§ 1084 Out-of-wedlock children; paternity

If a child's parents were not married when the child was born, the person claiming to be the father can't get visitation rights automatically. A court has to legally decide that he is the father, or he must have signed an official paternity acknowledgment form as required by law.

This matters because it protects the child and the mother from someone claiming visitation rights without proof of a legal father-child relationship. Until paternity is either proven in court or formally acknowledged through the proper legal document, the man cannot force the court to grant him visitation time with the child.

In short, being a biological father is not enough on its own. The law requires official proof of paternity, either through a court ruling or a signed legal acknowledgment, before visitation rights can be enforced.