Guiding Nontraditional Families Through Parentage, Custody, and Medical Decision Making

This CLE webinar will examine the legal challenges facing nontraditional families, including chosen families, LGBTQ+ parents, multi-partner households, and more. The program will guide family law counsel through parentage recognition, custody and decision-making disputes, and the mechanics of securing legal authority for clients who may not fit into traditional statutory frameworks.

Attorneys increasingly meet clients who rely on psychological or de facto parent relationships, multiple co-parents, or informal caregiving arrangements. These structures raise complex questions around establishing and preserving parentage, navigating custody standards, drafting co-parenting agreements, and protecting a client's ability to participate in medical decisions during emergencies.

The panel will discuss how practitioners and jurisdictions handle three-parent orders, de facto parentage petitions, hospital access and HIPAA disclosures, and ethical considerations when representing clients whose family structures involve overlapping or multi-client participation.

The program will provide practical guidance to help attorneys build enforceable documents, avoid gaps in authority, and respond when child custody, healthcare, or placement disputes arise within nontraditional family arrangements.

Listen as our panel of practitioners examines legal strategies to protect modern families and offers guidance on advising clients whose family structures fall outside traditional statutory models.