Georgia Family Law
Family law is the part of Georgia law that keeps working after a divorce decree is signed. Support orders stop matching the income behind them, parenting schedules stop fitting the children they were written for, and parents who were never married still need a court to establish who has legal rights to their child.
Attorney Kip Shepherd has practiced Georgia family law for more than thirty years. This page covers the matters this office handles after a divorce, outside a divorce, and when a child’s welfare is in front of the Juvenile Court.
Legitimation and Paternity
When a child is born to parents who are not married, Georgia does not automatically give the father legal rights. Paternity establishes who the biological father is. Legitimation under OCGA § 19-7-22 makes him the child’s legal father, and only then can he ask a court for custody or visitation.
A father petitions the Superior Court for legitimation, and where the child is 17 or younger the case moves under the faster procedures Georgia added for those petitions. If the mother was married to someone else when the child was born, her husband is presumed to be the legal father and the case becomes more complicated. Legitimation also affects inheritance, benefits and the child’s birth record.
Paternity
Paternity can be established by a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity signed by both parents, by genetic testing, or by an order in an administrative or court proceeding. Paternity alone is not legitimation. A man can be the biological father and still have no legal right to custody or visitation until he legitimates.
Custody, Visitation and Parenting Plans
Georgia decides custody, visitation and parenting time according to the best interests of the child under OCGA § 19-9-3. Legal custody is the authority to make major decisions about education, medical care and religion. Physical custody is where the child lives. A parenting plan sets the schedule, the holidays, decision-making and how the parents will communicate.
Georgia judges work from a specific list of factors, and it helps to know what they are before you walk into a courtroom:
- Each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent
- The needs of the child, and the stability of the child’s home, school and community
- The mental and physical health of everyone involved
- Any history of family violence, substance abuse or neglect
- The child’s own preference, weighted by the child’s age and maturity
Visitation is not a favor granted to one parent; it is part of the child’s right to both parents, and Georgia courts enforce it.
Modification or Contempt: Two Very Different Motions
These are the two most common actions filed after a family law order is entered in Georgia, and clients often use the words interchangeably. They are not interchangeable, and filing the wrong one wastes time and money.
A Modification Asks the Court to Change the Order
A modification argues that circumstances have changed since the last order, so the order should change going forward. Child support can be modified under OCGA § 19-6-15 when income changes substantially or when the existing order varies from the guidelines by more than 15 percent. Alimony can be modified under OCGA § 19-6-19 on a showing of a substantial change in material circumstances, and it can end on the remarriage of the receiving spouse. Custody and parenting time can be modified when there is a material change affecting the child’s welfare.
A modification does not erase what is already owed. It changes what happens next.
A Contempt Action Asks the Court to Enforce the Order
Contempt is filed when someone violates an order that is still in place: unpaid child support, unpaid alimony, a parent who refuses court-ordered time, or a failure to pay a share of medical expenses. The court can order the arrears paid, require compliance going forward, award attorney’s fees, and in a willful case, jail the party who violated the order.
Contempt does not change the order, and a modification does not punish a violation. If the order was violated and it no longer fits your life, you may need both.
Adoption Basics in Georgia
Adoption requires that the legal rights of the existing parent be surrendered or terminated before a new parent can be added. Step-parent and relative adoptions are the most common, and the court must find that the adoption serves the child’s best interests. A background check and an investigation or home study are part of most Georgia adoptions.
DFCS and Dependency Cases in Juvenile Court
When DFCS removes a child from a home, the case moves to Juvenile Court and it moves fast. Georgia requires a hearing within 72 hours of a child being taken into custody, and parents have the right to be represented by a lawyer. What follows is a dependency case: an adjudication, a disposition, a case plan and periodic review hearings.
Reunification is the goal in most of these cases, and the case plan is the roadmap. Missed visits, missed appointments and failed drug screens become the evidence that decides whether a child goes home. If reunification fails, DFCS can seek termination of parental rights, and those orders can be appealed to the Georgia Court of Appeals. Parents should have counsel at the first hearing, not after the plan is already set.
Grandparent Visitation
Georgia’s grandparent visitation statute, OCGA § 19-7-3, allows a grandparent to petition in limited circumstances, such as when a parent has died, when the child’s parents are divorced or separated, or when the child has lived with the grandparent. A grandparent must show that visitation serves the child’s best interests, and courts give substantial weight to the decisions of fit parents who are married and living together.
How Kip Shepherd Handles Family Law Matters
The first meeting is about the order you want to change, the order being violated, or the rights you need established. Bring your existing orders, the DFCS case plan if there is one, pay stubs, your parenting calendar and the messages that show what is actually happening.
Some matters are resolved with a firm letter or a negotiated agreement. Others need a courtroom, and this office tries cases; our Georgia trial practice page explains how that works.
Many of the same rules apply when a marriage ends. Our Georgia divorce page covers property division, alimony and custody from the day a case is filed.
Get Clear Answers About Your Family Law Case
Bring your orders and your questions to a free consultation. You will leave knowing which motion to file, what it can accomplish and what it would cost.