Visitation Rights – How a California Family Law Attorney Can Help in Obtaining Them

There are basically three types of individuals that can apply for visitation rights and a California Family Law Attorney can help in all the three cases. The first case is the most common. It involves parents who haven’t won custody and are applying for visitation rights. They need a lawyer to make sure they get enough hours so they are able to spend a sufficient amount of time with their children. If necessary, family attorneys can also be hired to protect their parental rights over their children. It’s a father’s right, for example, to file a complaint if the mother – who has custody – is planning to take their child abroad without asking for his consent.

The second type of individuals who commonly apply for visitation rights involve all blood-related individuals or relatives of the children. This could include but is not limited to grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. The first thing a California Family Law Attorney would do in this case is to establish kinship. DNA tests are expensive and a good lawyer would only require that as a last resort to certify kinship between his client and the child involved. To avoid this test, what a good lawyer would do is to use a paper trail or find official and verifiable documents to show the relationship between both parties, thus providing the basis for the client’s request for visitation rights.

The third group of individuals who may request for visitation rights are non-blood-related individuals to the child. In this case, a California Family Law Attorney will need to establish a verifiable connection between the children, character references for the client and a valid reason for the client to ask for such rights.