Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in West Virginia since Oct. 9, 2014, when Governor Earl Ray Tomblin announced he was ordering state agencies to act in compliance with the ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals which held Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia officially ruled West Virginia’s same-sex marriage ban unconstitutional on Nov. 7, 2014; the rest of the nation followed with the Supreme Court of the United States’ ruling in 2015.

Divorce

Under the law, same-sex couples now have all of the rights and responsibilities spouses receive through marriage so, assuming all jurisdictional requirements are met, same-sex couples are also able to obtain a divorce legally in West Virginia. McPhail Law can guide you through your divorce case and assist you with custody, equitable division and support issues.

Second Parent Adoption

Since this is a new area in family law, there are many situations that challenge prior law regarding same-sex couples and their families. For instance, same-sex couples may be the parents of a child born during their marriage. Although in West Virginia there is a rebuttable presumption that married parents are the legal parents of children who are born into or conceived during the marriage, a second-parent adoption is still necessary in many cases to fully secure the child’s relationship to the nonbiological parent. McPhail Law can assist same-sex parents in the Sperm Donor Agreement or Surrogacy Agreement process and the adoption process.

You should have an experienced family law attorney on your side. We are the lawyers of McPhail Law. From our office in Wheeling, West Virginia, we can guide you through every step of your case.

If you would like to learn more, call (304) 905-9783 to schedule a consultation or send us an email.