Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Rights of Illegitimate Child

This response to your question is not intended to be the giving of legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. Accurate legal advice can only be given upon a fuller statement of the facts than your posting allows and, in this office, the attorney-client relationship is only entered into pursuant to a written fee agreement.

Having said this, it is unclear why your husband has failed to transfer some of the jointly held property to his own name. Your rights as a joint owner depend on the manner in which the property is jointly held. If, for example, it is held as tenants by the entirety, a special type of joint tenancy only available to married couples, a surviving spouse becomes the sole owner of the property. If merely a joint tenancy, it is possible that the illegitimate child could assert a claim to the property assuming that your husband died without a will.

In Virginia, it is possible to do a will without providing for your children, even legitimate ones. However, if a person dies without a will and leaves a surviving spouse and a child from a relationship other than with the surviving spouse, that child can assert a claim against the estate. (See, Virginia Code Section 64.1-1.