I’m Not the Father … Can I Have My Name Removed from the Birth Certificate?
Birth records in Virginia were not required before 1912. In some ways, life was simpler then. A kid was your kid if you said she was ...
I’m Paying Child Support for Children Who Aren’t Mine
This article is not about money. We know, child support means money, but the root of this issue is paternity, not money. If you are paying ...
She Didn’t Put Me on the Birth Certificate … Do I Have Any Rights?
Today's Latin lesson brings us the word “putativus,” which comes from a Latin stem meaning to believe or suspect. From this we get putative, as in Virginia's putative father registry. ...
I Don’t Think the Child I’ve Raised is Mine … How Do I Challenge Paternity?
The common cuckoo bird engages in a brutal behavior scientists call brood parasitism1. The female cuckoo lays her eggs in other birds' nests. Quick-hatching cuckoo chicks ...
My Ex is Pregnant … Should I Be Going to All The Appointments?
The legal word "consent" is often associated with intimate matters like sex, statutory rape and marriage. It also extends, though, to the often-inevitable outcome of sex: ...
Can My Child Be Put Up for Adoption Without My Permission?
Today’s Latin Lingo goes out to all those surprised Virginia Dads out there: Ignorantia Juris Non Excusat, which roughly translates to “Ignorance of the law is ...
I Signed the Birth Certificate, Then Found Out I’m Not the Father. What’s Next?
Dwayne Parsons knows what paternity fraud feels like. He will go on knowing for the next 1,913 years, after a Chester, Virginia judge ordered him to ...
Can I Get Custody If I’m Not on the Birth Certificate?
Some pieces of paper are unimportant: a losing lottery ticket; a completed grocery list; an expired gift certificate. Some incidental pieces of paper are extremely valuable: ...
What are My Rights as an Unmarried Father?
Unmarried fathers, says the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)1, accounted for 36 percent of first births for fathers in the 2000s. Various Virginia institutions, traditionalists and ...