Unmarried Child Custody Issues

What are the top issues unmarried parent's faces when custody is disputed? Unmarried custody cases can present some different child custody issues than divorce cases where the parents were married. Fathers who were not married are often fighting for the right to have contact with their child and establish custody and visitation rights. Unmarried mothers are often fighting to establish a child support award against the father. While unwed parents face many of the same custody issues married parents struggle with, there are some additional challenges in the unmarried custody case - specifically for the unwed dad.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues for Fathers
Who gets custody of the child if the parents were never married? In most states, an unwed mother will be awarded sole physical custody unless the father establishes paternity and commences action to be awarded custody. Until then, the father is often left with very little he can do to gain access to his child unless the parents agree to it. If an unwed mother denies the father access to his children the father will often need to establish access through the family court, which generally includes establishing paternity and petitioning the court for parental rights and waiting for a judge to make decision. A father who was not married to the mother of his child rarely ever wins custody over the mother unless mom is found by a court to be completely unfit. And for younger children, the chances are often even less. There is still a heavy bias that favors mothers over fathers, especially with younger children. An unmarried father usually at best can only take the necessary steps to gain unmarried child custody and visitation rights through the courts -- unless the mother is cooperative and agreeable out of court. The time and money involved for an unmarried father to gain rights to his child and to establish a parenting plan can often be extensive. Regardless, unmarried fathers should not be discouraged as more and more fathers petitioning the court for access to their children are being awarded joint custody with parenting plans that include the child living or spending a substantial amount of time with their father.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues for Mothers
With some statistics showing that most all child support cases involve the father paying support to the mother it's easy to see why it is also the case in unmarried child custody cases that mom's are often fighting to obtain a support award against the father. Generally, a finding of paternity is required in order for an unwed father to be forced to pay financial support of his child to the mother. Without a paternity finding by the court, it's often difficult and in some cases impossible to force an unmarried father to pay child support. Voluntary child support payments by an unmarried father without a finding of a paternity may not be enforceable. In other words, if an unwed mother is relying on voluntary payments by dad without a finding of paternity then she may find herself in a tough situation if the father decides to stop paying voluntarily.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues

Unmarried custody cases can present different issues than divorce cases involving children. Unwed dads are often battling for child custody rights while unwed mothers are often fighting for financial support. Whether you're the mother or father involved in a custody dispute, you'd do well to become educated on the subject of custody issues including custody determinations and modifications.

Copyright © 2009 Child Custody Coach(TM). All rights reserved.

Unmarried Child Custody Issues
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Child Custody Coach ™ supplies child custody information, online materials, and coaching services to divorced and unmarried parents faced with custody and visitation agreement issues. Steven Carlson, The Custody Coach™, is the author of the win child custody E-Book, "How to Win Child Custody - Proven Strategies that can Win You Custody and Save You Thousands in Attorney Costs!" Mr. Carlson's book has been reviewed by some of the foremost professionals in the field of custody, family law, and parent education.

Unmarried Mothers' Child Custody Rights

An unmarried mother may feel like she has less custody resources than a divorced mother. However, unmarried mothers should be aware that they have many legal avenues they can pursue to protect their child custody rights. Here are some of the custody rights that an unmarried mother has and ways that she can stand up for those rights.

An unmarried mother has the right to have the support of the child's father. Just because a woman never married the father doesn't mean that he has no obligations to the child. The first step to getting the father involved is establishing paternity. If the father of the child signed an acknowledgment form when the child was born or anytime after, then paternity has been established. If a father who has acknowledged paternity isn't helping with the child, the mother simply has to file for child support and child custody and a custody case ensues. The father will be obligated to pay child support, and possibly back child support. However, a mother should know that the father also has custody and visitation rights to the child. He may want to be more involved in the child's life and he is legally allowed to do so.

If a man hasn't acknowledged paternity, an unmarried mother can file a paternity claim. This is simple to do (look for details at your local courthouse) and it requires that the man take a paternity test. This is a simple DNA test. If the man is found to be the father of the child, he has the choice to sign an acknowledgement form. If he won't sign the form, the case goes to court. It is highly unlikely that a man won't sign the form if the DNA test if positive because he then has to prove to the court how he still isn't the father.

Unmarried Mothers' Child Custody Rights

Once the paternity has been established the father may be willing to work out a child custody agreement and may want to help support the child. It's great if both parents can work together to come up with an arrangement for custody and visitation. However, if the father is unwilling to work with the mother, she can file for custody and take him to court. This will guarantee that she gets child support payments.

There are too many cases where unmarried mothers don't get paid the proper amount of child support. If the father of your child isn't prompt with payments, don't deny him visitation (if visitation is part of the arrangement). These are two separate issues and it is better if the mother doesn't retaliate. Rather, the mother should go to court because the father is in contempt of court for not paying child support. (This is also why it's important to get everything sorted out legally and not just take the father's word that he'll pay. If the child support is a custody order there are legal repercussions for not paying.) There are also options of garnishing the father's wages to make sure he pays.

An unmarried mother should never feel like she has no child custody rights. She should learn as much as she can about the custody process so that she can protect her rights. This will help her raise the child in the best possible circumstances.

Unmarried Mothers' Child Custody Rights
Check For The New Release in Health, Fitness & Dieting Category of Books NOW!
Check What Are The Top Cooking Books in Last 90 Days Best Cheap Deal!
Check For Cookbooks Best Sellers 2012 Discount OFFER!
Check for Top 100 Most Popular Books People Are Buying Daily Price Update!
Check For 100 New Release & BestSeller Books For Your Collection

Discover how Custody X Change can help you stand up for your mother's child custody rights and also how it helps you work out unmarried child custody.