Letting Attorneys Help You

Letting Attorneys Help You

When Is A Case A Matter Of Family Law?

Dolores Rice

One of the hardest aspects of family law for clients to deal with is understanding the scenarios where an issue doesn't go before a family court judge. It can be helpful to develop a better understanding of which problems are and are not seen as part of family law. Here are three such situations you ought to be aware of.

Partner and Child Abuse

This issue isn't so much a matter of confusion as it is that two areas of law, family and criminal, heavily overlap here. A major thing to keep in mind is that not all concerns about abuse lead to criminal prosecutions. Likewise, not every criminal case leads to a family court ruling.

Each side of the matter is treated as independent. A criminal case for abuse is subject to the rules of procedure that pertain to any matter where someone might be deprived of their liberty.

However, that doesn't stop the family law case from going forward. Instead, documentation from the criminal case can be sent to your family lawyer to help you in the separate proceeding. Action can usually be taken more quickly if there are concerns, for example, about the well-being of children.

Estates

Generally, estates tend to be handled very independently from family court issues. There is, however, one exception. An overlap can occur when there are concerns related to an adult dependent and the disposition of their property after they've died.

As occurs with other cases where family legal matters overlap with different branches of the law, the two courts work to transfer necessary documentation back and forth. In a case involving an adult dependent, there may also be some issues that have to be resolved in family court before the estate issues can be tackled.

Parental Kidnapping

In these cases, something that should have been a family legal issue bleeds over into criminal law. Parental kidnapping occurs when a parent, custodial or not, takes a child without the court's permission or under pretenses within a standing court order. For example, a parent might take a child out of state to try to avoid jurisdictional issues. At this point, the case becomes a criminal matter, although support documentation might need to be sent from the family court system.

Handling the Overlaps

The biggest thing is to understand that your family lawyer has to stay in their lane. Appreciate their efforts, but understand they can't faithfully represent you in what would be at least two distinct cases.

To learn more, contact a family lawyer.


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Letting Attorneys Help You

When you are faced with a serious legal matter, it only makes sense to work with an attorney who has the skillset to help. Attorneys are specially trained to manage everything from courtroom appearances to issues with paperwork, which is why you should have one on hand for when you are faced with an emergency. The purpose of this blog is to make it easier to understand when you should call a lawyer and how they can help. Read more on this blog to sort out everything you need to know to improve your legal prowess every single day, preventing problems.

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