Divorce,and,Paternity,Rights,f law Divorce and Paternity: Rights from the Biological Fathers P
When you work with an attorney, you will have no problem reducing the risks associated with getting your case in front of a judge and jury, or other formal court, when you need to. However, every case is different. It is important to work wi Bankruptcy is a situation, wherein an individual is termed as unable to discharge all the debts. When a person or a company is not able to pay off its creditors, it has an obligation to file a bankruptcy suit. In fact, a bankruptcy suit is a
Whenthinking about establishing paternity of a child in the context of family lawand divorce, the issue that most often comes up is for the non-biologicalfather to disavow the child in order that he does not have to pay child supportuntil eighteen (and sometimes even later, if the award was deemed in globo). But, this presents only have of the picturebecause it can be very frustrating for a biological father who wishes to asserthis rights as the father of the child if the law presumes otherwise. If the proper procedures are not followed, abiological parents rights may suffer in favor of the legal fathers rights. Wewill begin our analysis with the U.S. Constitution and then turn to what Louisianalaw says regarding the rights a biological father who has not filiated to hischild has.Inthe law, and sometimes in the context of divorce, when all else fails, you mayhave to turn to the U.S. Constitution to see what fundamental rights youhave. Unfortunately for biologicalfathers who are being deprived of their rights by state laws that are in favorof the legal father, there is court precedent by the U.S. Supreme Court statingthat there are no constitutional protections limiting a state from having lawsgiving more rights to legal fathers as opposed to biological fathers. This means that it is important to turn tostate law to understand the rights that the biological father has versus thelegal father.Whilethere is a lot of information regarding states leaning heavier on a biologicalconnection versus who the legal parents are to determine the childs parents,Louisiana is not always one of these states. The most common way to be a legal father in Louisiana is not to disavowpaternity of a child born within one year of the childs birth or within oneyear in which the husband of the mother knew or should have known of thechilds birth. (This is one of thereasons to get a divorce, instead of simply living separate from each other.) In Louisiana, a biological father may losesome or all of his rights, if he does not make an attempt to establish hisbiological and legal relationship to the child within specified amounts oftime. So, this means that if no action is done by either the biological father orthe legal father and mother within the times established in Louisiana, there maybe little to nothing that can be done to undo the loss of rights by thebiological father in favor of the legal father.Howeverunfair this might be to the biological father and the legal father, therationale for this rule is likely based upon the desire to support the marriage(and maybe, too, the family in the event of divorce). In fact, in a 1972 ruling by the LouisianaSupreme Court, it noted that a husband had never been successful in disavowingpaternity. Obviously, the laws inLouisiana have relaxed some since 1972, but they are still restrictive.Will Beaumont is a divorce lawyerin New Orleans. This article is informational, not legal advice.
Divorce,and,Paternity,Rights,f