Family law, also known as matrimonial law, is an area of jurisprudence that deals with a diverse range of family matters and domestic relations. From marriage disputes and civil unions to paternity testing and adoption cases, a family law attorney can help you restore order to your life.
Services Provided by Family Law Attorneys
Many times, though, people consult with a family law attorney vis-a-vis a divorce or marriage annulment. Although clients are understandably seeking closure, there’s still the issue of fairly establishing visitation rights and child custody proceedings. This is largely where the practical value of a family law attorney resides for most clients.
Adoption, child protection and legal guardianship are all within the legal purview of an experienced family law attorney. A family law attorney can help both sides get on with their lives and finalize a divorce or annulment.
Although we’ve only touched on a few of the ways in which a family law attorney can help you return stability to your life, it’s important to realize that family law is one of the most diverse domains in jurisprudence today.
It’s also important to realize upfront that you can consult a family law attorney if you merely need a third-party mediator to smooth over rough patches – this is called family law mediation and it can help both parties to avoid dragging their contentions into court.
Sometimes, however, a family law trial can’t be avoiding. Below is what you can expect.
Inside Family Law Trials
Third-party mediation would be an example of mediation whereas going to trial would be an example of litigation. In cases of litigation, two parties take their case in front of a family court judge and a decision is made that could impact family law issues like child custody, child support and/or alimony payments.
Mediation and Negotiation
One partial exception to this clean dichotomy between mediation, on the one hand, and litigation would be a case of uncontested divorce. You would still be required to show up in front of a judge and litigate the details, even though neither party is contesting any of the family law issues.
A family law attorney can also help couples work through issues with a negotiation. Failing that, a family law attorney can help both sides craft and submit a family law agreement like a marriage settlement.
A family law agreement that makes its way into court litigation carries the enforcement mechanisms that make family court so effective in resolving issues over the long term.
Factors Needed for Enforcement
Logistically, though, you would work though a family law attorney to have your agreement executed and filed through the court. From there the family court judge would decide whether or not to make your agreement into an enforceable court order that each side needs to abide by.
This could, for instance, result in mandatory child support or alimony payments that one side had to legally make to the other.
Family court judges make these kinds of decisions after factoring in a few factors, including: the reasonableness of the agreement, whether both parties freely agreed on each clause in the agreement, and whether a financial declaration was forwarded that accurately portrayed each side’s past and current financial disclosures.
A family law agreement is usually approved by a family court judge if these conditions are met. When the agreement is thus approved, it carries the weight of a court order and related contempt powers, which may include sanctions (i.e., fines and/or jail time) for parties who violate the judge’s decision.
Law Offices of Gerard A. Falzone 