mother changes in the future.

It is all too common for mothers to receive assistance from the Department of Human Resources in establishing child support, often at no cost to them, while fathers are left to fend for themselves. Having an attorney who specializes in child support and custody cases fight for you is the best way to ensure that your rights are protected.

Too often, fathers who think no one can take away their ability to see their child are blindsided by the fact that they do not have any established legal rights. Don’t let it happen to you.

How does Paternity Effect Child Support and Child Custody?

Men are frequently told they must pay child support without receiving anything in return. The fact that you are paying child support does not create a right to visitation or custody. The court can, and often does, order a father to pay child support without giving him visitation or custody. Don’t let this happen to you. Consenting to an order pay child support or getting an order against you to pay child support without first getting paternity or custody establish can prejudice your rights as a father!  As well as your rights to challenge the child support or child custody award at a later date.

Because a child support order can be considered a default order of child custody, an award of child support to the mother without establishing your custody rights, can be as bad as or even worse that a minimum which is often given to fathers, limited to only two weekends each month.

In some circumstances, the court will not order the father or the mother to pay child support if they exercise 50/50 shared custody. This means that both the father and the mother have custody of the minor child for approximately the same amount of time annually. Getting 50/50 shared custody can be challenging, that is why it is important to have an attorney who is well versed in child support and custody issues, fighting for you.

Child support is calculated by looking at the income of both the mother and father and running them through a series of calculations set out in Alabama law. Child support can be very expensive and account for a large percentage of your income. This financial burden can become worse if you fall behind on child support payments or fail to make any payments at all. Unpaid child support collects interest and can quickly turn into a large debt. For failure to pay child support, the court can suspend your driver’s license, place a hold on your passport, seize your assets, or intercept your tax returns.

Never Settle For Less

At the Morris Firm for Men, we fight for the rights of men who fear they may lose their rights to see their children, as well as men who want to cut paternity ties if they suspect they are not the father of their partner’s child. Many courts can be biased towards men, especially when childrearing rights become involved. We ensure you have all the accurate information, protection, and representation you need to stand on equal footing in civil, divorce, and family litigation.

Remember, you only need to settle a case once you are satisfied, and if you are not, we are ready to see your case through to the end. We are here to fight for your rights.