If your child was born outside of marriage, you may need a legitimation action to establish legal rights such as parenting time, custody, and decision-making. Our Macon family law attorneys helps fathers in Macon and across Middle Georgia understand the process and take the next step with a clear plan.
We serve Macon and surrounding Middle Georgia communities with their legitimation needs.
Quick Answer
In Georgia, legitimation is the process a biological father uses to establish legal rights to a child born outside of marriage. Legitimation is often necessary before a father can ask the court for parenting time, custody, or decision-making rights.
Legitimation is the legal process that allows a biological father to establish legal rights to a child born out of wedlock. In many cases, legitimation is tied to parenting time, custody, and decision-making authority.
Legitimation can also impact issues like inheritance rights and access to medical history from the father’s side of the family.
If a child is born outside of marriage, a father may not have enforceable custody or parenting time rights until legitimation is addressed. That means a father can feel stuck, wanting a consistent relationship with their child, but without a clear court order that protects that time.
Prior to legitimation, the father has no physical custody rights, no legal custody rights, and the father has no rights to visitation.
This means the mother does not have to allow the father to see the child, speak with the child and the mother does not have to allow the father to make any decisions regarding the upbringing of the child.
Legitimation is the step that allows a father to ask the court for custody or parenting time. For more details, visit our Macon child custody lawyer page.
Yes. Once paternity is established, a father can be ordered to pay child support even if parenting time or custody has not been established yet. Child support and parenting time are separate issues under the law, which is why legitimation is often the step needed to pursue a parenting plan and a court-ordered schedule.
Paying child support does not obligate the mother to allow the father to see his child. The father must still go through the legitimation process in order to have any legal rights to the child such as visitation or physical custody.
In Georgia, a legitimation case is filed by the biological father. In most situations, the court will evaluate the case using standards that focus on the father’s fitness to parent and the child’s best interests.
If you want parenting time, visitation, or custody, those requests should also be raised in the legitimation case. Once the court grants the legitimation, it will then decide issues of visitation, custody, and parenting time.
Most legitimation cases follow a few common steps:
File a petition for legitimation and related requests (custody/parenting time if needed)
Serve the other parent and exchange required information
Work toward an agreement when possible
Attend mediation or a hearing if an agreement isn’t reached
Final order entered by the court
A child may be considered legitimate in several situations, including when the child is born during a marriage, when parents marry after birth and the father recognizes the child, or when a court grants legitimation through a petition.
If you live in Macon or Middle Georgia and need to establish legal rights to your child, we can help you understand the right filing path and what to expect. Our team handles legitimation matters alongside custody, parenting plans, and child support issues.
If you want a court order that protects your relationship with your child, it’s important to get the process started the right way. We can help you understand your options and pursue parenting time, custody, and other legal rights through a legitimation action.
Call (478) 239-2780 or fill out the contact form to schedule a confidential consultation.
More information about Legitimation:
FAQ: Paternity & Legitimation
