§ 19-8-12.Notice to biological father; procedure when identity or location of father not known; effect of order terminating biological father’s rights; legitimation of child by father; rights of mother

Georgia law separates a child’s biological father from a legal father — generally a man who was married to the mother, adopted the child, or legitimated the child under § 19-7-22. This section governs the man who is the biological father but not the legal father and who hasn’t signed a surrender of his rights. It opens with the legislature’s findings: the state wants adoptive placements to be stable and permanent, a biological father’s interest gains constitutional protection only if he builds a real bond with the child, and his private intentions don’t count without acts to back them up. A man in a sexual relationship outside marriage is treated as on notice that a pregnancy and an adoption may follow, and it’s his job to protect his own rights.

He must be notified of the adoption in three situations: when the petitioner, the department, the agency or their attorney knows who he is; when he has acknowledged paternity on the putative father registry; or when he has registered possible paternity during the period beginning two years before the child’s birth. Notice goes by certified or registered mail (return receipt requested) or statutory overnight delivery to his last known address, by personal service, or by publication once a week for three weeks in the official organ of the county where the petition is filed and the county of his last known address. If feasible, mail or personal service must come first, though publication can run alongside them. No court order is needed to publish, but before relying on publication the petitioner must swear that diligent efforts to serve him another way failed.

The notice must warn him that he loses all rights unless, within 30 days of receiving it, he files a legitimation petition under § 19-7-22 as a separate case and notifies both the court handling the termination (if any) and whoever sent the notice. If he does nothing, or his petition is dismissed for failure to prosecute, or it ends without an order making him the legal father, the court shall terminate his rights and he can no longer object or receive notice. If he files after the mother has surrendered her rights, the court may weigh her affidavit; if he hasn’t lived with the child, helped support the child, or provided support or medical care during the pregnancy or the hospital stay for the birth, the law presumes he abandoned his opportunity to legitimate, and the court may deny his petition. He can try to rebut that presumption.

The termination itself is sought by petition, or by motion if an adoption petition is already pending, and the court shall hold a hearing in chambers within 30 days of his receipt of notice (or of the filing, when no notice is required). When no one knows the father’s identity, a registry certificate showing no matching registrant creates a rebuttable presumption that the unnamed father isn’t entitled to notice, and absent contrary evidence the court shall terminate his rights. If the father does legitimate the child, the adoption can go forward only under §§ 19-8-4 through 19-8-7. And if he legitimates and the adoption petition is then denied or revoked with prejudice, the mother’s surrender dissolves, her rights are restored, and her surrender can’t be used as evidence against her. The section was last amended in 2021.