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Legal Information: Idaho

Custody

Laws current as of August 13, 2025

How is paternity established?

When someone is legally recognized as the child’s father, this is called “establishing paternity.” When a court does this, it issues an “order of filiation.”1

If the mother is married when the child is conceived or born, the law assumes that her spouse is the child’s legal father.2 Married parents do not have to do anything else to establish paternity.

If the parents are not married, they can establish paternity in three ways:

  1. By getting married after their child is born;
  2. By signing and notarizing an “acknowledgment of paternity” form; or
  3. By filing a paternity case in court.3

1 I.C. § 7-1120
2 See I.C. § 7-1119
3 I.C. §§ 32-1006; 7-1106(1), 7-1110

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