Kendall County Paternity Lawyer

If you or someone you care about has questions about the paternity of a child, you need an experienced attorney to help you find the answers to this extremely important and personal issue. The lawyers at McAdams & Sartori, LLC have been providing clients in Kendall and Kane counties with focused counsel and guidance regarding paternity issues for more than 27 years combined.

Our firm represents mothers who want to take legal action to determine paternity as well as assist with subsequent child custody and child support matters. Over the years we have also worked with many male clients who want to legally disprove paternity or assert their rights as fathers.

Reasons to Determine Paternity

Substantiating who the father of a child is can help determine many crucial aspects of his or her life and well-being including visitation rights, custody issues and child support. Importantly, establishing paternity also allows the father to begin building a parental relationship with his child.
Other reasons it is vital to determine a child’s paternity include:

• Ensuring the child’s right to a legal father-child relationship
• Adding the father’s name to the birth certificate
• Protecting the parents’ rights
• Enabling access to family medical information
• Securing the child’s benefits such as financial and medical support, Social Security, veteran’s benefits and inheritance

Establishing Paternity in Illinois

In Illinois, if the mother is or was married when the child was conceived and/or born, her husband or ex-husband is legally presumed to be the father of that child.

However, if a mother is not married at the time the child was conceived and/or born, there are steps that must be taken to establish paternity. The three legal ways in Illinois include:

• Having both parents complete, sign and have witnessed/dated a “Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity” form
• An Administrative Paternity Order is entered by the State of Illinois' Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ Child Support Services
• An Order of Paternity is entered in court by a judge

If there are questions surrounding who the father is specifically, a DNA test may be ordered by the court. However there are many legal complexities that often arise even after the test results are in.

Kendall County Paternity Attorneys

Paternity questions and disputes can be very challenging for an individual or family to cope with. The strong emotions that are evoked when paternity is in question can make problems more difficult to resolve. At McAdams & Sartori, LLC, our lawyers will provide steady, guiding legal counsel during this time and ensure that you know and apply all your rights throughout the process.

Contact us at 630-553-1313 for a confidential consultation regarding your paternity issue. We will provide you with the professional, experienced advice you need at this time. . We serve clients in Kendall County, Kane County, and including but not limited to Yorkville, Plainfield, St. Charles, Geneva, Batavia, North Aurora, South Elgin, Yorkville, Aurora, Oswego, Plano, Sugar Grove, Montgomery, Boulder Hill and Bristol.