Generally speaking, we don’t tend to associate family life with the law. Sure, we may be familiar with different laws that apply to us as general citizens, and with laws that we have to abide by on a professional basis, but there are various areas of law that apply to family life too! Here are just a few different types to be aware of. You never know when you might have to engage with some of them!
This is a contributed post and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Meet The Harris Family.
Purpose of Family Law
Many people will actively seek affordable family law help at some point or another during their lives. This area of law focuses on the rights, duties, and powers of individuals over their own children. It aims to protect the rights of individuals in family affairs.
Adoption
There are hundreds of thousands of children out there who are looking for a loving home to take them in. However, you can’t simply adopt any parent-less child you wish to. There’s a whole lot of legal protocol entailed in any adoption process. This is generally for the well-being of the child involved. You will have to pass all sorts of screening to ensure that you will prove to be a good parent and that you will also be able to provide for the child you intend to adopt.
Child Custody
Divorce rates are on the up and many couples end up arguing about who will get custody of the children. While some couples will be able to come to a civil agreement themselves, others will require legal intervention to come up with a plan in regards to when children will spend time with each parent.
Child Support
When parents split, they both maintain financial responsibility over their children. If the children are living with one parent or if one parent does not see the children at all, financial support still has to be offered. Child support cases see that both parents meet their financial responsibilities over the children that they have brought into this world.
Visitation
If one parent is deemed unfit to maintain custody of their child or children, they may still be entitled to visitation rights. This means that they will be able to visit their kids, or their kids will be able to spend time with them, in an agreed location. This may be their home or it may be in a visitation centre. It may be supervised or unsupervised, depending on what the judge permits.
These are just a few different areas of family law that exist, but hopefully, the above information has helped you to get to grips with their basics and the purpose that these areas of law intend to serve!
