The legal recognition that a man is a child's father is known as the recognition of paternity. The recognition of paternity gives a father the presumed right to custody over a child which, baring extraordinary circumstances, cannot be removed. While the rules governing paternity vary from state to state, each state has laws governing paternity rights and the procedures involved in acquiring them.
Presumed Paternity Rights
The paternity rights of a father are typically granted automatically when a child is born while the couple is married or when specific conditions are met. For example, Washington Revised Statutes 26.26.116 states that a man is presumed to be a child's father when the child is born while married to the mother; he and the mother tried to get married before the child was born but were unable to or the marriage was invalidated; he and the mother were married and the child is born within 300 days of his death or the end of the marriage; or he and the mother married after the birth of the child and he asserted paternity.
Established Paternity Rights
Having a child out of wedlock can complicate a father's paternity rights. Some states, like Texas, presume a child born to an unmarried woman has no legal father, whether or not the woman is cohabiting with a man. The father must establish paternity in order to gain rights to the child.
The simplest way to establish paternity rights is to acknowledge paternity the child at the time of birth. A father and mother can voluntarily acknowledge the paternity of the man through a voluntary disclosure or acknowledgment of paternity. Once paternity is acknowledged, the father is considered the legal father of the child and is entitled to custody over the child.
Paternity Testing Rights
When the paternity of a child is in question or is disputed, a court can be called upon to determine who the father is. The right to bring a paternity suit is generally given to any mother or purported father. For example, Florida Statutes 742.011 allows any pregnant woman, mother, man who has any reason to believe he is the father of a child, or the child itself to bring a paternity suit to determine paternity.
Once a suit is brought, parties have a right to conduct tests to determine the paternity of the child. For example, Florida Statutes 742.12 allows the court to order the mother, child and any purported father to submit to scientific testing to determine paternity. The kinds of testing allowed is up to the court, but it must be generally acceptable in the scientific community.
