If you are a father who is contemplating divorce, battling for custody, behind in child support payments, or otherwise embroiled in the legal system, you are likely feeling as though the entire system is stacked against you. Everywhere you turn it may seem as though your wife, ex-wife, or the mother of your child has more rights than you do. Legally, this isn’t necessarily true; however, it is easy to understand why you may feel that way. Clearly you need a good divorce attorney; however, you don’t just need a divorce attorney, you need a father’s rights divorce attorney.
A Father’s Rights – How Far We Have Come
Not all that long ago, divorce was relatively rare in the United States and having children out of wedlock even less common. When a couple did actually get divorced, it was all but a foregone conclusion that the mother would get custody of the minor children, barring substantial proof that she was an unfit mother, and the father would be lucky to have his kids a couple of days a month and a week in the summer. The father of a child born out of wedlock often had no rights to his child unless the mother acknowledged him as the father and he actually acknowledged the child as his. Fortunately, both the legal system and societal norms have changed significantly in the last several decades.
Today, most states have statutes that specifically prevent a presumption in favor of the mother when custody of a minor child is at issue. Instead, a “best interest of the child” standard is used to determine who should have custody of a minor child. Furthermore, parenting guidelines have also been established that give a non-custodial liberal parenting time with a child unless there is a proven reason to limit that parent’s involvement in the child’s life. When it comes to paternity of a child born out of wedlock – something that occurs with great frequency today – a father now actually has the right to initiate a proceeding to establish paternity as well as the ability to register as a “putative,” or alleged, father of a child born out of wedlock in order to preserve his rights to the child.
Enforcing Your Rights as a Father
While it should be comforting to know how much the laws have changed over the past several decades, you may still find it an uphill battle to enforce your rights under those laws as a father. Changing a law is often much easier than changing deeply engrained beliefs and customs. Society is finally starting to accept ideas such as a “stay-at-home dad” or a single father; however, when the parents of a minor child are engaged in a court battle involving the child those old presumptions and beliefs can rear their ugly heads, making it harder for a father to assert his rights. If you find yourself in this situation, you need an attorney who understands your struggle and who believes in what you are trying to accomplish. You need a father’s rights attorney.
A father’s rights divorce attorney is a family law attorney who has chosen to focus his or her practice on helping father’s assert their rights. Working with a father’s rights attorney means you will be working with an attorney who is already familiar with many of the obstacles and roadblocks you may encounter and has likely found legal strategies for dealing with those obstacles and roadblocks. It also means you will be working with an attorney who has already used those strategies – successfully – in court in similar cases. In essence, choosing to work with a father’s rights attorney gives you an advantage in a system where you will likely not have many other advantages..
Contact Us
Although it may be extremely frustrating to try and assert your rights as a father, remember that you do have rights. If you are a father and have additional questions about your rights in a Texas family law legal matter, please download your free copy of “A Father’s Guide to Custody” or contact the Fort Worth, Texas Law Office of Jon R. Boyd to schedule your appointment today.
