Family law is the part of the law that focuses on family relationships and dynamics. This includes extremely personal matters such as divorce, custody, child support, paternity, and parental rights. These matters can often be emotional, messy and confusing due to the nature of the relationship between the parties involved.
Divorce
Divorce law comes into play when a couple who is legally married is choosing to end their marriage. There are two types of divorce, a contested divorce and an uncontested divorce. In a contested divorce the couple has trouble agreeing on one or more major decisions so the divorce is taken to court for a judge to make a ruling. In an uncontested divorce couples will not go to court because they come to agree upon all major decisions.
Child Custody
The custody of minor children is often decided during a divorce settlement or once paternity has been established. The couple will need to decide themselves or have a judge decide, who the primary guardian will be, and what the custody or visitation schedule will look like.
Child Support
When two people have a child and they do not live together or share finances it is necessary to work out a child support agreement. This will ensure that the parent who is raising the child majority of the time has financial support from the other parent just as a couple who lives together would have.
Paternity
When a mother has a child and the child's father is unknown or uncertain there can be a request to prove paternity by filing a motion to request the testing of DNA. Once filed this DNA test will be mandatory and the father will have to provide a sample to prove or disprove his paternity of the child.
Parental Rights
When two people have a child together and one parent is not present or is unfit to be in the child's life there are options to terminate that parent's rights to the child. These rights are called parental rights. It may be necessary for the active parent to pursue legal action to remove these rights from the absent or unfit parent. Parental rights can also be terminated in cases where a child is in foster care or awaiting adoption.
The Law Office of Jeffrey R. Sport provides a complete array of family law services to serve the diverse needs of its clients, including divorce, paternity, child custody and visitation, child support, decree modification, contempt petitions, termination of parental rights and other related services, in a dedicated and efficient manner. Their approach to family law is to protect the interests of any minor children involved and protect the safety and welfare of our clients and their children.
No representation is made that the quality of the legal services to be performed is greater than the quality of legal services performed by other lawyers. This site and its information is not legal advice. Please consult an attorney for advice about your individual situation. You may reach us by electronic mail, letters, or phone calls. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Until an attorney-client relationship is established, please withhold from sending any confidential information to us.