Child support queries

Dear Mrs Macaulay,

I would like to know if I can apply for child support if my baby is in somebody else’s name, or do I have to change his name?

I must first highlight the fact that you have committed an offence under the Registration(Births and Deaths) Act by falsely reporting to the registrar – to  whom you reported the birth of your child and gave another man’s name (and maybe details also) – who the father of your child is.  Clearly this man is not contributing to the maintenance of your child, though he is registered as the child’s father, and one must suppose that he permitted this to be done.

Now you have woken up to the reality of the consequences of your false report for the future interest of both you and your child, and so you are thinking of applying for maintenance contributions from the real biological father.  The registered man obviously has not assumed any of the duties, obligations and rights of father of the child.

Whether you will be charged for the offence of having made a false report is not for me to say.  I can, however, say that this possibility should not deter you from correcting your child’s birth record and birth certificate.  You must eradicate the grave disservice which you did to your child when you made that false report, as you deprived the child of a name. A false name does not uphold a child’s fundamental human right to have a name; this means the real name of the biological father, even if that father had died by the time of the report and registration of the child’s birth.  Other rights you deprived your child of, are the right to know and have a relationship with the father and the paternal family members; to be supported by the father in every way; and have the right to have a share in the father’s estate after the father’s death.

I am therefore relieved that you are thinking of applying for maintenance contributions for your child from the biological father (who may or may not know of the child’s existence).  This father was also deprived of his rights and obligations of a father, and to have a relationship with his child.  Rectification is clearly absolutely necessary.

You have asked if you can apply for child support for your baby.

Well, my dear, the last must first be done before you can apply, that is to say, you must apply to the Family Court of your parish for a Declaration of Paternity of the biological father, and for orders that your baby’s birth records and certificate be corrected to bear the real father’s identity and details.

You would have to submit your original copy of your baby’s birth certificate to the court, and in your affidavit in support of your application, honestly relate the true facts as to how another man appears as the child’s father.  A DNA test would of course be ordered by the court, before the Declaration of Paternity can be made and the consequential orders I have mentioned for rectification of the records and a new birth certificate issued.

Your application and affidavit in support in which the biological father would be named as the respondent, must be served on him.  The clerk of the Family Court will assist you (free of cost) and prepare the necessary documents and arrange for their service on the respondent father, so he can appear in court on the date of the hearing and any subsequent dates.

If the DNA proves to be positive in concluding that he is indeed the father, then the Declaration of Paternity can be made and declared by the court and the birth records ordered to be rectified. After your submission of the existing original birth certificate to the Registrar General, a new one would be issued.

When this is obtained, then you can apply for the real father to be ordered to make contributions for the child’s maintenance, at the periods and in the sums ordered by the court.  The court can also order that such payments be made to the court’s office, or directly to a bank account, or directly to your hand.

If it is the latter, then you must give him a receipt and have a copy or stub for your records because if you ever need to apply to the court if he gets into arrears, you will have to prove it by these receipt copies or stubs.  If they are paid into the court’s office, then the collections officer will have the records of the sums received and would be asked by the court, in case of an arrears application, to produce the records and inform the court of the true position.

I hope you understand why you must correct your false report. No court can order a person to undertake parental obligations when he purported child bears another man’s name and it is that man who was registered as the father.  But, as the law provides the means to correct that situation, you MUST, for your child’s sake, and to uphold his fundamental human and legal rights and those of the real father, do what is necessary to correct the harm and mischief which are the result of your own conscious actions.   So do what is right and correct this for your child and ultimately for yourself.

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 private, personal responses.