PATERNITY
Paternity & Parentage Proceedings
Not all parents are married. Regardless, all parents can and should have the same rights and responsibilities concerning child custody, visitation, and support whether married or not. Therefore, for fathers pursuing custody and visitation rights, or mothers seeking child support, it is critical to establish the father’s legal paternity of the child.
Establishing paternity is the process of determining the legal father of a child. When parents are married, paternity is automatically established in most cases when the child is born. However, if parents are unmarried, paternity establishment is not automatic and the process should be started by both parents as soon as possible for the benefit of the child. Unmarried parents can establish paternity by signing a voluntary declaration of paternity. This can be done in the hospital after the child is born and may also be signed by the parents after they leave the hospital. To simplify this process, California has partnered with licensed hospitals and clinics with birthing facilities throughout the state to establish the Paternity Opportunity Program (“POP”). This voluntary in-hospital paternity acknowledgment program involves hundreds of California’s licensed hospitals and clinics with birthing facilities. The program is also available in many prenatal clinics, county welfare offices, and local vital records offices.
Unmarried parents who sign a declaration of paternity form or POP help their child gain the same rights and privileges as a child born within a marriage. Some of those rights include financial support from both parents, access to important family medical records, access to the non-custodial parent’s medical benefits, and the emotional benefit of knowing the identity of both parents.
Once paternity is established, the court can make orders for child support, health insurance, child custody, visitation, name change, and reimbursement of pregnancy and birth expenses. Without establishing paternity, the court cannot make orders regarding these issues, so if one parent needs child support and the other will not pay voluntarily, the court will not be able to order child support until parentage is established.
Call (530) 214-8700 to learn more about parentage and paternity proceedings to ensure that your parental rights are protected.
Presumed Parents & Genetic Testing
Moreover, you do not necessarily need to be the child’s biological father to be legally designated as a parent, taking on the same rights and responsibilities as a legally designated biological parent. There is a presumption that a person is a child’s parent if he married the mother after the birth and agreed either to have his name on the birth certificate or to support the child, or if he welcomed the child into his home and openly acted as if the child was his own.
There are two (2) main ways to establish paternity when the child’s parents are not married. Paternity can be established by court order or by the parties signing a voluntary declaration of paternity, also known as a POP. Furthermore, in general, a man who is being told that he is the father of a child has the right, if he is not completely sure he is the father, to request a genetic (DNA) test to find out for sure if he is the father of the child. Even so, genetic testing does not necessarily terminate the rights and responsibilities of a presumed father who married the mother after the child’s birth and agreed to have his name on the child’s birth certificate, or welcomed the child into his home and openly acted as if the child was his own.
It should also be noted that traditional “paternity” actions are not limited to establishing a father’s rights. A paternity action, more appropriately a parentage proceeding, can also be initiated by a non-birth mother who is claiming rights to a child. If a non-birth mother married the birth mother after the child’s birth and agreed to have her name on the child’s birth certificate, or welcomed the child into her home and openly acted as if the child was her own, then she may be deemed to have parental rights and responsibilities attendant to the child. Under California law, it is also possible for a child to have more than two parents.
Call (530) 214-8700 today to schedule a consultation to learn more about paternity actions and parentage proceedings and your rights, responsibilities, and options moving forward.