Paternity
Paternity means that a man is a child's legal father.
When a man is a child's legal father, he has legal rights and responsibilities to his child:
- right to custody of the child,
- right to visitation with the child,
- responsible for paying child support
Who is the Legal Father?
If the mother is married when the child is born, her spouse is considered the other legal parent.
If the mother is not married when a child is born, the child has no legal father and the biological father has no rights or responsibilities to the child.
There are two ways to establish that a father is a child's legal father when the mother is not married when a child is born:
- both the mother and father sign an Acknowledgment of Paternity form
- the court signs an Order of Filiation after a paternity case
and/or
