Legal Question in Family Law in Minnesota

Thank you for your question regarding paternity and parenting time.

A recognition of parentage has nothing to do with custody or parenting time. All it means is that the father is the presumed parent of the children, and his signature on the recognition is ordinarily sufficient to determine paternity. But, once again, this has nothing to do with custody or parenting time.

Under Minnesota Law, the mother of a child born out of wedlock automatically has full custody of the child until a custody order is filed by the court. A child support order is not a custody order. It orders child support and nothing more. In fact, most child support orders in circumstances like yours are made during the "expedited process," by a child support magistrate. Child support magistrates have very limited jurisdiction. They can only determine child support; they do not have the jurisdiction to order custody or parenting time schedules, unless the parties have stipulated to the terms of an order.

It appears that custody and parenting time has not been established in your case. This would usually be of more concern to the father. On the one hand, he might be worried that his child support is too high, since it is possible he does not receive any reduction in support in consideration for his parenting time. On the other hand, he may be concerned that his parenting time will be unfairly infringed.

I suspect from your question that what really troubles you is that he does not spend any time with the children, and that he has attempted to dodge his child support obligation. Perhaps you are wondering whether he can be compelled to spend time with the children, or whether his time with the children can be conditioned upon his payment of support.

Whether or not he has an award of parenting time, there is no way to compel someone to spend time with their children. Unfortunately, we cannot order parents to be responsible adults, or to spend time with their children, or to be compassionate. We also cannot condition parenting time on the payment of child support, although in your case it appears this may not be an issue, since he either does not have an award of parenting time, or does not care to exercise it. The real issue for you may be "simply" a matter of child support enforcement -- about which there is often nothing "simple."