A legitimation is the legal process a biological father may undertake to establish his legal relationship with his child.
When a child is born to married parents or the parents of a child subsequently marry, the child is legitimated by the legal act of the marriage. If the mother and the father of a child were never married to each other, the child is considered to have been born out-of-wedlock. A legitimation is the legal process a biological father may undertake to establish his legal relationship with his child. The purpose of Georgia’s laws regarding legitimation and paternity is to provide a method for fathers to establish legal relationships with their children.
A father has a legal right to legitimate his child. However, a father’s right to a legitimation is subject to objection made by the child’s mother. If the mother shows valid reasons why the petition to legitimate should not be granted, a judge may deny it.
A father must show the court three things to be legitimated:
He is the biological father of the child
That the biological father has exercised his opportunity interests to develop a relationship with the child, and
If the father has developed a relationship with the child, that the father continuing to have a relationship with the child is in the child’s best interests.
In ruling on a legitimation petition presented by a biological father, the court must initially determine whether the father has abandoned his opportunity interest to develop a relationship with the child. The court will consider several factors to determine if the biological father has abandoned his opportunity interest in establishing a parent-child relationship including:
the father's inaction during pregnancy and at birth
a delay in filing a legitimation petition
a lack of contact with the child
In determining whether a father has abandoned his opportunity interest to legitimate, the appropriate inquiry is not whether the father could have done more but rather whether the father has done so little as to constitute abandonment.
It is important that a father seek to legitimate his child as soon as possible following the child’s birth. A father is responsible to financial support his child and Georgia Courts can order a father to pay for childbirth expenses and child expenses from birth until the time of legitimation.
Once a legitimation is granted a father has all the rights and responsibilities of a parent as if the child were born during wedlock. The father may obtain visitation rights, or even custody in some instances, and be responsible to pay or receive child support.