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Help & FAQs Parents Rights and Paternity
Overview
Included are helpful articles on the legal issues surrounding Parent's Rights and Paternity.
If two unmarried parties have a child together, a paternity action can serve many purposes. It can establish or clarify who the child’s father is on the child’s birth certificate, establish child custody or visitation, or establish child support payments. It may also assign who will be responsible for providing medical insurance coverage, order past due child support owed to another parent or prenatal expenses, or resolve tax dependency claims.
Jurisdiction
To file a paternity action in Hawaii, the child, mother or the alleged father must reside in the county in which they are filing, as a resident.
Key Legal Issues
Establishing Paternity
Paternity is a legal process in which the court determines a child’s legal and/or natural father. Paternity of the child can be established by:
- Signing forms voluntarily at the hospital after the child is born to put the father on the birth certificate; or
- Going to the Hawaii Department of Health by completing an Affidavit (notarized document) within 60 days of the child’s birth; or
- Starting a Family Court action.
If, after 60 days of the child’s birth, there still is no father listed on the birth certificate, a Family Court action can assist with establishing the legal and biological father of the child. In the event that an alleged father questions if he is the biological father of the child or that a mother may be uncertain as to who her child’s father is, the Family Court may order a DNA test
Child Custody and Support
If paternity is established, the parent without custody may need to make child support payments and participate in a custody decision See the ‘Child custody, Visitation, and Responsibility,’ and the ‘Child Support Payments’ articles for an in depth discussion of these issues.
Process
If both parents are already listed on the child’s birth certificate, you do not need to establish who the natural and/or legal father of the child is in a paternity court action. However, a paternity action in Family Court can help you to establish orders for: (a) custody and visitation, (b) current and/or past child support owed, (c) payment for birth expenses, (d) medical insurance coverage for the child, (e) changing the child’s name, and/or(f) tax matters regarding the child(ren).
A paternity court case begins by completing a series of forms (known as a Petition) that must be filed with the court. Once the Petition is filed, it must be given to the other party by a third party not involved in the matter.
If the other parent does not reside in the state and/or county that the case was started in, they may receive the documents either in person by a third party, or by mail. You must receive permission from the court if you want to mail the documents to the other party.
The document the other parent receives will state what the parent who filed is asking for. For example, it may say they want sole physical and legal custody, or that they have filed for child support. The document may also have a hearing date listed and the person can appear in person to the hearing or call into the hearing in some circumstances
The party who receives the documents is supposed to respond by submitting a court form called an answer within 20 days. The Answer is a written response to the court where the case was initiated. The Answer notifies the court and the other parent if they agree or disagree to what the initiating parent wants.
Mediation
If the parties disagree on any of the legal issues and there is no domestic violence in the relationship, mediation is encouraged and highly recommended to resolve these issues. Mediation is when a neutral third party assists both parents to try to reach an agreement regarding any issues that are disagreed upon regarding their child. Mediation allows both parents to attempt to meet in the middle, or to open up the dialogue regarding either party’s concerns.
Court Hearings and Trial
If the parties continue to disagree after attempting mediation, they will need to attend a series of hearings, ending in a trial if the parties are not able to resolve their dispute on their own.
As part of the court hearings process, the court may order either a social study or a custody investigation to help resolve any disputes about custody and visitation, where the court interviews those who know about the parent/child relationship, or have a third party such as a social worker investigate the relationship.
A trial is when the parties present evidence, testimony and legal arguments in an effort to convince the Court to make a ruling in their favor At the conclusion of the trial, a judge will decide the issues and give judgments for what he/she believes is in the best interests of the child.