as you can see here:I went to DC court and the free attorney over there told me that since I am not the resident of DC I cannot start the case in DC.
free lawyer is just plain wrong.(b-2)(1) Subject to the requirements of this section, the court may issue a judgment adjudicating the parentage of a child born to parents who reside outside of the District of Columbia in a proceeding to determine parentage, pursuant to § 16-2342, if:
(A)The child was born in the District of Columbia;
(B)Both individuals seeking a judgment adjudicating parentage have a legal relationship with the child through a presumption of parentage under this section or meet the requirements of parentage in subsection (e) of this section; and
(C)Both parents submit to the jurisdiction of the District by consent in a record, by entering a general appearance, or by filing a responsive document having the effect of waiving any contest to personal jurisdiction.
(2)Upon the determination of parentage under this subsection, the court shall issue a judgment adjudicating the parentage of the child.
(3)This subsection shall apply retroactively to all children born in the District of Columbia on or after July 18, 2009.
You do not have to be a resident of DC to amend a birth certificate issued by DC. That would preclude anybody that had a child born in DC but living elsewhere then or at a later time to be prohibited from correcting the birth certificate. Not gonna happen.
but you are not looking to determine if dad's rights have been addressed but very simply, has he been acknowledged/named as the legal father. While that would typically infer rights, there are some situations that would preclude some of the rights of the legal father so what you want is whether legal paternity has been established irrespective of any rights that may or may not come along with that.
I would contact the office of vital statistics and ask them if they accept a court order from MD establishing legal paternity. If so, and your order from the court does that, then you present that and the proper application to the office of vital statistics. If they won't, then you would have to institute an action in the DC courts to establish legal paternity and then present that order along with the application to amend to the office of vital statitics.
and yes, DC does have a limit for much of the actions involved here and yes, it is 2 years so you need to get moving if you intend on doing anything.

