Illinois Voluntary Acknowledgement Of Paternity: Fill & Download for Free

Well, this question packs up several notions that might come into play in a real case. Generalizing as much as is practicable—local procedures can and do vary significantly, so the question would be better answerable if it were state-specific—these are the concepts of the “putative father,” paternity determination, termination of parental rights, and sole custody. Not seeking support is more or less a non-factor.Depending on your state, whether the father’s name is on the birth certificate can range from meaning nothing at all to creating a presumption of paternity. In general, most of the United States will list the father on the birth certificate if paternity is established at birth; this can be either via the marriage of the parents or by what is called an acknowledgment of paternity, which is an affidavit that might be prepared by the parents at the time of the birth. A corrected birth certificate might be issued if paternity is determined after the fact or if in the case of adoption of the child. Thus, if there is a father named on the birth certificate, it might be considered evidence that a paternity determination was in fact done. However, the converse is not particularly significant. The lack of a father on the birth certificate may not even mean that paternity wasn’t proven (because someone has to go ask for the issuance of that corrected certificate) and at most indicates that no formal process of paternity was undertaken. And some places, even if there is a birth certificate with a father’s name, that may not be held sufficient to make a finding of paternity. I work for the support enforcement agency in my county; we do not accept birth certificates without proof of marriage, a court order determining parentage, or the AOP.A wrinkle occasionally found in paternity cases is a concept called paternity by estoppel. A father figure who is involved with a child’s life and ‘holds himself out’ as the father with the consent of the mother can be declared the legal father despite the usual presumptions or any DNA testing. This doctrine can be invoked by a putative father seeking custody (see below) or by a support obligee seeking child support. I am not sure if it is recognised in all jurisdictions.A man who can reasonably be thought (by himself, by the mother, or by another party in interest) to be the father of a baby whose parentage has not been formally determined is called a putative father. The United States Supreme Court has held that a putative father has the right to a paternity determination and to notice and the opportunity to be heard in the event that someone wants to terminate parental rights or otherwise if the parental relationship becomes relevant to a legal determination. A putative father may have standing to claim custody or partial custody of the child; parentage might be raised in such a custody action. A custodial party may also sue a PF for child support; the PF may object to parentage by appearing in the support action and demanding DNA testing (or other appropriate process to try the issue). However, if the PF fails to appear after proper service in the initial support proceeding, paternity will likely be established by default.Termination of parental rights is the canonical way of ‘excluding’ a biological parent from the child’s life. The effect of a TPR order is to eliminate the legal relationship between parent and child, which is otherwise presumed to exist from biological parentage. Most TPRs are done incident to an adoption—a step-parent may step into fill the gap if the other biological parent is not also being terminated, or both parents may be terminated and some non-relative(s) may adopt the child. Termination may be voluntary or involuntary. As termination of parental rights is a creature of statute (adoption existed at the common law, but was restricted to ‘foundlings’ or children with no established parents and orphans), you have to refer to state-specific criteria in order to find out what has to be shown. Typically, the biological parent must be either “unfit to be a parent” or have shown a settled course of disinterest in the child’s welfare; the court must also conclude that termination is in the child’s best interest, which it will might not do if it does not appear that a new parent is waiting in the wings to adopt the child. A termination proceeding may be brought against a putative or established parent.Sometimes, a CP will, by means of “excluding” an absent parent, seek to manufacture grounds for termination. Although the courts will look askance at that—failing to seek support and then claiming the defendant failed to pay will not be grounds for termination; neither will a claim of non-involvement in the child’s life be sufficient if the absent parent was not aware of the child’s existence or of sufficient information to seek a custody order or other intervention—the absent parent (including a PF) is still obliged, at least in Pennsylvania, to make some efforts (“exercise reasonable firmness”) to vitiate their parental rights. There is no fixed definition of the amount of effort at involvement that has to be put forth; this is a case-specific determination. Merely paying or not paying support is not determinative, though faithful payment of support tends to weigh against termination.If there is no custody order, the parents have joint legal custody by default. They also have a sort of inchoate joint physical custody by default—what this basically ends up meaning is that either parent has the right to custody of the child, but without a court order, those rights are not enforceable against the other parent. This ends up meaning that the party who has the child has de facto custody and has some power to exclude the other party from the child’s life without a court order. The non-custodial parent must resort to the courts to get a custody order to fix this. Failing to do so might be regarded as a failure of reasonable firmness, see the above paragraph, and thus a factor potentially in favour of termination.However, short of termination, a CP who is aggrieved by the absence of a NCP may also apply for sole legal custody. This isn’t favoured—it has to be an exceptional case—but if it can be shown to the court that allowing the usual situation where both parents have joint legal custody is harming the child’s welfare, it may be considered. (A common reason for allowing sole legal custody is the parents’ inability to agree on medical treatment, which may prevent the child from getting treatment at all.) Sole physical custody might also be granted if the absent parent fails to show up at the custody proceeding or if it is suggested that the absent parent might be unable or unfit to exercise any physical custody for whatever reason. An order for sole legal and physical custody would relieve the CP of the necessity of involving the NCP in any active way in the child’s life, but even the most restrictive “sole custody” order is far short of termination. Unlike a termination order, a custody order may always be modified.As in the termination case, the efforts of a CP to disrupt the child’s relationship with a NCP can be held against the CP.Child support is not a quid pro quo when it comes to either custody or parental rights. Rather, child support is a liability that goes along with parental rights. However, as long as the person with physical custody of the child is not on cash public assistance, that CP may choose to eschew a support order and that is regarded as between the parties. Failing to pay support does not eliminate the other parent’s parental rights even to custody, much less in a termination case, and a party who fails to seek support for the primary reason of cutting the non-custodial parent out of the child’s life will not be rewarded for this conduct. The converse of this, though, is partially relevant. While it is settled law most places that custody and child support will be decided independently, a prolonged and deliberate failure to pay court-ordered support may be regarded as evidence of abandonment of the parental relationship and held against a party in a termination case.In summary, “If a father's name is not on his baby's birth certificate, and the mother never seeks child support and raises the baby on her own, can he be excluded from the baby's life?” Maybe, maybe not; the answer will depend on many other circumstances not specified here. For anyone facing this question in real life, the importance of advice from a local qualified lawyer cannot be understated.See also:John Gragson's answer to Can you get sued for child support without a paternity test?John Gragson's answer to Is paternity a constitutional right in the U.S.?; see also Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645 (1972).Cf. John Gragson's answer to At what point does a change in visitation or child custody constitute a de facto termination of parental rights?, discussing the nature of TPR in Pennsylvania.John Gragson's answer to How do you stop visitation rights? and John Gragson's answer to Do I forgo custody if I miss too many visitations?