Unmarried Parents and Paternity in Florida's 14th Judicial Circuit
By Justin Andersson, Esq. | Justin Andersson, P.A., Panama City
For unmarried moms and dads in Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington Counties
Maybe you signed a stack of papers in a Panama City hospital room, running on no sleep and holding a brand-new baby. Maybe you’re a dad in Marianna whose name is on the birth certificate, and you haven’t seen your daughter in three weeks. Maybe you’re a mom in Chipley raising a toddler mostly on your own.
Let’s be honest: a lot of what people “know” about unmarried parents in Florida is outdated or flat wrong. The law changed in important ways in 2023.
This guide is for mothers and fathers alike, because paternity is the legal foundation for everything that comes after: support, decision-making and the schedule your child lives by.
What "paternity" means, and why it matters
“Paternity” means legal fatherhood, which isn’t always the same as biology: the legal father doesn’t have to be the biological one, and Florida recognizes only one legal father at a time.
Florida’s parenting law also mostly avoids the word “custody.” It uses parental responsibility (who makes the major decisions) and time-sharing (the calendar). Both go into a parenting plan.
- For fathers. Until paternity is legally established, a father isn't the child's natural guardian (the status that carries a parent's legal rights and responsibilities), and a court can't award him time-sharing. If an adoption is possible, act early. A father who signed the paternity affidavit for the birth certificate, or who has been declared the father by a court, before a petition to terminate parental rights is filed is generally entitled to notice and a say. A father without either of those must register with the Florida Putative Father Registry (he can do it even before the birth) and must also take other steps, such as helping pay pregnancy and birth expenses and supporting the child. If the baby is placed for adoption at 6 months or younger, those steps must be done before the mother signs her consent to the adoption, and a father who misses them can lose the right to notice and to object. Get advice right away.
- For mothers. Until paternity is established, an unmarried mother is the child's natural guardian and is entitled to primary residential care and custody unless a court orders otherwise. But paternity is what lets a court order the father to pay child support and help with birth costs.
Four main ways paternity is established
- 1. Marriage. If the mother is married when the baby is born, her husband goes on the birth certificate as the father (unless a court has decided otherwise) and is the legal father without any court case, even if he isn't the biological father. And if unmarried parents later marry each other, the child is treated as born within the marriage.
- 2. Voluntary acknowledgment. When the mother isn't married, the father's name can go on the birth certificate only if both parents sign an acknowledgment of paternity, and the hospital must help them do it. Signed by both parents, and either notarized or witnessed by two people and signed under penalty of perjury, it legally establishes paternity. One signed in another state counts here too.
- 3. Department of Revenue order. The Department of Revenue, which runs Florida's child support program, can establish paternity administratively, but only if the mother was unmarried when the child was conceived and born and the Department is providing child support services. Its final order has the same effect as a court judgment. A man served in that process can move it to circuit court by filing his own case and serving the Department within 20 days.
- 4. Court paternity case. A mother (even during pregnancy), a man who has reason to believe he's the father, or the child can file in circuit court when paternity hasn't already been established. If the judge finds the man is the father, the judgment must say so.
Not every route does everything.
| Route | Establishes paternity | Sets a child support amount | Sets a parenting plan and time-sharing schedule |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voluntary acknowledgment | Yes | No | No |
| Department of Revenue order | Yes | Yes | No |
| Court paternity case | Yes | Yes | Yes, if requested |
Where does DNA testing fit? It’s a tool, not a separate route. In a court case, the judge can order testing on the court’s own initiative or on a party’s sworn statement of supporting facts. A result of 95 percent or more creates a rebuttable presumption (a starting point the other side can try to disprove) that the man is the father. If the test excludes him, the case must be dismissed for good.
The 60-day window to change your mind
Either parent who signed can cancel (rescind) the acknowledgment within 60 days after signing, or sooner if a court or agency case about the child (including a child support case) starts first and that parent is a party to it.
After that, the door narrows. The acknowledgment can be challenged in court only for fraud, duress (threats or pressure) or a material mistake of fact, and the challenger has to prove it. Child support owed because of the acknowledgment keeps running during the challenge unless the court finds good cause to pause it.
Pro Tip: That hospital form is a legal document, not a formality. If either of you has real doubts about who the father is, don’t sign it just to keep the peace. Sixty days goes fast, especially on newborn sleep.
Signing the birth certificate: what it does, and what it doesn't
What it does. A signed acknowledgment establishes paternity. And since Florida’s natural guardian law changed in July 2023, an unmarried mother and a father who has established paternity (by acknowledgment, a Department of Revenue order or a court case) are both the child’s natural guardians. Since then, the First District Court of Appeal, whose decisions bind courts in our circuit, has held that a father who signed the acknowledgment on the birth certificate has custody rights without a further court order, so the mother could not get an order to pick up the child by claiming she alone had custody rights. Moms, the old idea that “the unmarried mother has custody, period” now holds only when paternity hasn’t been established.
What it doesn’t do. It does not create a parenting plan, a time-sharing schedule or a child support order. A parenting plan and time-sharing schedule must come from a paternity case in circuit court, and child support comes from that case or, in some cases, from a Department of Revenue order. Nothing on that form says who has the baby on Saturdays.
Dads, the honest part: what your “custody rights” mean day to day, without a court order, isn’t fully settled. That decision answered a narrow question about a pick-up order; it didn’t let either parent set a schedule alone. Both parents stand on equal legal footing, and a court-ordered parenting plan is still what you need for a time-sharing schedule you can enforce.
If your dispute involves events before July 1, 2023, the older rules may still matter, because at least one Florida appeals court outside our district has treated the change as forward-looking only. Get advice on that one.
The paternity case: what the judge decides
A paternity case is filed in the county where either parent lives, and the filing parent chooses.
A parenting plan and time-sharing, under the same rules as divorce. The paternity statute sends the judge to Chapter 61, the same law that governs divorcing parents. Since July 1, 2023, Chapter 61 has started from a rebuttable presumption that equal time-sharing is in a child’s best interests, and a parent who wants something different must prove it by a preponderance of the evidence (more likely than not). That law’s policy covers parents who “separate,” not just those who divorce, so the 50/50 starting line should apply to unmarried parents too (that’s a reading of the statutes together, so ask how it applies to you). Unless the parents agree, the judge must weigh every statutory best-interest factor and make written findings, and parental responsibility is shared unless that would be detrimental to the child. Our guide to Florida time-sharing laws in the 14th Circuit walks through those factors.
Pro Tip: Make sure your final judgment includes a parenting plan. A Florida statute still says that if a paternity judgment orders child support but has no parenting plan, the parent who receives the support gets all of the time-sharing, and if the judgment says nothing on these points, the mother is presumed to have all of it. How that fits with the 2023 changes isn’t clear. Don’t be the test case.
Child support. The court must order child support under the same guidelines used in divorce, and on request must order temporary support while the case is pending if DNA or other clear and convincing evidence shows paternity. Our Child Support page has more.
Back support, up to 24 months. In the first support order, the judge may award support back to when the parents stopped living together with the child, but no more than 24 months before the petition was filed, taking into account payments already made for the child. Moms: waiting has a cost. Dads: keep proof of what you’ve paid.
Birth expenses and attorney’s fees. The court may order the father to pay hospital and medical expenses and the cost of the delivery. Either parent can ask the court to order the other to contribute to attorney’s fees and costs, based on both parents’ finances.
Privacy and later changes. Hearings on whether the man is the father must be held in the judge’s chambers, and the judge can limit who attends. Later changes to the parenting plan or time-sharing require a substantial and material change in circumstances and must be in the child’s best interests, and child support can be changed on a substantial change in circumstances.
Paternity cases in the 14th Circuit: the standing order and the parenting course
Your case is filed with the Clerk in Panama City (Bay), Blountstown (Calhoun), Port St. Joe (Gulf), Bonifay (Holmes), Marianna (Jackson) or Chipley (Washington), and our circuit runs it much like a divorce.
The standing order. In paternity cases, the Clerk issues the Standing Family Law Pre-Trial Court Order, which the filing parent must serve with the summons and petition. It binds the filing parent on filing and the other parent on service. Among other things:
- Neither parent may permanently move the child from the current residence, or change the child's school or daycare, without both parents' written agreement or a court order.
- Both parents must help the child keep up personal, phone and written contact with the other parent, unless a court order says otherwise.
- Each parent must file a financial affidavit at least 10 days before the first financial hearing or case management conference.
- Mediation is required before trial.
Florida’s mandatory financial disclosure rule applies in paternity cases too.
The parenting course. When parental responsibility is at issue, both parents must complete the Parent Education and Family Stabilization Course (at least four hours, approved by the Department of Children and Families) before the final judgment, unless the court excuses a parent for good cause. The filing parent has 45 days after filing; the other parent’s 45 days run from that parent’s acknowledgment or adjudication of paternity, or from an order granting that parent time-sharing or requiring that parent to pay support.
When the mother was married to someone else
This gets complicated fast, so I’ll stay high level.
If the mother was married when the child was born, her husband is the legal father, even if someone else is the biological father. The Florida Supreme Court has held that when the husband wants to stay the legal father, a biological father who challenges that must first show a substantial and continuing concern for the child, and then prove by clear and convincing evidence that replacing the husband as legal father is in the child’s best interests. That heightened standard is tied to an “intact” marriage, which the First District Court of Appeal has described as a marriage with no divorce case pending. Whether it applies to your family depends on the timing and the facts.
Before DNA testing in that situation, a guardian ad litem (an advocate for the child) must be appointed, and the husband must get notice and a chance to be heard. The First District Court of Appeal has held that skipping the guardian ad litem and the required hearing is reversible error. The Department of Revenue route isn’t available, since it requires a mother who was unmarried at conception and birth. If this is your family, get advice before anyone takes a DNA test.
Why self-help and moving first can backfire
I get the impulse to handle it yourselves. But going it alone before there’s a court order can make things harder.
The birth certificate isn’t a custody order. For either parent, an enforceable schedule comes from a paternity case.
Moving before any case is filed: part settled, part not. Florida’s relocation statute measures a move from the last time-sharing order or the filing of a pending case. The First District Court of Appeal, whose decisions bind our circuit, has held that a move made before any time-sharing case is filed isn’t a “relocation” under that statute. In a case decided under the law before the 2023 change, it also held that an unmarried mother didn’t need the father’s permission or a court order to move before a paternity case was filed, because paternity hadn’t been established. The statute still gives an unmarried mother primary care of the child when the father hasn’t established paternity. But once he has, for example by signing the acknowledgment, both parents are natural guardians, and whether either one may move the child before a case is filed without the other’s agreement isn’t settled. Either way, when a judge later sets time-sharing, the best-interest factors include each parent’s willingness to support the child’s relationship with the other parent. Get advice before anyone packs the truck, and if you’re the parent left behind, file promptly. Our relocation guide covers moves once there’s an order or a pending case.
If safety is behind the urge to leave, call 911 in an emergency. The Florida Domestic Violence Hotline is 1-800-500-1119, and our guide to domestic violence injunctions in the 14th Circuit explains how to ask the court for protection.
DO:
- Get paternity legally established
- Keep proof of every payment you make for your child
- Get a court-ordered parenting plan
DON’T:
- Sign the acknowledgment if you have real doubts about who the father is
- Move the child or change schools after a case is filed without written agreement or a court order
- Assume a DNA test alone ends support
Frequently asked questions
You've established paternity, and since July 2023 you're a natural guardian along with the mother. But a time-sharing schedule comes only from a court-ordered parenting plan in a paternity case.
Only if the father hasn't established paternity. Once he has, by acknowledgment, a Department of Revenue order or a court order, both parents are natural guardians.
No. The Department can establish paternity in some cases and can set child support, but a time-sharing schedule requires a circuit court case.
Not automatically. After the 60-day window, an acknowledgment can be challenged only for fraud, duress or material mistake of fact, and support keeps running during the challenge unless the court finds good cause. Florida's separate disestablishment procedure has strict requirements and doesn't refund support already paid. Get advice quickly.
Yes. Florida's paternity statute expressly lets a pregnant mother file, but the parenting plan, time-sharing and child support are decided after the birth. A father who wants to protect his rights before the birth should get advice, and he can register with the Florida Putative Father Registry even before the baby is born.
Final Thought
Being unmarried doesn’t make you any less of a parent, and it doesn’t make your child’s needs any smaller. It just means the law won’t fill in the blanks for you.
Moms and dads alike: get paternity established, get a parenting plan in writing, and get it ordered. That’s how you protect your child, and yourself.
You’ve got this. And I’ve got your back.
Justin Andersson, Esq.
Your 850 Divorce Lawyer
Justin Andersson, P.A. | 435 W. Oak Avenue, Panama City, FL 32401
Serving Bay, Calhoun, Gulf, Holmes, Jackson and Washington Counties, in person or by video.
Questions? Call (850) 871-7397 or visit www.850divorcelawyer.com.
This article is provided for general informational and educational purposes about Florida law and 14th Judicial Circuit procedures as of October 2026. It is not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship. Parts of this area of law are unsettled, especially after the 2023 changes, and every case turns on its own facts and the best interests of the particular child.
Florida law referenced: Sections 61.13, 61.13001, 61.21, 61.30, 63.054, 63.062, 382.013, 409.256, 742.011, 742.021, 742.031, 742.045, 742.06, 742.091, 742.10, 742.105, 742.12, 742.18 and 744.301, Florida Statutes; Florida Family Law Rule of Procedure 12.285; Fourteenth Judicial Circuit Administrative Order 2022-00-07 (Standing Family Law Pre-Trial Court Order).