Paternity is the legal determination of a child's father. Under the law, fathers have various legal rights, obligations and responsibilities. These include rights and obligations with respect to custody, visitation, inheritance and/or child support. Consequently, the determination of paternity with respect to a child is fundamental to establishing these rights and responsibilities.
In New York, paternity can be established in a number of different ways, including consent, presumption and judicial determination. Each of these methods carries various specific and technical requirements which, unless properly understood and addressed, can have extremely detrimental and often permanent implications for the parties involved. This can be the case for someone seeking to establish paternity as well as for someone seeking to dispute paternity.
Issues and concerns regarding paternity are extremely varied and are unique to each individual. Legal counsel and assistance is strongly recommended whenever issues of paternity arise. Since certain issues of paternity must be addressed within specific periods of time, immediate attention to these matters is also strongly recommended.
To discuss any issues or questions with respect to paternity matters, please contact Lawrence
J. Schwind.