My 17 year old daughter had a baby, she is engaged and getting married in two months, her fiance has enlisted in the military to support the family, he just turned 18, he put his name on the birth certificate and has been involved with her since her 4 month of pregnancy.
THe day after her child was born the biological father aged 16, mother called and said they wanted to see the baby, have been silent all 9 months, he denied paternity. The boys mother said they are going to go to court and force a dna test to get court appointed visits if we do not allow them access to the child and she told my daughters fiance she can get his name removed from the birth certificate. What do we need to do? My daughter is scared they will try to get custody.

So, your daughter and her boyfriend filed a fraudulent legal document?

My 17 year old daughter had a baby, she is engaged and getting married in two months, her fiance has enlisted in the military to support the family, he just turned 18, he put his name on the birth certificate and has been involved with her since her 4 month of pregnancy.
THe day after her child was born the biological father aged 16, mother called and said they wanted to see the baby, have been silent all 9 months, he denied paternity. The boys mother said they are going to go to court and force a dna test to get court appointed visits if we do not allow them access to the child and she told my daughters fiance she can get his name removed from the birth certificate. What do we need to do? My daughter is scared they will try to get custody.

Basically, your daughter and her fiance are busted. He shoudl not have signed the BC, that is fraud.

The child's biological father has the right to be in the life of his child, even if he previously said he didn't want it or was not involved in the pregnancy.

That said, the boy's mother has no standing to take your daughter to court. But if HE files for a determination of parentage, assuming he is in fact the facther, then the fiance's name will be removed from the BC and both he and your daughter may have to face the consequences of filing a false legal document.

Trying to get custody is a completely different thing. Just because they file for visitation does not mean they will ask for or get custody. But in reality, it is in the child's best interest to have both parents in his or her life.

My lawyer said this to me, and I say it to as many people as I can: This is the consequence for having a child with someone who you are not or cannot be married to.

I understand your daughter, and maybe you, fell that the child's father doesn't have the "right" to be in the child's life. But it just doesn't work that way.

I have to add, committing fraud was not the best idea for the fiance as far as his military career is concerned.

Thank you!!!

We made an appointment this week with a Family Law Attorney in town here!

That's great news! Take it from someone who dragged a similar situation out for six years, it is way better to get custody/visitation/support hammered out early, for the parents, but ESPECIALLY for the child. It will work out in the end.

Best of luck!

The bio fathers family has to prove the young man on the birth certificate is not the father, then prove their son is the father, and the burden of proof and cost is on them.

...which is going to be very easy to do, no?

One blood test will prove that your daughter's fiance is not the father; once the biological father has established his paternity, all he needs to do is file for custody etc etc etc.

Yes, he'll be on the hook for child support, but your daughter needs to understand that he will in all likelihood be successful in obtaining at the very least joint legal custody.

Getting the courts to order a DNA test is not that expensive - particularly if the child's father (and you've said yourself that he IS the father) has parents willing to foot the bill.

You all need to be prepared for this.

The bio fathers family has to prove the young man on the birth certificate is not the father, then prove their son is the father, and the burden of proof and cost is on them.

First, it is not his FAMILY who can do this. Only the father can. His parents have no standing to file for anything.

Yes, the bio father has to prove he is the father. He will do so by filing for a determination of parentage.

The cost of the paternity test is on him, yes. These are all things that we already knew. The paternity test should only cost about $500 to $1000, depending on what is court approved in your jurisdiction. The DNA test ordered for my son was $500, and they let the bio-father use a payment plan.

Burden of proof won't be too hard, the DNA test will do that. He will NOT be responsible for your daughter's attorney fees, however. And she will need one. She committed fraud.

I want to add, I certainly hope that your attorney did not give you the impression that you do not have to worry about this. It is not legally permissable to deny a parent access to their child by havign a third party commit fraud and "pretend" to be the biological father.

Your daughter and her fiance could be in a great deal of trouble. Knowingly forging legal documents is illegal.

The longer your daughter fights to stop the biological father from seeing his child, the harder it will be. You dont' get to make babies with someone, then cut them out. You just don't. This is the consequence of having a child with someone to which you are not or cannot be married.

I don't know if I originally said this but LAST JULY the biological father denied paternity and his mother told my daughter to get an abortion and asked us "what did we want from them" then we never heard from them again or expected to hear from them, ever, they don't live in the same town as us and we didn't contact them or vice versa and this young man she met Stepped Up and wanted to take responsibility for the baby and loves him and my daughter. The bio dads mother called my daughter in the hospital the night after she delivered in March(someone they know works at the hospital and called them and told them she was there) we were stunned, and she started Screaming over the phone to my daughter who just had a c-section less they 24 hours earlier, how if we wouldn't let them see the baby she would get a lawyer and take us to court. We had to call a nurse cause my daughter started having terrible chest pains!
The bio dads mom showed up the next afternoon in the hospital with her husband and caused a huge JERRY SPRINGER like scene in the hospital till nurses had to come in cause they could hear her all over the maternity ward again yelling like some Maury Show guest about how she was going to get a lawyer and force visitation if we wouldn't let her see the baby and the nurses asked her to leave and then my daughter got chest pains again.The nurses also gave us their names if we needed witnesses to what happened, told my daughter she could deny any visitor she wanted or have them removed by security.
The new young man she met when she was 5 months pregnant took her to all her appointments, attended child care classes, infant cpr and first aid and wanted to be the father to the child. She
threatens my daughter all the time with court and lawyers. My daughter feels like this lady ruined a very special supposed to be happy time in her life.
I feel that they wouldn't be making all this noise if the fiance was not in the picture its like a pissing contest or something to them!!!
The bio dad told my daughter he does not want to go to court and see a judge, he is in 10th grade and doesn't even drive or have a job yet, my daughter was never seeking anything from him.
The lawyer did explain to the fiance by claiming the child as his he was responsible for the expenses, school, insurance, food, shelter, etc., of raising the baby, and he said he understood and accepted that, one of the reasons he enlisted, to support his family.
We do not trust these people and are dumbfounded at their reappearance and suspicious of their motives.

QUOTE=MomofBoys;1040908]I want to add, I certainly hope that your attorney did not give you the impression that you do not have to worry about this. It is not legally permissable to deny a parent access to their child by havign a third party commit fraud and "pretend" to be the biological father.

Your daughter and her fiance could be in a great deal of trouble. Knowingly forging legal documents is illegal.

The longer your daughter fights to stop the biological father from seeing his child, the harder it will be. You dont' get to make babies with someone, then cut them out. You just don't. This is the consequence of having a child with someone to which you are not or cannot be married.[/QUOTE]

I don't know if I originally said this but LAST JULY the biological father denied paternity and his mother told my daughter to get an abortion and asked us "what did we want from them" then we never heard from them again or expected to hear from them, ever, they don't live in the same town as us and we didn't contact them or vice versa and this young man she met Stepped Up and wanted to take responsibility for the baby and loves him and my daughter. The bio dads mother called my daughter in the hospital the night after she delivered in March(someone they know works at the hospital and called them and told them she was there) we were stunned, and she started Screaming over the phone to my daughter who just had a c-section less they 24 hours earlier, how if we wouldn't let them see the baby she would get a lawyer and take us to court. We had to call a nurse cause my daughter started having terrible chest pains!
The bio dads mom showed up the next afternoon in the hospital with her husband and caused a huge JERRY SPRINGER like scene in the hospital till nurses had to come in cause they could hear her all over the maternity ward again yelling like some Maury Show guest about how she was going to get a lawyer and force visitation if we wouldn't let her see the baby and the nurses asked her to leave and then my daughter got chest pains again.The nurses also gave us their names if we needed witnesses to what happened, told my daughter she could deny any visitor she wanted or have them removed by security.
The new young man she met when she was 5 months pregnant took her to all her appointments, attended child care classes, infant cpr and first aid and wanted to be the father to the child. She
threatens my daughter all the time with court and lawyers. My daughter feels like this lady ruined a very special supposed to be happy time in her life.
I feel that they wouldn't be making all this noise if the fiance was not in the picture its like a pissing contest or something to them!!!
The bio dad told my daughter he does not want to go to court and see a judge, he is in 10th grade and doesn't even drive or have a job yet, my daughter was never seeking anything from him.
The lawyer did explain to the fiance by claiming the child as his he was responsible for the expenses, school, insurance, food, shelter, etc., of raising the baby, and he said he understood and accepted that, one of the reasons he enlisted, to support his family.
We do not trust these people and are dumbfounded at their reappearance and suspicious of their motives.

You are not getting it.

Signing a birth certificate when he knows he is not the biological father is fraud, and he and your daughter committed it.

I understand your concern for your daughter and your grandchild. But that doens't erase the fact that your daughter committed fraud. The proper and LEGAL thing to do would have been to wait until after they are married and pursue a step parent adoption, which, if the bio-father is really not interested in the child, would not have been that hard. I find it hard to beleive that as a mother yourself, you were ok with allowing an 18 year old to "step up" and claim a child that was not his. You do understand that he and your daughter could break up, right? They are, after all, kids. It COULD very well happen, and the way you have positioned yourselves, if your daughter and he were to break up, HE would have standing to fight for custody even though he is not the biological father. You are playing with fire here. Illegal fire at that.

You've been told already, the grandparents do not have standing to file on their own. But if the bio father wants to file, that is his right, AND he will win. The fact thta he didn't contact her during the pregnancy is absolutley irrelevant. In my case, my son's bio father spent little time around during the pregnancy, denied he was the father, then disapperared for two and a half years. He currently has regular visitation. Why? Because he changed his mind.

It doesn't matter that you think he or his family are trashy. This idea that your daughter somehow holds all the cards by virtue of being the mother is not true. One parent is not legally allowed to cut the other one out. That's just not how it works. If this boy files a paternity suit, he will win. That's it. And when that happens, your daughter and her boyfriend are going to face serious trouble for forging a legal document.