When married couples with children divorce, resolving custody matters is often a top priority. Parents may disagree strongly about the best way to share parental rights and responsibilities, but both parents generally understand that they have the same basic rights.
There are also many couples who have children together but who do not have a legal marriage to dissolve. When unmarried couples decide to separate, child custody can be one of the top issues for them to address. However, they do not automatically have custody proceedings like divorcing couples do. They have to submit a proposed custody arrangement to the courts or ask for a hearing in front of a family law judge.
In some cases, the fathers in those families may need to take an extra step in order to have the right to request shared parental rights and responsibilities.
Unmarried fathers must establish paternity
There are several ways for men to establish a legal relationship with their children. Married men have a presumption of paternity that allows them automatic parental rights in most circumstances. Unmarried fathers have several options for establishing paternity.
They can fill out a voluntary acknowledgment document provided that the mother acknowledges them as the father. They can also take the matter to court. Genetic testing can help affirm a man’s biological relationship with his child, allowing him to assert all of the basic rights extended to parents under state statutes.
Those who have already established paternity have the same basic rights as any other parent. They have a right to request an allocation of parenting time and also decision-making authority. Marital status does not affect parental rights. At the most, it creates an extra step that parents have to perform in order to share parental rights.
In many cases, parents take the necessary steps to officially establish paternity at the time of a child’s birth rather than when their relationship status changes. It is often easier to do so, but fathers can ask to establish paternity at any time while their children are still minors. Unmarried fathers who have not officially established paternity may need help navigating the legal system and overcoming attempts to interfere with their parental rights, and that’s okay.