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Legal News Update
03 January 2012
Fathers win the right to be named on their children's birth certificates as soon as paternity has been proven
In a landmark case, a father has won the right to have his name added to his 12 year-old children's birth certificate, despite the children, not knowing that he is their father.
The ruling means that even if a mother does not want her child to know the identity of the father the birth certificate should include the name of the father if his paternity is proven.
In this case the father had been trying to get in contact with his 12 year-old twins after proving that he was the father in DNA tests. The mother however was refusing and had entered the name of another man on the children's birth certificates and had never revealed the true identity of their father.
A family judge ruled earlier this year that the mother must alter the birth certificate to show the correct name of the father but had given the mother until the children's 16 th birthday for this to be done. The Court of Appeal however has overturned this decision and whilst the girls could wait to be told the true identity of their father, the birth certificates must be changed immediately.
Allowing the appeal Lord Justice Thorpe said: “The difficult judgments of when, how and by whom children are to be informed, how they should be prepared for that information and how they should be helped to deal with that information are all difficult territory for a judge.”
“A completely separate question is the status question, and that is a matter of public interest, and it is of general public interest that official records are maintained effectively and that they swiftly reflect decisions of the court.”