When a father isn’t married, he may have to jump through some legal red tape to establish himself as the legal father of his child. If the biological mother, for example, tries to claim that someone else is the father, the biological father may have trouble claiming his parental rights. If the father is not aware of his status and not aware of the child until after the child has been born, it can present even more challenges.
Men who find out they’re the father of a child after he or she has been born are in serious danger of losing their parental rights completely. Time limitations on being able to claim paternity begin to tick quickly after the birth of the child.
If the mother chooses to give the child up for adoption before the father realizes he has a baby, the father could be completely out of luck regarding being able to claim the child as his own — especially if the adoption has already been followed through with. It has come to pass in many cases that an unaware father was not permitted to object to the adoption of his child after the fact — but that doesn’t mean it’s legally impossible for a father to assert such objections.
No matter what the situation happens to be surrounding the father’s relationship with the mother and the child, the longer a Nebraska father waits to claim paternity, the more difficult it will become. Fathers may therefore wish to talk with a Nebraska family law attorney as soon as possible if they need to take legal action to assert their parental rights in court.
Source: FindLaw, “Unmarried fathers and adoption,” accessed June 09, 2017