Legal advice on raising and recognizing a child


Questioner

I'll keep it short and sweet, but I'm of course happy to answer questions. My girlfriend got pregnant from a one night stand. The biological father had a girlfriend at the time, still the same one. My girlfriend informs biological father of the said fact. He denies it. She should have it removed. My girlfriend refused this. At that moment I came into her life and experienced 6 months of pregnancy and was present at the birth. Child reported by mother. I did not acknowledge the child at the time because we had only been together for a short time. Now that the child is 7 months old, I have acknowledged it. A week later, the biological father still wants to have authority over the child and has hired a lawyer. Case currently ongoing. We want to continue as a family, without the intervention of the biological father. What are our chances here? How should we approach this?

Lawyer

By acknowledging the child, you have become the legal father. The law of descent regulates who the legal parent of a child is. As a legal parent, you do not always automatically have authority over the child. Do you have authority over a child? Then you have the duty and the right to raise and care for the child. In the standard situation of a married couple or registered partnership (man/woman) the man is automatically the father of the child. But not every biological father is also a father according to the law. A biological father who is not married to the mother or in a registered partnership with the mother is not a father in the sense of the law of the child and will have to acknowledge the child if he also wants to be a father in the sense of the law. In addition, it is also possible for non-patergenic parents to obtain legal paternity of a child. A child can also be acknowledged before birth. This is called acknowledgement of the unborn fetus.

Questioner

Thank you. I understood from my lawyer that my acknowledgement will be cancelled because proceedings against this were started within 3 months after I acknowledged the child. Could this be true?

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