Paternity law refers to body of law underlying

legal Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

relationship between a

father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. An adoptive fathe ...

and his biological or adopted children and deals with the rights and obligations of both the father and the child to each other as well as to others. A child's paternity may be relevant in relation to issues of legitimacy,

inheritance Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Officia ...

and rights to a

putative father __NOTOC__ A putative father, with some variation in specific language, generally means a man whose legal relationship to a child has not been established but who is alleged to be or claims that he may be the biological father of a child who is born ...

's title or surname, as well as the biological father's rights to

child custody Child custody is a legal term regarding '' guardianship'' which is used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent or guardian and a child in that person's care. Child custody consists of ''legal custody'', which is the righ ...

in the case of separation or

divorce Divorce (also known as dissolution of marriage) is the process of terminating a marriage or marital union. Divorce usually entails the canceling or reorganizing of the legal duties and responsibilities of marriage, thus dissolving the ...

and obligations for

child support Child support (or child maintenance) is an ongoing, periodic payment made by a parent for the financial benefit of a child (or parent, caregiver, guardian) following the end of a marriage or other similar relationship. Child maintenance is paid d ...

. Under

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipres ...

, a child born to a

married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognized union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children, and between t ...

woman is presumed to be the child of her husband by virtue of a "

presumption of paternity Presumption of paternity in paternity law and common law is the legal determination that a man is "presumed to be" a child's biological father without additional supportive evidence, usually as a result of marriage. Generally associated with marri ...

" or

presumption of legitimacy The "presumption of legitimacy" is a common law rule of evidence that states that a child born within the subsistence of a marriage is presumed to be the child of the husband. Early history Paternity is considered an important issue in determining ...

. In consideration of a possible

non-paternity event In genetics, a non-paternity event (also known as misattributed paternity, not parent expected, or NPE) is the situation in which someone who is presumed to be an individual's father is not in fact the biological father. This presumption of NPE is ...

(which may or may not include

paternity fraud Paternity fraud, also known as misattributed paternity or paternal discrepancy, occurs when a man is incorrectly identified as the biological father of a child. The underlying assumption of "paternity fraud" is that the mother deliberately miside ...

) these presumptions may be rebutted by evidence to the contrary, for example, in disputed child custody and child support cases during divorce,

annulment Annulment is a legal procedure within secular and religious legal systems for declaring a marriage null and void. Unlike divorce, it is usually retroactive, meaning that an annulled marriage is considered to be invalid from the beginning al ...

or legal separation. In the case of a father not married to a child's mother, depending on the laws of the jurisdiction: * a man may accept the paternity of the child in what is called an acknowledgment of paternity, voluntary acknowledgement of paternity or affidavit of parentage, * the mother or legal authorities can file a petition for a determination of paternity against a putative father, or * paternity can be determined by the courts through estoppel over time. Today, when paternity is in dispute or doubt, paternity testing may be used to conclusively resolve the issue.

Overview

The legal process of determining paternity normally results in the naming of a man to a child's birth certificate as the child's legal father. A paternity finding resolves issues of legitimacy, and may be followed by court rulings that relate to child support and maintenance, custody and guardianship.

Unmarried fathers

Generally, under common law, a biological father has a legal obligation for the maintenance or support of his biological offspring, whether or not he is legally competent to marry the child's mother. In jurisdictions where there is no

there is a process for fathers to recognise their children and become the legal father of the child.

Married fathers

In the United States, where a child is conceived or born during wedlock, the husband is legally presumed to be the father of the child. Some states have a legal process for a husband to disavow paternity, such that a biological father can be named as the parent of a child conceived or born during a marriage. In most states, any claim of non-paternity by a husband must be heard by a court. If parents litigate a divorce case without raising the issue of paternity, in most states they will be barred from disputing the husband's paternity in a later court proceeding. Depending upon state law, it may nonetheless be possible for a man claiming to be the child's biological father to commence a paternity case following the divorce.

Legal proceedings

Where paternity of the child is in question, a party may ask the court to determine paternity of one or more possible fathers (called putative fathers), typically based initially upon sworn statements and then upon

testimony In law and in religion, testimony is a solemn attestation as to the truth of a matter. Etymology The words "testimony" and "testify" both derive from the Latin word ''testis'', referring to the notion of a disinterested third-party witness. ...

or other evidence. Once paternity has been legally established, if the court finds that to do so would be contrary to the best interest of the child, in most U.S. states a court may deny DNA testing or decline to remove a husband from a child's birth certificate based upon DNA testing. A successful application to the court results in an order assigning paternity to a specific man, possibly including support responsibility and/or visitation rights, or declaring that one or more men (possibly including the husband of the mother) are not the father of the child. A disavowal action is a legal proceeding where a putative father attempts to prove to the court that he is not the father; if successful, it relieves the former putative father of legal responsibility for the child. On the other hand, it could be the case where several putative fathers are fighting to establish custody. In such case. In the United States, a state may legally bar a third party from disputing the paternity of a child born within an intact marriage. Some paternity laws assign full parental responsibility to fathers even in cases of women lying about contraception, using deceit (such as

oral sex Oral sex, sometimes referred to as oral intercourse, is sexual activity involving the stimulation of the genitalia of a person by another person using the mouth (including the lips, tongue, or teeth) and the throat. Cunnilingus is oral sex p ...

followed by self-

artificial insemination Artificial insemination is the deliberate introduction of sperm into a female's cervix or uterine cavity for the purpose of achieving a pregnancy through in vivo fertilization by means other than sexual intercourse. It is a fertility treatment ...

) or statutory rape by a woman ('' Hermesmann v. Seyer'').

Paternity and inheritance rights

If the context of inheritance rights, it will be the heirs of the deceased person who are attempting to dispute or establish paternity. In some states, DNA testing will be dispositive to establish paternity. In many jurisdictions, however, there are a variety of rules and time restrictions that can deny inheritance rights to biological children of a deceased father.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paternity (Law) Divorce Family law Marriage Parenting Paternity Reproductive rights Men