Family Law

Recently, I have received numerous questions regarding the issue of what rights does an unmarried mother or an unmarried father have concerning their newborn baby.

In Oklahoma, if a mother and father were not married to each other when their child was born and have not married each other since, and a court has not issued an order regarding custody of or visitation with the child, then the unmarried mother automatically has legal custody of the child without having to go to court.

This means that the mother has the unilateral right to make decisions regarding the child such as how the child's name will be listed on the birth certificate, who may visit the child and for how long, where the child will attend school, and what medical treatment the child will receive.

But what about a father who wants to be involved in the child's life? If the father is a fit person and is stepping forward to do the right thing for his child, I encourage the mother to allow reasonable visitation.

Until paternity has been legally established, the mother has the right to deny visitation to the father. However, if the mother has no legitimate concerns for the health or safety of the child, I recommend that she allow reasonable visitation to the father.

When there is no disagreement as to who is the child's father, and if no legitimate concerns for the child's health or safety exist, a mother's denial of visitation to the father could be viewed as unreasonable and held against her in a future custody action. Should the father file a paternity action, one of the factors the judge will consider in determining custody is which parent is more likely to promote the other parent's involvement in the child's life. One way for a mother to prove that she would allow visitation with the father in the future is to allow visitation now when there is no court order requiring her to allow visitation.

Lastly, until paternity has been established, an unmarried mother has no legal right to child support from the father.  The Oklahoma Department of Human Services Child Support Enforcement Division can help unmarried mothers navigate the steps necessary to establish paternity and set up child support payments from the father.