Highlight In Legal Alabama Paternity Forms For Free

In Alabama, the simplest way to establish paternity is voluntarily, with both the mother and father signing a form that acknowledges paternity by identifying the child's legal father. Once parents have filled out this form and it has been properly filed, the father's name can be added to the child's birth certificate.

File this petition with the clerk of the court at the county courthouse in the county where the child lives. In small counties, there may be only one office for the clerk of court. In others, there may be different clerks for juvenile court, domestic relations court, circuit court, or family court.

As of 2009, Alabama's version of the Uniform Parentage Act provides, in part, that: ?A man is presumed to be the father of a child if . . . he and the mother of the child were married to each other and the child is born within 300 days after the marriage is terminated[.]? It also allows the presumption of paternity to ...

If the father is not listed on the birth certificate, his paternity can be challenged, so proving that he is the biological father will be necessary. An unmarried father, upon proving that he is the child's biological father, must also file a petition with the court to receive custody and visitation rights.

The parties can consent to an administrative proceeding whereby a DNA test will be ordered by the Alabama Department of Human Resources. If the test is conclusive, the parties will then need to file a petition to establish paternity with an Alabama court and receive an official court order.

Paternity Rights. Men in Alabama often assume that, since their name appears on the birth certificate of a child, they have the legal rights of a father. But that's not automatically true. Alabama automatically recognizes the husband as father of any child born to a married couple.