Per the OP if a married woman conceives a child as the result of an affair, and the husband learns the child is not his while she is still pregnant, can he contest financial responsibility for the child?
In other words if the child is born while they are married is he simply out of luck or not re responsibility for child support?
The law varies from state to state. In my state, a presumed father may contest paternity, but only if he does so before the child turns four.
I believe that in the state of Michigan in the US the answer is “no”. At least that’s how I was told it played out in the case of a somewhat distant relative of mine.
(My relative was the one who got the married lady pregnant. tHe and the lady wanted to get married, but she had to get divorced first. Her current husband wanted cash before he would go through with the divorce until his lawyer explained to him that if his wife gave birth while they were still married, according to Michigan law he would be the legal father and responsible for child support until the child was eighteen. The husband promptly signed the divorce papers. At least that’s what I was told.)
[need answer fast]
It will vary by state, but my understanding is that in most places you have a window period where you can contest paternity. But if you spend years acting as someone’s father, you develop legal responsibilities regardless of your genetic relationship.
Yes, in Canada if you “act in the role of parent”, this relationship once established cannot be broken. You then pay child support whether the child is yours or not.
I have read many cases on some web site, mentioning that you can’t pull the “it’s not my child” routine after a certain time.
California had a particularly nasty law (not sure if it’s still there). If the woman alleged paternity, they served papers. If you did not respond, and did not contest within 2 years, then you were on the hook for child support including back child support that you may not be aware of. Even a negative DNA test could not reverse this default ruling. Apparently, the government group responsible for filing cases and serving papers allegedly did not make a great effort to find the alleged responsible party. Quite a few reported papers were served to the wrong address, based on an old license address, not the new on.
One fellow, when the papers arrived his new girlfriend was mad and tore them up and trashed them without telling him. Even though the mother’s alleged timing was off by 6 months and DNA proved her wrong, he was still stuck. He’d been served, he never showed up.
(To be fair, this law went back to the days before DNA).
Many states, if you are judged the parent in one state, you cannot contest the ruling or award in a different state.
A womans husband, at common law was always presumed to be the father and even today in most jurisdictions procedurally it will be difficult to get off the hook. Presuming there was no separation.
In California, up to three years by statute. I was sitting in court waiting for the judge to finalize my divorce and a guy did a genetic test on “his” 8 year old child proving it wasn’t his and the Judge ruled “too fucking bad. After three years you are responsible for CS no matter what.” <bangs gavel>
Yes I did have my child tested at 2 years of age to see if hee was mine. He’s 13. I wish it had been negative.
Wow, that last line is fucking depressing.
Meh. He was being a real jerk (teenager) today
Followup question: In states where the husband is required to pay CS despite not being the bio dad, what happens if another man is proven by DNA to be the biological father? Do they split responsibility for the child?
I’ve never heard of that happening. There’s only one legal father. The biological father is off the hook at that point.
That’s adresssed in the link provided by Belowjob. Some guy got a ruling making the biological father (at the time married with the mother and raising the kid) responsible for part of CS, but following an appeal by the mother, this was overturned (because it would have implied that the kid had two fathers, as far as I understand what the journalist understood).
Ah, I see. I habitually avoid NY Times links, though I understand they’ll let me read a few articles free now.