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Oftentimes, a biological parent has been out of the child’s life and the step-parent wishes to adopt the child. In those cases, the courts sometimes require the consent of an unmarried biological parent. Florida Statute 63.062 governs the rule requiring consent in adoptions. The consent of the unmarried biological father is only required if the unmarried biological father was married to the mother at the time the child was born, adopted the child, has had a paternity determination by a court or has acknowledged in writing that he is the father of the child and has had that acknowledgement witnessed by a competent witness and filed the acknowledgement with the Office of the Vital Statistics. If any of these requirements have been performed by the unmarried biological father, our firm can help in obtaining the required consent from the biological father when filing the step-parent adoption. Please call us at 904-355-8888 should you require any assistance with this matter.

Finding the right divorce lawyer in Jacksonville, Duval County, Nassau County, Clay County or St. Johns County Florida is essential in starting your divorce. Choosing which divorce attorney you will use to represent you in determining child custody, child support, alimony, equitable distribution of assets, and the like is the most important decision you can make in you case.

When choosing a family law/divorce attorney, you should be able to discuss openly your situation and communicate freely with the attorney/lawyer representing you. The ideal divorce attorney should be able to tell you candidly about things that you may not want to necessarily hear. The most important quality in choosing a divorce attorney who will deal with such intimate issues as child abuse, spousal abuse or domestic violence, infidelity, or custody arguments is “do I feel comfortable revealing private details about my life with this lawyer?” If you cannot tell your attorney intimate details of the marriage, then you could be placing your case and your attorney at a disadvantage in court.

You should look for an attorney who specializes in family law because an estate planning attorney will not do you much good in a specialized area such as family law. You should choose an attorney with experience in the field to be able to locate assets, review custody evaluations, converse with accountants and psychologists to give your case the edge it deserves.

When you have children, going through a Florida divorce or Florida paternity action requires the calculation of child support. If you are going through a divorce and wondering how much child support you will receive or will be repsonsible for, a Florida divorce lawyer will be able to assist. In Florida, child support is calculated by a statute, which only consideres certain numbers.
Florida Statute 61.30 governs child support and establishes the amount which shall be ordered for support in any initial proceedings and subsequent modifications. There is a specific formula used in determining the child support amount and there are several steps used in the formula to get to the final number. Knowing how the guideline calculations work and how they relate to the unique circumstances of each case is key. Calculating child support is not a matter of blindly entering numbers into the formula discussed. It is a complicated process and it is critical for one to understand the various income types and components relative to the case at hand to accurately calculate the amounts. If you are engaged in divorce or child support proceedings, I encourage you to contact an expert to guide you through this formulaic process to ensure that you are either receiving enough income or not paying more than you should be.