Often, you don't know you need help from a family lawyer until you are in the midst of a legal crisis. And, what, exactly, does a family lawyer do? It sounds like a family lawyer should be one of those attorneys that your family calls to address any type of legal issue because he or she supports the "family." Family law is actually an area of practice that covers legal matters that impact a family or members of a family.
What Types of Services are Covered?
Family law covers a broad range of topics and legal issues. The key is that all of the services relate to specific problems or situational changes that a family can undergo, including:
- Domestic violence – This covers such instances as spousal abuse or partner abuse and can be physical, verbal, sexual or even economical in nature.
- Marriage – Family law covers legal aspects of getting married that include drawing up legal papers for prenuptial agreements, domestic partnership, or civil unions.
- Adoption – Families in the process of adopting often engage legal services for the paperwork, to correctly represent children that they are in process of adopting, or to draw up contracts that are enforceable and binding between birth parents and adoptive parents for visitation, interactions, etc.
- Child abuse – This covers all areas from physical and sexual abuse to neglect and psychological abuse.
- Divorce or annulment – Divorce involves legally separating two people and, due to the emotions involved, is best done with the help of a lawyer who can act for each participant. Annulment is a special type of legal procedure where a marriage is declared null and void, as if it never happened.
- Child custody – Often, as a part of divorce proceedings, one or both parents will seek custody of the children. Child custody proceedings can also be initiated after a divorce has finalized.
- Paternity or maternity testing – These tests are often part of a larger legal proceeding, such as child custody or adoption. A family lawyer coordinates the testing, processing, and utilization of the test results as part of the overall case.
- Juvenile adjudication – This is a more specialized branch since the family lawyer may actually be an employee of the court appointed to represent a juvenile for some act that the juvenile has committed or because the child is in a situation where he or she needs to be temporarily represented by the court.
Why Should a Family Lawyer be Involved?
In some of the situations, it is obvious why a lawyer must be involved – the legal issues are complex and can take many months or even years to resolve. In other cases, even though a person or persons could perform the tasks themselves, such as filling out court-required paperwork for divorce or getting a paternity or maternity test, the emotions and ramifications involved necessitate the services of a family lawyer.
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