Paternity testing is not only an emotional issue, but a complicated legal issue as well. Cynthia E. Reed is a Central Pennsylvania native and has lived in Lancaster since 2001. If you have any questions regarding paternity testing or paternity rights, she is the Lancaster lawyer for you. Her practice is concentrated in the areas of consumer bankruptcy and domestic law issues, such as child custody and child support, and she can give you the qualified legal advice you need.
In Pennsylvania, if the parents of the child are married at the time a child is born, then there is a presumption that the man is the father of the child. However, the father can always challenge the paternity and request a test.
This might happen, for example, if the parents are separated and the mother files a claim for child support. The putative father, or the man who may be the father but was not married to the mother before the child was born and has not established his paternity in court, might think that the child is not actually his. In this case, although he will have to pay for the paternity test, he has a right to contest the paternity.
Unmarried Couples
When the people are not married, then paternity is more of an open question. If the parents of a child are not married, then anybody could be the father from a legal standpoint. At that point, the putative father would still have to formally challenge paternity.
If the child is born out of wedlock, the putative father has a couple of choices. He can sign an acknowledgment of paternity at the hospital. This is easy to do, as the hospital will have forms available from the Department of Public Welfare. He can sign right then and there, which kind of ties him, as he is at that time officially acknowledging that he is the father.
If the relationship sours eventually and the parties split up, however, then the mother may find herself seeking child support. At that point, what sometimes happens is that the man who said he was the father decides that maybe that is not his child after all. In this case, he can contest paternity - but it is a bit of a tougher fight as he has already signed those papers.
Mother Contesting Paternity
Some people never even consider that sometimes it is the mother who wants to have proof that the father is really the father. That often comes up in a custody situation when the parents are not married. They split up and the guy wants to see the child, and the mother has reservations. Perhaps she was seeing two or three different guys at the time she got pregnant, and she is not actually sure who the father is. In this case, she can challenge the paternity if the putative father wants custody rights. In a situation like this, however, she would have to pay for the cost of the testing.
Paternity testing can be fairly expensive, and the results can take a couple of weeks or more. The sample will have to go out to a lab, and these types of labs get hundreds or thousands of these tests at a time. To get the results of paternity tests, you are looking at a minimum of a couple of weeks, and possibly as long as a month.
Whenever there is any doubt about paternity in any situation, a qualified lawyer can help. Whether it’s the father who is being asked to pay child support but harbors even the smallest doubt that he may not be the father, or the mother who wants to learn who the father of her child really is, legal advice is mandatory. You should definitely consult an attorney to learn what is involved procedurally and how to go about the process.
This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.
