bronx fathers rights lawyers
Divorce or a bad breakup can often chauffeur the issue of fathers’ rights. But fortunately, regional Bronx laws and federal guidelines protect fathers. You will need an attorney to help you to navigate through the system.
Were You Convicted of A Crime?
In most cases, the state does not require that convicts lose their parental rights. The exception would be a crime against a child or an especially violent incident. However, sometimes an ex will try to push the abandonment issue if the father is incarcerated. This would be illegitimate, but you would need an attorney to convince the court of that.
A Soldier Returning From War
Wartime veterans have every right to see their children. The court would only suspend or limit fathers’ rights if they believe that the soldier is a potential threat to the child. If you are suffering from PTSD after war, you will likely need an attorney to represent your interests. The same would apply for any father who is suffering from a mental illness (or accused of suffering from one).
Reasonable Visitation
In the event of a separation, your ex might become vindictive and keep the children away from you. He or she might dictate that you can only have supervised visits. If there is no cause for this action, then you can fight that with the help of an attorney. But you should not proceed by yourself. bronx law and state guidelines can be difficult to discern, and if your ex has an attorney while you do not, he or she will likely prevail.
Establishing Paternity
There are some cases in which an estranged significant other will challenge your biological paternity, which will compromise your visitation rights. The court typically requires that there is a preponderance of evidence for your paternity. An attorney will walk you through some of the basic requirements.
Challenging An Adoption
If another party is attempting to adopt your child, he or she is probably making the case that you are unfit to be a parent. This could manifest as an appeal to your criminal record, history of dereliction, incompetence, failure to support your child or other factors. Fighting this can be daunting, especially if there is a lawyer on the other side. Further, in some cases you will need to establish paternity prior to challenging an adoption. You will need an attorney to stand up for you.
Order of Child Support
As a general principle, the court tries to find a child support plan that [1] sufficiently cares for the child in question and [2] can be reasonably provided by the father. Sometimes a child support order can take too much from the father. There are also times when you need to modify a child support order due to your change in status. An attorney is a worthy investment and could save a lot of money.
Preventing Your Ex From Moving
If you have visitation rights, there would be restrictions against your ex moving out of state. If he or she tries to take that issue to court, a lawyer can prevent the move.
Protecting Your Visitation Rights
There have been cases in which a judge will order that a father has unsupervised visitation rights, but the mother insists on being present for all visitations. A counselor could bring this issue to trial, as she would essentially be violating a court order.
Voluntary Termination of Parental Rights
If you are involved in a relationship with somebody who has children from a previous marriage, you might want to adopt her children. If the biological father is willing to sign over his rights, then the process will be easier. But nonetheless, the process will still require a qualified attorney.
Incarceration/Rehab
If your ex initiates a termination of your rights while you are incarcerated or in rehab, you will need a lawyer to stand in your defense to delay the trial until you are released. If you anticipate that you will be incarcerated for a period longer than one year, you should contact an attorney to talk about how to preserve your parental rights.
You Are Not Married
Some couples have the impression that a conjugal bond is necessary to seal parental rights. But the truth is that as the father, you have the right to see your children even if you were not married. So if your ex is keeping your children from you on the grounds that you were unwed, he or she is in violation of bronx law and you should contact an attorney.
The court system is there to preserve your rights and protect your child. If you are not a threat to your child, you have parental rights. Consult with an attorney about your specific situation.
Though fathers serve a vital role in the lives of their children, the legal culture in the United States seems unfairly predisposed against fathers when it comes to determining custody of children during a breakup or a divorce. Mothers have learned that they can rely on the state to take care of their children through welfare and unfair child support agreements, so they are less likely to remain living with the fathers of their children if an adverse situation arises.
Mothers are further encouraged by their knowledge that a custody battle will most likely end in a way that is favorable to them, and in most cases they are correct. But a qualified NYC father’s rights attorney can help dads navigate the legal turmoil surrounding the retention of paternal custody and can in many cases turn the tables against an unfair system.
Married and Unmarried Fathers
Before determining how a father’s rights lawyer can help you, it’s important to understand the existing biases inherent to custody law in New York State. Judges are much more likely to grant custody to married fathers over unmarried fathers.
While most married fathers have been there since the child was born, with many unmarried fathers it’s hard to establish parentage due to lapses of presence in the child’s life. This bias applies even if the parents are already divorced or a divorce is in progress. For fathers that weren’t married to the mother of the child at the time of birth, an already uphill battle is even steeper, but even in these cases, a New York father’s rights attorney can often still help.
Physical Versus Legal Custody
It’s also important to understand the difference between physical and legal custody. While most states, including New York, prefer that legal custody is shared between the parents, courts are much more biased toward giving physical custody to the mother. Legal custody pertains to the financial and decision-making aspects of the life of a child and for the father often includes making decisions on schools and providing child support.
Physical custody refers to where the child actually lives. Though fathers can often retain partial or joint physical custody, this often amounts to visitation every other weekend and makes it hard to have an actual impact on a child’s life. New York judges prefer that a father retain legal custody because the father can then be held liable for child support payments. However, this can sometimes lead to a situation where a father is subsidizing the life of their kid while hardly ever having a chance to have any real connection with the child, and this is where NYC father’s rights lawyers can come to the rescue.
Proving an Unfit Parent
One way in which a father can retain physical custody of their child in New York State is by proving the unfitness of the mother. While the scales are still skewed toward the mother when proving fitness, if the mother has a history of drug abuse or crime or has ever physically or sexually abused the child then it can sometimes be relatively simple to prove that she is incapable of being a fit mother. However, determining unfitness is never easy and almost always requires the assistance of a qualified attorney.
Getting the Help You Need
Though the odds can seem stacked against a father fighting for custody rights in New York State, no matter how damaging the environment in the courtroom may be it’s important to remember that both parents absolutely have rights to the child. It’s always best for the child and the parents if the parents are able to come to an amicable agreement without going through a lengthy court battle. But for fathers, this often means compromising their rights to their children and bowing down to a biased system.
In case after case, NYC father’s rights lawyers have helped dads keep physical custody of their kids by expertly navigating a complex and sometimes even threatening legal system. Father’s rights lawyers understand that a dad’s claim to their kids goes far beyond the legal side of things and are there to help during the difficult and draining process of going through a custody battle. Though the bias of the court system in New York may be against you, father’s rights lawyers are there to lend a helping hand in making sure that your kids have the kind of future that they deserve.
Divorce proceedings are not only emotionally tasking on the couple seeking orders to end their marriage but also to their children. If you and your spouse had children, these children will no doubt be affected by the divorce. As a good father, your concern should be to shield your children from the after-effects of divorce.
Both you and your partner can agree on joint custody for your children.
However, this is not always the case especially in divorce cases where one party feels aggrieved by the other. In such a case, the aggrieved party might seek to revenge by denying the other the rights to be with his children. The law often gives custody to the mother and assigns visitation rights to the father while at the same time expecting the father to be the only party paying child support. This is an anomaly that our experienced Father’s Rights Lawyercan help correct.
Protecting the rights of fathers
The end of a marriage does not mean the end of the father-child relationship. We believe that competent fathers should be assigned the same rights as competent mothers when it comes to dealing with support, visitation and custodial issues. It is important for your attorney to focus on the child or children you had in the marriage that has just come to an end. Children form unique bonds and relationships with their mothers and fathers. The bond between mother-child is as important as the bond between father-child. Cognizant of this fact, your Father’s Rights Lawyer will work on ensuring that your rights are protected.
Why few fathers bother to fight for equal custody rights
Fathers are naturally protective of their children and would not want to expose them to gruesome custody hearings. This is partly why some fathers opt to allow mothers to become custodial parents after divorce. As a father, you can still become protective while at the same time enjoying equal rights to your children. Our father’s rights attorneys know exactly how to achieve this. Don’t give up the right to have a shared custody with your divorced wife. You can still be a great father to your kids even if you do not share the same roof with their mother.
Equal parenting is a right you deserve, this is how you can get it:
i. Don’t allow your wife to call all the shorts on how, when, where you will see your children. Document all the instances that your ex has denied you access to your children. You can then use this in court to plead your case.
ii. Hire an attorney to petition the court to assign your equal parenting time as your ex.
iii. Don’t allow the cost of battling a child custody case in court defeat your resolve to be present in your children’s lives.
iv. Be open to mediation before resorting to a full custody battle. You should only agree to a deal that allows you to have equal parenting time.
v. Fight with a clear conscious. Don’t let the opinion of naysayers dampen your resolve to be present in your children’s lives.
vi. Ensure that your new house is child-friendly and has everything needed to safely raise your kids. A social worker is likely to visit to ensure that your new home is conducive.
How an attorney can help
Our qualified father’s rights attorneys have experience in handling father’s rights issues that include:
• Paternity disputes
• Custody arrangements
• Visitation matters
• Shared custody cases
• Child support modifications
No matter the legal issue you find yourself in, our skilled father’s right lawyers are here to help you and ensure that your rights are protected. Contact us today and let us help you with your case.
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