Legal advice and support

Legitimation in Georgia is the legal process a father must take to obtain parental rights to a child born out of wedlock. Only the biological father can petition the court for legitimation in Georgia. Prior to legitimation, the mother is vested with all parental rights. It makes no difference if the father’s name is on the birth certificate or if the child has the father’s last name. In Georgia, an order of legitimation is necessary for the biological father to be recognized by Georgia law as the legal father. The father, however, has no absolute right to having his petition for legitimation granted. The mother can contest the legitimation in Georgia by alleging that the petitioner is not the biological father or that he is unfit. The court will decide whether the grant a petition for legitimation in Georgia based on the best interest of the child involved. An Atlanta family law attorney can guide you through the process of obtaining an order of legitimation in Georgia.

Once the father legitimates the child, the child and the father can inherit from one another as if the child had been born in wedlock. Going through the process of legitimation in Georgia is the first step to obtaining Georgia child visitation rights or custody in Georgia. It is important to note that a father is obligated to pay child support in Georgia regardless of whether he legitimates his child. This obligation can be established by a paternity suit in Georgia. Often, however, a Georgia child support order is established at the same time as the order of legitimation in Georgia. In fact, the new Georgia child support laws require that both parties to a legitimation action file a child support worksheet.

Courts often decide visitation rights in conjunction with a petition for legitimation in Georgia. Unless the parties agree otherwise, the court will typically order standard visitation. Standard visitation in Georgia includes every other weekend (usually beginning Friday evening and ending Sunday evening), alternating holidays and a few extra weeks during the summer months. An Atlanta family law attorney can advise you as to different options for visitation.

Generally, courts cannot decide issues of custody in a Georgia legitimation proceeding. The father does have an equal right to custody once he legitimates the child, but he must bring a petition for custody in a separate action. The exceptions to this rule under Georgia law are if the mother consents to consideration of custody, if there is no other legal guardian of the child, or if the mother is deceased.

As with other matters involving children, legitimation in Georgia can be a difficult process. It is always a good idea to have an Atlanta family lawyer on your side. 

The answer to the question should you ask a lawyer is a resounding YES. How else is any poor or middle class citizen going to be able to interpret how 600 pages plus of new law is going to benefit their family or business.. I want to know, don’t you? Do you think that TV news and newspapers answer all your questions? They certainly don’t answer all of mine. I want to know how the billions of dollars in this package is going to to affect me because as of today I have not gotten a check in the mail, or any letter of explanation and $15.00 more every 2 weeks in my paycheck is not what’s going to save my butt. I want the hard core facts for me, not the generalities.

I want to know how my credit card debt will change with the stimulus bill. I want to know what will be different when I send my daughters to college and the college wants 5 figures as payment. I want to know how I can catch up on my behind mortgage. I want to know how the stimulus bill is going to change how people can get credit and loans when their FICO scores have been decimated from late and non payments. I want to know how the stimulus bill is going to ease payments for utilities such as gas and electric that has quadrupled for many and if your late a few weeks you get turn off notices in the winter. I want to know how all these banks that are getting bailout billions are going to pass some sort of relief for Americans who are inundated in credit card debt and no one is sending us any bailout money that makes a significant difference.

The answer that started this article is what all Americans should be doing. Standing up for themselves and their rights and calling a lawyer that can tell them straight up what the stimulus plan means for their loved ones. It is an option that everyone in the USA has, a company here for your legal rights. Every citizen and non-citizen has affordable access to quality law firms across the country who can answer any question you may have. I’m calling my lawyer Monday morning, ARE YOU?

People are more careful these days. You. Me. Just about everyone. Whether it’s because the media has alerted us to the many dangers we might face on any given day, the increasing population in metropolitan areas, our increasing reliance on third-party providers, or any of a number of other factors, people are generally more suspicious these days.

As just one example, any parent of a young child can tell you just how difficult it is hiring a nanny or babysitter, choosing a day care provider, or finding a school. Personal recommendations are a godsend, but don’t come along nearly as often as they are needed. So some personal digging is required. Maybe you have someone you’d like to know more about. A teacher? A new romantic partner, or a teenager’s older boyfriend? A house cleaner or gardener?
 
One option is to contact an investigation firm to conduct a thorough background check. Depending on the cost of the background check, you’ll get information like birth and marriage records, residences, driving records, property records, and so on. All of this information is public record, and anyone can obtain it, providing one is willing to put forth the effort of visiting (sometimes online, often in person) court records offices to locate that information. 
 
While it’s not hard, it can take some time, as these records might be strewn across many counties or jurisdictions, which makes compiling a complete profile difficult. Thanks to the digitization of all of these records, you can now perform a complete public records search in a matter of minutes, and you’ll access exactly the same information that a professional investigation agency will access.
 
The advantages of this do-it-yourself approach are many-fold:
1) it’s inexpensive, often carrying a price tag of $30 to $40 for unlimited searches;
2) because one search usually leads to another, you can perform many searches in a short period of time;
3) the databases used are extensively crossed referenced, so you can pull out just about any public record from any jurisdiction in the U.S. in minutes.
 
A large part of the cost savings is due to the fact that you’ve cut out the middle man from the transaction (the investigative firm), meaning that you are not paying for someone else’s labor, you are not paying markup or overhead costs, you are not paying profit margins, and so on.
 
Do-it-yourself background checks are quick, inexpensive, and easy. It pays to be more careful than ever these days, and digitized public records databases are just another tool in our protection arsenal.