Divorce Advice for Men | Fathers Rights Divorce | Child Custody

By Sara Pitcher

Cordell & Cordell Men's Divorce Lawyer

Some states require a putative father to submit his information to a database – a putative father registry - to preserve some of his rights as the father of the child.

A putative father is a man who may be a child's father, but who is not married to the child's mother on or before the date that the child is born, or who has not legally established paternity of the child before the filing of an adoption petition for the child.

This impacts any man who thinks he is the biological father of a child born out of wedlock. As soon as a man believes he may be the father of a child, he should determine whether the state that the woman lives in has any requirements for registering as a putative father.

If you suspect that you are the father of a child born out of wedlock who is under the age of 18 years old, you should immediately determine whether there is a putative father registry in your area.

Question:

My wife is pregnant by another man. I am thinking about filing for divorce because I feel like it is my only option.

But is there anything other than divorce I can do to protect myself?

I don't want to be responsible for another man's child if we do end up separating for good.

By Julie Garrison

Special to DadsDivorce.com

Divorced dads who maintain an active role in their children’s lives reap the benefits now and later on.

Even out-of-state dads with limited parenting time are still far better for a child than not having a father in the picture at all.

With roughly one of every two marriages ending in divorce, a dad need not feel guilty about ending the marriage. As long as courts recognize the importance of shared parenting, children of divorced parents will be right up there in emotional stability and achievement with children from households where the parents are married and living together.

By Julie Garrison

Special to DadsDivorce.com

"Fatherhood turns out to be a complex and unique phenomenon with huge consequences for the emotional and intellectual growth of children." 

There is a large body of evidence pointing to the importance of a father in a child's life.  Children with two married parents or those whose parents share parenting in two homes, often fare better in life than those who are raised by their mothers alone.

Children who live with just their mother often live at the poverty level. When a dad lives with the mother or if the dad pays regular support for his children, they are lifted out of the high risk associated with a poverty upbringing.

But that's not all that fathers do. They bring much more to their children than just monetary support.

By Robert Ferrer

Archivist and Principle Researcher, University of Illinois

The Good

The input of Social Science is beginning to be taken seriously by Family Law. This is important since law is inherently regressive. It relies on past case law to inform current rulings. 

The guiding principle of Family Law is "best interests of the child."

However, how can past case law alone help define a child's best interest when we are learning each year new things about child developmental processes and needs?