Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Baby's birth certificate was changed. Too late to do anything now. on it!

ANSWER:

Apparently, you applied to DHS for child support enforcement services for a child born out of wedlock. When you do that, you get the government involved in your life. And in the case of a request for a child support order for a child born out of wedlock, the government is then required to proceed with efforts to establish a legal father for the child (which is a necessary prerequisite for imposing on the father an order to pay child support). And that includes DNA paternity testing, etc. In hindsight, you should have NEVER asked for the government to �help� you. That was a BIG mistake. But now you are stuck. Once legal paternity has been established based on biological parentage, you cannot �undo� it, short of having the child adopted by some other man (thereby giving the child a new father to replace the existing father).

BTW, the �special form� you filled out was simply a directive to DHS to keep your address and whereabouts confidential and not release that information to the father. It did not bring a halt to DHS�s involvement in your case.

As to custody, you presently already have full legal custody, by operation of law. ORS 109.175(1) says that �Where paternity of a child born out of wedlock is established pursuant to an order or judgment entered pursuant to ORS 416.400 to 416.470, the parent with physical custody at the time of [commencement of the legal proceeding] has sole legal custody until a court specifically orders otherwise.�

So as matters now stand, YOU ALREADY HAVE FULL LEGAL CUSTODY. And he has NO visitation rights, at least not until and unless he takes you to court to get a court order requiring you to make the child accessible to him for visitation. (And given what you have described, it is likely that a judge will not give him any visitation rights.) In any event, until there is a court order requiring you to make the child accessible to him for visitation, you are under no obligation to do so.

LAWRENCE D. GORIN

http://www.divorcesource.com/OR/pages/ldgorin.html

Law Offices of L.D. Gorin

521 S.W. Clay St., Suite 205

Portland, Oregon 97201

Phone: 503-224-8884 (afternoons, Pacific time)

Fax: 503-226-1321

E-mail: [email protected]