Paternity
Proceedings to establish a child's paternity may be filed any time after pregnancy.
A paternity action to establish child support must be filed prior to the child's 18th birthday. Often, child support will be ordered to begin the first day of the month following service of process of the Petition seeking to establish paternity and child support; however, the Court may order retroactive or back child support. Retroactive child support is typically limited to three years; however, that limit is not firm and, in the right circumstances, the Court may look back further.
Paternity, is a fairly straight-forward process that tests the potential Father by a simple cheek swab against the child's DNA. Once the test results come back, assuming paternity is established, the Court will enter permanent child custody, support and parenting time orders. If the parties are certain of paternity, each party can sign an Acknowledgment that a particular person is the Father, those Acknowledgements are filed with the Court, and the Court will enter an order legally establishing Paternity.
One important thing to note about Paternity is that it is not a process for dividing property between non-married individuals that had a child together. A separate civil action must be filed in that situation.
Paternity actions exist to permit a child's parents to be conclusively established and then provide for the financial and emotional needs of the child.
Paternity can also be used to prove that someone is not the father of a child. Paternity is presumed if the man and woman were married at any time in the ten months prior to the birth. However, that presumption can be overcome through a paternity test or voluntary acknowledgment of the parties.
If you would like to contact Owens & Perkins regarding establishing or contesting Paternity,
click here or call us at 480.994.8824.