Legal Question in Family Law in California
I am a single mother, and I applied for child support a week after my child was born. I was told that I would not be given retro child support back to the birth of the child, but only back to the month he was served. Why is it not retro to when I filed, which was the birth month?
The father is not on the birth certificate, nor has he been around to see our child once. He has nothing to do with our child, and has not even called or initiated any kind of visitation. I did make the child's last name the father's last name, and now want to change this to mine since he has no desire to be in this child's life. How would I go about doing this?
Lastly, since the child is and has been in my sole custody since birth, and the father is not on the birth certificate, does this automatically give me sole and physical custody of the child, or would I need to go to court to establish this even though the father is not on the birth certificate?
2 Answers from Attorneys
You've got several issues going on here - support, custody, name change and establishing paternity over the child. It would be best for you to discuss this with an experienced family law attorney in your area.
Answer to question one: The simple answer is "that's the law." The reason behind the law is that the legislature considered it unfair to hold a person liable for back support until they have been notified that the other parent is seeking an order for support. So until they are served, and have that notification, they cannot be held liable. Once they are notified by being served, they are free to start paying what they thing they owe, or negotiate an amount, but if they don't, they pay back support with interest if they are liable for support.
Answer to question 2. You file an application for a legal name change. If there is no legal birth father, even if there is a biological one, it is pretty much a rubber stamp process, but you have to follow all the steps. Your local family law facilitator's office or self help office at your local court can assist you with the forms and proceedures.
Answer to question 3. If there is no legal father of record, you have automatic sole physical and legal custody of the child. But here's your Catch-22. You can't have a child support order without establishing the bio father as the legal father, either by agreement or paternity litigation, but once you establish that he is the father and owes support, he gets full father's rights, including shared custody or at least visitation (unless he is a danger to the child), and the right to object to any name change.
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