Declaration of parentage-court order to re-register birth

[Lily311]

I hope someone can help me with this.

My partner passed away 10 months ago, i was 14 weeks pregnant. We were not married and the death was unexpected. Baby girl was born in November and I registered the birth, she has his surname but there is no father named on birth certificate.

I contacted the local register office who said I needed to get a court order to be able to put him on birth certificate. Can anyone tell me whether I can get it without going to a solicitor and which forms do I need to fill in? I have a dna result from court approved institution to prove that he is the father. Do I need anything else?

I will go to solicitor if necessary but I am hoping I can do it on my own? I am not elligible for legal aid and not on benefit of any kind so saving the solicitor fee would be great.

Thank you

You can definitely get it without going to a solicitor. I don't know which forms you need to fill in, but if no one here can tell you the county court ought to be able to advise when you go in to get the forms.

Why did you not name him on the birth certificate?

If you go to your local County Court, the office will be able to help you but can't offer advice. I think the form you need is a C63. Don't be worried about acting in person. The Judges are used to it.

Do you have any universities near you that have a law department? They might run a pro bono (free) law clinic

We were not married, I couldn't name him on birth certificate.

There is a thread on the Bereavement topic where a lady has registered her late fiancé in similar circumstances to yours. It was on the first page, but can't remember the poster's name, her fiancé was called Jon, I remember that.

It was fairly straight forward, but she needed DNA proof (can be done from his family members)

Lily- I'm not married and I still but my P on the birth certificate.

Evil

Evil - when you're not married the father can be registered but must attend the registration. Hence the OP's problem.

www.gov.uk/register-birth/who-can-register-a-birth

Follow the link and it can tell you about registering. Hope this helps.
Evil

Oh fuck!
I'll go back to my rock.

Of course you can put fathers name on birth certificate whether married or not. Who told you otherwise? Too late now I suppose.

Please ignore my obviously rubbish post. Totally forgot about the father having to be present. Sorry.

fire THe father has to attend the registering in person if not married to the mother

The father is dead, he can't attend. That's why they require court order to establish paternity hence the DNA. Now I have the DNA and need to obtain court order.

Not sure whether this is much help OP, but I wrote a will for someone in the same situation a couple of years ago and she asked me, as a side issue, about this so I did a bit of research on her behalf.

The declaration of parentage is straightforward, but I wasn't sure what supporting evidence was needed. I happened to be in court on another matter and asked the district judge (in the coffee break!) whether she'd mind giving me her opinion on what she'd expect to see. She hadn't done one before either, but thought that the only supporting evidence necessary would be a DNA report on a close family member (in this case the father's brother together obviously of the child) together with a letter from the diagnostics company indicating the probability of a match.

I passed this info onto my client but don't know the upshot.

Sorry meant to say that I'm sorry you find yourself in this awful situation.

Thanks mumble.
My daughter's DNA is matched to her grandparents. My question is what the next step is. Where Do I go next? I have never been to court, and don't know whether to just turn up and ask there or I need to go to a lawyer. Will they be able to give me information?

The court staff aren't allowed to give legal advice (though often they know the answer). I'll have a little google and see if I can find the right form for you.

hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/c063-eng.pdf

Have a go with this, but before doing so, I'd be inclined to call your local county court. Ask to speak to someone at Executive Officer or Higher Executive Officer or above, and explain the situation. They will probably have seen the situ before, so even though they can't give legal advice as such, at least they can tell you whether you have the correct form.

www.ehow.co.uk/how_6151650_add-deceased-father-birth-certificate.html You could try this as well; it probably has much of the same info as mumble's link. :)

Have you asked at a Register Office how to deal with this? They may be able to tell you exactly how you need to go forward.

Unfortunately Thumbwitch's link is to the American system, I think.

Yes, I think so too, mumble. Despite it being a UK site. Typical. I should have read more of it before I linked to it.

I did find this form as well though from a definite UK source. Might help :)

Thanks. I did find those documents as well, i think i might ask for solicitor's advice whether it is the right one.

You'll need that form plus the court order, though -- will be much cheaper to follow mumblechum's advice about calling the county court to check which form you need than it will be to consult a solicitor.