Dad not interested in being on child’s birth certificate

Q: Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I am the mother of a 14-year-old girl. Her father’s particulars are not on her birth certificate. I had asked her father to get his name on the birth certificate as he was at the hospital when she was born. I have asked him on more than one occasion to fill out the form for this to be done, to no avail.

The first time I asked him, he took the form from me and filled it out. Nothing has been done in terms of getting a reputable person to witness his signature.

It happened that she was preparing to do the GSAT exams and that is when I asked him the second time. Still nothing has been done. I had to ask my mother to intervene on my behalf to speak to him about it. He told her that he had no problem doing it. If he had no problem, then why is he procrastinating? I would be the one who would pay for the birth certificate anyway!

I need your take on this issue as my mother told him that our daughter stands to benefit when his name appears on her birth certificate. If he dies and his name is not on her birth certificate, would I be able to make a claim from his life insurance policy on our daughter’s behalf?

A: I understand from your letter that you have only made two attempts to have your daughter’s father’s particulars registered on her birth certificate. You say that he was at the hospital when she was born and that he did not fill out the form which he should have at the time. If your daughter was born in a hospital then the registrar would have been on the premises to receive the report of her birth. I assume that you reported the birth, but it seems that you failed to give the registrar his name as the father of your child and indicate that he was present at the hospital at the time.

It is clear that you have been extremely remiss about this matter because your daughter has a right to have the name of her father and to know him as such and have a relationship with him. Therefore, your daughter has been denied what she was entitled to have from both her mother and her father up to now.

What should you do now to repair this situation? In my opinion you must make an application to the Family Court pursuant to the Status of the Children Act, either in the Family Court of your parish or the Supreme Court of Jamaica, for a declaration of paternity that this gentleman is the father of your child.

The application would need to be supported by at least two sworn statements in the form of affidavits or declarations from people who knew of the intimate relationship you had with him; that he verbally acknowledged that he was and is the father of your daughter to them or in their hearing; and also, if they know this, that he had agreed to fill in the form at the time of her birth and did so but failed to sign it; and that he also announced his willingness to take steps to have his name entered onto her birth records.

Your mother could be one of these people, so you would need to have one more. These would of course be in addition to your affidavit in support of your application in which you would have stated all the circumstances of your relationship with him, the resultant pregnancy, the birth of the child, and his verbal acknowledgement of various times of his paternity. You must also include his failure to see through his actions to effect his registration as her father on her birth records.

The court would require a DNA test to be done to prove his paternity and once the court receives the report with the requisite positive percentage in proof of this, the declaration of paternity would be made. You should then take a copy the Registrar of (Births and Deaths), though the court would normally submit a copy of the declaration to that office. You can then seek the late entry of the father’s name and particulars on your daughter’s records.

Finally, regarding the insurance upon his death, the answer to this is yes you can, but you would have to quickly apply to the court for a declaration of paternity to be made in the manner in which I have already suggested in order for her to be recognised in law as his daughter. It is only after this is done that you can make the claim and succeed for her to share in his estate.

I enjoin you not to wait until your daughter’s father is dead but to get on with the matter now whilst he is alive and your daughter is still young. Do what you should have done years ago for your daughter so that she can enjoy her rights as the daughter of this gentleman.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-at-law, Supreme Court mediator, notary public and women’s and children’s rights advocate. Send questions via e-mail to allwoman@jamaicaobserver. com; or write to All Woman, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5.

DISCLAIMER:

The contents of this article are for informational purposes only and must not be relied upon as an alternative to legal advice from your own attorney.