If the mother of your child refuses to put your name on your child’s birth certificate, there are still ways to establish paternity and be recorded as the father of your child.
You are entitled to file a paternity suit, which is a lawsuit seeking a court order legally declaring you the child’s father; however, the process is not as simple as it sounds. In addition to requesting that the court proclaim you the legal father, the court will enter what is called a parenting plan and order child support based upon Florida child support guidelines.
Will I have to pay child support?
A determination of child support is required by Florida law in paternity cases, so there is a good chance that one parent will have to pay child support; however, the amount of child support paid depends upon various factors. In Florida, a child support calculation is based on each parent’s income and the number of overnights each parent has with the child in a year, according to the timesharing schedule.
- If the mother’s income is less than the father’s and she has more overnights with the child than the father, the father will have a child support obligation, although the amount will depend upon the difference in your incomes.
- If the mother’s income is less than the father’s but dad has an equal number of overnights with the child, dad will still have to pay child support, just not as much.
- In cases where the mother’s income is greater than the father’s, or the father has more overnights with the child than the mother, the father would be owed child support. Contrary to what many people believe, it is not always the father who pays child support.
What are child support guidelines? Child support guidelines are the rules set out in Florida Statutes used to calculate how much child support one parent will pay to the other.
How much will it cost to file a paternity suit?
A paternity suit can be quite costly, typically requiring an upfront retainer of several thousand dollars to an attorney. While you always have the option to represent yourself, the process can be time-consuming, confusing, and overwhelming, so hiring an experienced attorney who understands the process and how to navigate it is highly beneficial. Even if you choose to represent yourself and handle completing all the necessary documents, the clerk of courts typically charges a filing fee of a few hundred dollars unless you qualify for a hardship waiver of the cost.
Our firm offers packages to draft your initial paperwork and supporting documents for $1,000 to $2,000. We can often handle the whole process, including drafting & filing paperwork, scheduling mediation and a final hearing, attending mediation, and preparing an agreed-upon parenting plan for around $3,000-$5000 for simpler cases. If the parents cannot agree on a parenting plan and a trial in front of a judge is needed, the fees can be much higher and are based upon how complex your financial situation is, how much evidence you wish to present at trial, and other factors.
What does the paternity process consist of?
First, you must file a petition for paternity, requesting that the court determine paternity, parental responsibility, a parenting plan, and child support. There are various other documents that you must file in addition to the petition. Then, you must have the mother served with the documents by a process server. The mother will have 20 days to file an answer to the petition, and both parents will have 45 days to provide various financial documents throughout a process called mandatory disclosure. Mandatory disclosure is governed by Florida Family Law Rules of Procedure 12.285. It mandates that both parents provide to one another a significant number of financial documents, including, but not limited to, pay stubs, tax returns, bank statements, credit card statements, retirement account statements, brokerage account statements, deeds, and loan applications.
Then, depending on the county in which your case is filed, you may be required to attend mediation, which is a collaborative process where you and the mother (and your attorneys) meet with an impartial third party in an attempt to come to a settlement on all outstanding issues in the case, which would include a parenting plan and child support determination. Even if mediation is not required in your case, it can be an extremely beneficial part of the settlement process because if you and the mother are unable to settle all issues, the case will proceed to trial. A trial can cost tens of thousands of dollars with representation and be extremely difficult to navigate without representation.
If I agree to a parenting plan now, can I change it later?
While it can be exhausting for a paternity case to be drawn out due to the inability of the parents to come to an agreement, it is vital that you do not agree to something you do not want to resolve the case now, with the hopes of changing it later on. While it is possible to modify a parenting plan, Florida Statute § 61.13 states that a determination of parental responsibility, a parenting plan, or a timesharing schedule may not be modified without a showing of a substantial and material change in circumstances AND a determination that the modification is in the best interests of the child.
Therefore, if you seek to modify a parenting plan, you must prove to the court that there has been a substantial and material change in circumstances since the parenting plan was entered into, which would warrant modification, and such a change in circumstances must be unanticipated. As the party seeking to modify the parenting plan, it would be your burden to prove the substantial, material, and unexpected change in circumstances, and that a modification is in the best interest of the child. Oftentimes, modification trials are equally, if not more, complex and expensive than litigating the initial paternity suit.