Father’s Right’s Attorney in Santa Ana CA
Discover how a father’s rights attorney in Santa Ana CA can protect your rights
For many years, the mother of a child was considered the best person to raise the child. While a man and a wife raising a child together was the preferred option, if only one was raising the child then the courts almost always assigned custody to mothers. This is no longer true. Today, the courts are bound by law to grant custody based on who is best fit for the parent. Read on to learn more about this and other issues from a father’s rights attorney in Santa Ana CA.
How to establish paternity without a father’s rights attorney in Santa Ana CA
If a man and woman are married at the time a child is born, then that child is legally considered his child. If a man and a woman aren’t married but are living together as a family when a child is born, and the man demonstrates commitment to the child, then that man is legally considered the father. If neither of these things are true then paternity can get trickier.
There’s one simple way to establish paternity without calling on a father’s rights attorney. It involves a Voluntary Declaration of Paternity, which is a form both the mother and father sign to demonstrate that the man in question is the father. It is binding as soon as it’s signed but the father does have a further 60 days to ask for a paternity test. If that doesn’t happen then he is the legal father.
How to establish paternity with a father’s rights attorney in Santa Ana CA
If the easier methods of establishing paternity aren’t relevant to your case, then you’ll want to contact a father’s rights attorney in Santa Ana CA. The law allows a person with any of the following relationships to ask for a paternity order:
- The mother
- Any man who has reason to believe he’s the father
- Any man who’s been named as a potential father
- Adoption agencies the mother is working with
- Child support agencies the mother is working with
When the child in question is under 12 years old then they are likely to not be a considered a party in the case, but will be if they’re older than 12. In either case, the court will assign a “guardian ad litem,” who has one job: Representing the rights and best interests of the child in question. The judge can require the potential father to get genetic testing. The father can refuse, but the judge can then take that as an admission of paternity.
Not having custody doesn’t mean there are no responsibilities
Are you a father who wants custody of your child? Are you a father who has custody but needs to get child support from the child’s mother? Do you need assistance from the mother to pay medical costs, cover health insurance, etc. Or have you been accused of being the father to a child and you’re not sure it’s true? If any of these are true about you then it’s time to reach out to a father’s rights attorney in Santa Ana CA.
You have rights and it’s important that they’re respected. Reach out now to contact Law Office of Michael L. Fell at (949) 585-9055 for a free legal consultation. We can tell you exactly what your options are.
