Paternity
Paternity Lawyer Los Angeles, CA
Paternity can be surprisingly complicated, but our Los Angeles CA paternity lawyer can help you win the rights that you deserve. At Skarin Law Group, we have over ten years of experience helping our clients with their family law cases – and we’re part of the 1% of Californian lawyers who specialize in family law in the first place.
We’re ready to help you secure parental rights and understand paternity. It all starts with getting informed, and contacting our team for a consultation. But before you do, let’s get you up to speed with a quick breakdown of paternity.
What Is Paternity?
Paternity is your identity as a child’s father. This sounds like something that should be pretty straightforward, and it most cases, it is. If you and your partner are married at the time of your child’s birth, you’re the presumed father. If you’re unmarried, things get a little more complicated.
In the case of unmarried parents, you’ll need to have a court weigh in to grant paternity. Like most other legal processes, this can be challenging without a lawyer to walk you through your next steps.
What Are The Benefits Of Paternity?
Anyone can take part in raising a child, but paternity grants you certain rights in the eyes of the law. There are three groups for fathers who are trying to prove (or have successfully proven) their paternity: alleged parents, biological fathers, and presumed parents.
When you start your paternity case, you’re an alleged parent. This means you’ve declared that you’re the parent of the child (or children) at your first paternity hearing – or the mother of your child has told her social worker that you are the father.
Alleged parents don’t have many rights. Sure, you’re notified about when the dependency hearings are taking place, and you have the right to prove you’re the actual father of the child, but that’s pretty much it.
If you’re successful in your fight to prove that you’re the father, you become the presumed parent. As the presumed parent, you’re entitled to many more rights: everything from reunification services to visitation rights, and even custody. In the eyes of the law, you’re getting the same benefits of a biological parent – the main difference is there hasn’t been a DNA test to prove paternity.
What Can A Paternity Lawyer Do For Me?
An LA paternity lawyer can help you secure the rights that you deserve. Paternity hearings can be complicated and difficult to deal with by yourself. When you’re fighting for your future with your child, it’s important to take every possible step to give yourself an advantage. Paternity lawyers can provide the expertise and experience you need to make it through your hearings and gain a successful outcome.
A paternity fight can get ugly. Depending on your relationship with your partner, you may have to prove that you’re up to the task of raising a child. Your lawyer can help the court understand that you deserve the right.
Contact Us Today
At Skarin Law Group, we’re ready to help you secure your rights as a father. Get in touch with our team today, and see what a Los Angeles paternity lawyer from our office can do for you.