Unmarried parents will often struggle with a number of difficult situations in regards to child support and child custody. The unmarried father can have a partner who is contesting his paternity, which makes it hard for him to receive visitation rights or spend time with his child. In certain instances, fathers have been forced to pay support for children that aren’t theirs. In these situations, you need someone who can help address your parental rights in Jacksonville or elsewhere. Kenny Leigh and Associates is a family law firm that represents men only with offices in Jacksonville, Fleming Island, Gainesville, Daytona, Fort Walton Beach, and Boca Raton, serving all of North and South Florida.
Even though some people are able to understand the custody, child support and time-sharing process when it comes to a divorce proceeding, parents who weren’t married at the time the child was born might not have the same rights for these things as their married counterparts would. Having someone who understands parental rights laws can help to distinguish the differences between unmarried and married parents.
Establish Paternity Through DNA Testing
Regardless of whether you are married or unmarried, you have certain parental rights in Jacksonville and throughout Florida in regards to the support and custody of your children. The one main difference is that parents who weren’t married will have to establish their rights by means of a paternity action. The court will order DNA to identify who the biological father is in the case.
Petition to Have Your Name Added to the Birth Certificate
When the relationship ends for parents who weren’t married, both the father and the mother will need to understand how important that paternity determination was. Mothers need to know that even though the father might not have his name on the child’s birth certificate, that doesn’t mean they don’t have the right to have their name added to it. Fathers should know that they will have to fill out what is known as the Florida Putative Father Registry forms for to begin the process of establishing their parental rights.
Parental rights in Jacksonville and elsewhere can be confusing and overwhelming, but you can benefit from having a trained professional working on your side to help bring the ins and outs of the law into context and make sure you get the absolute best outcome possible.
Determining Support Payments and Other Details
It doesn’t matter if you are married or not, because your children should come before anything else. Children are entitled to receive financial support from both of the parties (parents) involved. Before any support provisions are able to be made, you will need to establish paternity. Even though the Department of Revenue in Florida might be helpful with obtaining support, they might incorrectly calculate the amount of support in your case because they aren’t participating in all of the discovery practices to figure out what the income is for both parties in the same way that a parental rights attorney would.
The parent could end up receiving more or less than they were entitled to, so it is important that you check into this thoroughly. The Department of Revenue doesn’t have the abilities to represent either one of the parents in issues that involve timesharing, custody, relocation and residence for the child.
At Kenny Leigh and Associates, we work hard to help with your parental rights in Jacksonville and at our other Florida locations. Our goal is to assist you in obtaining the proper amount of support for the child, without having the court take advantage of your situation. Just as with all parental rights in Jacksonville and elsewhere, there are also responsibilities that come along with it. Everything will be explained in a straightforward manner before taking your case to the next level.
