December 12, 2016

According to Section 146 of the Latvian Civil Law, as the father of the child who is born to a woman during marriage or not later than 306 days thereafter if the marriage has ended due to the death of the husband, the dissolution of the marriage, or the declaration of the marriage as annulled, shall be considered to be the husband of the mother of the child (Paternity Presumption). This means that a person may be automatically recorded as the father, if the child was born during marriage of that person with the child’s mother or within 306 days after that person has, for instance, divorced the child’s mother. Therefore, incorrect is the belief that divorcing (before the birth of the child) a person, who is not biological father of the child, would resolve the issue of recording that person as the father of the child - the record can still be made, unless the mother of the child enters into a new marriage.

Once a person has been registered as the father of the child in accordance with the Paternity Presumption, the wrong record can be rectified either voluntarily or it can be contested through the court. Voluntary rectification will require all the persons involved, namely, the person who is registered as the father, the mother of the child and the biological father of the child, to submit application to the civil registry office admitting that the record is wrong. If any of the said persons does not agree to submit such an application, the only remaining option for the interested person is to contest the Paternity Presumption in the court.

In some other cases, where a couple is not married, the record about the father of the child can be recorded with the civil registry office upon the application of the father and the mother for the voluntary Acknowledgement of Paternity. By submitting such an application, a person acknowledges that he is the father of the child. In practice, it may happen that a person, which acknowledged himself as the father, in real life is not the biological father of the child.

Quite often the record about the child’s father is missing at all. In some cases the record is left blanc because the child was not born in a marriage and the father refused to submit the application for acknowledgement of paternity, but very often the record is also left blank by the mother intentionally for some personal reasons. Be it as it may, the record about one’s father is of significant importance for many issues such as, for example, claiming child maintenance, proving filiation in succession matters, etc.