Welcome to the DAD.Info forum: Important Information – open to read:
Our forum aims to provide support and guidance where it can, however we may not always have the answer. The forum is not moderated 24 hours a day, so If you – or someone you know – are being harmed or in immediate danger of being harmed, call the police on 999.
Alternatively, if you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123.
If you are worried about you or someone you know is at risk of harm, please click here: How we can help
Are all fathers got full parental rights? if not who does. my daughter was born in 1998 and was not married to her mum so dont think i have full parental rights if i dont does the mother have to still let me have a say on our daughter. im not a risk to my daughter but my ex always thinks i don't have a say on things that concern our daughter so i want to know where i stand on this so when i go to mediation or if it goes to court and can actually stand up for myself and ask for what i shud be entitled to. thanks
I'm pretty sure you don't, though you can apply for it. I'll ask CCLC to pop on and give an opinion.
Dear Daz,
Thank you for your enquiry.
If you were married with the mother of your child you would have obtained parental responsibility (PR), however there are other ways for unmarried fathers to obtain PR.
An unmarried father would obtain PR if the child’s birth was registered after December 2003, or he entered into a parental responsibility agreement with the mother, or he obtained a court order such as a parental responsibility order/ residence order.
If this does not apply to yourself, then you do not have parental responsibility.
To obtain PR you could negotiate with the mother and together complete a parental responsibility agreement. The court will want to see that you have attempted to negotiate with the mother to some extent and mediation often provides a successful avenue.
You can contact national family mediation on 0300 4000 636 for further information.
If the child’s mother refuses to negotiate then you could apply for a parental responsibility order. This can be done with the assistance of a solicitor, or by representing yourself in court.
To represent yourself you could visit the HMCS website to download the C1 application form. Additionally you can download guidance notes called CB1 and CB3. There is a fee approximately around £200 - £300 for making the application which covers the proceedings.
If you have any further questions please contact us via our webchat facility. The link to our webchat is http://www.childrenslegalcentre.com/index.php?page=web_chat.
Yours sincerely,
Coram Children’s Legal Centre
Welcome to the DAD.info forum.
We don’t like to set ‘rules’, but to make sure that you and the other dads are kept safe, we have some requests. When engaging with the forum, please be aware of the following:
- The forum is not moderated 24 hours per day.
- Many of the moderators do so on a voluntary basis. Whilst they may be able to provide some guidance, advice or support, they may not be able to deal with specifics.
- We are not an emergency crisis service so if you or someone else is in immediate danger, please call emergency services.
- If you are concerned about the safety of a child, please click here to find the support you can get for them (link to new page)
- If you are in crisis, please call Samaritans on 116 123. They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days per week.
We hope you find this forum a supportive environment and thank you for joining us.