Paternity attorney
in Racine, Wisconsin — near Milwaukee and Kenosha
Establishing paternity
When you have children outside of marriage and your child’s other parent is preventing you from seeing your child, you need to establish paternity in order to assert your rights. In Wisconsin, this process is called adjudication of paternity. Establishing paternity is especially important for issues involving:
- Child custody
- Child support
- Child placement
- Health insurance
- Tax exemption
- Birth expenses
It is crucial to establish paternity in cases where parents are not married if the parents are separating and they would like the court to put custody, placement, and child support orders into effect.
Because your children are important to you, it is vital that you seek the guidance of a lawyer to help you correctly navigate this complex and confusing process. At Murphy Johnson & Trampe, we have helped numerous clients establish paternity and show the court why it was in the best interests of the children to allow them to spend time with that parent.
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Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgement (VPA)
In Wisconsin, there is a unique form called a Voluntary Paternity Acknowledgment (VPA) that you can sign to establish paternity. This form can be signed at the hospital shortly after the birth of a child, and both the mother and father must sign it. When this happens, you are considered the child’s legal father.
If you do not sign a VPA and paternity questions arise later, you must go through the complicated and expensive genetic testing process. The State of Wisconsin may initiate a paternity action when one or both parents receive state aid. The parents or the State of Wisconsin may also initiate an action to establish custody and placement agreements while the parties are still residing together.
Contact us to speak with an experienced attorney about whether you should sign a VPA, or if you have paternity issues that will require you to obtain genetic test results.
