Tag Archive for: paternity

Tumbling Marriage Rates in Wisconsin Raise Family Law Questions

The United State Census Bureau released its statistics on marriage this week. The numbers tell an interesting story. In the 1960s, more than 80 percent of American adults were married. By 2000, the number fell to 57 percent. The recent figure for 2009 is 52 percent nationwide and 53 percent for Wisconsin. In Milwaukee County, only 41 percent of adults were married as of 2009.

The reasons for the decline are unclear. Some would argue that it is a sign of deteriorating family values. Others point out that young adults are waiting longer to get married than previous generations. Still others maintain that women no longer see marriage as a requirement for economic reasons. While the cause for the drop in marriage rates is up for debate, the effects are fairly predictable when it comes to family law.

With fewer marriages there will be less formal arrangements between couples. Many couples are choosing to live together or cohabitate.  According to the Population Reference Bureau, the decline in marriage rates “has been accompanied by a rapid increase in the number of cohabitating couples.”

When cohabitating couples break up, they do not divorce. Divorce allows married couples to divide their property, arrange for alimony (maintenance), child custody, visitation and child support. But many cohabitating couples have children and this often raises the issue of paternity, child custody, and child support.

When unmarried couples who have children separate, these issues are often left hanging and they require a court order for final resolution. The process can be complex and confusing. It is important to be fully aware of your rights and responsibilities when it comes to your children.  An experienced family law attorney can help you understand your options, rights, and responsibilities.

Source: MilwaukeeNewsBuzz.com: Is Wisconsin losing its taste for wedlock?; Matt Hrodey, 9/30/2010

Halle Berry relieved and happy child custody resolved

Calling it “a year full of challenges,” actress Halle Berry admitted that she was finally satisfied to be at the end of a lengthy child custody dispute with her ex-partner Gabriel Aubry. Berry and Aubry are the parents of a three-year-old girl and have been going rounds in family court since last May when the never-married couple split up.

Details of the couple’s custody arrangements weren’t revealed, but Berry confessed that “it is a relief when you can resolve things in a good way.” The actress said the tough times between the couple had nothing to do with one parent trying to take the child away from the other. She and Aubry had come to what Berry called an “impasse.”

That parental friction in the courtroom caused Berry to drop out of two events in the last year. One was a New Year’s Eve appearance and the other an opportunity to play opposite Samuel L. Jackson in the new Broadway show “Mountaintop.”

Berry did not mention if she regretted missing those events, although she did say it made her happy that the custody issues she and Aubry had were resolved with the help of the legal system. She credits the family court judge with helping the couple come up with a workable solution that was in the best interests of their daughter.

The new co-parenting plan between the actress and Aubry was not an easy one to hammer out, according to Berry, although she seemed pleased with the results. The actress said, “For her sake, this is the best way. We both love her more than life.”

Source: UKPA, “Halle’s happy custody resolution,” 4/21/2011

Single fatherhood on the rise in Wisconsin

Records obtained from the most recent U.S. Census indicate that an increasing number of single fathers have custody of their children in Wisconsin.

The number of homes in which a single father is raising children under the age of 18 has grown by 35 percent since 2000. Households headed by single men with minor children numbered 57,788. This represents the largest growth in family households in Wisconsin.

About 146,000 households in Wisconsin are managed by single moms, representing a 13 percent increase. Couples who are married with children still represent the bulk of households in the state at 68.5 percent though that number is down by about 10 percent since the previous census in 2000.

The transition to being a single parent is not always easy for new parents who often can’t anticipate what managing a household alone with children entails. Single parents call attention to the importance of communicating with the children and being honest with them. Others speak of the need to adjust and to include time for themselves during the day.

Many single-parent households are the product of divorce. However, many single parents are never married. As family law attorneys are seeing a shift towards more single-parent households in Wisconsin, the type of family law cases we handle shift as well. When parents are divorced, the divorce decree will specify the terms of child custody, visitation and child support. On the other hand, when parents are never married, these important issues can be settled in a paternity lawsuit.

Source: GreenwichTime.com, “Census data shows more homes led by single dads,” 19 June 2011

Census finds change in Wisconsin divorce and marriage patterns

According to a recent analysis of data from the U.S. Census, people in Wisconsin are getting married and filing for divorce at a slower pace than couples living in the rest of the nation. In the years since the Census Bureau began keeping track of both marriages and divorces in 2008, it found that Wisconsin’s marriage and divorce rates lagged behind the national average.

According to the Census data, only 1.7 percent of Wisconsin men and 1.6 percent of Wisconsin women got married in 2009, compared with the national average of 1.9 percent for men and 1.8 percent for women.

Diana Elliot, a demographer with the Census Bureau, says that these two numbers are strongly related. She believes that many people are delaying marriage, and divorce rates will fall when there are fewer marriages. In fact, delaying marriage is part of a larger national trend. Over the past forty years, the average age at which a man marries has increased to 28 and the average woman married about the age of 26, reflecting an increase of about six years.

However, just because people are delaying marriage does not mean that that are putting off relationships. Cohabitation and having children out of wedlock is becoming increasingly common in Wisconsin. With that in mind, it is important to note the legal ramifications of having children out of wedlock.

When a married couple divorces, the issues of child support, child custody, alimony, and marital property division are resolved in the divorce order. When an unmarried couple with children separates, there is no divorce order. When a mother never marries a child’s father, a paternity lawsuit is needed to determine the issues of child support, child custody and visitation.

Source: The Superior Telegram, “Wisconsin marriage and divorce rates trail the nation’s,” Teresa Shipley, Aug. 25, 2011