The Challenges of a Rancho Penasquitos Paternity Attorney in San Diego

It is not always celebrities who become embroiled in paternity suits. But while their cases gobble up most newsprint and clog air waves, disturbing facts about these cases become overlooked. Like for instance, the increase in the number of divorce cases in California has also led to an increase in the number of paternity lawsuits that has risen up the steps to California courtrooms. The trend is more or less same across the entire state, irrespective of population demographics. Thus it is not surprising to note that paternity attorneys in the pretty little community of Rancho Penasquitos in San Diego have been busy lately. This can also be attributed to the low cost of DNA tests and parents who decide not to marry and still have children or did not decide to have children but do.

It is however, not only the volume of cases that have proved to be challenging to the Rancho Penasquitos paternity attorney in San Diego County. He has to also deal with complex cases. The biggest challenge is of course, the fact that an attorney has to always bear in mind that while the outcome of a paternity case affects a number of people, apart from the child(ren) of course—the mother, the biological father, and their immediate and extended families, the attorney must always look only to the legal representation of the parent. The attorney has a fiduciary duty to always put the interests of the client ahead of all others including an attorney’s economic best interests.

It is quite a misconception that the advent of DNA tests has simplified matters for attorneys. Many attorneys themselves couldn’t disagree more as now there is no more “guessing” and not knowing! And to understand, how this development has impacted paternity cases, it is first worthwhile to gain a fair idea of the tenets of the California Family Law Code regarding paternity petitions and paternity cases.

According to the Code, a man can voluntarily declare his paternity in any San Diego hospital at the time of live birth. The law also presumes that a man is the biological father of a child if he and the child’s natural mother were married to one another when the child was born or within 300 days of the marriage. Complications may arise when, at a later date, DNA tests prove that the child of their marriage is not the child of both parties. Apart from the difficulty of arriving at a judgment that is in the best interests of the child, that is one that will not deprive the child of his emotional and financial moorings, these are also some of the most contentious and emotionally draining of all family law cases. It is very important to analyze all issues completely.

Another challenge that confronts a Rancho Penasquitos paternity attorney is when he has to deal with a paternity case in which a man believes he is the father since this is what the mother told him but he is not. According to the findings of a research study carried out by the American Association of Blood Banks, in 30 percent of the 280,000 DNA tests carried out to determine paternity, the man tested was proven not to be the biological father. And when you consider that a study by the University of California has found that the incidence of these paternity cases in the Western world is a staggering 15 percent, you will immediately realize the sizeable volume of such cases that come up in the courts of San Diego. The role of an attorney assumes critical significance in such cases, considering that the man falsely implicated in the case will have the legal obligation to support the child {whether or not his biological child} in child support payments until the child is no longer eligible to receive child support per San Diego Superior Court orders.

The Rancho Penasquitos paternity attorneys at Doppelt and Forney, APLC have been tackling the challenges of such cases for their many clients spread all over San Diego. They have been in the legal business since 1988 while operating from the same office in Rancho Bernardo, less than 10 miles away from Rancho Penasquitos, since 1998. They have been rated A+ by the San Diego Better Business Bureau as a reward for their integrity and commitment.