If you are a father and you are separating from or have never lived with your children’s co-parent, you may be concerned about how you will maintain your place in your children’s lives. Making sure you have the opportunity to be an active and involved parent is one of the primary benefits of a Fairfield fathers’ rights lawyer.
Our talented fathers’ rights attorneys can explain the law and help you formulate goals regarding custody and child support. We will work diligently to protect your relationship with your children.
Men who were never married to their co-parent may have to establish their right to custody. Only legal parents receive custody rights, and an unmarried father must take affirmative steps to become a child’s legal father.
An Acknowledgment of Parentage signed by both parents and filed with Connecticut’s Bureau of Vital Statistics confers legal parental rights on an unmarried father. If the mother was married to someone else when the child was born or refuses to sign the acknowledgment, an unmarried father may have to go to court to prove his paternity, which usually requires a DNA test. A Fairfield attorney can prepare the petition seeking a declaration of paternity and guide a father through the legal process of asserting his rights.
A father with legal parental rights does not automatically gain custody rights—he only gains the right to seek custody. If he does not have a significant relationship with his child or children, he is unlikely to be granted primary custody, although he may be granted an opportunity to establish a relationship through visitation. However, the father will have an obligation to pay child support, regardless of custody and visitation arrangements.
State law recognizes that both parents often play a critical role in their children’s well-being. The law explicitly bars judges from making custody decisions based on a parent’s gender. Instead, judges must thoroughly examine numerous factors to determine the custody arrangement that best serves the children’s interests.
Legal custody grants a person the authority to make important decisions concerning the children’s education, health care, and religion. Connecticut General Statutes §46b-56a(b) presumes that joint legal custody serves a child’s best interest. A parent seeking sole legal custody over the objection of their co-parent must demonstrate that the co-parent’s participation in decision-making is contrary to the children’s best interests.
One parent may have primary physical custody, or both parents may share custody roughly equally. A Fairfield attorney can help a father and his co-parent create a parenting plan that outlines their preferred co-parenting arrangement. They must then submit the plan to the court for the judge’s approval.
Many fathers are rightly concerned about how living apart from their co-parents will impact them financially. State law requires both parents to contribute to their children’s support.
The state publishes child support guidelines that are based on the number of children the parents share, any other children each parent must support, and the parents’ combined weekly income. The guidelines determine the amount of child support one parent must pay to the other. The court adjusts support to account for shared parenting time, health insurance premiums for the children, childcare expenses, and any extraordinary medical or educational costs.
Sometimes conditions exist that render the prescribed amount unfair. A family law attorney in Fairfield can help a father who believes his child support obligation is unjust to advocate before the court for a deviation.
You can still be an involved and influential father, even if you are not living full-time with your children. However, you will need skilled legal representation to meet your parenting goals.
The family law attorneys at Dolan Divorce Law represent fathers in your position with knowledge and empathy. Contact our team today to learn firsthand about the benefits of a Fairfield father’s rights lawyer and how we can help.
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