§ 19-7-22.Petition for legitimation of child; requirement that mother be named as a party; court order; effect; claims for custody or visitation; third-party action for legitimation in response to petition to establish paternity

Legitimation is how a biological father who wasn’t married to the mother becomes his child’s legal father in Georgia. The section starts with two definitions. A “biological father” is the man who got the mother pregnant. A “legal father” is a man who hasn’t surrendered or lost his rights and who adopted the child, was married to the mother when the child was born or within the usual period of gestation, married the mother afterward and recognized the child as his, or legitimated the child under this section. The two marriage routes fail if a final order under Article 3 of this chapter disproved paternity. The father files in the superior court of the county where the mother, or whoever has legal custody or guardianship, lives. If that person lives outside Georgia or can’t be found here after due diligence, he may file where he lives or where the child lives. If an adoption petition is pending, he must file in the county where it was filed.

The petition must give the child’s name, age and sex, the mother’s name, and any new name the father wants for the child. A living mother must be named as a party, served and given a chance to be heard as in any civil action under the Civil Practice Act. So must a legal father who isn’t the biological father. After a hearing with notice to all interested parties, the court may declare the relationship legitimate if that is in the child’s best interests. The order lets father and child inherit from each other as if the child had been born in wedlock, under the Title 53 provisions the section cites, and it must state the name the child will go by. A superior court must also, after notice and hearing, enter a child support order under § 19-6-15. The petition may add claims for visitation, parenting time or custody, which the court decides on the child’s best interests; when family violence is alleged, § 19-9-3(a)(4) applies as well.

Some facts weigh heavily against legitimation. If the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the father conceived the child through nonconsensual intercourse with the mother, or a like offense under federal or another state’s law, or when the mother is less than ten years old, a presumption against legitimation arises. If the court denies legitimation on that ground, the child may still inherit from or through the father by other routes in Code Section 53-2-3, but the father can’t inherit from or through the child. A pending criminal case on the allegation stays discovery in the legitimation case until it ends. Except as that paragraph provides, the power of probate and superior courts to decide heirship under Title 53 stays intact.

Two other paths lead to legitimation. A petition may be filed in the juvenile court where a dependency case about the child is pending, under § 15-11-11, though a jury demand on child support sends that issue to superior court. And when the Department of Human Services files a paternity case under § 19-7-43(a)(4), the alleged father may answer with a third-party claim to legitimate. Once paternity is decided, or an unrescinded voluntary acknowledgment exists, the court may legitimate if that serves the child’s best interests, and it may order genetic testing under § 19-7-45. In a Department case, name change, visitation and custody wait for a separate petition by a parent or guardian under § 19-11-8, but the court may decide them when someone other than the Department brought the paternity case or when the alleged father seeks legitimation. Until a court order addresses custody, the child stays in the mother’s custody. The legislature last amended the section in 2025.