Dad wants to file for baby soon after birth
Dear Mrs Macaulay,
I have a concern regarding my unborn child. I have ended the relationship with the father. He is currently living in the States and says that once the baby is born he will file for him. I am not willing to give up my child. What are my options? Also, does Jamaican law still allow a mother to register her child in her name without adding a father’s name to the birth certificate? I am approaching seven months in my pregnancy.
The baby’s father is being mentally and emotionally abusive to you in threatening to file for the baby as soon as he is born. He is clearly trying to punish you for having ended the relationship with him.
He cannot just file for a newborn child or a child of any age and succeed. You see, he would need to prove first that he is the actual father of the child by way of a DNA test result. The only way he can have this test done is either with your consent and your active assistance by taking the baby to an approved laboratory with him present for both specimens to be taken and tested. Or, the test could be done pursuant to an order of the court. I do not see how he can get these done by himself.
Then, he would also need your signed consent to the filing. As you will not sign any such document, he may decide to have someone else sign in your name. This would be a fraudulent act and therefore criminal, with adverse consequences for him.
About registering your child without his father’s name, I am completely against this because you will be violating your child’s fundamental human rights by doing so. You need not give his address, which I assume you do not know as he went off to the United States. Your child is entitled to his full and real identity, so you should not deprive your child of his rights. If you register his father’s name upon your report of your child’s birth will not mean that he can file for him without obtaining the proof of his paternity or a declaration of it in a court order. In order for the father to obtain a declaration in court, his application must be served on you, and you can either name him as the father or insist that a DNA be done. You can also request an order that the child not be permitted to leave the island without an order of the court.
The best thing that you can do to protect your child is to register his rightful name and then you can apply to the court for sole legal custody and for care and control. You should also apply for an order that the child cannot be removed from the island without an order of the court.
On the issue of the father’s access, which would arise, you ought to add an application that his access be limited to Jamaica, and that they be at a designated place and supervised by designated members of your family. This latter application should be made on the grounds of the threat that he made to file for the baby following his birth, even though you had broken up with him and had made it clear that you would not consent to give up your child.
Your application will have to be served on the father. I have assumed that you do not have his address, so you would only have given his name when making the report of your child’s birth. Therefore, when you file your applications as I suggested above, you should also apply for substituted service by way of advertisements in one of our daily newspapers here which you know he would read, and also by registered post on one of his family members who would most likely be in touch with him.
This would then ensure that your applications can proceed to completion with the making of your requested orders.
I hope that I have succeeded in removing any nervousness or fear that the father’s threat has been causing you. I trust that you understand that he cannot just do as he threatened without your knowledge and without going through the steps which I have outlined.
Please do not upset yourself, and after your delivery, when you feel up to it, retain the services of a lawyer to assist you in making your applications, or go to the Family Court and file them yourself. If you do the latter, please make sure that they include every application that I have suggested.
I wish for you a safe and easy delivery and all God’s blessings on you and your child.
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. All responses are published. Mrs Macaulay cannot provide personal responses.
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.
