On March 15, 2013, the Court of Appeals approved a trial court’s decision not to legitimate a child. Basically, the father was not allowed to have any rights to custody or visitation for the child and could not legally claim the child as his own. In that case, the father waited until the child was 5 years old to legitimate, even though he knew the child was his child at some point during the child’s first year. Additionally, the Father was arrested for felony possession of methamphetamine and Darvocet, as well as numerous other convictions, some of which were felonies. The father was 50 years old, had had triple bypass heart surgery and was unemployed due to his disability. The Court held that the father waited too long to legitimate the child. Therefore, he abandoned his interest. The Court of Appeals went on to state that even if he had not abandoned his interest, it was not in the child’s best interest to be legitimated.
