Rights of Non-Biological Father Who is Listed As the Father on the Birth Certificate

[lovedau26]

My question involves a child custody case from the State of: OREGON

Named as the father on the birth certificate but not the biological parent, and has been the primary caregiver for the child since birth for 3.5yrs with a spotless record, can the mother take full custody of our child ?

[Dogmatique]

Were you married to Mom? Are you and Mom (regardless of your marital status) separated?

[lovedau26]

Mom and I never married. We lived with each other then separated and I did the stay-at-home daddy duty thing.

[Dogmatique]

In other words, when Mom moved out, she left the child with you? (There's a reason I'm asking these questions )

[lovedau26]

In a sense, yes. What occurred was a 4/3 night split, I keep the child with me Mon-Fri 8am-5pm and she would have our child for the weekend days and evenings.

She worked a traditional full time shift.

I'm seeking equal time with our child and joint custody despite not being the biological father. I'm not openly claiming I am the bio parent, quite the opposite.

Our child holds MY last name, not hers, by the way.

[Dogmatique]

Then at the very least, you can ask the court to order that the current arrangement is maintained. Biology at this point doesn't matter unless the biological father comes forward. This is your child, legally speaking, and given that you are actually the child's primary caregiver AND legal paternity has been established you have a good chance of that being ordered.

If you can't find your county's forms online (not all jurisdictions have forms online), or you need an attorney, there's info right here

But please Dad - get those court orders in place. Because without them, Mom can quite literally come and pick up kiddo at any time and you wouldn't be able to do anything.

[lovedau26]

Thank you so much. You're input is mirrored by others.

Mom has told me she was/is looking up bio-dad to submit DNA, file for an amended birth-cert, and basically wishing to pull the rug out from under child and myself.

Her motive is to limit my time as much as humanly possible with our child.

I fully intend to get court orders in place. I have a lawyer and I trust laws are in place to protect the child's and my relationship.

[Dogmatique]

You're correct. You're the child's legal father. At this point, even if Bio Dad comes forward (and really - does he want to be on the hook for child support? I think not), there's a VERY good chance that the court would determine that it's simply not in the child's best interest for your paternity to be disestablished.

[lovedau26]

Ok, well... there's a few unknowns there, obviously. Bio-dad may back out and not go along with her demands because of what child-support might be.

Bio-dad was excused for easy reasons not prudent to share here for myself who was in the process of courtship with mom. I went through with it hoping for the best and failing to prepare for the worst and here we are living out the worst scenario possible in my opinion.

Mom is saying she'll admit to falsifying the Birth Certificate document dragging us both through the mud. I've maintained publicly from the beginning that I'm not the biological father so there's no sleep lost here. All our peers know/knew the truth.

What is in the best interest of the child is the bottom line. Since both parents don't have criminal records or do drugs than basically speaking a 50/50 outcome would be right and just in my opinion.

Thank you again.

[Dogmatique]

If you signed that affidavit of paternity KNOWING that you weren't the biological father and have been maintaining that you're not the biological father all along, this may be something Mom can use against you because you have both committed perjury.

(This is opposed to you signing right there and then and believing that you were Dad and then later on finding out you were not. It could make a very big difference - not for Mom, but for you. It could be catastrophic for you)

Your attorney is aware of all of these facts, correct? If so, follow your attorney's advice.