Family Law
Our Louisiana family law attorneys help clients with all family law matters, including premarital agreements, paternity actions, and adoptions. We are certified in family law mediation, an alternative dispute resolution process that can help clients avoid the time and cost of litigation in divorce and child custody cases.
Prenuptial Agreements
A prenuptial agreement allows you and your spouse to jointly decide how to treat your property while married and in the unfortunate event of a divorce. Louisiana is a community property state, which means that all assets and property are split equally unless another agreement is in place. Our lawyers often draft these agreements for business owners, people with children from a prior marriage as well as people who have separate property they want to protect.
Divorce
We work to achieve your goals with the least financial and emotional expense to you. However, when an amicable resolution cannot be achieved, our divorce attorneys have the experience and the resources to pursue your interest in divorce and property division matters.
Child Custody and Support
In child custody and support matters, our firm works to ensure our client’s relationship with their child is protected in child custody agreements and that any child support agreement is fair for the child and parent.
Spousal Support
Spousal support is not automatically granted with divorce; the need for support must be established before a judge can order it.
Paternity Actions
Our family law attorneys file paternity actions for both mothers and fathers of children born outside of marriage. Mothers often file a paternity action to seek child support payments from the father. Fathers may initiate a paternity action to receive visitation rights or to disavow the paternity of a child in a divorce situation.
DNA results in a paternity action can be obtained in as little as seven days. Once paternity is established, our attorneys can help you seek child support or visitation rights in family court.
Mediation
Many courts issue an order of mediation when a divorce is filed to encourage alternative dispute resolution. Mediation is often a means to minimize legal expenses and to arrive at a resolution that is the product of the work of the parents as opposed to being imposed by the court in a litigation setting.
Intrafamily Adoptions
Our lawyers handle intrafamily adoptions for stepparents and grandparents. In these cases, our lawyers are simply obtaining legal status for a parent-child relationship that already exists.
In any adoption, it’s important to obtain a full and permanent termination of the biological parent’s rights. In most of the cases we handle, the biological parent hasn’t paid child support or communicated with the child in more than six months.
Practice Areas
Family
Law
Wills, trusts,
& estates
Personal
Injury
Appellate
Advocacy
Mediation
Services
Contact Our Shreveport
Family Law Attorneys Now
Please schedule your initial consultation by contacting an experienced family law attorney at Weems, Schimpf, Haines & Moore (APLC). Call our Shreveport office at 318-222-2100 or send us an email to set up your consultation.