Establishing paternity is a very important legal step that all non-married fathers should take. As any experienced family law lawyer will tell you, the formal establishment of paternity is accomplished in a number of ways and often the unmarried father of the child will not know that he has actually established paternity in a legal sense.
Often, paternity is established at the hospital upon the birth of the child. If the unmarried father is present at a child’s birth, he is often asked to sign the birth certificate and likely an acknowledgment of paternity form. The actual legal documents vary from state to state; however, each state’s laws are often modeled after national “recommended” laws or codes. States may even borrow from one particular source to get their legal paternity forms. In any case, a father who is present at birth may sign his name as the father and simply give the documents back to a nurse or hospital social worker and never think about the forms.
If a father is not present at the child’s birth, it may be more difficult to establish paternity. In this situation, the mother often may want to establish the father’s paternity of the child in order to get child support and other benefits for the child. Often, the mother may ask the state for help in this process. Many county or local-level prosecuting attorney’s offices have attorneys who specifically file paternity actions on behalf of unwed mothers.
One obvious reason for a mother to establish paternity is so that she can get a court order for child support from the father. Also, the mother may be applying for state benefits given her income level and the fact that she is raising the child or children as a single parent. If the mother is asking for state benefits, the prosecuting attorney in the county where she lives will often be required to establish a paternity order so that the state can recollect money owed by the natural father.
Another reason to establish paternity is because the natural father will want to establish his visitation and/or custody rights to see the child. A father who wants to be involved in his child’s life will certainly want to get a paternity order. There is no greater joy than watching your own child grow and helping that child in the process of life. Speaking with an experienced family law lawyer about establishing paternity is the first step in the right direction.
This post was written by Joseph M. Flanders an Dakota County MN divorce lawyer.
