Paternity Attorney in Novi, MI – Establishing Rights and Protecting Your Child’s Future
An unmarried father in Michigan has no enforceable right to see his child. No matter how involved he may have been since the child’s birth, he cannot get visitation rights. An unwed mother, meanwhile, can only get support orders after the father is identified legally. Paternity is a door both parents must walk through before any other arrangements become possible.
At Melissa Pearce & Associates, PLC, we deal with paternity issues for Novi families, on both sides of the issue – mothers seeking support and fathers seeking to be involved in their children’s daily lives.
What Paternity Means Under Michigan Law
Paternity is a legal recognition, not a biological one. A man can be the biological father of a child and still not have the right to ask a judge for anything. He can also be legally recognized as the father without having any DNA shared with the child, which happens more often than people expect.
Michigan presumes that the husband is the legal father when a child is born during a marriage. This presumption is strong, and it holds even when both spouses know that someone else is the biological father. Unwinding this presumption requires a court order, rather than an agreement between the adults involved.
For unmarried parents, nothing is automatic. Until paternity is established, the child has one legal parent.
Three Ways Paternity Gets Established in Michigan
An order of filiation from the circuit court
When the parents disagree, or when one of them is not certain, either can file a case under Michigan’s Paternity Act. MCL 722.714 allows action to be brought during pregnancy or at any time before the child turns 18 years old.
The court can order genetic testing on the mother, child, and alleged father. Under MCL 722.716, paternity is established if the probability of paternity is 99% or higher. The judge then issues an order of filiation that names the legal father and usually sets support at the same time.
Acknowledgment of parentage
This is the form most parents remember signing at the hospital. Under MCL 722.1003, unmarried mothers and fathers can jointly complete an acknowledgment of paternity. Once it has been signed, notarized, or properly witnessed and filed with the state registrar, it establishes paternal rights and carries the same legal weight as a court order. No hearing, no genetic testing, and no filing fee is required.
It can be signed later too. Many parents complete it when the child is three years old instead of three days old.
The marital presumption
If the child is born during a marriage, the husband becomes the legal father at birth. Nothing needs to be done. Changing this status is a separate and more complex process, which is described below.
Signing the Form Does Not Give a Father Custody
Here is the detail that catches parents off guard, and it is printed on the form itself. Under MCL 722.1007, when parents sign an acknowledgement of parentage, the mother has initial custody of the child until a court orders otherwise or the parents agree in writing and the court accepts that agreement.
That initial custody decision does not determine the case. It does not prejudice a father in later custody proceedings, and either parent can apply for custody or parental time. However, it does mean that a father who signed the hospital papers and assumed he had an equal footing was working from a misconception. He is the legal parent. He has not yet established a schedule that anyone has to follow.
Waiting makes it harder. When a parent has been a child’s primary caregiver for years, the Michigan courts look at what is called an established custodial environment, and changing this arrangement requires a heavier burden of proof than establishing it in the first place.
Custody and Parenting Time Once Paternity Exists
After paternity is established, custody is decided in the same way as in a divorce. The judge considers the twelve best interests factors listed in MCL 722.23, covering everything from each parent’s ability to provide guidance for the child to their ties to school and the community.
Michigan splits custody into two parts. Legal custody involves decision-making authority over education, medical care, and religion. Physical custody refers to where the child sleeps. Shared legal custody is common in Oakland County, but a judge may hesitate if the parents cannot communicate with each other.
The parenting time schedule is where paternity cases either settle down or keep coming back. Spell out the weekdays, weekends, holidays, summers, and how you two will exchange information. Vague plans generate conflict. Specific ones prevent it.
Child Support Begins With Paternity, Not Before
No paternity, no support order. Once paternity has been established, the Michigan Child Support Formula calculates using both parents’ income, the number of nights each parent spends with the child, health insurance premiums and childcare costs.
In a Paternity Act case, the order of filiation can go back. The court has the authority to address the support from the birth of the child, and in some cases, a share of pregnancy and birth expenses. This retroactive exposure is one reason why alleged fathers should seek advice before ignoring complaints they have been served with.
Setting Aside Paternity: The Deadline Is Shorter Than People Think
Michigan’s Revocation of Parentage Act governs challenges to an acknowledgement, a presumption of paternity, or an existing order. The deadlines are unforgiving.
Under MCL 722.1437, an action to set aside a parentage acknowledgment is timely only if it is filed within three years of the child’s birth or within one year of the date the acknowledgement was signed, whichever is later. The person filing must also show something specific: a mistake of fact, newly discovered evidence, fraud, misrepresentation, misconduct or duress. A DNA test alone is not enough.
And even where there is proof, the court still considers whether setting aside paternity serves the child’s best interests. A judge may decline to do so.
If you have doubts about paternity, it is better to raise them now rather than waiting until the window closes.
Filing a Paternity Case in Oakland County
Novi sits in Oakland County, so these cases are heard in the Oakland County Circuit Court Family Division in Pontiac. One parent files, the other is served and given an opportunity to respond, and the court orders genetic testing if paternity is contested. Once paternity has been settled, custody, parenting time, and support are addressed in the same case.
Uncontested matters move quickly. Contested ones depend on testing schedules, the court’s docket, and how far apart the parents are in custody.
Changing Orders After the Case Ends
Paternity is permanent. The orders that follow it are not. Work schedules change, children grow older, one parent moves. Custody, parenting time, and support can all be revised, and our firm regularly handles these post-judgment issues for families who already have a court order in place.
Working With Melissa Pearce & Associates in Novi
Paternity cases are often tense. There is often a new relationship involved or an old one that ended badly. The legal issue is on top of the personal one, and our job is to make sure the legal side is clear so that the personal side can settle.
Your family’s future deserves careful, experienced guidance. Contact Melissa Pearce & Associates for a private consultation with an attorney in Oakland County who puts your children’s best interests first.