Fathers’ Rights Attorney Committed to Defending Parent-Child Relationships

You may have heard or read about lawyers who claim to advocate for “father’s rights.”  That is not a legal term.  If you are going through a divorce proceeding and you are a father, you need to understand this: You have no fewer and no greater rights than the mother.  Both parents have the exact same rights. You have the same rights with respect to physical custody, legal custody, and parenting time. At Loftness Law Office, P.A., I help both fathers and mothers assert these rights in family law proceedings.

Minnesota laws pertaining to custody and parenting time provide a number of factors (12, to be exact) that the court must consider in determining what is in the best interests of children, and none of those factors makes any reference specifically to the father or the mother. Rather, the court must view the family dynamic as a whole and analyze the situation under each of those factors.

Do Mothers Have an Unfair Advantage in Child Custody Matters?

The short answer is no. Although both parents have equal rights in child custody proceedings, there are some situations in which one parent may not be on equal ground with the other. For example, if a parent has been convicted of a certain criminal offense, that parent may have restricted rights to custody or parenting time with children. Again, those restrictions apply the same to both mothers and fathers.

Essentially, the only circumstances in family law proceedings where the mother has different rights to children are in paternity proceedings, prior to the father being adjudicated (in other words, prior to the father being legally recognized as the father). Before a father is legally recognized as a parent, the biological mother has custody of the child by default. So how is paternity established? Contact me and we’ll schedule a consultation to discuss the process.

Contact a Family Lawyer for Fathers and Mothers Today

I stand up for both parents in family law proceedings, because I’m committed to helping families through the process of determining what is in the children’s best interests. If you are a parent who has concerns about these issues, contact me today to schedule an initial consultation. Call 952-641-7485 or reach out online.