need to know my rights in maryland

[tnseay]

I am having a big issue right now. i have a 17 month old son. he has seen his father 3 months out of his life. we were never really "together" when i got pregnant. never married. and he never signed the affidavit of parentage and i never put him on the birth certificate. i need to know how many "legal" rights he really has. i want him to sign his rights over to me but i need to know what rights he has first. i can't really get much from legal. can someone help me?

 

[Duranie]

Unless paternity has been established, he has no rights.

You cannot terminate his rights unless you are married and your husband is willing to adopt.

This man is the father and if he seeks paternity and gets a DNA test done, he will be proven the father and eventually will be given some rights. He does have the right to seek paternity and pursue visitation.

Right now until that is done, you do not have to let him see the child. Also if you file for CS, paternity will definitelty need to be established.

 

[tnseay]

We have established the paternity. he got one through the internet. he isn't contesting paternity. i didn't put his name on the birth certificate because he wanted nothing to do with my son before he was born. he has not spoken to me about our son since june and i just recently asked him to start paying child support and he now decides that he wants to be in my sons life and have custody. wether its sole or joint custody. he knows he is the father and the paternity test proved it. what rights soes he have now that the paternity has been proven?

 

[carney]

He has all rights when paternity is proven. But since his name is not on the birth cerificate and he has not gone to court to do something about it, he has no rights and you have no rights to get child support. He has to get a lawyer and go to court to establish that he is the father and demand that his name be put on the birth certificate and they will order that he has visitation rights and has to pay child support. Or you have to get a lawyer and go to court to get the child support ordered and the judge will order his name put on the certificate and give him visitation. He cannot win sole custody unless he can prove that you are unfit and that's very hard to do. The judge usually doesn't grant joint custody(where you have the child half the year and he has the child the other half) unless both parties agree to it or one parent isn't allowing visitation. What he will end up getting is Shared Custody which means he has a many rights to the child as you do but you would be the parent that the child would live with and the father would get visitation. Either you or him has to go to court to do something about it for it to be legal. You can't get child support without a judge ordering it and he can't get visitation without a judge ordering it.

 

[Duranie]

was this DNA test done throug the courts or on your own? If it was done through the courts, then he has rights HOWEVER unless there is a visitation schedule set up by the courts, visitation generally is at your discretion.

If you file for CS, then of course he is going to be able to see the child.

Regardless if you want it or not, if he pursues this through the courts, he'll probably get something.