How Do I Start a Family Law Court Case?

If you find yourself in dispute with a family member and you can’t seem to settle the matter within yourselves, it’s better to let the court deal with it. When the case is submitted to the court, you can save yourselves from more unnecessary heartaches and misunderstandings. All that’s left for you to do is build your case, present the same to the family court, and let the judge rule on its merits. You need to convince the court to favor you when it begs an answer to this question — who has more rights in a family law case?

The processes involved in a family law case will mainly depend on the type of case you’re filing. When you’re not familiar with the different types of cases and the necessary steps to go through, it’s also best to seek the legal advice of an Orange County family law firm. 

What case do you intend to file?

There are a plethora of cases that fall within the province of family law. It could be a petition to issue a divorce decree, petition for the issuance of a temporary restraining order, adoption, child custody, paternity, emancipation, and even succession. Each of these legal actions calls for a different procedure. When in doubt, it’s always best to rely on a legal counsel’s expert advice and seek a family law attorney. Yes, you can officially lodge your own petition, but fighting it out in court is a different matter. You need to have adequate legal knowledge of the law’s substantive and procedural aspects to earn a day in court. If you lack the legal foresight, your case might end up getting dismissed because it failed to pass the formal requisites. 

Say, for instance, you want to file a petition for probate of the will. However, since you’re not aware that the form of the will has to be passed on before the court will look at its substance, it gets prematurely dismissed. This won’t be the case if you have a probate lawyer working with you. They know all these things, so before your petition gets to the court, it has already passed the formal requisites. The judges can now move to hear the case based on its merits. 

Get legal advice

The first thing you need to do when you intend to start a family law case is to seek an expert Family lawyer’s counsel. If you’re filing a divorce case, go to a divorce lawyer. Make sure that the lawyer you decide to work with specializes in the case that you’re filing. Besides textbook knowledge, their experience in the courtroom and in years of handling the same case imparted them knowledge and skills you don’t learn from your law books. 

Suppose you’re an illegitimate heir, and suddenly, after your father died, your half brothers and sisters refuse to give your share of the legitime. They even questioned your legal standing and refused to give your part even if there’s a will. What made the situation more complex is that creditors are running after the estate of the deceased. If you refuse to seek legal help from an experienced probate lawyer, you stand to lose your share of the legitimes. 

Gather evidence to support your claim

As soon as your lawyer accepts the case, the next thing you should do is to feed him with all the necessary evidence to support your claim. Going back to the example we raised above, this step involves showing your lawyer your birth certificate wherein the deceased was named your father. In the absence of such indisputable proof, you can also present DNA test results that show that you are indeed an offspring of the deceased. You can schedule an appointment for testing at various Private DNA Testing Locations in Las Vegas NV, amongst others. If the paternity of the deceased can be established, it would then be hard to contest the legitimacy of your claim against his estate. 

Make sure that you come to court with clean hands

It’s a known and well-recognized legal principle that those who assert a right must come to court with clean hands. Meaning to say, before your legal right can be acknowledged as valid, you must show that you have manifested good faith in respect to the subject of the litigation. Again, suppose you go back to the testacy case we mentioned above. In that case, good faith suggests that an heir, though illegitimate, shall only have the right to claim his share if he had not violated good faith in relation to the testator and the subject of the will. 

This further means that the court will only acknowledge his right if he didn’t do anything that might have defrauded or injured the testator in his lifetime. If the heir is found guilty of an attempt against the testator’s life, he can be validly disinherited. So, if you’re bringing an action to be included in the share of legitimes, you have to make sure that you exercised good faith in your dealings with the testator. 

The last thing you need to feel or go through when you’re fighting against a family member is more heartaches. While it’s impossible to settle these cases without hurting the other member, it would be less chaotic and messy if you let a legal counsel do the fighting for you.