Legal Question in Family Law in Florida
Mother of four year old girl leaves boyfriend. Boyfriend is on birth certificate of her four year old daughter as the father. Boyfriend raised the daughter entire four years as his without any doubt he was the bio father the whole time. Never married � mother leaves boyfriend abruptly and gets DNA test done out of spite to prove the daughter belongs to another man!! Birth certificate father is devastated. Is there anything at all he can do to remain in the girl�s life? It is understood that now the birth certificate can be amended and the newly discovered biological dad (the two of them were never married either) can petition for rights, but will the man who raised the girl completely lose out? Does he have any ground to stand on for the time he spent as her daddy? What about if they don�t amend the birth certificate and remove his name? Can he remain the legal father? Any hope? What about recourse against the mother for this charade? Although at the end of the day the mother has nothing birth certificate dad wants; he just wants to be in the little girl�s life if at all possible. Please don�t judge the birth cert. daddy he�s not asking on his own because he is distraught at the moment and I chose to help him. Thank you.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Boyfriend is the father as long as his name is on the birth certificate. File for visitation. She will of course file for child support and you are the legal father unless you File a Petition for Disestablishment of parentage. That will end your rights to see this child. Or the real father might file a Petition for Paternity and other relief. I suggest you get an attorney.
Boyfriend has to petition the court to enforce his rights, if the real father comes forward those rights will be taken away.