HOW IS PATERNITY ESTABLISHED?

The first step is to gather the facts at the paternity interview. Due to the sensitive nature of paternity establishment, some of the questions during the interview may be personal. These questions will be facts about the relationship between the mother and the alleged father, the pregnancy, the birth of the child, your employment and birth expenses. A picture of the alleged father with the child is helpful as well as any other evidence of acknowledgment of the child, such as through letters or gifts.

Before a child support order can be established for a child, the alleged father must either admit or be proven to be the child's father. A popular and effective tool used to prove paternity is genetic testing. Our office prepares all of the necessary paperwork and legal documents and handles all of the scheduling for blood-testing when the alleged father requests or when ordered by thejudge.

The father can acknowledge his paternity by signing a written admission or consent agreement. While it is best to establish paternity soon after the child's birth, our office is bound to try to establish paternity for any child up to the child's eighteenth birthday.

The establishment of paternity affords your child legal rights and privileges that belong to any child born within a marriage. Among these are rights to inheritance, rights to the father's medical and life insurance benefits, and to social security and veteran's benefits which may be available.