Children & Family
What matters most is protecting your children through the change. DAWN brings decades of focused experience to child custody, support, parenting time, and paternity matters, with your children's wellbeing and safety always the priority.
Child Custody
DAWN advocates for a custody arrangement that protects your relationship with your children and their wellbeing. Courts decide custody based on the "best interests of the child," weighing factors like each parent's ability to provide care, the child's relationship with each parent, and stability of the environment. Custody includes two parts, legal custody (decision-making authority) and physical custody (where the child lives), and either can be awarded solely or jointly.
Child Support
If you need a support order that's fair and accurately reflects your family's situation, DAWN can help. Support is calculated using the Child Support Formula, which factors in both parents' incomes, parenting time, and the number of children. It covers a child's basic needs such as housing, food, healthcare, and more, and can be modified later if circumstances change significantly.
Parenting Time
DAWN's attorneys help you establish a parenting time schedule that works for your family and protects your time with your children. Parenting time is the schedule that determines when a child is with each parent. The law presumes that time with both parents is in a child's best interest, unless there's evidence it would endanger the child's physical, mental, or emotional health.
Establish Paternity
Establishing paternity affects custody, parenting time, child support, and inheritance rights, and DAWN can guide you through the process. This can be done through the Acknowledgement of Parentage Act if parents aren't married, or through court action if there's a dispute.
Revoke Paternity
If new evidence suggests the acknowledged father isn't the biological father, DAWN can help you challenge paternity under the Revocation of Paternity Act. An acknowledgement or determination of paternity can be set aside under specific circumstances, but strict time limits apply, so acting quickly matters.
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