What Courts Consider During Legitimation: Fitness of the Father Explained

when filing for legitimation the courts will look at the conduct between the parties and the conduct of the father toward the child or the mother to make a determination as to whether the father has lost his opportunity interest or has not lost his opportunity interest and that’s a very technical term but basically it means whether or not the father is fit to be recognized as the father of the child by a court of law if the father is not fit the court will not award legitimation to the father to be recognized as the father of the child reasons why you wouldn’t be fit is if there’s a history of domestic violence between the parties or if the father has not been around the child for most of the child’s life and so the child has developed a support system which does not include the father if the father has been involved in a bunch of criminal activity and so the father being around the child would cause the child to be exposed to that criminal activity if the father has been a habitual drug user and has used drugs to such an extent that it would be dangerous for the child to be around the father all of those are factors that the court would look at to determine whether or not the father has lost his opportunity interest to legitimate the child