In modern times many couples have children when they are not married. Problems can arise with respect to Child Custody, Visitation, and Child Support when these couples break off the relationship.
In a perfect world the mother and the father are amicable in such a situation, and do what is in the child or children’s best interest. However, it is much safer, and highly recommended, that you obtain Court orders with respect to custody, visitation, and support issues, so that the mother and father each know their respective rights and obligations, and so that there are no ambiguities regarding the same.
This article will discuss the issue of children who are born out of wedlock from both the mother and the father’s prospective to give you a general understanding of the law in California regarding children born out of wedlock.
The Mother’s Prospective
The mother of a child that is born out of wedlock has a unique advantage in that she does not normally have to prove that the child is hers. If hospital records indicate that a female has given birth to a child, and the birth certificate that is issued upon the birth of a child indicates that the female gave birth to the child, than there is usually no issue with the mother showing that she is the paternal mother.
The mother of a child born out of wedlock will automatically be entitled to full custody of a child absent a Court order indicating otherwise.
She may give the father visitation if she so chooses, or she can deny visitation to the father absent a Court order.
All minor children in California have a right to receive child support pursuant to a statutory guideline. (The subject of Child Support will be covered in a forthcoming separate article). If the mother of a child who is born out of wedlock wants to obtain child support from the father, she will have to file and serve a Petition to Establish Parentage on the father, and an Order to Show Cause for child support with the appropriate Court.
If the mother is on welfare or Aid to Families with Dependent Children, the District Attorney in the county in which the mother resides will ordinarily aid in this process so that the County gets reimbursed for the aid that is being provided to the mother by the County.
If a father voluntarily accepts paternity, than the Court will decide each party’s rights to custody, visitation, and child support based upon the facts in the case. If the father denies that he is the father, he may request that a DNA test be done to determine whether he is the father. Once this process is completed than the Court will determine each party’s rights.
If a mother is not sure who the real father of a child is, she will have to file a Petition to Establish Parentage on each potential father.
The Court will ordinarily allow the father visitation or custody rights to the child unless it can be shown that it is not in the best interest of the child for the father to have such rights.
The Father’s Prospective
The father of a child born out of wedlock has no rights to Custody, Visitation, or Child Support unless they obtain a Court order for the same.
If a father wants to have rights to custody, visitation, or child support for a child born out of wedlock, he will have to file a Petition to Establish Parentage, and an Order to Show Cause for Custody, Visitation, and/or Support.
The mother of the child may or may not agree that the father is the true father of the child. Either party may request that a DNA test be done to prove whether or not the father is the paternal father of a child.
Once the Court determines paternity, the Court will than look at many factors with respect to rights to Custody, Visitation, and Support.
The Court will ordinarily allow the father visitation or custody rights to the child unless it can be shown that it is not in the best interest of the child for the father to have such rights.
The Mother and Father’s Prospective as a Whole
The Court will always try to determine what is in the children’s best interest when determining who will have Custody and Visitation rights to a child or children. This can be a long and expensive process if litigated. It is recommended that a Mother and Father try to informally work out a Custody and Visitation plan for a child or children, and then get a Court Order which reflects the agreement of the mother and father.
If you cannot informally work it out than the Court will decide the issue for you.
Support of the child or children will be determined by the Court using a statutory formula which is based on both parties income, the percentage of time each person has with the child or children, and other factors.
It is always recommended that you retain a lawyer in these types of cases. Only a fool has herself or himself for a client.
If you are located in Southern or Central California you may call The Law Offices of Norman Gregory Fernandez for a free consultation at 818-584-8831 extension 1, or visit our family law website by clicking here now.
By Norman Gregory Fernandez, Esq. ,© 2007
Welcome, my name is 
Can you tell me what law(s) pertain to this advice? Particularly this:
“The FatherÂ’s Prospective
The father of a child born out of wedlock has no rights to Custody, Visitation, or Child Support unless they obtain a Court order for the same.”
Thank you in advance,
-Daren Eason
Hello,
I was not asking for advice, just which law you refernce so I can look it up myself. Can you at least tell me that? The laws themselves are not priveleged therefore I don’t think we need an attorney/client relationship for you to give me a law number , do we? Thanks for any help you can give, and I understand if not – but thank you anyway.
-Daren
I understand that if the DA is collecting child support for a mother, and the mother was on aid in the past. The child support collected has to be given to the mother to cover current child support payments before applying the money collected to the arrears or arrears interest. If this is true, I am curious where to find the legal description of this law?
Please clarify, an “unwed” father, has to file a Petition to Establish
Parentage even if his name is on the childs birth certificate as “father”
and the child has his last name legally, not the mothers…and he has been
living with and supporting both the mother and the child for the childs
entire life. This mother is now in the process of trying (verbally,
over the phone to her parents 2000 miles away)to establish that the father
is a “drunk and is abusive”…and has once already taken the child from
their home to a place unknown by the father, stating that she intends to
keep the child from him as it is “her child”, and move to another state so
“he will neversee her again”. But of course she intends to go on Welfare,
and sue him forsupport, as she has no job, nor any viable job skills, and
no home other than to live with relatives.
In order for the father to at the very least prevent her from leaving the
state (California) so that he may have joint custody, and continue to be
a part of his daughters life, does he need to file for an Order to show
Cause for Custody and Visitation.
This young couple and their 3 year old daughter have lived with me in my
home since before the child was born. We now find that the mother’s
intentions are not what one would call “honorable”, as she has been long
building a “case” of drunkeness and abuse on the fathers part by means of
continuous phone calls to her parents in Oaklahoma…hoping as she states
that she can justifiy “parental kidnapping”, ie: disappearing with the child
while the father is at work, “because she is fleeing an abusive relationship”.
I live in the home with this couple (as it is my home) and am in constant
daily contact and interaction with them…to the point of being referred to
as “grandma” to the child, whom I dearly love, and now feel I have reason to
fear for her future, and her fathers future involvement in raising his child.
What can be done to protect the father’s rights….or more to the point,
what can be done to establish his rights as the father, and the sole support
of both the child and the mother for over 3 years! The young lady’s rather
nasty stepfather informed me, this last time the young lady ran off in the
middle of the night with the child…that since I was not a “blood relative”
I had nothing to say about anything…that being an eyewitness to the fact
that there was and never has been any physical or emotional abuse “dosen’t
mean a d—n thing”….and her claiming he’s a “drunk” comes from the fact
that as a hard working man in a very physical trade (welding)and working in
both extreme heat and or extreme cold, has the desire to enjoy a cold beer
on occaision when he comes home tired…and normally is expected by the
mother to both “take over his share of watching and caring for the child,
cook dinner, wash dishes, clean up the house, and do his own laundry!”…
Personally, given these factors, stress, and level of exhaustion, I think
I’d need more than a cold beer or two to keep my sanity! But of course that
is neither here nor there….what is vitally important is that she has
consciously been building this “case of detrimental words” against him for
a considerable time, enough so that her family will back her claims that
the father is a drunken abuser,(even though they live 2000 miles away, and
have been to our home, and met this young man ONCE….at the childs 1st
birthday, 2 years ago) and she has every right to run and hide his
child from him.
What does he need to do to protect himself from this, and to protect his
rights as a father who dearly wants to keep his family intact, and at the
very least continue to be a part of his daughters life?
C. Martinez
I will make this as short as possible to try to sum it all up quickly.
My name is Lance Matthews and I have custody of my children. Because there are no laws to protect fathers in the state of California, I am being punished for having a good job. My ex-wife refuses to get a job so my current wife and I are having to get a second job to pay child support to the non-custodial parent. This is the same non-custodial parent who has had allegations of child molestation substantiated by the Escondido forensic science lab and CPS but the CPS reports were refused to be submitted to the judge by the judge because it took me 5 years to obtain the reports. Judge Lori Kennedy refused to listen to what I had to say, but was more than eager to listen to the mother and gave more time to the mother. We also went to a 730 evaluator and when we received the CPS report after he made his recommendation; we requested him to review his decision and read the report and submit another recommendation to the court. During a phone conference he became very short due to the fact we were questioning his original decision.
My previous attorney had been notified by CPS of what had happened and what to do and he never informed me or filed it in my file. I have the information from CPS that shows his number and that they did contact him and that he was supposed to file it with Family Court and he never did.
I continue to hit a brick wall and it seems that nobody is looking out for the best interests of the children and the fathers. It seems that they are only concerned with the mother who quit the military after 11 years with no job and is living off of the state un-employment and has no intentions of getting a job.
I had contacted Governor Scwarzenegger and his office sent me back to CPS, after I had paid money to send all of the documents to him as requested by his office. All that was done is I was sent a letter and they referred me back to CPS. They would not even send back my files.
Sincerely,
Lance Matthews
Hello, my name is joelda montes. Just yesturday I receviced a letter in the mail stating that my daughter’s father wants to modfiy supportdue to hardships. I am currenlty unemployed at the moment because im pregant. My husband is the only income i have at moment, and the child support that is given. Will a judge order a lower payment even though I have no other income besides my husbands?
Hello, Last month my 14 year old daughter made a false accusation in her school that I had molested her. The school called CPS and the Police. CPS forced me to leave my house and not contact my children while they investigated the claim. Last week my daughter retracted her allegation stating that she lied to get back at me for taking her cell phone away and other discipline actions due to her failing grades. The Charges were dropped. CPS had a interview with my wife and daughter today and their conclusions were to keep me away from the children for a indefinite period of time while my wife and daughter go to their therapist. Once complete the told my wife that I would be allowed supervised visitations with my youngest daughter of 4 years old. There has been no hearing in court . No court order preventing me from seeing the children and no charges. I have no criminal background of any kind. I have complied with all of their requests. There does not appear to be an end in sight. I am going broke with hotel bills and defense costs. Can they do this? Can they really keep me from my kids without a court order? What can I do stop this?
I have tried searching for a California law regarding unmarried couple with child or children and the question is, what is the legal age of a minor to move out of either unmarried parent home?
My son is 13, 14 by this August. Wants to move in with my Fiance and myself. At what age does a child have to make the decision to do so and is there required court order, such as a divorce or just child custody? I hope this is simple question and educational for us single parents.
Wendy
The articles that I write on my Blog are meant as an educational resource only and are not to be relied upon as legal advice by me. Furthermore, I cannot give specific legal advice to you or anyone else on my Blog or on this forum, because no attorney/client relationship shall be created by the articles that I write.
If you have a California Family law matter, and you want a consultation on your case, you may call my office at 818-584-8831 extension 3.
Sorry for not being able to give you more.
Norm
There are several reasons why I cannot give legal advice from my Blog, and they are too complicated to enumerate here.
There are many places on the internet where you could look up the California Family Code.
I again invite you to call my office for a consultation.
Thanks,
Norm
The articles that I write on my Blog are meant as an educational resource only and are not to be relied upon as legal advice by me. Furthermore, I cannot give specific legal advice to you or anyone else on my Blog or on this forum, because no attorney/client relationship shall be created by the articles that I write.
If you have a California Family law matter, and you want a consultation on your case, you may call my office at 818-584-8831 extension 3.
Sorry for not being able to give you more.
Norm
The articles that I write on my Blog are meant as an educational resource only and are not to be relied upon as legal advice by me. Furthermore, I cannot give specific legal advice to you or anyone else on my Blog or on this forum, because no attorney/client relationship shall be created by the articles that I write.
If you have a California Family law matter, and you want a consultation on your case, you may call my office at 818-584-8831 extension 3.
Sorry for not being able to give you more.
Norm
Sounds like you might want to consider getting another lawyer!
Norm
Sorry Joelda, I do not give legal advice through the Blog. You may call my office for a consultation at 818-584-8831.
Norm
Stephen, first off I deleted the comment wherein you left your phone number and email address, in the body of your comment for your privacy! This is a Blog and not a place where I give legal advice out to the general public.
Furthermore, I do not and will not give legal advice through Blog comments. This information on this blog is for educational use only. If you are located in the State of California I highly suggest that you consult with a lawyer who handles juvenile court matters! If you are not in the State of California, I strongly suggest that you consult with an attorney in your State that handles juvenile court matters!
Norm
The legal age is 18 in the State of California unless a child is emancipated by a Court first.
As a child gets older, a Court will listen to their wishes, however, until the child becomes an adult, they always have to do what their parents want.
Further, if there is a custody battle, a Court will determine what is in the child’s best interest because the child does not know what is in their best interest, up until they are 18.
Norm