Waukesha Family Legal Blog

Few people like being told what to do. This is true for children when it comes to doing what their parents say, and this can also be true for adults who wish to exercise the freedom and autonomy they desire to solve their problems on their own terms. However, when it comes to legal processes, many Wisconsin residents accept that the outcomes of their cases will be determined by the rulings of the courts that hear their matters.

This does not always have to be the case, though. When it comes to divorce, Wisconsin residents can elect to take matters into their own hands and to pursue collaborative divorce. A collaborative divorce may help the parties to the ending marriage to keep the power to decide important issues in their own hands and out of the control of a judge who has been assigned to their case.

Practically everyone has heard that one-half of all American marriages end in divorce. This often used but rarely substantiated statistic is often the subject of debate among Wisconsin residents, and though its absolute truth may be in question its representation about the long-term status of marriage is spot on: divorce is common among Americans.

It is not just young people who are seeking to end their marriages. Men and women who are well into their careers and who have children that have grown up and left their homes are also active in the divorce courts as they work to end their legal relationships. While older divorcees do not have to contend with child custody and support matters as often as their younger counterparts they do have their own difficulties to overcome.

Whether a child's parents are married at the time that the child comes into the world can have a lot of bearing on whether a man is considered a child's presumptive father. For example, in many jurisdictions a marriage between the child's parents that occurred before the child's birth will create a legal presumption that the husband is the father of the wife's child. When the parents are not married at the child's birth then this presumption is not created.

After a child's birth a Wisconsin man has several options for showing that he is a child's father. He may voluntarily acknowledge that he is a child's father and if the mother agrees they may execute a special form that creates a legal relationship between the child and man and paternal rights in the man to care for and provide for his child.

When a mother delivers a baby into the world it is very clear that the parent and child share a biological connection. Whether she delivers at home, in a hospital or in a different location a Wisconsin mother's identity is generally easy to identify as she has to present when her child enters the world. However, if a mother is not in a relationship with her baby's father or if she is unsure of who the father of her child is, knowing who the child's second parent is can be much less obvious.

When the identity of a child's father is in question a paternity test may be ordered to provide clarity on the issue. A paternity test checks the genetic material of a child against that of a man to see if they are biologically related. If there are sufficient similarities between the child's genetic sample and the man's genetic sample then a paternal relationship may be established.