What kind of legal rights does my baby's father have?

Question

My baby's father left me when I was 5 months pregnant. I live in the state of California and because he was not with me when my baby was born I could not list him as the father on the birth certificate. I gave my baby my last name only, so for all purposes, the baby's father is not legally connected to my child on paper. Now the father's had a change of heart and wants to be recognized as my son's father. Though we're on friendly terms now for the baby's sake, I don't trust him very much. He hasn't sent seen the baby, nor has he sent any financial support, yet he's asking me to legally change the baby's last name from mine to his. I'm afraid that further down the road he'll want to fight me for custody of the baby (my baby is 3 months old now.) What kind of legal rights does the father have to our child? Does he still have rights even though he's not listed on the birth certificate? If I were to change the baby's last name, or if the father started supporting the baby financially does he, or will he have rights then?

Answer 1

A child's father has rights.  If paternity has not yet been established, he may have to go to some trouble and expense to enforce his rights.  He has rights before he provides support.  His rights exist no matter what the baby's name is.

A child's father has obligations, among them a legal obligation to support the child.  The child's name does not have be changed.  

This man may threaten to fight for custody, but it may be only a bluff.  Is a court going to give the child to a person who has not contributed significantly to raising the child?  

Take no action until you have consulted your attorney.  

If you do not have funds for an attorney, your local child support agency can help you with paternity and child support orders, but not with custody.

Answer 2

Only if you're unfit.

Most judges are partial to the mother, no matter what state.

If he wants his name listed as father, do it, he is the father, then you can go after him for support, but as for last name, why bother changing it, unless you think there is a future for you and him.

I wouldn't worry about losing custody, unless you have preoblems you're not telling us about. If you go after him for support, he may ask for joint custody, which isn't bad, every child should have the ability to know both parents, good or bad.

Answer 3

Laws vary by state, so you need to check with a lawyer. The baby's father has rights whether he's listed on the birth certificate or not. You need to get this resolved before your child starts school. I did not list the father on my child's birth certificate either, but at some point, the father had his name put on the birth certificate (WITHOUT my knowledge)! As a result, my child went all through school and graduated with my last name, but when he joined the service - he had to change his last name to his fathers.

Answer 4

He has no rights until he is determined via paternity test to be the biological father.

Once that is done he has the right to help support his child and see him.  For both of those, I really would recommend going through the court system.

He might sue for custody but he will more likely ask for partial custody and/or visitation.  

Answer 5

About Child Custody:

Stating that "children need both parents", the fathers’ rights movement calls for greater equality in parental responsibility following separation and divorce. They call for laws creating a rebuttable presumption of 50/50 shared custody so that children would generally spend equal time with each parent unless there were reasons against it. They point to studies showing that children in shared custody settings are better adjusted and have fewer social problems such as low academic achievement, crime, pregnancy, substance abuse, depression and suicide, and claim that shared parenting is in fact in the best interests of the child. Members of the fathers' rights movement and their critics disagree about the correlation of negative developmental outcomes for children to sole custody situations. Critics claim that father absence covaries with other relevant family characteristics such as the lack of an income from a male adult, the absence of a second adult, and the lack of support from a second extended family system and concluded that it is the negative effects of poverty, and not the absence of a father, that result in negative developmental outcomes. On the other hand, members of the fathers' rights movement state that although the consequences of poverty and having a single parent are interrelated, each is a risk factor with independent effects on children, and that the negative outcomes for children in sole custody situations correlate more strongly to "fatherlessness" than to any other variable including poverty.

Members of the fathers' rights movement criticize the best interests of the child standard currently used in many countries for making custody decisions, which they describe as highly subjective and based on the personal prejudices of family court judges and court-appointed child custody evaluators, and that courts are abusive when more than half custody is taken away from a willing, competent parent. They claim that a rebuttable presumption of shared parenting is supported by a majority of citizens, and that their proposals to enact such laws are opposed by divorce lawyers and by feminist organizations, the latter by invoking the specter of domestic violence and child abuse as propaganda directed against fathers and fathers' rights groups.

Critics point to research suggesting that joint custody arrangements are good for children only if there is little parental conflict. They argue that if shared parenting were ordered, fathers would not provide their share of the daily care for the children. Fathers rights groups respond that this is also a sexist position that presumes that fathers would not provide for the daily needs of their children for no reason other than that they are fathers.[citation needed] Critics also question the motives of those promoting shared parenting, noting that it would result in substantial decreases in or termination of child support payments.

Members of the fathers' rights movement respond that shared parenting has been demonstrated to reduce parental conflict by requiring parents to cooperate and compromise, and that it is the lack of constraint by one parent resulting from the ability of that parent to exclude the other, that results in increased parental conflict. They add that only when child support guidelines exceed true costs do parents ask for or seek to prevent changes in parenting time for financial reasons, adding that any argument that a parent is asking for increased parenting time to reduce child support is at the same time an argument that the other parent is making a profit from child support.

Critics claim that some fathers' rights groups are more interested in enabling men to re-establish authority over their children and ex-partners and that issues of power and control in cases of domestic violence and child abuse are ignored. In response, members of the fathers’ rights movement state that fathers have a constitutional right to shared control of their children and through political action they intend to establish parental authority for the well-being of their children. They also point out that a rebuttable presumption for shared parenting preserves a child's protection against unfit or violent parents.

Answer 6

These things vary in different states.  You need to seek legal advise.  It is possible, there would have to be a paternity test done before the birth certificate were changed.