I gave my son another man’s name

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I have a 22-month-old son, and because his father said it wasn’t his child, I had to give him someone else’s name. Now I feel that it’s not fair for me to be taking care of my son alone. Can I take the biological dad to court?

Yes, you can take the father of your child to court. This is the short and direct answer, but there are several things which I must point out to you.

I must say this at the onset – shame on you, mother! It is true that it is not fair for you alone to provide and take care of your child. It is also true that it is not fair that you did not give your child his true surname and it is unfair for him not to have his real family connection.

Also, though the father had disrespectfully denied his paternity, it is not fair for you to have knowingly registered another person as your child’s father, or with another man’s name. Consequently, you have denied your child his basic human right to have his real name and to have access to his paternal family.

You have also broken the law by knowingly giving him another man’s name (by which I understand to mean someone else was reported by you as the father). Your lie when reporting the birth was in breach of the Registration of Births and Deaths Act. This is an offence for which you can be charged and may have to pay a fine if you are found to be guilty.

However, you seem to have come to your senses in a relatively short time as your son is only 22 months old. You see, when you as the mother or someone on your behalf, at your request, are reporting the birth to the registrar, it matters not that the father denied that the child was his.

You, knowing what the truth was and is, are duty-bound to report the true name of the father and his address if you know it. Then the Registrar General’s Department would send him a notice that he has been so named and if he does not dispute this fact within the allotted time, he would be registered as the father and so appear on your child’s birth certificate.

This would be prima facie proof that he is the father and it can only be retracted following a DNA test which proves that he is not the father.

I now come back to your question about whether you can take him to court in the present circumstances. This is assuming that your child does not have his surname, or yours, but has a third party’s surname instead.

When you go to the Family Court for maintenance (or you may seek legal representation to do the application in the Supreme Court), you must first ask in the application for:

1) A declaration of paternity – this would require that the court orders that a DNA test;

2) Then, your application for custody, care and control and for access of the father;

3) Then your application for orders to be made for the father’s contribution for the maintenance of the child.

When you make your application you must be completely honest with the court in your Affidavit in Support of your application. You see, in this way, you are more likely to be forgiven for what you did in not reporting and naming your child with his true father’s name.

If he is the one who goes and tells the court about your intentional act in this regard, the judge would be more likely to act strictly according to law.

In this circumstance, you cannot rely on the fact that you did not know what was and is the law. Always be honest with the court, then it is more likely to be merciful. Despite this possibility of a possible charge, you owe it to your son to set the record straight as far as his name and father and paternal family are concerned.

You as the mother ought not under any circumstance to be the person who denies her child his rights and the opportunity to have more of his material and emotional needs being met by both his parents. So you must go ahead and take the father to court and set things right for your son.

God bless him and protect and strengthen you both.

Margarette May Macaulay is an attorney-atlaw, 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.