EIN News
If you are a male in Texas who is not married to the birth mother of a child, you may confront legal hurdles in your attempt to establish rights related to child custody, child visitation or other family law issues. This is because there are some legal presumptions for women under Texas law, which do not exist for males. As a result, a man attempting to assert or contest parenting privileges or responsibilities must play an active role in either process.
A legal parent in Texas has rights related to childrearing. When a child is born to married parents, Texas law presumes that the mother and father are both the biological and legal guardians of the child. On the other hand, when a child is born to a mother who is not married, the law is slightly different.
If a man is not married to the child’s mother, he must actively establish paternity to be deemed the legal father. One way to do this is through an Acknowledgement of Paternity document. If the mother concedes that the particular man is her child’s father, the two parents can voluntarily sign the legal document, which creates rights for the man.
Statement by Kaine Fisher, head of RLG’s Family Law Department: From this very glossary version of the process, it sounds like the procedure in Texas is very similar to the process in Arizona. In both states, marriage creates a presumption that a husband and wife are the biological parents of a particular child born during their marriage; however, the same cannot be said for children born out of wedlock. The article discusses roadblocks in these unwed situations but I see the same roadblocks every day here in Arizona even in the context of a divorce. A spouse can just as easily be alienated from seeing his/her child early in a divorce until orders are put in place by the court designating the party’s respective parenting time rights. One solution we use in Arizona to at least minimize the duration of such alienation is to request temporary orders pursuant to Rule 47, Arizona Rules of Family Law Procedure. If a spouse is being prevented from having any contact whatsoever, absent temporary orders, it may take a spouse months to get to Trial to ask for relief. This particular Rule affords litigants the opportunity to assert parenting time rights, and establish at least some semblance of a Parenting Plan, much sooner than would ordinarily be afforded. Although these orders are temporary (I like to call them band aids) they can at least preserve to some degree a parent’s relationship with his/her children.
Also: Overhaul of Florida Alimony Laws Appears Headed for Passage
If you’d like to discuss family law, contact with Kaine Fisher, head of RLG’s Family Law Department, kfisher@roselawgroup.com.
