What Does a Family Law Attorney Do? There are very different types of attorneys needed every day. When it comes to picking and choosing the best attorney for you, it depends on exactly what kind of services you need. In this case we will be discussing what a Family Law Attorney does. Family law in general is an area that deals specifically with family-related and domestic relations. Along those same lines, family court sees the most cases on their dockets.
Family law attorneys typically handle legal matters between people in a familial relationship such as, husband, wife, children, grandparents, guardians and domestic partners. A family law attorney will handle a wide range of legal issues. The main dealings that attorneys work on are divorces, pre and post marital/prenuptial agreements, also may be used for child custody arrangements, child support, alimony, adoption, juvenile delinquency, paternity and visitation rights. The main thing a family law attorney is tied to are divorce and legal separations. During these proceedings the attorney may handle division of martial property, child custody settlements inclusive of visitation rights, allocate monies for child support and alimony. While most people turn to an attorney when relationships sour, there are numerous enough cases that have family law attorneys doing not so bitter work. In happier times a family law attorney can help making a child adoption legal. The specific laws on adoption and parental rights are based on your jurisdiction, while the birth parents can retain a small amount of rights. In some cases the family law attorney can create documents to help prevent foreseeable future problems. These cases requires premarital/prenuptial agreements, which helps set how assets will be divided if a divorce should occur. Also, if the marriage was already completed and the spouses decide to do a postnuptial agreement, this would help set the property division and child custody, visitation and support arrangements if anything should happen in the future.