Why Me

[Iyaoyas8008]

My question involves marriage law for the State of: Arkansas. So me and my wife have been married on paper for 9 years. Our relationship is hard to explain but here recently she took her daughter from me. I have been around this lil girl since she came home from hospital. No she not mine biologically but I been there long enough for her to see me as. Her daddy but her mom hates the idea and wont allow her to call me dad until she is old enough to understand what that word means. I have supported the lil one financially and physically and her mom too even when my wife never did want my help I did it behind her back. We have filed taxes together twice so far. Do I have any rights to the lil girl. Can I get any rights to her without my wife being able to do anything about it.

[llworking]

My question involves marriage law for the State of: Arkansas. So me and my wife have been married on paper for 9 years. Our relationship is hard to explain but here recently she took her daughter from me. I have been around this lil girl since she came home from hospital. No she not mine biologically but I been there long enough for her to see me as. Her daddy but her mom hates the idea and wont allow her to call me dad until she is old enough to understand what that word means. I have supported the lil one financially and physically and her mom too even when my wife never did want my help I did it behind her back. We have filed taxes together twice so far. Do I have any rights to the lil girl. Can I get any rights to her without my wife being able to do anything about it.

Again, you have no rights to the child.

[jk]

Your situation isn’t entirely clear


from what I gleaned from your other post the child is 2 years old or less

you have been married to the mother for 9 years

the bio father has made some actions regarding being involved with the child but I saw nothing about him taking legal action to establish paternity.


So, if no action has been taken to establish his paternity, you are legally the father. Arkansas prescribes to the rule that a child born during a marriage is the child of the spOuse unless proven otherwise. That means you are legal father until proven otherwise regardless of whether your name is on the birth certificate or not. You would legally be liable for child support and you would be entitled to visitation or even custody.

So i I disagree with llworking on this. Under Arkansas law, barring some action you have not revealed here, you are the legal father and you do have legal rights to your child.

20-8-401

f)(1) If the mother was married at the time of either conception or birth or between conception and birth the name of the husband shall be entered on the certificate as the father of the child, unless:

(A) Paternity has been determined otherwise by a court of competent jurisdiction; or

(B) The mother executes an affidavit attesting that the husband is not the father and that the putative father is the father, and the putative father executes an affidavit attesting that he is the father and the husband executes an affidavit attesting that he is not the father. Affidavits may be joint or individual or a combination thereof, and each signature shall be individually notarized. In such event, the putative father shall be shown as the father on the certificate and the parents may give the child any surname they choose.

]

[pg1067]

me and my wife have been married on paper for 9 years.

Please explain what "on paper" means in this context.

her mom hates the idea and wont allow her to call me dad until she is old enough to understand what that word means.

That's good parenting, but it does raise a question.

If this child is not your child but you and your wife have been married for nine years, that suggests the child is more than nine years old, which is plenty old enough to understand that "dad" means. How old is the child?

We have filed taxes together twice so far.

Given that you've been married for nine years, I sure hope you filed separate returns the other seven years.

Do I have any rights to the lil girl. Can I get any rights to her without my wife being able to do anything about it.

Subject to how you answer the question about the child's age, no and no. If you divorce your wife, you may be able to seek visitation with her child. You'll need to give the child's father notice of any such proceeding, and both your wife and the child's father can oppose your request.

[jk]

Please explain what "on paper" means in this context.




That's good parenting, but it does raise a question.

If this child is not your child but you and your wife have been married for nine years, that suggests the child is more than nine years old, which is plenty old enough to understand that "dad" means. How old is the child?




Given that you've been married for nine years, I sure hope you filed separate returns the other seven years.




Subject to how you answer the question about the child's age, no and no. If you divorce your wife, you may be able to seek visitation with her child. You'll need to give the child's father notice of any such proceeding, and both your wife and the child's father can oppose your request.

where have you seen anything that removes the presumption of paternity that states the op is the legal father? There has been nothing presented in any of the ops threads stating either the mother or putative father has taken any action to disestablish ops legal paternity or establish putative father’s paternity.

July of last year op posted this

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

So I have been in my wife’s newborns life since she has come home from the hospital. I have financially supported the child going on 10 months now. I help with the duty’s a father would have. I am not the biological father but I have claimed her as my own and she has claimed me. The sperm donor hasn’t done anything or even tried to help so far. Now he is texting my wife and threatening custody and visitations bc now he has a job. She don’t want him around at all. How strong of a case dose he have? If my name was on her birth certificate can it cancel his paternity claims?

so simple math shows the op and the mother were married when the child was born. Per Arkansas law, until paternity is legally disputed the op is the legal father of the child and has all,the rights of a legal father.


So, until the op states there was action taken to establish the other guy as the legal father or at least disestablish the op as legal father, it should be presumed he is the legal father.

[pg1067]

where have you seen anything that removes the presumption of paternity that states the op is the legal father?

This question makes no sense as phrased. However, did you overlook that I asked the OP how old the child is?

Why are you assuming that, at the time I posted my prior response, I had any knowledge regarding other threads by the OP (and particularly a thread that may have been posted before I started posting at this site)?

[jk]

I’m sorry. I figured you would be aware of how to easily review a posters history.

you start with clicking on the name of the author of the post. That gives you a drop down menu: choose profile. Once there, off to the left you will find some options. Choose recent threads. That will give you a chronological listing of the person’s threads.

Once you master that, you will find many bits of info that is often applicable to a current thread by a given poster. That’s where I discovered the child is about 2 years old.


Now, don’t prove me wrong. I do believe you can teach old dogs new tricks. The only problem I’ve found is sometimes those old dogs are set in their ways and get a bit grumpy when you try to teach them new tricks.

oh, and with all of your education I would presume you understood what a rhetorical question is. The point was to make you consider the reality that the poster said nothing in this thread that would give you reason to believe you were barking up the wrong tree.

[pg1067]

I’m sorry. I figured you would be aware of how to easily review a posters history.

I know HOW to do it, but I'm not going to review every poster's history on the off chance that relevant information might exist in prior threads.

[jk]

I know HOW to do it, but I'm not going to review every poster's history on the off chance that relevant information might exist in prior threads.

Then I guess you answered your own question as to why I presumed you had knowledge of the child’s age. It’s really easy to do and I figured an old lawyer such as yourself would take such basic actions. While I often don’t review a posters history when there are many prior threads, this guy has four or five and two of them were posted today. It would have taken less time to review his threads than to post your responses to me.

And maybe, just maybe, you might give me a bit of credit for having some info, in fact some info that you specifically requested from the op. If you read my first post in his thread it gives you a really big hint that I did read the ops prior threads and did glean pertinent information from them. That really should have been a big clue you may have been barking up the wrong tree.

from what I gleaned from your other post the child is 2 years old or less

you have been married to the mother for 9 years

the bio father has made some actions regarding being involved with the child but I saw nothing about him taking legal action to establish paternity.


So, if no action has been taken to establish his paternity, you are legally the father. Arkansas prescribes to the rule that a child born during a marriage is the child of the spOuse unless proven otherwise. That means you are legal father until proven otherwise regardless of whether your name is on the birth certificate or not. You would legally be liable for child support and you would be entitled to visitation or even custody.

So i I disagree with llworking on this. Under Arkansas law, barring some action you have not revealed here, you are the legal father and you do have legal rights to your child.

now, my question to you is: if you didn’t have the information needed to respond as you did (suggesting the op has no parental rights and stating the op must deal with the bio father in any case) Why respond in such a factual manner as you did?

[llworking]

Your situation isn’t entirely clear


from what I gleaned from your other post the child is 2 years old or less

you have been married to the mother for 9 years

the bio father has made some actions regarding being involved with the child but I saw nothing about him taking legal action to establish paternity.


So, if no action has been taken to establish his paternity, you are legally the father. Arkansas prescribes to the rule that a child born during a marriage is the child of the spOuse unless proven otherwise. That means you are legal father until proven otherwise regardless of whether your name is on the birth certificate or not. You would legally be liable for child support and you would be entitled to visitation or even custody.

So i I disagree with llworking on this. Under Arkansas law, barring some action you have not revealed here, you are the legal father and you do have legal rights to your child.


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I assumed that it was a child born before they married since he said "her child". However, his paternity can be disestablished as part of the divorce case. Therefore even if he is legal dad that is no guarantee that he is going to end up with visitation.