Paternity Rights

Paternity Rights: What Fathers Should Know.

Signing a birth certificate does not necessarily establish paternity rights in some states. Most state laws do acknowledge that the children conceived in marriages are the off springs of the husband, but outside of marriage paternity rights must be granted by a court order. In order to get a court involved in the process, a petition must be filed in a family court, which requests paternity rights. The parties involved in the petition do have the option to agree through whats known as a consent order of paternity document. That document states that no one is contesting the fathers paternity rights. In that case, neither side needs to produce blood or DNA tests.

Once a consent order of paternity is issued it is extremely hard to overturn, even if the legal father is not actually the biological father.If a consent order of paternity is not involved, the court will order a DNA or a blood test in order to grant paternity rights. Once the DNA or blood test results come back, the parties will have the option to request a hearing, or consent to an order of paternity. If the case is heard, then its up to the man seeking paternity rights to produce convincing evidence that those rights should be granted. The results of the tests can be challenged, but its expensive and difficult to get a reversal.

In order to obtain child support, or to schedule parenting time, legal paternity rights must be established.Some states require wrtitten notification if someone is proposing to adopt a child from a legal father. Once notified the father has 30 days to begin paternity proceedings in order to contest the adoption. If the father does not respond in that amount of time, he will not be able to defend his paternity rights in court. Some fathers lose their paternity rights because they cant afford to pay for the cost of a lawsuit, especially when only 30 days notice is required.