Establishing paternity means making someone the legal father of a child, along with all the responsibilities and privileges that come with that status. It is often necessary to do when children are born outside of official marriages. Completing the process successfully grants children and parents rights equal to those of married families.
Please do not use anything in this article as legal advice. Also, please know that you may have already taken the first step by filling out some forms at the hospital when your baby was born. If this is true, you should still talk to a lawyer before you sign and file paternity documents. Your case could have complexities that I have not addressed here.
Why Is Proving Paternity Important?
Illinois courts will presume that a man is a father if he is married to — or in a civil union with — the mother leading up to the child’s birth. In this case, you would not have to establish paternity.
Outside of that — even if you and the mother were living together — you would not automatically have any legal rights when it comes to some of the most important aspects of your child’s life. Proving paternity establishes you as a father — giving you those rights.
You get more opportunities to provide for your children when you become a legal parent. For example, you would be able to add them to your insurance. They could also have rights to your social security in the unfortunate event of disability or death. In fact, becoming a parent gives you a legal obligation to provide for your child. Because of this, you could be obliged to pay child support.
How Do You Establish Paternity in Illinois?
There are three ways you could become the legal father of your child in Illinois. They are:
- Getting a court order
- Securing an order from the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
- Signing, officializing and filing a Voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity (VAP) form
Both you and the mother would need to consensually sign your consent to the VAP form. The other two methods are more adversarial.
The Link Between Divorce and Paternity
Child support and child custody procedures are also sometimes related to paternity cases. In many ways, courts handle these cases in paternity suit the same way they would in a divorce case. Married parents have the same rights in Illinois as unmarried parents do.
Not every paternity action is initiated by the father. These types of proceedings sometimes involve a mother attempting to establish a certain man is the father of her child. Doing so could obligate the man to care for the child, sometimes in the form of a retroactive child support award.
Paternity is important in Illinois family law, whether it is presumed, voluntarily acknowledged or established by court order. Please call me today at (312) 621-5234 to schedule your consultation.
