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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    4

    Default Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

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

    When I had my child with Down's Syndrome in 2000, the biological father refused to acknowledge paternity. He was not at the birth and he did not want me list him as the father for the birth certificate. He did not acknowledge paternity for six months until I had a court ordered paternity test. He ignored me and our sick child for 10 years. I had sole legal and physical custody.

    I met someone and got engaged. The biological father served me with papers suing me for custody on my wedding day 3 years ago. No after almost 12 years, he petitioned the court to have his name added to the birth certificate.

    I do not was his name on the birth certificate. How do I stop him from adding his name to the birth certificate?

    Thank you.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Apr 2009
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    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    You can't. In your state, he has up until the child is 18 to establish paternity (and thus have his name added to the bc).

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
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    38,867

    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    Quote Quoting Dogmatique
    View Post
    You can't. In your state, he has up until the child is 18 to establish paternity (and thus have his name added to the bc).
    paternity was apparently eestablished many years ago anyway (at the mothers request even). Neither apparently had the BC amended due to the courts action though. If you read the timeline OP gave, it suggests the father has been involved with the child at some level for a year or so also.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    Oh..yes, you're right. Missed that.

    Well in the case, there's absolutely not a darned thing that Mom can do to stop Dad from having the BC amended.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    4

    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    Thank you for the responses. Is there a statue or law about this? I don't know where to look. Thanks again.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Toledo, OH
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    16,307

    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    Thank you for the responses. Is there a statue or law about this? I don't know where to look. Thanks again.
    It's the way birth certificates work.

    A birth certificate is the legal documentation of a child's parentage, not some trophy to fight over that reflects who loves him more, who was more involved, or who Mom is sleeping with right now. Are you Mom? On the BC you go. Is he Dad? DNA and the courts say yes, so on the BC he goes. It has nothing to do with what you want, and everything to do with who the child's actual parents are.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2012
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    4

    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    Thanks again for the help. But I learned that under Virgina LAW, where the parents do not marry within a few months after the birth of a child out of wedlock or where the non-petitioning parent is deceased, BOTH parents must petition the court and BOTH parents must consent to amending a birth certificate.

    Lucky me!

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Toledo, OH
    Posts
    16,307

    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    BOTH parents must petition the court and BOTH parents must consent to amending a birth certificate.
    No. Both parents must submit affidavits to the State Registrar. The court does not need to be involved if both parents are in agreement. Read the statute again.

    Lucky me!
    Only if you consider selective reading comprehension to be a lucky thing.

    You missed a VERY important bit of that law:

    Quote Quoting Code of Virginia § 32.1-269 F
    An aggrieved applicant may petition the circuit court of the county or city in which he resides or the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, Division I, for an order compelling the State Registrar to amend the vital record
    And if Dad petitions the court to have the birth certificate amended? He WILL get it.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Sep 2005
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    98,846

    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    He will get it if the court finds the child's name change to be in the child's best interest. If dad has been largely absent from the child's life by choice, or if it appears the child will have difficulty or confusion in relation to a name change, the court may find that it's best to leave things the way they are.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
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    Toledo, OH
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    Default Re: Do Not Want to Amend Birth Certificate to Add Biological's Name

    Certainly Dad can be added to the BC without changing the child's name?

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