Orange County Paternity Attorney
The parental relationship must be established before any orders can be made when a child is born to parents who are not married.
When a child is born to parents who are not married, a paternity case must be filed before the judge can make child support or child custody and visitation orders. A parent may voluntarily acknowledge a child to be their biological child, or if there is any dispute, a DNA test will be required. The parental relationship must be established before any orders can be made. In order to get child support or child custody orders, one parent must file paperwork with the court requesting those orders, serve the other parent, and wait for the court date.
Much like in a divorce case, your judge will make a determination of what custodial orders are in the child’s best interest, and make orders consistent with those findings. The custodial arrangement will spell out specific days and times for custodial time to each parent. That schedule is also called parental timeshare with the children. Generally, all things being equal, the parent that has more time available for the child will end up with primary custody. Therefore, if one parent is unemployed and the other works full-time, the unemployed parent is likely to be awarded physical custody award regardless of whether the unemployed parent is the mother or the father. A judge’s decision is based on multiple factors including where the parents live in relations to one another, past or present abuse, or other factors that a judge deems to be important.
