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What Child Visitation, Legitimation and Paternity Mean For Marriage Breakups

Whenever husbands and wives obtain a divorce in the state of Virginia and custody of children is either agreed upon by the mother and father or resolved through the court, a father or mother that does not get custody is most likely to be awarded child visitation rights. Though it’s legally feasible for the court to refuse the right to visitation to a parent within the commonwealth of Virginia, it’s unusual. Even so, you have times when the court may temporarily stop visitation until the parent completes a specific action, like making a child support payment.

 

Any time unmarried couples have a child or children, the state of Virginia legislation declares the child belongs to the mother. The partners can mutually agree to the specifics of visitation, however if there is an arguement and the mother queries the paternity of the person making a claim to be the father of the child, he must confirm his paternity. The court may well decide that adequate proof has been presented to verify paternity, and also Paternity testing can be used to confirm or disprove paternity in the commonwealth of Virginia.

 

In Virginia, visitation rights aren’t limited to the non-custodial father or mother on their own. The law says that whoever has a “legitimate interest” in the child or children may have the right to seek visitation rights. This can be commonly applied to grandparents, but it can also be expanded to other family members, which include stepparents. Therefore grandparents together with other relatives have legal recourse should the custodial parent fails to voluntarily allow visitation.

 

Mothers and fathers have got to be able to spend some time with their kids, and the right to visitation will be taken very seriously by the courts. Even mothers and fathers who have been suspected or convicted of some form of physical or mental abuse tend to be offered the opportunity for supervised visitation. Non-custodial mothers and fathers are nevertheless parents, and it’s in the best interest of the children to help maintain a close relationship with both of their parents. Virtually all adults who are dealing with a divorce process know this and react accordingly. But should there be any dispute, the legal process is in place to make sure that the legal rights of both parents will be enforced and also the health and happiness of the children will be correctly addressed.

 

Child visitation, legitimation and paternity issues should always be resolved with a seasoned Norfolk family attorney by your side. A good family lawyer Norfolk Virginia will help you with such areas of a Norfolk VA divorce.