Fairly important in our legal system is that for a father to have any rights to a child, they have to either be legitimated or have to be married to mother when the child is born or married just after the child's birth. In this case, our firm had to file a petition in Fulton County Superior Court to have the child returned from the father who lived out of state. It wasn't that simple however, as the father lived in Louisiana (parish law) which required a separate action. We had to serve the father in Louisiana and then have another hearing in Louisiana which ordered the father to return the child to local authorities.

Why was all this important. Under the Uniform Enforcement Act, a child who lives in a area for 6 or more months is considered a resident. The Father had kept the child for 4 months without returning to the mother or allowing the mother to see the child. In essence, the Father was creating a reason to legitimate in Louisiana.

We were able to file our action and get the child returned to the mother. The mother did not want the father to get into trouble, however, the Father could have been charged with kidnapping as well since he had absolutely no rights to the child.