Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Thank you for your question. Your question does not indicate whether you signed a recognition of parentage. If you did, you are a "presumed" father, and can petition for an award of custody or parenting time, depending on the circumstances.

If you did not sign a ROP, you will need to file a petition in Anoka County requesting an adjudication of paternity. The court will order each of you to cooperate in a paternity test and, assuming you are determined to be the father, will thereafter determine custody, parenting time, and child support (which can include ordering you to pay some of the delivery costs, in addition to a portion of health insurance and ongoing health care costs, and daycare). Until that time, the mother has sole legal and physical custody as a matter of law, and can lawfully restrict your time with the child. If the mother received any form public assistance to pay for hospital or other delivery costs (typically medical assistance), or thereafter applied for any other form of public assistance (daycare assistance, for example), she will be required to provide the county with the names of all possible fathers, and the county is required to seek an award of child support.

You should be aware that establishing child support does not automatically give you any right of parenting time. If the mother, or the county, brings an action to establish child support, you will still be required to file a separate action to determine custody and parenting time. This could be very important, since without any award of parenting time, you will be ordered to pay full guidelines child support, without any reduction reflecting your parenting time with the child.

There are "pro se" forms available through the county that you can use to assist you in commencing a proceeding to establish paternity, among other things. This can be a complicated area of the law, however, and I would not recommend you try this without the assistance of an attorney. Feel free to call if you have more specific questions or require specific assistance.

I agree with Mr. Jesperson's answer.

Another possibility would be for you to apply for child support services from the Anoka County Office of Child Support. This requires a $25 fee. The Office of Child Support and the County Attorney's Office will commence a paternity action; however, you need to be aware that the county does not represent you but rather represents the interests of the public authority (the county and state).