Paternity and Grandparents Rights
Children benefit from the care and support of many adults. We fight to ensure parent's or grandparent's right to be a part of a child's life.
Nothing is more precious than your relationship to the children in your life.
Children also benefit when they have the care and support of many adults. At Buckley Martin & Desrosiers, P.C., Attorneys at Law, we fight to ensure a parent or grandparents’ right to stay in a child’s life.
Let us help you protect your relationship by establishing your legal rights to custody or parenting time in court.
For Fathers: Establishing Paternity in Massachusetts
Establishing paternity in Massachusetts family court is the first step in protecting your ability to see your child.
While your current or former partner may allow you to visit your child, that situation is not secure. Once you have established parentage, with a DNA test and court determination, you have a legal leg to stand on should you want court-ordered parenting time or custody.
Our child custody lawyers have handled both simple and paternity cases, including cases involving same-sex couples and donor fathers, changes of paternity cases, and fathers as a result of a one-night-stand.
Parentage and Child Support
A custodial parent can ask for child support from another person (or a biological father even if he has refused genetic testing) if:
- The couple are or were married when the child was born, or within 300 days after the marriage ended
- Before or after the child was born,the potential parent attempted to marry the mother
- The potential parent behaved in a way that others would see as acknowledging paternity, such as receiving the child into his/her home and acting as if the child was theirs
- There is “clear and convincing evidence” that this person is the parent of the child
- The other person has acknowledged parentage in a parental responsibility claim and the mother didn’t object within a reasonable time
- The person agreed, in writing, to support the child
If you established in court that you were not the biological father or a second parent, you have a defense against a claim for child support.
Whether you did or did not admit parentage, you need a lawyer who can protect your interests in court. Call us for help.
Grandparents Visitation Rights in Massachusetts
As in most states in the U.S., grandparents have very limited parental rights in Massachusetts.
However, grandparents can be extremely important people in the life of a child and family court judges have been known to grant rights to child visitation for grandparents and extended family.
If you have had a close, ongoing relationship with the child – for example, taking custodial responsibility for them for some period of time or seeing them every weekend – you may be able to bring a successful claim for visitation rights in court.
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