What Do Family Law Attorneys Do?

by Kevin Smith Author

Typically, if you're looking for a family law attorney in Stephenville, TX, you need legal assistance pertaining to a matter that involves the relationships and people within your family. While most people think that family law attorneys strictly deal with divorces, there are many other areas of the law that they help clients with regularly. Each state has its own laws about how marriages, divorces and custody disputes are handled, along with issues involving paternity or adoption. Learn more about the kind of legal cases that family law attorneys oversee.

Divorce

Divorce is the most common kind of case that family law attorneys facilitate. Each state has its own statutes about how marriages are dissolved and assets are divided. Because marriage is a legally binding contract, there are specific rules that couples must follow as they separate.

Couples who have only been married a few short years and have few assets and no children don't usually have complicated divorce proceedings. An attorney typically oversees the paperwork and a simple distribution of the assets.

However, couples with significant assets, a home and children may find that divorce is a complicated matter. Laws about community property, pensions, bank accounts, and custody are not only legally difficult to understand, but they are emotional issues that make the situation even worse.

Children's Issues

Lawyers who deal with family law often represent clients in children's issues. From determining child support or child custody to determining the paternity of a child, lawyers guide clients through the legal system, abiding by laws and establishing what's best for a child. Additionally, family law attorneys facilitate cases involving adoptions, abuse/neglect, guardianship and foster care placement.

Nuptial Agreements

While family law attorneys work with a lot of divorcing couples, they also partner with people who want a clear definition of what happens if/when they split up after marital nuptials. Some couples have assets to protect that they acquired prior to marriage that they want to secure, in the case of divorce. Lawyers can draft prenuptial agreements in these cases. From time to time, couples realize after they are already married ,they should have clarified how their belongings or financial accounts should be split up in the case that they split up. (This happens frequently in the case of inheritance or a major business breakthrough.) Lawyers draft postnuptial agreements for these partners.

Surrogacy

Becoming more common, a family law attorney in Stephenville, TX, helps define rules and legal responsibilities for surrogacy cases. When a woman agrees to carry a baby for a couple, a legal contract ensures that her medical bills are paid, along with other incidental expenses.