If you are not married to your child’s mother, Utah does not treat you as a legal father until paternity is established. Until then you have no enforceable right to custody, parent-time, or even notice of what happens to your child. Utah’s rules on this are stricter than most states, and the deadlines around adoption are unforgiving. Here is what you need to do, and when.
Step one: establish paternity
There are three ways to become a legal father in Utah.
Voluntary declaration of paternity. If you and the mother agree, you can both sign a voluntary declaration, usually at the hospital when the child is born but also later through the Office of Vital Records. Once filed, it has the force of a court order establishing you as the father. It does not, by itself, give you custody or parent-time; it makes you a parent with the right to ask for them.
Court order. If the mother disputes paternity, or you want custody and parent-time orders at the same time, you file a paternity petition in district court. The court can order genetic testing, enter a judgment of paternity, and set custody, parent-time, and child support in the same case.
Administrative order. If the Office of Recovery Services is involved because the mother has applied for child support, ORS can establish paternity through testing and an administrative process. This establishes support obligations, not custody rights, so you may still need to go to court.
Step two: get custody and parent-time orders
Once paternity is established, you stand on equal footing with the mother in a custody case. Utah law does not favor mothers; the court applies the same best-interests factors to both parents under Utah Code 81-9-204. If you and the mother can agree, the court will approve a parenting plan. If not, the court decides.
Until there is a court order, however, the mother of a child born outside marriage has practical control. She is not obligated to give you time with the child, and the police will not enforce a visitation schedule that does not exist. Fathers who wait, hoping to work it out informally, often end up years behind. Get an order.
Step three: understand the adoption rules, because they can end everything
This is the part of Utah law that catches unmarried fathers by surprise, and it has ended more fathers’ rights than any other rule.
Under Utah’s adoption statute, an unmarried father’s consent to the adoption of a child six months old or younger is not required unless, before the mother signs her consent to the adoption, he has done all of the following: filed a paternity action in a Utah district court; filed a sworn affidavit stating that he is able and willing to take full custody and describing his plans for the child; filed a notice of the paternity proceeding with the Utah Office of Vital Records; and paid a reasonable share of pregnancy and birth expenses to the extent he was able.
If he has not done those things by the time the mother consents, his consent is not needed, and the adoption can proceed without him. He gets at least one business day after the birth, but a mother can consent shortly after that, and there is no requirement that anyone warn him.
For a child older than six months, the father must have developed a substantial relationship with the child, including regular contact and financial support, or have lived openly with the child as the father for the six months before placement.
The practical rule is simple: if there is any chance the mother is considering adoption, and especially if she is not talking to you, file a paternity action and the vital records notice immediately, before the birth if possible. Do not wait to see what happens. Waiting is how fathers lose.
What you are entitled to once paternity is established
The same rights as any parent. You can seek joint or sole legal custody, meaning a say in education, medical care, and religion. You can seek joint physical custody or a parent-time schedule. You can object to the child being moved out of state. You have the right to notice and to participate in any proceeding involving the child, including an adoption. And you have the obligation to pay child support, which is calculated the same way for married and unmarried parents.
What if the mother says you are not the father?
Ask for testing. A court can order genetic testing on a proper motion, and the results decide the question. Do not accept a mother’s word, in either direction, when your rights depend on it.
What if you are not sure you want to be involved?
Then understand what you are choosing. Utah does not give unmarried fathers a period to think it over; the adoption rules above run from the moment of birth. A father who wants the option to be involved later has to act now to preserve it. A father who is certain he does not want to be involved should still understand that paternity can be established against him for child support regardless.
We can help you act in time
Paternity cases move fast when adoption is a possibility and slow when it is not, and we know which is which. If you are an expecting or new father who is not married to the mother, call us before the birth if you can. A paternity filing and a vital records notice take a day and can be the difference between raising your child and reading about it.
This article is general information about Utah law, not legal advice for your situation.
