You have no legal rights to custody or access with the child (with some exceptions). There are other legal strategies to get rights for your child. Talk to an experienced family law lawyer about all your options. This approach to the presumption of marriage made sense in the context of a legal regime that treated children born out of wedlock as “illegitimate” and had no legal right to parental maintenance or inheritance. Finally, and after legislative reform at the state level, the Supreme Court rejected this discriminatory regime on constitutional grounds. The court recognized legal rights for illegitimate children and granted legal status to unmarried parents. In the last decades of the twentieth century, state laws evolved in dialogue with constitutional precedents on the rights of unmarried fathers. Define the intended parental relationship Your parental consent should describe the nature of your relationship. For example, you could say that even if only one of you is the legal parent, you both consider each other equal parents of the child.
For biological parents who are not biological parents, presumed parents or recognized parents, a decision may be necessary to establish parentage. The biological parent, the presumed genetic parent or the child may bring an action for a declaration of filiation during the child`s minority. In cases where the biological parent applies for State assistance, the State also has the right to establish filiation and thus to apply for assistance. There are several ways for a person to be automatically considered the child`s legal parent. The gender of the person does not matter: the law can assume that a person is a parent. A presumption of marriage exists in all States, either by customary law or by law (or both). If the person giving birth is married, her spouse is considered the legal parent. Each State recognizes that an adoptive parent is a legal parent. Provided that the adoption complies with state law and constitutional requirements of due process, adoptive parent status cannot be challenged outside of the procedure for termination of parental rights. Today, the presumption of marriage can be rebutted. Disputes can be raised not only by the alleged parent, but also by the biological parent or biological father.
In cases where the child was not conceived through assisted reproduction, biological evidence may be used to rebut the presumption. Yet States vary in the weight they attach to biological facts. Judges often make a decision based on the best interests of the child and preserve the relationship between the child and his or her non-biological father. Some States will not even challenge the presumption if it is not raised during the first two years of the child`s life, regardless of when a party determines that there is a reason to question paternity. Finally, a judge must approve the adoption. While there is nothing in Washington State law that prohibits adoptions for second parents, it is unfortunately possible that some Washington State judges will refuse to grant them. In this case, please contact Legal Voice at info@legalvoice.org. You have established a bound, dependent and parental relationship with the child; Historically, Anglo-American law considers marriage as the exclusive domain of filiation. Without adoption—itself a nineteenth-century American innovation—only married people had legally recognizable parent-child relationships. A married woman who gives birth to a child is treated as a legal mother, and her husband is treated as the legal father according to the presumption of marriage or the presumption of legitimacy. Of course, the assumption reflected the assumption that the mother`s husband was the child`s biological father. It was never just a question of identifying the biological parent.
Historically, the rule was indeed conclusive and worked confidently to render opposing biological facts irrelevant. Nonparent Garstody: Frequently Asked Questions and Answers, by Northwest Justice Project QLaw: Provides a directory of lawyers practicing adoption law and lesbian/gay family law. In addition, a monthly legal clinic is held on the third Thursday of each month from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Another method of establishing parenthood is marriage, in which a person who marries a person with a child becomes the step-parent of that child. However, stepparents are not considered legal parents unless they also adopt the child. Without adoption, a step-parent cannot make legal decisions for his or her stepson and a stepson. In addition, in most states, stepchildren have no legal right to the estate of a step-parent unless otherwise specified in a will.
Disclaimer: State and federal laws have changed significantly over the past decade, as have the laws of other countries around the world. Therefore, we recommend that you consult a qualified family law lawyer before making any significant changes to your family relationships, going to court to obtain parental rights, or leaving the country, for example. If the court discriminates against you because of your sexual orientation or gender identity, or your expression in determining custody or parenting plan, contact Legal Voice at info@legalvoice.org. If you are not the child`s primer, recognized or adoptive parent, you can ask the Parental Rights Court if you can prove that you are a common-law parent. If the petition is accepted, you will have full parental rights. You do not need to get the consent of the other parent for a court to determine that you are a common-law parent. Under Washington law, a person who donates sperm or eggs for use in assisted reproduction (a method of pregnancy without sexual intercourse) is not the child`s legal parent. You are not entitled to parental leave if the child is born or paid sick leave if the child is sick. If you can`t or don`t want to become a legal parent as described above, there are other ways to protect the relationship between you and the child. These options do not offer the same protection as a legal parent, but they may be useful in your particular situation. In this section you will find information about parents` responsibility for their children`s actions, forfeiture of parental rights and much more. Whether you need to learn the basics of parental responsibility, how to formally end parental rights, need resources to help children struggling with issues like divorce or adoption, or just want to know the basics of child-related tax deductions, use the following resources to learn more.
If the presumed and legal parents disagree, they can go to court. A paternity case establishes the identity of the child`s legal father. This often involves genetic (DNA) testing. Even if the child has no biological relationship to the alleged father, a family court may grant the man parental status if he acted in a parental role. Like parental responsibility, parental responsibility can be abolished.