Unmarried fathers who break up with the mothers of their children may not be aware of what they need to do to ensure their ability to have continued contact with their children or to make child support payments every month. If an unmarried father decides he doesn't want to go through the time, expense and trouble of a court hearing to legally enforce child support, visitation or custody, the time and expense he goes through post-breakup may be considerably higher.
Custody
An unmarried father has to obtain a legal court order so he can have custody of his child. If he and the child's mother have an informal arrangement that is not recognized by a family court judge, the times his child lives with him count for nothing with no legally enforced court order.
If the unmarried dad wants his custody to be recognized and to count toward consideration of child support, he has to insist that the custody arrangement he makes with the mother of his child be enforced under with an existing court order, according to FindLaw.com.
If the unmarried mother decides that the private custody arrangement is not working, the unmarried father has no rights without a court-ordered custody order.
Visitation
The unmarried father who wants to have his visitation recognized so it counts toward his child support obligation has to make sure that his visitation agreement with his former girlfriend is court-enforced. As with the custody issue, informal or private visitation agreements are not recognized and result only in a zero percent timeshare, according to FindLaw.com. If the unmarried mother decides that the privately-arranged visitation schedule is not working, the father has no legal recourse.
Unmarried fathers who want their paternity recognized have to ask for a formal adjudication or registration entered into the court record. Legal recognition of paternity impacts court-ordered visitation schedules, says the ENotes website.
Child Support
Unmarried fathers need to understand that both visitation and custody have to be enforced with a court order. If a father decides that he doesn't want to go through the formality of a court hearing, custody and visitation arrangements that have been privately set up will not count toward the eventual child support order.
Even if he spends every other weekend, holiday and birthday with his child under the private arrangement he made with his former partner, the unmarried father will get an unwanted surprise: the private timeshare arrangements have no impact on the amount of child support owed.
The impact this has on his pending child support expectations can substantially increase his financial obligation to his child.
