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Should father (not married) who wants joint physical custody of the child sign the forms given the hospital when the child is born or wait to file an action in court immediately?
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: Indiana Already Tried: I have asked the mother for Joint Custody.
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Hello. Can you see this?
are you receiving my questions?
The only question I have seen is:Should father (not married) who wants Joint Physical Custody of the child sign the forms given the hospital when the child is born or wait to file an action in court immediately? I do have an answer that I am ready to give to that question. Did you have any others?
I have not gotten a real response and have asked the same question several times. Should the father sign the papers given at the hospital or wait to file in court.
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I am sorry for the delay. I realize that you have not yet received a response. I understand that you are a first time user, and the first time using the system can be confusing. It does take time to examine the information and to type out the answer, but I do appreciate your patience.The question is whether a father should make written acknowledgment of his Paternity at the hospital when his child is born there, or whether he should wait to file in court. The answer is that, in Indiana, it usually does not matter either way. There are two components to getting custody of a minor child. The first component is establishing paternity. The second component is getting the order. Regardless of whether the father signs an acknowledgment of paternity at the hospital or through the courts when requesting custody, he paternity must still be recognized in the courts before the order is granted. A signature at the hospital may be later challenged, and a non-signature at the hospital may be later corrected in court. If the father's intention is to be aggressive about establishing custody, there would normally be no reason to not acknowledge paternity at the child's birth.Let me know if further clarification is needed, and please remember to leave positive feedback once you are finished; the positive feedback reflects on my service, not on the operation of the website, and it is the only way I may receive compensation for my time. THank you.
I am a first time user. Thank you for being patient with me! The father wishes to be very aggressive about custody and doesn't want to do anything that will harm his chances. I believe the child was given his last name. He and his lawyer were planning on filing in court. They have a meeting at 1 pm on Monday but the mother is released from the hospital before that. He tells me the paper grants her physical custody. He is more than willing to sign for paternity. Is there a down side to signing the paper.
Thank you for being patient with me as well! When you refer to "the paper", are you talking about an acknowledgment of paternity, or something drafted by the lawyer?
It is the paper given to him at the hospital/standard Indiana law not lawyer. I haven't seen the paper but he told me it would give her custody
Your statement that "he told [you] it would give her custody" is what confuses me.
I first have to make a disclaimer: it is technically impossible to interpret one clause of an order, contract, or agreement without examining the entire document or the context of the document. It is like showing you a picture of an elephant trunk and asking you to identify to what animal it belongs--you could say with great confidence that it is probably a trunk of an elephant, but without examining the animal to which it is attached you could not say for certain. So, please understand that my answer is not based on complete information and it therefore is potentially incomplete and it should not be relied upon as complete.
Experience: Attorney experienced in all aspects of family law
the title on the form is paternity affadavit -- indiana state 44780 r5-6-10
statory authority ic 16-37-2 confidental 1c 16-37-1-10
i just called my son at the hospital.
A paternity affidavit does not grant custody to either parent. If either parent wishes to seek custody or child support after a paternity affidavit has been signed, the affidavit may be used to establish paternity in court. By itself, it does not confer a right of custody to either parent.The main "down side" to signing a paternity affidavit is that it can potentially expose the parent to a child support obligation, but that can also be done other ways (such as through a court-ordered DNA test). So if the parent signing is definitely the child's father, and if the parent wants to have a custodial relationship with the child, there is normally no reason to not sign.