My husband wants to adopt my 3 year old.But first we have to get the man on birth certificate to sign, My daughter doesn't know this man and has never seen him except when she was 1 month old.(BUT WHAT IF I BELIEVE HE IS NOT THE FATHER.)Is there a way I can go through this without having to get him to sign?) Can my lawyer or the court order a DNA test? We are in Georgia.

If there was never a paternity determination then you will have to get one before any father can sign off. If this man is the legal father, it may be too late to challenge it. Even if you prove he's not the father, that just means you will have to identify and find the father to sign off.

SOMEBODY has to sign off in order for an adoption to go through.

It always amazes me how many women are willing to just put ANYONE on the birth certificate, instead of determining who the ACTUAL father is.

Either way, this is going to be complicated. You'll need a lawyer to fix your lie on the birth certificate, or you're just going to have to contact the man who IS on the birth certificate to get his permission.

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Originally Posted by ejohnson1

... Can my lawyer or the court order a DNA test?

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Your lawyer can't order anything. Perhaps the court could, but why would you want to do that? If it turns out he is not the father, then you are going to have to find the real father.

So,what if I can't find the real one?

The real one doesn't matter as much as the LEGAL one.

The LEGAL father is the one on the birth certificate. In many states, there is a timeframe for how long that can be challenged--and usually the challenge must come from the biological father.

You have to get the LEGAL father--the one on the birth certificate--to sign.

And you must have a GOOD FAITH effort to contact him if you do not know where he is. What "good faith" is varies by state and local laws.

You really need to contact a lawyer. Yeah, you can do adoption stuff without a lawyer, but you can remove an appendix without a doctor, too. I wouldn't recommend either.

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Originally Posted by ejohnson1

So,what if i can't find the real one?.

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It probably varies from state to state, but in general you have to do everything you can think of to find him and probably, at the very least, publish an expensive legal ad.