Florida Father Loses Fight For Paternity Rights

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(CBS Local)-- John Karpinski has been fighting for his son's best interest. However, a Florida judge sided with the law and denied his paternity rights.

Florida law states that a child born into a marriage belongs to that marriage. Karpinski's son was born when his mother was married to another man. The child is now 4 years old and under that law, the mother's husband has the paternal rights of that child. The judge ruled against Karpinski in order to not disrupt the child's presumed legitimacy.

This all began when the mother of the child prevented Karpinski from seeing his son. After being denied time, he took action and went through the courts. It took him a year of not seeing his son to file paperwork. The judge took that time into account when choosing to reject Karpinski's plea.

When challenging Florida law, you have to establish standing to get a hearing.

"Even the paperwork that I could have tried to file, I wasn't allowed to file," said Karpinski.

Although disappointed with the case's outcome, his attorney Shaun Plymale stated, "We were certainly happy we were able to get the courts to recognize that fathers just like John Karpinski deserve their day."

Karpinski has a son of 9 months in his recent marriage and he hopes one day his boys can meet.

"Either he'll come find me or I'll be there waiting on him" says Karpinski.