What Rights Do Fathers Have?

You might think that going through the process to establish paternity is unnecessary red tape, especially if you communicate well enough with your child’s mother that there have never been any major disagreements about the child. You might have an unwritten agreement where you take care of the child at certain times and provide some financial support to the child. Without legally establishing paternity, though, anything can change. What if a new partner enters the picture? What if one of you decides to move out of state?

A child’s legal father has certain rights and obligations regarding his children.

• Physical custody: The court can enforce the father’s right to spend a certain number of days per year with the children. (This is called “timesharing” in the Florida parenting plan.)
• Legal custody: The father has the right to act on the children’s behalf and make major decisions regarding them. This is especially important regarding schools; legal custody is the right to decide everything from which school the children attend to which extracurricular activities they can do.
• Child support: You might not think of paying child support as a “right,” but Florida law also considers the father’s needs and ability to pay in determining how much child support her should pay. If the children spend more time with you and your income is lower than your ex’s, the court might require her to pay child support.

How to Get the Court to Recognize You as the Child’s Father

The easiest way for an unmarried father to become recognized as the legal father is to file a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity. Once you and the child’s mother file this signed statement with the court, it will become legally binding 60 days later. The court may or may not ask you to take a DNA test to prove that you are the biological father of the child.

Burton Law Is Here to Help Fathers

When you have established legal paternity, the court cannot take your children away from you, except in very extreme circumstances. Contact Alan Burton in Palm Beach County in order to have the court legally acknowledge you as the father of your children.

Custody

People tend to speak of one parent having custody of the children after a divorce, while the other parent has visitation. In the 1980s and 1990s, it was more common than it is now for children to spend most of their time with one parent and to spend only two weekends a month with the other parent. Now, when possible, courts often rule to have children spend at least two nights per week with each parent. Exceptions are when the parents live so far away from each other that it is not practical to transport the children back and forth each week.

What to Say Instead: The current version of the Florida parenting plan template contains language about timesharing; it has details about what portion of every school week and every school vacation the children will spend with each parent.

What Custody Really Means According to the Law: Florida law makes a distinction between physical custody (where the children spend time) and legal custody (decision making power).  Florida parenting plans also ask parents to specify which parent is responsible for which decisions related to the children.

Temporary Alimony

Florida judges can award any of six types of alimony in a divorce. Only one of them is truly permanent. The term “temporary alimony” refers to only one of the five non-permanent types of spousal support.

What to Say Instead: Call each type of alimony by its official name. For example, if the alimony is being awarded to help the supported spouse become certified to practice a certain profession, so that he or she can become financially independent, it is rehabilitative alimony. If it is just one alimony payment, no matter how large or how small, it is lump sum alimony.

What Temporary Alimony Really Means According to the Law: Temporary alimony is spousal support paid in installments while the divorce case is still being decided. It automatically ends once a court formally dissolves the marriage. If the spousal support payments will continue even for a short time after the divorce is final, then it is not technically alimony.

Burton Law Makes Family Law Understandable

Family law case documents can be full of legal terms that mean something other than they mean when they are used in everyday speech. Contact Alan Burton, a Palm Beach family law attorney, for straight answers about divorce, spousal support, and parenting plans.

In that case, Danielle Brandon-Thomas was trying to get a divorce from a marriage granted in Massachusetts and her wife Krista was trying to block the divorce. Though Krista wanted to stop the divorce for child custody reasons, she used the argument that because Florida law did not recognize gay marriage, it should not dissolve a gay marriage either. Attorney General Pam Bondi stepped in and argued for Krista, and the trial court denied the divorce request.

Now, however, the state appellate court has issued its decision that overturns the trial court decision for several reasons. Some of the reasons are as follows:

• Married couples in Florida–same-sex or not–deserve equal access to the courts to dissolve their marriages as opposite-sex couples.
• The spouses had many different complicated issues regarding intertwined financial affairs and custody questions regarding their daughter that needed to be settled for the best interest of the child.
• The court found that there was no legitimate reason offered for Florida to refuse to give full faith and credit to a marriage validly entered into in another state by Bondi or Krista Brandon-Thomas.

Though Danielle Brandon-Thomas was thrilled with the appellate decision allowing her to get divorced, the couple must now face all of the many issues that any other divorcing couple must face, including custody, visitation, parenting plans, child support, spousal support, division of assets, and more. They will face all of the same legal questions and procedures that any other couple may face when they seek a divorce in Florida.

Though the couple’s divorce is far from settled, the case does represent overcoming the major hurdle to same-sex divorce in the state of Florida for couples married within or outside the state. With the increasing amount of same-sex couples seeking marriage licenses in Florida, it only makes sense that more couples may have to seek divorce in the coming years, so it is a positive step that the issue of same-sex divorce has been somewhat clarified.

Experienced Boca Raton Family Law Attorney Alan R. Burton Can Help With Your Case

Whether you are part of a same-sex or opposite sex couple, it is highly important that you have the assistance of a skilled and committed Florida family law attorney if you are considering divorce. Divorce cases have many important issues that need to be settled and you should always have a lawyer who is familiar with the ever-changing laws in Florida guiding you through the process. Please do not hesitate to call the law office of divorce lawyer Alan R. Burton to find out how we can help you today.

Plan way ahead — Many couples decide to tackle the issues and possible complications of summer custody from the very start–during the original custody case. When they are negotiating the initial parenting and time-sharing plan to be approved by the family court, parents can try to foresee any scheduling issues over the summer and can come up with solutions that are set out in the agreement. If a conflict arises at a later date, they can refer to the parenting plan to resolve the issue.

Plan your summer calendar in advance — If you want to take your child to a concert, festival, or on a camping trip, you should try to fill out your calendar of events as early as possible. While being spontaneous can be fun, events may conflict with something the other parent wishes to do or may fall during the other parent’s custody time. For example, you do not want to both plan a weekend getaway for Fourth of July, expecting that the other one will agree to it. Instead, discuss your calendar and solve any conflicts up front before summer begins.

Always give notice of a vacation — If you plan a vacation during your scheduled custody time, there may be no conflicts about scheduling at all. Too many people believe that this means they do not have to inform the other parent that they are leaving town with the kids. However, it is important to inform the other parent of your trip for safety and emergency purposes. If you fail to inform them, you may find yourself in court having to explain yourself or, in more serious situations, may face accusations of interference with custody.

If you and the other parent are still having issues regarding summer vacation custody rights, you can consult with an experienced family law attorney who knows how to best negotiate and resolve custody disputes in a favorable way. At the law office of Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton, we can help you to plan for an enjoyable and hopefully conflict-free summer vacation with your children. Call our office for help today at (954) 229-1660.

Couples have become more creative when making name-change decisions. Some couples choose to hyphenate both names, some men take their wife’s last name, and others come up with a completely new name to share. Whatever you decide, the following factors should be considered:

• Romantic traditions
• An already-established professional reputation and identity
• Both parents having the same last name as your children
• Cultural importance or other meaning attached to your maiden name
• Whether a new last name is aesthetically pleasing
• Societal implications of giving up your independent identity
• The inconvenience of a name change (and maybe changing it back if the marriage fails)

You should weigh all of factors seriously before making a decision because a legal name change cannot easily be undone.

If you make the decision to change your name after marriage, you should be sure to take all the necessary steps. You will have to go through the process of changing your name on all of the following and more:

• Passport
• Social Security card
• Driver’s license
• Lease or mortgage
• Voting registration
• Credit and bank accounts

• Investment accounts
• Health and life insurance
• Post office
• Estate planning documents
• Payroll
• Tax withholding documents

These will need to be handled in a particular order, as you will likely need your update identification in order to successfully change your name on most accounts. You will likely need a certified copy (or multiple copies) of your marriage certificate to present to different agencies. Additionally, you should always wait to start the name change process until after your honeymoon. If you purchased any tickets prior to marriage under your maiden name, you will need identification with a name that matches your tickets and reservations. In the event that you decide to get divorced and you have changed your name, you will need to go through the name change process again, provided you decide to return to your maiden name. This will require a certified copy of your divorce decree showing that the judge granted you the ability to go back to your maiden name.

If you need any assistance or advice regarding changing your name or any other legal issue related to marriage, divorce, or family, please do not hesitate to call the law firm of Alan R. Burton in Boca Raton at (954) 229-1660 for help today.

Under the new law, courts would also have significantly less discretion in alimony awards and the formula would instead closer resemble child support determinations, which are based on a specific income-driven formula. Instead of arbitrarily choosing alimony amounts and the length of awards, courts would use a formula that considered the income of each spouse, the length of the marriage, and other specific factors. Courts would still have the discretion to go outside the guidelines when they believe there is justification to do so. However, the guidelines would largely help to standardize alimony awards so spouses would have a better idea of what to expect in a pending divorce case. Additionally, there would always be an end date for an alimony award.

Some of the other changes to alimony laws that would take place should the bill pass include as follows:

• Courts would need to consider whether parties are living up to their earning potential prior to awarding them alimony.
• Alimony increases will not be simply tied to increases in income for the payer.
• If the alimony payer remarries, a new spouse’s income and assets will not be considered as a factor in increasing alimony.
• Retirement will constitute a “substantial change in circumstances” that allows the payer to request a reduction or elimination of payments.
• No alimony will be awarded to a spouse married less than two years unless extreme circumstances exist.
• No individual will have to pay combined alimony and child support over 55 percent of their net earnings.

Such alimony reform will likely ease the fears of spouses divorcing after lengthy marriages that they will be handing over large payments indefinitely. However, the bill is not meant to solely benefit the alimony payer. Due to the standardized formula, many spouses will be awarded greater alimony than they may have been otherwise. The bill aims to promote fairness and balance between both payer and payee, though whether it will become law is yet to be seen.

An Experienced Boca Raton Family Law Attorney Can Answer Your Questions

Many people considering divorce in Florida may have concerns about the changes in the family laws and may wonder whether it is better to file for divorce before or after the potential change in the alimony laws. An experienced divorce lawyer can evaluate your individual situation and provide advice on what is in your best interests, as well as guide you through the divorce process. Please do not hesitate to call Boca Raton attorney Alan R. Burton for assistance today.