Paternity is the legal process in which a father’s legal ties to his biological child are established. Prior to the establishment of paternity, an unmarried mother has exclusive rights over the child, superior to all others.
Paternity is the legal process in which a father’s legal ties to his biological child are established. Prior to establishing paternity, a single mother has exclusive rights over the child, superior to all others.
When a child is born to parents who are not married to each other, the biological father is not considered the child’s legal parent unless the father has signed a “Acknowledgment of Paternity” (usually done at the hospital at the time of the child’s birth) declaring himself to be the child’s father, or an “order of filiation” has been entered, which is a court order that declares that person to be the legal father. A petition may be filed in Family Court seeking an order of filiation.
Paternity can be established in Florida in a couple of different ways. If a child is born to a person A and person B during their marriage, the child is presumed to be the biological and legal child of person A.
If a child is born out of wedlock, there are different ways that paternity can be established. One of those ways is by court order, establishing paternity. It can also be after a period of time, the parties if they signed an affidavit acknowledging paternity in the hospital, and that time period elapses, it’s 60 days and it’s uncontested, there is an establishment of paternity by the affirmative acknowledgement of paternity at the time that the affidavit of paternity is executed.
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