Woman can have biological father named on birth certificate

A woman has been granted the right to amend her birth certificate so that her biological father’s name appears instead of her mother’s husband at the time.

Amy Fallows Senior Associate Solicitor & Head of our family law team reports on this recent case.

The woman applied for a declaration of parentage under the Family Law Act 1986.

She was born in England in 1960. Her mother was from an Orthodox Jewish family but had a relationship with an Irish Catholic.

She fell pregnant but the father did not want to marry her, and they split up.

The mother met another man who offered to marry her and stand as the father.

When the child was born, the husband was registered as her father on the birth certificate.

However, he became abusive and the couple divorced around 1976.

In 2004, the daughter decided to look for her biological father and found him in Ireland. He, his wife and children fully accepted her as family.

She then decided she wanted to change her birth certificate to replace her abusive stepfather with her biological father.

However, she put off applying for a declaration of parentage because she and her mother were fearful of the stepfather and had no wish to risk any contact with him that such an application might entail.

However, in 2020, the daughter found out that the stepfather had died so she decided to apply to have her birth certificate amended.

The Family Court granted the application.

It held that it was appropriate to make a declaration that the biological father could be named on the birth certificate because the court was satisfied on the evidence that he was the father.

The court had no direct power to order such an amendment, but a copy of the declaration would be sent to the Registrar General’s office so they could consider the re-registration of the birth.

If you would like more information about the issues raised in this article or any aspect of family law, please contact Amy on 01228 516666 or click here to send her an email.