Texas Child Custody | Paternity Lawyers

Paternity Suits in Texas offer a variety of costs and benefits and parties shouldn’t assume that these cases routine and do not require a lot of consideration or strategy.  Likewise, people should be very careful about assuming they have an understanding of the legal requirements of establishing paternity in Texas as well as the rights of a parent and whether those same rights are automatically bestowed or if there are legal deadlines that can affect either establishing or contesting parental rights.

At Nick Davis Law, our Child Custody | Paternity Lawyers in The Woodlands | Conroe, Texas and Bryan | College Station will explain the process of pursuing a Suit to Adjudicate Paternity, analyze the circumstances of your case, advise your legal options, and further give you an overview of potential risks or rights you may be giving up by either pursuing or contesting a paternity suit.  Whatever the circumstances are in your case, or your goals,  our Child Custody | Paternity Lawyers can help prepare your case to succeed.

The experienced Child Custody | Paternity Lawyers at Nick Davis Law serving Montgomery, Harris, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Brazos, Washington and Surrounding Counties can help guide you through the legal process to confirm paternity.

Nick Davis Law offers all prospective Child Custody | Paternity Suit clients a Free Case Evaluation by phone or virtual conference as well as payment plans.  Contact our office at (936) 262-7474.

Typical Reasons for Filing a Paternity Suit

• Establish Child Support
• Prove Paternity
• Obtain Possession and Access to Child

Are You Sure You Want to File a Paternity Suit in Order to Receive Child Support?

Unfortunately, though, the Office of the Attorney General fails to tell applicants something very critical:  They don’t care about child custody provisions, the rights and duties of a parent, the possession schedule, a geographical restriction, best schools for the child, the strengths and weaknesses of a parent, or – for that matter –  which parent will actually get primary custody of the child.  All they care about is establishing child support and getting a parent ordered to pay something for the child.

Now, why is this?  Well, the reason is, the government wants to limit the number of parents and children on government assistance programs and the best way to do that is to ensure parents are paying child support and providing medical coverage for their children.  This is clearly understandable, and for many parents, using the Office of the Attorney General is their best option and it just might workout the way they hoped it would.

For our Child Custody | Paternity Suit Lawyers at Nick Davis Law, though, we strive to ensure our client’s know exactly what they are risking getting into a case.  One of the things we make sure our Paternity Suit clients understand when their main goal is to get child support, especially when the other parent isn’t very involved, is that, they may be giving up some control over the child that they are unwilling to relinquish.

Consider this scenario, a single mother has a 2 year old.  The father has had some interaction with the child but not a lot, which for the most part, has been fine because Father tends to associate with individuals that the mother doesn’t want her child around.  These people aren’t necessarily dangerous criminals but they make the mother uncomfortable.  Moreover, Father has never had any full weekend-overnight possessions with the child because the mother just doesn’t think the father is ready yet.  But, Father doesn’t pay much in, if anything in child support, and he has the ability to do so.

So, should the mother in this scenario file a Suit to Adjudicate Paternity?  Not without understanding that in Texas, it is highly, highly, likely that Father will be awarded the Standard Possession Schedule of the child very soon if not immediately.  The mother will not have any control on who the father brings the child around – unless she has evidence of bad conduct which is more than just speculation – and the Father will have overnight possession that Mother will not have the ability to unilaterally cancel.  Also, the mother better plan on residing in the local area because in almost every paternity suit case, the court will order a Geographical Restriction for where the child must reside to help ensure stability and frequent interaction with the child by each parent.  Now, the mother may be comfortable with all of these risks – and there could be a variety of other risks depending upon the specific facts of the cases – but the Mother should be blindsided by these risks after its too late simply because they deleted the Office of the Attorney General for financial reasons or hired an inexperienced Family Law Lawyer.

The experienced Child Custody | Paternity Lawyers at Nick Davis Law in The Woodlands | Conroe, TX and Bryan | College Station, Texas will carefully consider the unique circumstances of your case and thoroughly communicate to you all the costs and benefits of pursuing your Paternity Suit in Montgomery, Harris, Grimes, Waller, Walker, Brazos, Washington and Surrounding Texas Counties.