When you have a child born out of wedlock, legal issues arise when the father refuses to pay for child support or the mother denies that the child is the father’s, therefore denying child custody rights or visitation privileges. Both of these issues, whether you are the mother or are the potential father, can be solved by working closely with a Anne Arundel County paternity attorney.
Child Custody: the Father Refuses to Pay Because he Denies Fathership
As the child’s mother, you depend on child support to help you pay for the high expenses that come with raising a child. Clothes, food, housing, medical expenses, and saving for a rainy day is something that you should not be responsible for providing all on your own. Raising a child in Maryland is incredibly expensive and difficult to do even with two providers. For instance, Maryland’s child care costs rank number two in the entire nation, according to recent research performed by the Economic Policy Institute. But how can you receive child support if the father does not even believe, or lets on that he does not believe, that he is the biological father of your child? A simple paternity test can quickly and unequivocally solve this issue. An attorney will help you through this process, and after the father’s paternity has been proven, can assist you in securing fair child support payments on a consistent basis.
Fathers Seeking Child Custody Need to Perform a Paternity Test
The most frequent use of paternity tests, initiated by potential fathers, is to prove that a child is theirs. Once paternity has been proven with a DNA test, which is 99.99 percent accurate, the next step is to go to family court and seek custody and visitation rights. The court will grant custody and visitation rights on a wide variety of factors, with the court’s ultimate and only goal to maximize the child’s well being. Usually, the court believes, as backed by research, that time spent with both parents is best for the child’s emotional, physical, and psychological development.
Are You Sure That Little Baby is Yours?
Paternity issues can still be relevant even if a child was born in wedlock. According to the Atlantic, five to 15 percent, or potentially up to one out of seven fathers, is not the biological father of the newborn they leave the hospital with, despite that man being listed on the child’s birth certificate as being the father. The truth is that as a father, you can never be 100 percent sure that a child is yours, or is not yours, until you go through with a paternity test.
Call Maryland Family Law Attorney Tara K. Frame Today
Paternity tests can be ordered by the court, and by working with your lawyer, you can prove or disprove who the child’s father truly is. Paternity issues often arise when child custody, child support, or visitation issues arise, and the Pasadena family lawyers of Frame & Frame are here to provide the assistance that you require. Call us today at 410-255-0373.
Resources:
patch.com/maryland/annapolis/daycare-more-expensive-college-maryland-study-finds
theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/07/who-s-your-daddy/305969/