{"id":10126,"date":"2016-09-21T13:39:40","date_gmt":"2016-09-21T20:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/?p=10126"},"modified":"2019-01-27T00:34:50","modified_gmt":"2019-01-27T07:34:50","slug":"establish-paternity-unwed-father","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/establish-paternity-unwed-father\/","title":{"rendered":"Establish Paternity as an Unwed Father"},"content":{"rendered":"

Unwed father needs to establish paternity:<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you are an unwed father, there are some things you need to know and do as you prepare to take on your role as a father who is not married to his child’s mother.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0family law\u00a0across the United States, if a\u00a0married couple have a baby, the legal presumption is that the husband in that family is the father of the baby, but when a child is born outside of marriage, there is no legal\u00a0presumption\u00a0of\u00a0paternity. Without establishing paternity, an unwed father has no legal standing as it relates to visitation,\u00a0shared custody\u00a0or the ability to make decisions about the welfare of the child.<\/p>\n

The simplest way to establish paternity is to make sure that the unwed father’s name is on the baby’s\u00a0birth certificate. Being with the mother at the hospital when the baby is born and helping her fill out the birth certificate forms. \u00a0If that is not possible, an unwed father can complete a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity form in your state.\u00a0 If the mother contests the father’s paternity, he can contact a\u00a0government agency\u00a0like the\u00a0Child Support Enforcement Division\u00a0in his state or he can petition a court to establish his paternity. The unwed father will need to take a\u00a0paternity test\u00a0(for which a court may order the mother’s cooperation) to establish his parental status.<\/p>\n

In many states, legislation has created\u00a0putative father registries\u00a0where a man can acknowledge his paternity and then be notified of any legal proceedings concerning the child including proposals to change custody, to place the\u00a0child for adoption\u00a0or other such legal issues. If the father’s state has a registry, he should get on it immediately after he becomes aware of the mother’s pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Once an unwed father establishes paternity, he needs to work to determine his\u00a0custody\u00a0status. A man who is legally designated as the father has the same custody rights as a married father. If the unwed father and mother are raising the child together in the same home, custody is not an issue. But if at any time they separate, or if they are not intending to raise the child together, the father will need to petition a court to establish\u00a0custody rights.<\/p>\n

Fathers are generally at a disadvantage in a custody process because government agencies and family court judges usually start with the presumption that a child should be with his or her mother unless her custody would be detrimental to the child. So fathers who want custody of the child need to retain a\u00a0family law attorney\u00a0and start the legal process to establish custody.\u00a0 If you\u2019re in this situation and needing a family law attorney, please come consult attorney Joanne Zhou at the Zhou Law Group for help.<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unwed father needs to establish paternity: If you are an unwed father, there are some things you need to know and do as you prepare to take on your role as a father who is not married to his child’s mother. In\u00a0family law\u00a0across the United States, if a\u00a0married couple have a baby, the legal presumption…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10126","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10126"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10126\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10126"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10126"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sanjoseattorneys.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10126"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}