Lakeland Family Lawyer

A family law case is before the Florida Supreme Court right now that is quite interesting.   The court must decide a dispute between a child’s legal father and her biological father. You see, in Florida , when a child is born of a marriage, the legal father is the man married to the mother.   The legal father, therefore, may not be the biological father.   Thus, the biological father may not have any rights to the child.   This presumption of legitimacy is based on the public policy of protecting the welfare of the child.   Prior to DNA testing, there was no scientific way of knowing biologically who the father was.   It was presumed that the husband was the father. This presumption protected the welfare of the child.   In cases of divorce, the child had protections of child support and health care. The law has not kept up with the science. As the law is currently, a legal father who is not a biological father would have to agree to release his rights and there would hav

You may very well be the biological father but does not mean you are the legal father or that you have any legal rights to your child.   It is important that if you are an unmarried father, you immediately establish your legal rights to your child.   In Florida, if a child is born out of wedlock, there is no presumption of fatherhood.   Paternity should be established first and foremost.   An establishment of paternity can be done in several ways: At the hospital, the “father” and mother when signing the birth certificate also sign an affidavit acknowledging paternity.   This affidavit is notarized and witnessed by 2 individuals.   If you only signed a birth certificate but did not sign this affidavit, you have not established paternity.   The “father” or mother files a petition for paternity through the court.   The parties then either stipulate to paternity or there is DNA testing that is conducted.   The Florida Department of Revenue may commence a paternity proceeding

Divorces can be expensive. So can going back to court to enforce orders in a multitude of family issues from time-sharing to alimony payments.   Many people attempt to represent themselves because of the cost of attorney’s fees.   While in some circumstances (I would venture to say very few) a person may represent himself or herself quite well, in most circumstances, a person does not know all of his or her rights and does not end up with the best outcome.   Florida does allow for courts to order one party to pay the other party’s reasonable attorney’s fees and costs in certain situations to ensure that both parties have equivalent access to capable legal counsel and to ensure that one party does not have an unfair advantage over the other.   The court must first consider the financial resources of both parties.   The primary considerations of the court are need and ability to pay.   In other words, the party asking to be awarded attorney’s fees must prove that he or she has

One would think that you should be able to pick up and move with your child(ren) whenever and wherever you would like. However, if you have shared parental responsibility pursuant to a parenting plan in Florida, unfortunately you cannot just move; or you might be in contempt of court.  It seems that I have had to counsel quite a few people on "relocation" lately, so I thought a blog post was necessary. Relocation is the change of your residence at the time of the order establishing or modifying time sharing for 60 consecutive days.  The change of location of residence must be 50 miles.  Therefore, If you move within a 50 mile radius, then you have not relocated.  If you and your co-parent agree to the relocation, then the statute allows the two of you to sign an agreement saying that you both consent.  The agreement must also define the new time sharing schedule and describe the transportation arrangements.  This agreement can be filed with the clerk of courts and th