Legal Question in Family Law in Pennsylvania

My question is what rights do I have over my daughter if her father refuse to sign the birth certificate in the hospital ? So he's not on her birth certificate because he didn't agree on her middle name. His grandmother have some what threaten me with taking me to court to get shared custody, however her grandson can be dangerous. He has put his hands on me more than once, has crash me in the car when I was pregnant, threw stuff at me while I was pregnant and pour clean products on me when I was pregnant. His grandmother have also put her hands on me as well. I have text messages save from him threaten to kill himself, kill my family, wishing death on my family, wishing rape upon me and more. With all this being said how much custody would a judge give them or since he's not on the birth certificate does he have any rights at all ?


Asked on 4/07/13, 7:00 am

2 Answer from Attorneys

Debra Rainey The Law Office of Debra D. Rainey

Despite the alleged father not being on the birth certificate he has the right to request a paterntiy test or agree that the child is his thus deriving parental rights. If you can support your claims that he is dangerous and has assaulted you in the past you have a good argument against a court giving him primary physical custody.

Understand that the law presumes that it would be in the child's best interest to have a relationship with both parents. If however, noone has yet filed a petition for custody you would be in a better position to file first seeking primary physical custody.

If I can be of further assistance feel free to email me: [email protected]

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Answered on 4/12/13, 4:28 pm


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