Lakeland FL Family Law Lawyer | Marital Law Attorney

Call 863.686.0975 to speak to Lakeland Family Law Lawyer, Gail Cheatwood about your legal needs.

Family law is a very large topic that can involve anything from adoption, divorce, legal name changes, child-related issues, and many other issues prior to, during, after, or even in the absence of the marriage.

When spouses divorce, it is conducted in family court. Later modifications of divorce court orders are conducted in family court. Divorce related modifications may include modification petitions for alimony, child support, time-sharing, and child-related issues pertaining to a geographic relocation of either parent.

Family law also involves establishing parental responsibility and child support and paternity cases.

Something unique to Florida is that when you are married if the wife has a child during the marriage, by law the husband is the legal father of the child, even if he is not the biological father of the child. If needed there is a way to change this by a process called a Disestablishment of Paternity. The Disestablishment of paternity is often requested when a man has been adjudicated to be the father and new evidence is discovered. For example, there was no foreseen reason to initially conduct a paternity test. If the father believes his wife is by an unfaithful and wishes to either confirm or disprove that he is the father, then a paternity test may be requested. This is also common if a father has been paying child support for several years following a divorce with the mother, and he believes he has reason to suspect the child is not his biological child. If it is proven that he is not the biological father of the child, he can then petition the court to terminate the child support and parental responsibility if he so chooses. Child support payments that he has already made our non-recoverable.

Legal name changes are also a part of family law. Legal name changes are often requested by the wife when she gets married. It is recommended in the case of a divorce that if the wife or spouse that originally change their name makes the legal name change part of the divorce, rather than waiting a significant time period to do so. Doing the legal name change on your own rather than making it part of the divorce can make the process of a legal name change more expensive and take a greater period of time.

When one spouse files for divorce, one of the first things that we do is file a motion for temporary relief. Temporary family law court orders will address issues child-related issues, such child support, what the time-sharing and parental responsibilities will be until the divorce is final, and even issues of alimony, who will live in the family home, and other divorce-related issues. You do not want the period between the divorce filing and the divorce becoming finalized to be a free for all and without any structure for the children and the divorcing spouses.

Call 863.686.0975 to schedule a confidential legal consultation with Lakeland Family Law Attorney, Gail Cheatwood about your legal needs.

LAW OFFICE OF
GAIL CHEATWOOD, P.A.

2000 S. Florida Ave., Lakeland, Florida 33801

 PHONE: 863.686.0975