How To Challenge Paternity

Identifying the father of a child is vital for many reasons. Paternity establishes certain legal rights for the child and specific responsibilities for the person determined to be the biological father. After all, paternity determines who is responsible for supporting the child and who may have a hand in the child’s upbringing.

Laws regarding paternity challenges vary significantly from state to state, and everyone’s circumstances differ. An experienced family law attorney will be able to assess your situation, apply the applicable law, and develop a legal strategy that works for you. If you have specific questions regarding your paternity or wish to challenge a paternity finding, contact a local and experienced paternity lawyer.

Grounds for Challenging Paternity

When the paternity of a child is legally established, the mother and child get access to the father’s medical history and genetic information to learn of any medical problems the child may inherit. A lawsuit to challenge paternity isn’t always something that the mother initiates. Sometimes, a court or medical professional names the wrong person as the father of a child. Lab tests can also provide inaccurate or erroneous results. In those cases, either parent may file a suit challenging paternity.

Many paternity proceedings rely on medical evidence to show who the biological father is. Usually, these tests are accurate, but sometimes they produce erroneous results regarding a child’s parentage. The following are grounds for challenging a prior finding of paternity and items that may be assessed in a paternity-related court case:

• Tainted lab results (e.g., evidence of prior errors in lab results and routinely substandard work)
• Fraudulent lab results (e.g., evidence that the opposing party sent someone else to take the lab test on his behalf)
• Proof of infertility or sterility
• Proof that the genetic testing or other type of test results were tampered with
• Proof of the mother’s infidelity in marriage — when a child is born into an opposite-sex marriage, the husband is presumed to be the father of the child unless proven otherwise
• The date of the child’s birth as measured against the potential time of conception and the typical development cycle of children
• Any material mistakes of fact in previous paternity cases that led to an incorrect finding that makes paternity testing all the more important today

State laws vary from state to state as to the grounds they accept to challenge a paternity test. Some states have a presumption of paternity for the man legally married to the mother at the time of the child’s birth and whose name appears on the child’s birth certificate.

How To Challenge Paternity

A suit to challenge paternity is very similar to one establishing paternity. Each state has a slightly different way of starting a lawsuit or with your state’s family law courts to find out exactly how to begin to establish the biological father of a child.

How Much Time Has Passed?

Some states will consider how many years have passed with a father listed on a birth certificate or the child believing a certain man is their father. The more time that has passed, the more difficult it is to challenge paternity because of the emotional and psychological effects it may have on the child and the parent-child relationship that has been such a big part of the child’s life. Some states allow visitation rights for fathers whose paternity has been disestablished.

Steps To Contest Paternity

Usually, the first step to disestablish paternity is filing a complaint with the court. Once the complaint initiating the paternity suit is filed, the court may order one or more DNA tests for the father and the child and seek evidence from other sources to determine the biological father of the child. This other evidence may include medical documents discrediting paternity, an affidavit from the child’s mother, or if the true father decides to voluntarily file an acknowledgment of paternity.  

Blood tests may also be used to help determine whether the alleged father is biologically related to the child, but blood tests alone don’t determine who the father is. However, DNA tests (genetic tests) are the most accurate way of determining paternity.

At the end of the legal process, the court will issue an order naming the legal father. The parents must then meet to determine child support and child custody logistics (custody arrangements).

Need Legal Help Challenging Paternity?

With a court order determining paternity comes a long and important list of legal responsibilities and parental rights, justifiably so. However, for any of those responsibilities to apply, there must be a fair process to determine paternity. That process must rely on sufficient evidence, but as you can see, there are times when evidence relied on by the courts can be tainted. Speak with an experienced paternity lawyer. They will be best positioned to evaluate your case, provide legal advice, and challenge any evidence in a paternity case.