Legitimations are typically an action initiated by a biological or putative father. 

In Georgia, signing a birth certificate in and of itself does not establish any legal rights of the father. In truth, signing a birth certificate only grants you the obligation to support the child. In order to establish status of a legal father, filing of a Petition for Legitimation may be needed. Legitimation is the legal process by which a father establishes his parental rights with respect to a minor child (or children). Our office can help you determine if you are the legal father or not. If you have not met the requirements under Georgia Law that would otherwise designate you as the legal father, we can assist you with this process. 

There is no automatic right to legitimation. The mother can object to the legitimation and you will have to demonstrate to the Court why your request should be granted. Legitimation can provide a significant amount of legal rights for a father and the child because until a father has legitimated a child, he has no visitation or custodial rights. However, those rights can be requested in the petition. A request for legitimation will also give rise to a decision of child support. Our team will assist in the completion of the child support worksheet and fight to ensure that the Court’s consideration of all possible deviations allowed by statute.

Establishing Paternity 

A paternity action is typically where the mother is the moving party seeking to establish paternity of the father and to establish his child support obligation when the parties were not married at the time of the child’s birth or conception.