Which Means More 'Paternity' Issues
For years now, it has been reported that less people are getting married, and therefore there are less divorces. What these news reports don't explain is that though less people may be getting married / divorced, they are still having children. Children born without the benefit of marriage creates more lawsuits involving the issue of 'paternity.' In fact, when cohabitating couples break up, there frequently will have most of the same issues as their married friends. The only difference is that they don't need to get 'divorced,' because they were never married. They still have issues involving the 'distribution of property,' AND 'child related issues' such as child custody, visitation/parenting time, child support, etc. Bottomline, the divorce lawyers are still being kept busy by cohabitating couples who terminate their relationship.
USA TODAY recently published an article entitled 'Cohabitating Women Having More Babies.' The article provided recently relased statistics showing that there were 3.6 million estimated national births that were 'Unmarried, Not Living with a Partner.' Of these 3.6 million births, only 33% were intended; 67% were unintended births.
Additionally, there were 5.0 million estimated 'Unmarried, Living with a Partner.' Of these 5.0 million births, 49% were intended; 51% were unintended births.
The 'take-away' here is that though marriages may be trending downward, couples are still having children. Children born without the benefit of marriage will likely involve 'paternity issues' that relate to 'Affidavits of Parentage,' 'DNA testing,' 'Orders of Filiation,' 'Child Custody, Visitation/Parenting Time, Child Support,' etc. These 'paternity issues' are not trending downward, but fast becoming the new normal for our society.
