Most people don't realize that a father has different rights depending on whether or not he is married to the mother. Merely being on the birth certificate of a child born out-of-wedlock does not grant the father custody or visitation rights like he would otherwise have if he were married to the mother.



In a recent Florida case, the parties, who were unmarried, had a 20 month old daughter. The father, who was on the birth certificate, had taken the child to New Jersey and withheld the child from her mother for over a month. The mother sought a child pick-up order stating that although the father was on the birth certificate, they were not married and the father's paternity had not yet been established by a court. The lower court judge denied the mother's request for pick-up order, stating that since the father was on the birth certificate he was the child's legal father and had an equal right to legal custody of the child as the mother.

However, on appeal, the appellate court reversed and stated that although the father was the child's legal father, that status alone was not sufficient to grant him custody or visitation. On the contrary, Florida law grants primary residential care and custody of a child born out of wedlock to the mother unless there is a court order stating otherwise. The father's paternity status did not afford him custody or visitation rights unless and until a court order established those rights for him after a hearing with the presentation of evidence. Thus, the lower court judge's declaration that the father and the mother had equal custody rights over the child was in error.