Fathers MUST Establish Their Rights
Video Transcribed: What is paternity in Oklahoma? I am Stuart Ericson, I am an attorney in Wagoner. In Oklahoma, a paternity suit is covered by statute or by our laws. It is a lawsuit that settles rights and comes into play when an unmarried woman gives birth to a child.
Obviously, there is no marriage so there wouldn’t be a divorce. No marriage, no divorce. The paternity issues would deal with the children of the union. So custody, visitation, child support, and all of those issues like that.
In Oklahoma, the woman who gives birth has, by statute, c
ustody of the child. So if you are the father and you want to be a part of that child’s life, the best thing to do is file a paternity suit. Be judicially determined to be the father, set up the custody rights, the visitation rights, and child support will be part of it.
That is very important to settle rights, because, without any order from a court or from a judge, there’s nothing to enforce. The mother has the freedom to move, to deny visitation, to do all those things because there’s no court order saying otherwise. So it’s very important because if no action is taken, there’s no court involved.
For women, paternity can be very important to establish child support and to have the biological father contribute to the financial wellbeing of this child. So it can be very important for that reason.
For a father, it can be very important to establish custody or visitation rights, which without having this type of a lawsuit, you might not get visitation. A different part of the law that is very important to settle rights that might otherwise not really be settled. My name is Stuart Ericson I am a Lawyer in Wagoner. You can reach me at WagonerLawyer.com.
