Family Law
Paternity
Establishing parentage to secure rights and responsibilities for your child.
When parents are unmarried, legal parentage must be established before a father can assert parenting time and decision-making rights, or before support can be ordered. Paternity cases open the door to the same parental responsibilities and obligations that married parents have.
We represent both fathers seeking to establish their rights and parents pursuing support, guiding you through genetic testing where needed and building the parenting and support orders that protect your child’s future.
- Establishing or disputing paternity
- Genetic (DNA) testing
- Parenting time for unmarried parents
- Decision-making allocation
- Child support in parentage cases
- Acknowledgment of paternity issues
Parental rights
Without established paternity, a father may have no legal right to his child.
Support
Parentage is the foundation for a child support obligation.
Inheritance and benefits
Legal parentage affects inheritance, insurance, and benefits.
Stability
A clear order gives the child a secure legal relationship with both parents.
We establish parentage efficiently and then move directly into building parenting time, decision-making, and support orders so your rights and responsibilities are fully defined.
Where paternity is disputed, we handle genetic testing and the legal presumptions involved, protecting your interests whether you are seeking or contesting a finding of parentage.
Not until parentage is legally established. Being on the birth certificate helps, but a court order is what secures parenting time and decision-making.
Through a voluntary acknowledgment, a legal presumption, or genetic testing ordered by the court. We guide you through whichever path applies.
Yes. Once parentage is established, the same case can allocate parenting time, decision-making, and support.