The issue of paternity is something I see all the time as a Jacksonville Child Custody and Child Support Lawyer. In Florida a child does not have a legal father if the mother was not married when the child was born. Legal paternity must be established for the child in order for the child and father to get all of their legal rights and benefits.
In Florida, there are five ways to establish paternity:
Marriage: The parents are married to each other when the child is born.
As a Florida child support attorney and a Florida divorce attorney, I regularly keep up with new laws effecting my clients. As such, there is a new child support law in Florida that states if the non-majority time-sharing parent spends more than twenty percent (20%) of overnights with the child then the Florida child support is drastically cut. This is a change from the old 40% of overnights standard that was previously the law. A Jacksonville child support attorney can assist you in calculating the correct amount of child support owed to you or by you.
As a Jacksonville, Florida custody attorney, I have seen a big shift in the ideology of the courts in providing for joint custody of children in Florida. However, couples experiencing divorce in Florida are usually unaware of the difference between shared parental responsibility (aka “joint custody”) and 50/50 timesharing. In Florida, shared parental responsibility means that both parents will retain all rights as parents and will be included in having input in any major decision involving the child’s life. Timesharing in Florida is exactly that. How much time the parents get with the child. Equal timesharing in Florida has it’s advantages for the child in some ways. The courts will always look to the child’s best interests and every case is different. Some advantages are that the child will get to spend equal time with both parents and have the opportunity to create a loving bond with both parents. Some problems that arise in 50/50 timesharing lie in scheduling conflicts as well as the child never really having one single place to call “home”. These are some conflicts to overcome when seeking “joint custody” in Florida.
Reports are out that Charlie Sheen has come up clean in a drug test that he took earlier this month as part of a child custody settlement.
As a Jacksonville Child Custody Attorney I have seen many instances where a mother or father is concerned that their child’s other parent is abusing drugs or alcohol. I have unfortunately also seen instances where a parent is in fact abusing drugs or alcohol in the presence of the child.
A way to combat this is getting an order from the court requiring the parent or parents to submit to a drug test. The presence of drugs or lack thereof can be a huge factor in determining child custody cases.
When parties divorce in Jacksonville, Florida, a Florida divorce lawyer can help you through difficult issues such as co-parenting beyond divorce, financial issues including mortgage issues, division of property and most importantly, in dealing with the best interests of your child or children. Parents who divorce in Florida and everywhere for that matter, must realize that the best interests of children does not stop after the divorce of the parties. The need for children to have a loving relationship with both parties continues throughout life. In divorce in Florida, parents are now facing concerns due to mortgages on the marital home. Children need to be assured that they will have a place in which to live after the divorce is final. A Jacksonville divorce attorney can help you with solutions such a bankruptcy in Florida and/or short sales of the marital home. We can also provide advice on how best to divide your assets and liabilities as well as consumer debt protection. All is necessary information when divorcing in Florida.
I’ve been practicing as a Jacksonville, Florida custody attorney for almost ten years, and in most of my custody cases, I can’t understand how at one point, the parties loved each other so much that they created a human being only now to glare at one another with absolute hate. Child custody in Florida does not have to be an all out war. For one thing, the parties must realize that at some point, they may be grandparents together, the former husband may be walking the daughter down the aisle or the parties may be present at the same time for birthdays and other special events. Child custody in Jacksonville, Florida is never easy and a child custody attorney in Florida is absolutely necessary, but through good counsel and good negotiations, steps can be made to allow for a future without war.
An article titled, “Breaking up is hard to do because of the economy,” describes how many couples although wanting to file for divorce are stuck in their marriages because of financial woe’s. The article describes a couple who made the decision to end their marriage in the fall of 2008, but are still married and living under the same roof due to a combination of employment difficulties and the depressed housing market.
However, Linda Lea Viken, a family law lawyer in South Dakota and president of the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers stated, “the backlog is starting to break free.” As a Florida Family Law Lawyer, I have seen the amount of divorces begin to rise again as the economy is slowly getting better. If you have held of filing for divorce because of the economy, but now find yourself in a better position to file, contact a Florida Family Law Lawyer today.
A concerned Nebraska mother learned the hard way that recording someone without his or her knowledge violates the Federal Wiretap Act. The mother and her father were hit with a combined $120,000 penalty for putting an audio recorder in the mother’s daughter’s teddy bear.
An article titled, “Modern Divorce: Wiretapped Teddy Bears, $120,000 in fines,” details how the mother and grandfather wiretapped the child’s father and inadvertently numerous other individuals with the hopes of gaining evidence to prove the child’s father was abusive during his unsupervised timesharing with the child.
As a Jacksonville Family Law Attorney I know many people would like to gain as much evidence as they can against the opposing party in a divorce or child custody case. However, it is important to learn from the above mentioned mother and grandfather that recording someone without his or her knowledge is not only likely inadmissible in court it can also be illegal. Contacting a Jacksonville Family Law Attorney can be an important first step in a divorce proceeding.
An American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers (AAML) survey conducted just this past year found that four out of five lawyers reported an increasing number of their divorce cases citing evidence derived from social networking sites in the past five years, with Facebook leading the pack.
As a Jacksonville Divorce and Child Custody Attorney I have seen an increase in evidentiary exhibits derived from social networking sites in the past several months. While the legal evidentiary issues surrounding use of information obtained from such sites is somewhat controversial it can be a tool used for both for and against parties in a divorce or child custody case.
Contact a Jacksonville Divorce and Child Custody Attorney today for more information regarding this issue.
Florida same-sex couples, Florida heterosexual couples . . . they both show concern when a family member is unable or unwilling to be the parent that every child deserves. If you have a sister, brother, or any relative who is unable to properly care for their child due to substance abuse, excessive partying, or other issues, you should consider speaking with a St. Augustine Family Law Attorney.
There are options that may enable you to temporarily take custody of a family member’s child or become that child’s guardian. If you are an extended family member of the child’s parent, and meet other qualifying requirements, you may petition the court under the Florida Law which allows for temporary custody of a minor child by an extended family member.
This law allows you to provide for the welfare of a minor child. Your temporary custody of a child, will allow the child’s parent to get the treatment that they need so they can eventually become a responsible and supportive parent. Having legal recognition of your role as temporary custodian is essential in allowing you to make decisions and obtain records pertaining to the medical, social and educational aspects of the child.
