Biological Father Wants Legal Rights to Son But Mother Was Married

My question involves paternity law for the State of: Florida


I have a friend who would like to know some information on his paternity status of his child. Here is the story.

His sons mother was married to another man and separated at the time their son was conceived, she then got divorced from the previous man and married her fathers son (my friend) when their son was about 1 years old.

They are now separated, and she was trying to get child support on my friend but got a letter saying that since the son was conceived while she was married to her first husband that he is their sons legal father. even though my friend signed the birth certificate at the time their son was born.

technically the mother and my friend are still married, He wants to be able to see his son as his son is in better care when he is with him, but the mother is keeping his son from him.

how does he go about proving he is the child's biological father and receiving rights to see his son or take the mother to court for full custody if she is proven unfit?

I hope this is all understandable its kind of a confusing situation.

He first has to have legal Dad's paternity disestablished. Then he can file to establish his own.

Why do you/does he think Mom can/will be proven legally unfit?

And at the moment, your friend doesn't have a son - Mom is doing nothing wrong (legally) by refusing visitation.

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technically the mother and my friend are still married, He wants to be able to see his son as his son is in better care when he is with him, but the mother is keeping his son from him.

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if he is not the legal father, as far as the courts are concerned, it is not his child. due to that, he has no legal claim at the moment to do anything with the child

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how does he go about proving he is the child's biological father and receiving rights to see his son or take the mother to court for full custody if she is proven unfit?

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how old is the child now? How long ago was the divorce? was the child mentioned in any way in the divorce?

Since it appears your friend is not the legal father (on the birth certificate? shouldn't be due to the mother being married. Somebody would have had to lie in order for that to happen) your friend will have to sue to establish paternity of the child

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Quoting Dogmatique

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He first has to have legal Dad's paternity disestablished. Then he can file to establish his own.

Why do you/does he think Mom can/will be proven legally unfit?

And at the moment, your friend doesn't have a son - Mom is doing nothing wrong (legally) by refusing visitation.

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This is what it all boils down to!

The mother of the child is using drugs and abusing/ neglecting the child. there are witnesses to this. She does let her son see my friend but when she gets mad at him for something then she refuses to let him see him.

my friend signed their sons birth certificate, but she was still legally married to her previous husband. she got divorced from her previous husband and married to my friend not too long (maybe about a year) after their son was born.
she is still not divorced from my friend and their son is now 3 years old.

I would just like to know what steps i can tell him to take in order to prove he is his actual father. even the mother claims that he is the father but uses the fact that he has no LEGAL rights to upset my friend.

would a paternity test do anything?

Since it appears your friend is not the legal father (on the birth certificate? shouldn't be due to the mother being married. Somebody would have had to lie in order for that to happen) your friend will have to sue to establish paternity of the child

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Quoting questionsforafriend

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The mother of the child is using drugs and abusing/ neglecting the child. there are witnesses to this. She does let her son see my friend but when she gets mad at him for something then she refuses to let him see him.

my friend signed their sons birth certificate, but she was still legally married to her previous husband. she got divorced from her previous husband and married to my friend not too long (maybe about a year) after their son was born.
she is still not divorced from my friend and their son is now 3 years old.

I would just like to know what steps i can tell him to take in order to prove he is his actual father. even the mother claims that he is the father but uses the fact that he has no LEGAL rights to upset my friend.

would a paternity test do anything?

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What happened when you and your friend called child services to report this horrid abuse/neglect?

I believe child services has been called but not exactly sure what has happened.

If it's bad enough, the child will be removed. However at this point? Your friend won't even know anything about it. He's not the legal father, and child services don't owe him an update. How does your friend know about the living conditions, out of interest?

I'd like to (if I may?) shed some light as to what the courts consider unfit:

Mom marrying a convicted child sex offender
Mom driving drunk or high (with the child present)
Mom leaving a 2 year old alone for 8 hours
Abject abuse or neglect.

Things which Child Services (and the court) won't care about:

Messy house
Mom having boyfriends around
Mom's choice of occupation (in other words, she's allowed to be a stripper)
Mom enjoying a couple of cigs and a couple of glasses of wine in the evenings.

See where I'm going here? :)

When the father (my friend) drops his son back off to the mother the son is terrified to go back home, He may have medical conditions that need to be seen about which the mother has not taken care of. He is almost 4 years old and doesn't speak clearly (you can hardly understand what hes saying) and we believe it is because the mother neglects him and yells and hits him. We have been told of these incidents.
They share mutual friends and he was told of the living situations.
There is drug use in the house around the child.

There are some things that the child can say and its things like "mommy beat ass"

this is such a ridiculous law.