The relationship between parents and children involves not only issues of upbringing and family values, but also a legal connection with mutual rights and responsibilities. And if the first component does not depend in any way on formal conditions, then legally parents are connected with their children only subject to documentary confirmation of family relations. If there is no record of the father, sooner or later adults seek to “legitimize” the child. Some do this out of a desire to establish communication with the child, others for material reasons, for example, to receive alimony or participate in an inheritance.
What it is
The legislator clearly establishes the procedure for determining the fact of the birth of a child from a particular woman. A certificate from the maternity hospital or a medical report will be the basis for entering information about the mother into the birth certificate. For obvious reasons, there cannot be such clarity regarding the definition of the father. A series of actions aimed at clarifying and (or) legally establishing the fact that a particular person is the father is called in jurisprudence establishing paternity.
Legal regulation
The procedure is regulated by Chapter 10 of the Family Code of the Russian Federation. The registration algorithm for establishing the fact of the origin of a baby from a specific father is regulated by Federal Law N 143-FZ of November 15, 1997 “On Acts of Civil Status” (with the latest amendments dated December 29, 2017). Some features of resolving issues of paternity are given in Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 16 of May 16, 2021 “On the application of legislation by courts when considering cases related to establishing the origin of children.”
Who can apply and in what cases
As a general rule, spouses in a registered marital relationship are recognized by default as the parents of a newborn, unless other persons are declared. This rule also applies to cases where:
- spouses are divorced;
- the marriage was declared invalid;
- Mother's husband died.
In these situations, a person is recognized as a father if one of the specified circumstances occurred no more than 300 days before the birth of the baby.
In other cases, as well as if there are disagreements, those interested will have to go through the procedure of establishing paternity. The task of determining the child’s parent is relevant when:
- the child’s mother and father are not official spouses;
- when the persons are married but there is a dispute over the information about the father on the birth document. The legislator has identified such a case in a separate article, and legally this entails challenging paternity, which is similar in procedure to determining paternity.
The following may insist on identifying the person who is the father:
- mother of the child;
- actual father;
- persons raising a child (guardians or persons supporting a child);
- the child himself after he turns 18 years old.
The range of possible applicants in each case depends on the dispute resolution procedure, which, in turn, depends on a number of circumstances.
Procedure for establishing paternity
As a confirmation of paternity, the law considers an entry in the act of the civil registry office establishing this fact and the issuance of a certificate based on the application of interested parties.
The establishment of paternity itself is carried out according to a procedure, the rules of which depend on the existence of consent between the alleged father and mother of the baby.
You can determine the origin of children from a specific person:
- voluntarily by drawing up a joint statement of the parents;
- by filing a claim with the district court to establish paternity.
From a legal point of view, the term “establishment of paternity” refers specifically to the procedure by which a person is first identified as the father, that is, when no records have been made about the father before.
However, in essence, it can take place after entering information about the father, and even after the death of the biological father. Legally, these are separate procedures called challenging paternity, as well as establishing the fact of recognition of paternity, if we are talking about a family connection with a deceased person.
