Although most people are not aware of it Minnesota law grants sole legal and physical custody to the mother of children who were born-out-of-wedlock.
This means that fathers who have children with a woman they are not married to have inferior legal rights to their children because they are not married.
This is often very difficult information for male clients that I’ve met with to understand.
Paternity and Marriage Legal Issues in Minnesota
Marriage, obviously, is very important in the law, and is very important in terms of custody rights in the state of Minnesota.
Because mothers in Minnesota are granted legal and physical custody of minor children were born-out-of-wedlock, they also have substantially larger rights to child support over those minor children. This means that the father of the children is almost certainly on the hook for child support whether or not he has ever established custody or not if he does know longer live with the mother. This has very large ramifications on many fathers’ financial well-being. . Unfortunately, many fathers that we meet at my office do not understand this fact.
What legal rights have to Minnesota fathers?
This does not mean that fathers of children do not have legal rights. Often times, if the father request establishment of custody in a District Court where they live, the judge will to grant legal custody to the father if there are no other criminal background issues associated with the father.
This means that the father can relatively easy get easily get child custody however they wanted to petition the court to do so first. As I stated above, this can have large ramifications for child support.
What is the difference to legal and physical custody in paternity cases?
Legal custody however, is different from physical custody.
Physical custody is defined by statute as being the parent who has the majority of annual overnights with the children. The majority of annual overnights must be more than 45.1% of the annual overnights. This is the legal standard Minnesota.
Furthermore, the physical custodian will be the party that receives child support for the minor children in most instances. Obviously, the definitions of legal and physical custody are important.
The firm has had success with establishing physical and legal custody on behalf of male clients. The firm also has experience enforcing child support on behalf of mothers of children born-out-of-wedlock.
Often times, as many people may understand, the fathers of children born-out-of-wedlock may have not considered the fact that they would be responsible for payment of child support.
In conclusion, it is very important that parents of children that were born outside of marriage understand the significant legal ramifications associated with their rights. Mothers of children have significantly larger legal rights of children born out of wedlock and fathers do.
If you have questions about legal or physical custody of children were born outside of wedlock or outside of marriage please contact the firm. The firm has experienced paternity lawyers representing mothers and fathers in both instances. Contact the firm at 612-424-0398.
