Fathers' Rights & Paternity
Preserving the Rights & Interests of Fathers in California.
Fathers Rights Attorneys in Riverside County
Under California—and the laws of almost all other states—a person’s rights and obligations concerning the care and upbringing of their children stems from their status as the child’s parent. Issues such as child custody, child support, and inheritance stem from the legal parent-child relationship. The law affords all the legal privileges and duties of parenthood to the natural parents of a child. Although a father’s parental rights are legal in nature, such rights cannot be easily terminated by a court of law.
A mother’s relationship with her child does not require much in terms of evidence and legal debate. However, in some cases, the parent-child relationship between a father and his children demands greater evaluation and proof.
If you need legal representation regarding a paternity action in Riverside County, you should consult one of our experienced Riverside County fathers’ rights attorneys at Hanson, Bradford, and Hanich. We are here to help preserve your rights as a father and individual—whether you are seeking to establish paternity over your child, or contesting parentage claims for someone else’s.
Paternity Matters Under California Law.
In California, the term “paternity” is synonymous with the more gender-neutral term “parentage.” The California Family Code was recently amended recharacterize the legal terminology for parentage to accommodate same-sex couples who are trying to start their own families through adoption or artificial reproductive technology methods like in vitro fertilization and gestational surrogacy.
According to the California Family Code, there a certain legal presumptions that fathers can rely upon in establishing or rebutting parentage, including:
Marital status with the child’s mother: Under California law, there is a legal presumption of parentage in cases where the father was married to the child’s mother at the time the child was delivered.
Acknowledgment of paternity: If the purported father executed and filed a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity—an official legal document developed by the Judicial Council of California—this could be used as evidence demonstrating paternity regarding the child.
The father’s conduct: California courts may consider the father’s conduct when deciding issues of paternity. Such conduct may include acts that strongly suggest that the purported father considered the child in question to be their own child, telling others that they are the child’s father, paying for the child’s healthcare, food, shelter, and educational expenses.
Genetic testing: One of the most conclusive methods of establishing paternity is through the use of a blood test analyzing the father and the child’s DNA. Only those genetic test methods the law certifies as appropriate for determining paternity may be used. Paternity will be established if test results indicate more than a 99% match between the purported father and the child in question.
Reach Out to Our Team Today.
At Hanson, Bradford & Hanich we understand how vital paternity or parentage proceedings are for fathers in Riverside County. Such proceedings can either vindicate your parental rights regarding your children or inappropriately inflate the scope of your rights for persons over whom you otherwise would have no responsibility. You can count on our dedicated family law attorneys to protect your legal rights and interests as a father.