Lakeland Family Lawyer

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 ...

You may have heard the term "shared parental responsibility" when it comes to child custody. This doctrine means that each parent keeps full parental rights and responsibilities with respect to the child and both parents must communicate with each other so that major decisions affecting the welfare of the child will be determined jointly. Examples of decisions that are typically subject to shared parental responsibility include decisions concerning the child's daycare, healthcare, school, education, summer camps, and activities.  A Florida family law attorney would explain that many courts take the view that day-to-day decisions, such as bedtimes, diet, exercise, clothing, and choice of friends, are not subject to shared parental responsibility in normal cases.  Extreme circumstances regarding certain day-to-day decisions may justify a court getting involved.  Courts frequently take differing views regarding religion, allowing each parent to expose a child to the pa...