Family Lawyer: Common Types of Cases

Choosing an attorney starts with choosing the right type of attorney, and that will depend on the type of case you have on your hands. Choosing an attorney with the right specialty will give you a much better chance of a positive result. If you think you might need a family lawyer, here are some common types of cases they will work with.

The most common types of cases handled by a family lawyer are those stemming from a divorce. This does not necessarily mean they are divorce cases – although those are commonly handled by attorneys with this specialty – but that they begin with a marital separation. Often an individual will choose an attorney to help with the divorce, and then utilize that attorney for other problems that arise later. This might include a custody battle, alimony battle, or division of the property. In fact, it is highly recommended that a divorcing individual who has a large estate or has children utilize an attorney to ensure that their rights and interests are protected throughout the proceedings.

Child support and custody are also common types of cases handled by these types of attorneys. They are skilled at looking past the facts of the case and getting to the bottom of what is best for the child, both physically and emotionally, in these cases. Parents who are being denied visitation rights after a separation or even when there was no marriage to begin with can turn to one of these attorneys to fight for the right to see their child.

Similarly, a family lawyer can help someone who is fighting to get their share of alimony or child support payments, or someone who feels what they have been asked to pay is unfair or impossible. With the help of the attorney, you can protect your financial security by either getting what is owed to you to care for your child or your own needs or protecting you from outrageous child support requests.

Sometimes a family lawyer works with a child, not a parent. They may be called on in extreme cases where a child needs to be protected from a parent through the courts, with the goal of denying parental rights and severing the parent-child relationship. The laws surrounding these cases are still somewhat unclear in many states, which is why the help of an attorney is so vital. 

Paternity cases are yet another type of case handled by this type of attorney. Whether you are trying to prove your own paternity to gain visitation rights to your children or need to prove paternity on someone else's part to gain child support payments, the laws can become tricky and vary from state to state. It is best to handle these with the help of an attorney.

If you are trying to decide whether or not to hire a family lawyer for your case, consider what is at stake. If your ability to feed your children or see them on a regular basis is at stake, then the cost of an attorney is well worthwhile.