[treatmint]

My girlfriend and I live in Tennessee and just recently (5 days ago) had our baby daughter. My question is regarding the process of adding me to the birth certificate and becoming her legal/biological father. The problem we faced at the hospital was two-fold. 1) we are not married 2) she was
legally married at the time of conception but in the process of finalizing her divorce proceedings. They informed us at the hospital that my name could not be put on the birth certificate until we obtained a court order. It was not outlined in her divorce settlement that her ex-husband is not the father because when they drew up the papers she wasn't aware she was pregnant yet. Neither of us doubt the paternity of our daughter as we were together well before she got pregnant. However, because she was still legally married when our daughter was born and the divorce papers didn't spell out that her ex was not the father, the state of Tennessee would not allow us to sign an AOP and would not allow our daughter to take my last name. Could you PLEASE help (or at least advise me in the right direction) as to what the appropriate channels are that I need to follow in order to declare myself as her biological father and amend the birth certificate to reflect that?
And are we going to have to track down her ex and have him sign something or is this an issue we can handle without his involvement? We are on a tight budget so hiring a high-priced attorney right now is not an option and both of us would like to clear this matter up for our own piece of mind as well as our daughter's sake. I know I will most likely need to take a DNA test, but i want to make sure that I do it so that the court will recognize it as being legitimate. Also, I'm not exactly clear as to where to start filing the needed paper work to get a court hearing ect.
Thank you in advance for any and all help you can provide.

[Litigator]

Evidently, the man she was married to was presumed to be the father of the child so long as the child was born within 300 days after their divorce. It is complicated enough that I'd advise you to get an attorney. Not all attorneys charge high prices and it is certainly going to be worth your while to check around to get it done right; otherwise, you may lose certain rights or end up having to do even more work in the future than you would if you retained an attorney from the start.

[treatmint]

Thank you for your response.
I have been told different things by different people.
I contacted the Department of Health and Human Services here in Tennessee and they said we could handle the issue of amending the
birth certificate through the Probate Court that would then identify me
as the father of our daughter. Are they also able to handle the issue of legal rights and paternity at that ime? Is this something her and I can do on our own without getting her ex-husband involved and how much paperwork and time at the courthouse is required for us to resolve this issue?
I was also wondering if it would make any difference (legally) if her and I were to get married in the near future? Which is something we have planned on doing anyway, but I wanted to see if it would affect our present situation?
Thank you for your help.