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If you and your child’s mother are not married when the child is born, you may feel like a second-class citizen. You probably think that your rights are completely contingent upon the whims of your child’s mother. You may be afraid that you could lose the ability to live with or visit your child. Fortunately, Michigan laws recognize that you have rights when it comes to your children. The laws make it possible for you to be legally listed as the child’s father, to make a claim for custody or visitation and to have the ability to make decisions about how your child is raised.
How to Prove You Are the Child’s Father
Michigan – like most other states – has several different ways to recognize a child’s parentage. Obviously, the most common way for a father to be legally established is for the parents to be married at the time of the child’s birth. If the parents are married, the law automatically presumes that the husband is also the father of the child. This presumption can be rebutted, but the burden of rebutting it is on the husband or wife who is attempting to deny the man’s parentage.
If the parents are unmarried, the law allows a man to be legally recognized as the father of a child if both he and the child’s mother sign and file what is known as an “Acknowledgement of Parentage” form. This form is legally binding and puts the world on notice that both the mother and father recognize that the man is the biological father of the child in question.
Some states – but not Michigan – have something known as a “putative father registry.” This is a database in which men who have voluntarily acknowledged paternity for a child they fathered out of wedlock provide contact information about themselves. Being a part of the registry grants fathers the right to be notified if any significant changes occur in the child’s status, like if the child is put into foster care or put up for adoption.
How to File a Michigan Paternity Action
If the father of a child born out of wedlock and the child’s mother are unable to come to an agreement about the child’s parentage, the father has the right under Michigan law to file two different items in order to protect his rights to his child. The first thing he may do is file a “Notice of Intent to Claim Paternity”. This can be especially important to file before the child is born in the event that the father is afraid that the child will be put up for adoption. A father also has the option of waiting until after the child is born and filing a paternity action with the Circuit Court. If a DNA test is required then a court Order can be issued after the filing of the paternity action requiring the mother, the father, and the minor child to appear for testing.
Michigan’s Paternity Act does have one unique aspect in that if a mother is married during the birth of a child and the husband is not the biological father then the biological father does not have the right to visit the child or the obligation to pay child support or any other rights as regards the child. In a situation where a couple is married at the time a child is born then only the husband or the wife can challenge the issue of paternity. Under current Michigan law, the biological father may not do so. Making Arrangements for Child Support
Once paternity has been established, a father now has the same rights and obligations as any other parent. These rights include obtaining orders regarding physical and legal custody, having input into decisions concerning the child, spending quality time with the child and being responsible for supporting the child. A custodial parent has the right to request and a court will order that the other parent pay financial support for the child regardless of whether it is the mother or the father.
Child support payments in Michigan are established according to guidelines set forth in the state’s statutes. The guidelines take into account the income and overall economic situation of both parties in order to set a support amount that is fair and equitable for the parties yet provides adequate support for the children involved.
Filing for Custody or Parenting Time
Legally recognized fathers have the right to file actions seeking sole or joint custody of their children as well as actions seeking visitation (legally known as “parenting time”) While it is true that historically mothers were most often granted custody, times are changing. More than ever before, unmarried fathers are successful in their attempts to obtain joint or primary physical custody or at a minimum obtain orders which allow them to spend quality time with their children. The courts are mandated to act in the best interests of the children when making custody determinations – and courts recognize that it is not always in the children’s best interests to remain in the sole custody of their mother. If you are an unmarried father who has questions about the parental rights granted to you by Michigan law, contact an experienced family law attorney in your area to learn more.