According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2020, more than 40 percent of all births were out-of-wedlock. Sometimes the paternity of the father of out-of-wedlock births is unknown. Other times, for whatever reason, a mother may purposely keep the paternity private from the father. Unless paternity is established, the mother retains all legal rights to her child. A paternity attorney with expertise in advocating for parental rights can evaluate and explain the legalities of your case and help you create an effective parenting plan. 

Six Benefits of Establishing Paternity

The advantages of establishing paternity can benefit both the mother and father but is most especially invaluable for the child. Some benefits of establishing paternity include the following: 

1. Establishing paternity enables and fosters a relationship between the father and child.

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Establishing parentage of a child has many benefits. In the case of paternity, determining parentage can be difficult depending on the marital status between the parents and paternity allegations. Often, the best way to determine the biological father of a child is by taking a paternity DNA test. These are the four main reasons to take a paternity test in Illinois.

You Want the Alleged Father to Pay Child Support 

Even if a father is not interested in being a part of the child’s life, he is still accountable for financially supporting the child. A mother who is interested in obtaining child support from the father of her child may need to request a DNA paternity test. By requesting the alleged father take a DNA test and prove paternity, you can ensure that he is held to his legal responsibilities. 

The Father Wants Custody Rights 

Courts will allow for custody rights including parenting time based on the best interests of the child in question. Typically, this encourages both the mother and father to be an active part of their child’s life. If the paternity of a child is undetermined, a parent or the court may request a paternity DNA test to be conducted. A father-child relationship can be an important bond for both the dad and the child. By establishing paternity, a father can secure custody rights to encourage involvement in the child’s life. 

When a child is born to parents who are unmarried, the father does not yet have any legal rights to the child, unlike the mother. Many parents, especially fathers, do not realize that there are certain steps that they must take to gain their legal parental rights and to ensure the paternity of their child is established. Until the paternity of a child is established, no orders pertaining to parenting time, decision-making responsibilities, or child support will be entered. Paternity can be established in a variety of ways, but the situation is not always as easy as just completing paperwork. A knowledgeable paternity lawyer will be able to help make the process a little easier.

Uncontested Declaration of Paternity

Before a father can establish his legal rights, he must first ensure that his paternity is established over his child. This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, but the easiest way to establish paternity is by using a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Paternity (VAP) form. This form can be filled out right in the hospital after the child is born and only requires both the mother's and the father’s signatures to be valid. Once you sign the VAP, you are able to have the father’s name put on the child’s birth certificate.

When you are not married and you have a child in Illinois, establishing the paternity of your child can be more complicated than it is for a couple who is married. When a couple is married at the time the child is born, the man to whom the mother is married is presumed to be the child’s legal father. When a couple is not married, there are extra steps that must be taken to establish the paternity of their child. For many people, establishing the paternity of their child is a sentimental act, but it also carries many legal benefits for everyone, including the mother and father. For instance, fathers in Illinois do not have any rights to parenting time or parental decision-making responsibilities unless their paternity has been established to their child. Paternity cases can become complicated, but an experienced Illinois paternity lawyer can guide you through the process.

Benefits of Establishing Paternity

When you establish the paternity of a child, this change can affect not only the child but also the mother and father, too. In many cases, parents may not think of some of the benefits of making the legal connection between the child and his or her father. Here are some of the biggest benefits that establishing paternity provides:

When a child is born to two people who are married, in a civil union, or who were married or in a civil union within 300 days prior in the state of Illinois, those two people are legally presumed to be that child’s parents, even if that is not necessarily true. A child’s legal parents are required to provide for the child’s well-being, including providing for their financial needs. If the parents ever get divorced, the father has a legal right to decision-making responsibilities and parenting time, as well as an obligation to pay monthly child support. If the father finds out that he is not the father of the child, he can file to disprove the paternity of the child, which may relieve him of his parental responsibilities.

Disproving Paternity While Married

If the father is married when the child is born, the legal relationship is automatically established when the child is born. While this can be a convenience, it also means that the father is forced to take legal action to disprove the paternity of the child if the child is not his or her biological child. Genetic testing is used to determine whether or not a child is biologically related to an alleged father and is typically ordered by the court when a person files to have paternity disproven. Once the father becomes aware of the fact that he is not the child’s biological father, he must take immediate action, or the judge could deny his petition to disprove paternity.