TAMPA FAMILY LAW ATTORNEYS

Family law is an area of the law in which issues related to the family – such as divorce, child custody issues, prenuptial agreements, and much more – are addressed. Matters that relate to your personal family life are naturally emotionally complicated, and the outcomes are simply too important to leave to chance. This is why working closely with an experienced family law attorney is always to your advantage.

When you are facing a family law concern, there’s a strong emotional component that drives the matter. The outcome of your case or motion could be critical to you and your children’s future (often for both financial and emotional reasons). The family law attorney’s role is to skillfully guide you through the legal process – toward a resolution that supports your rights, and that works for you and your children. A dedicated and compassionate family law attorney will help you better understand the legal process ahead, help you better understand your best options, and help you make decisions along the way that are not only right for you but that also support your best interests.

Paternity cases help legally establish who a child’s father is, and they’re important for a multitude of reasons that can benefit both the child and the parents, including:

• Establishing paternity allows the child’s mother to receive child support on behalf of the child.
• Establishing paternity, however, also allows the child’s father custody rights, and to build a stronger bond with the child in question (with the legal protections that come with parenthood).
• Establishing paternity allows the father to include the child on his work-sponsored health insurance plan (if applicable) and can also provide the child with other benefits, such as disability or military benefits associated with the father.
• Establishing paternity also ensures the child’s right to inherit from his or her father.

Every child deserves love, affection, and support (both financial and emotional) from both parents, and establishing paternity is often an important first step.

Prenuptial agreements often get a bad reputation for being unromantic and anticipating divorce, but this is far from the case, and both prenuptial and postnuptial agreements are becoming far more common – and far less stigmatized. If you’re considering a prenuptial or postnuptial agreement, it demonstrates that you’re organized and proactive, and there’s nothing wrong with that. These legal documents not only play an important role in the event of divorce but can also be critical in your estate planning efforts.

To clarify, postnuptial agreements are similar to prenuptial agreements except that they’re executed during the course of your marriage, while prenuptial agreements are executed just before your marriage. As your lives and financial situation evolve, you may encounter a need to either replace an obsolete prenup or to initialize a contract in the first place, and that’s where postnuptial agreements help.

Those couples who generally have the most need for prenups or postnups include the following:

• Couples with high assets
• Couples with complicated financial situations (such as those who own businesses)
• Couples with children from other relationships who face inheritance concerns
• Spouses who enter into marriage with considerable separate assets that they are interested in keeping separate

Prenups and postnups are complicated legal contracts that should never be entered into without the professional legal guidance of an experienced family law attorney.

The custody orders that were initially handed to you by the court may no longer fit your family’s needs, and the courts address this matter via order modifications. Whatever your custody needs, you can pursue a modification by filing a petition with the court, as long as your reason for doing so is based on a change in circumstances that is both substantial and material, and that was not foreseeable. Ultimately, the court is motivated by the best interests of the children involved. Obtaining a modification is often quite complicated and working in conjunction with a dedicated family lawyer is well-advised.