Establishing Paternity In Florida: Protecting Parental Rights And Child Support
If you’re an unmarried mother trying to secure child support, or an unmarried father trying to secure your right to see your child, the starting point is often the same: Legal paternity has to be established first. Until that happens, a father has no legal right to custody or visitation, and a mother cannot compel him to pay child support.
At Law Office of D. Scott Wesley, PLLC, our attorney helps parents on both sides of this issue. If you’re a mother, we can help you get paternity established so you can pursue the child support your child is owed. If you’re a father, we can help you establish paternity so you have standing to seek custody, visitation and a real role in your child’s life.
4 Ways Paternity Is Established
A Florida court won’t enter a parenting plan or child support order until legal fatherhood is on record. Getting there happens one of four ways:
- Marriage: A husband is automatically treated as the legal father of any child born during the marriage, biological or not, with nothing extra to file.
- Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity: Unmarried parents can complete a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity form, either right at the hospital (DH-511) or afterward through the Florida Bureau of Vital Statistics (DH-432). A properly signed and filed form holds the same legal force as a judge’s ruling.
- Administrative establishment through the Department of Revenue: When both parents are cooperative, Florida’s Child Support Program can establish paternity outside of court, though this path only settles the support question and leaves custody and timesharing untouched.
- Court order: If paternity is contested or one parent refuses to cooperate, the other can bring a paternity action in circuit court, where a judge can order genetic testing and enter a ruling covering paternity, custody, timesharing and support all at once.
The right path depends on your particular circumstances, and picking correctly from the outset can spare you significant time and expense down the road.
What Are Paternity Proceedings?
A potential father not married to the mother may not have legal rights to visitation and may not be obligated to pay child support for a baby born out of wedlock. You may need us to file a “Paternity Action” to legally establish a child’s parentage at the time of the child’s birth to resolve these issues.
Frequently Asked Questions About Establishing Paternity
Paternity cases raise a lot of the same questions, no matter which side you’re on. Here, our attorney has provided answers to two questions we hear often.
Does signing a Florida birth certificate automatically establish legal paternity?
No, it doesn’t. Unmarried parents still need to complete a separate Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity form on top of the birth certificate itself. Since hospitals typically hand over both papers in the same stack, it’s easy to walk away thinking the birth certificate alone settled the matter. When the mother is married at the time of birth, though, her husband becomes the presumed legal father automatically, regardless of what the birth certificate actually shows.
How long do I have to establish paternity in Florida?
Generally, you can establish paternity anytime before the child turns 18, whether through a signed acknowledgment or a court action. Still, waiting isn’t a good idea. Evidence gets harder to gather as time passes, and a father who puts this off may find it harder to build a real relationship with his child. Some limited exceptions let paternity get addressed after a child turns 18, such as in certain inheritance matters, but that shouldn’t be your backup plan if establishing paternity now is on the table.
Get Immediate Help With Your Paternity Case
At Law Office of D. Scott Wesley, PLLC, our family law attorney can help parents prove the paternity of their child and establish custody and child support payments. Contact our Sarasota office now by calling us at 941-259-6678 or by sending us a message.