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Do you have full legal rights over your son or daughter? Are you sure? Paternity questions are vital in California family law, and Los Angeles County divorce lawyer Jordana Better has the answers.
Fatherhood is an incredible and life-changing experience. Unfortunately, every year, hundreds if not thousands of fathers in Los Angeles County are deprived of that experience or have it denied or ignored because fatherhood is not the same thing as paternity, at least in the eyes of the law.
Paternity, under California law, is a legal status under which someone is recognized as the father of a child. In this article, we will discuss the concept, how it is established, how it can be contested, and why it matters so much that you have or obtain paternity rights over your children.
As a family law and divorce attorney, Jordana Better has seen paternity claims and conflicts and has witnessed the harm paternity battles can have on families, especially post-separation. It is a challenging topic and a difficult one for many fathers to face, but her short guide to paternity in California law will help you make the right choice for you and your current or future children.
If fatherhood is the emotional or biological bond between a father and child, paternity is the legal one. For most families in LA County, this will be automatically assigned at the birth of the child to two married parents as the law assumes that the husband is also the father of the child. This can lead to complications when he is not.
Things get more difficult if you are not married before the birth of your child. If both of you are present at the hospital for the birth, you can sign (together) a voluntary Declaration of Paternity, which will establish paternity and get it added to the birth certificate. You can use a similar form later to amend the birth certificate.
If this is not signed together, then either parent can later file a Petition to Establish a Parental Relationship in the California County where the child lives. It will then be up to the Superior Court, for example, of the County of Los Angeles, to make a final decision on paternity. Often this will be done with a DNA test to verify biological parentage.
This process can be complicated and lengthy, especially if not all parties are cooperative. It is not by accident that the Superior Court of LA County recommends working with a lawyer, as there are many forms to fill and procedures to follow. However, as attorney Jordana Better has seen in countless family law and divorce cases, establishing paternity can be essential for protecting one or both parent’s rights.
While many parents and children will care about a formal recognition of their relationship, paternity is is most often pursued for legal or financial reasons, rather than emotional ones. In LA County and the rest of California, having legally recognized paternity grants you, or the father, certain rights, and obligations.
While such paternity rights most commonly come up when you are no longer living with the other parent, there are other circumstances in which they can be vital (such as after the death of a parent). When in doubt, if you have children whom you do not have legal paternity over, it is probably best to talk to a lawyer about obtaining it.
When parents no longer live together, such as after a divorce or separation, California Courts usually favor shared custody arrangements, but only between two legally recognized parents. As a result, without paternity, you will have much greater difficulty sharing physical or legal custody of your child.
Without legally demonstrated paternity, your ex would have a better chance of obtaining full custody. Alternatively, if you want to fight for primary custody or sole custody for the sake of the child’s well-being or safety, you will want to be sure that your paternity is clearly established under the law to improve your chances.
That said, paternity can still be sought and contested during custody conflicts, though it can be more complicated. If you are fighting over custody of an unacknowledged child, you should contact a paternity lawyer immediately.
Even if you are not granted shared or full custody over your child, you will keep the right to see your child regularly if and only if you are recognized as the father. This means that establishing paternity can be vital if you want to continue seeing your child as they grow up.
California law assumes it is best to have both parents in a child’s life, and visitation rights are almost always granted to legally recognized fathers. A Los Angeles County court or judge can require supervised visitation, but, short of physical danger to the child, they will give visitation rights to a father as long as they have established paternity.
Another important right every child has is economic support from both parents. The court sometimes orders child support payments if one parent is bearing more than their share of the cost of raising and caring for the child. This can even include absent or divorced fathers.
However, doing so requires that paternity be clearly established. If you are not legally recognized as the father of a child, you cannot be forced to pay child support for their care. You cannot receive child support payments if you have the primary care of the child. Fatherhood, after all, is a responsibility as well as a privilege.
The Law Office Of Jordana N Better| How secure are your paternity rights? Call LA County paternity lawyer Jordana Better and find out.
If you have fathered a child but do not have that relationship fully recognized by the state, you may want to take the necessary steps to have your paternity recognized. For help with the paternity process or any other paternity-related questions, you should ask an experienced family law lawyer near you.
If you are dealing with a divorce, paternity conflict, or any other similar situation in the County of Los Angeles, you can count on the discretion and advocacy of lawyer Jordana Better. To schedule a consultation, just call (888) 301-6777 or reach out to the law firm online to discuss your paternity situation or questions.
