Establishing Paternity in California
Paternity is presumed for children born during a marriage, but must be established in a court of law for children of unmarried parents. Establishing paternity creates a legal relationship between father and child, and confers all legal rights as if the child were born within a marriage to that father. It also confers the legal responsibility of child support.
At Holstrom, Sissung, Marks & Anderson, we provide knowledgeable advice and strong legal representation designed to guide clients in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties through the process of legally establishing paternity. We also represent clients seeking to disprove paternity in order to avoid unfairly imposed visitation rights or child support obligations. In all cases, our lawyers are committed to aggressively protecting their clients' rights.
If you have concerns or questions about proving or disproving biological paternity, we invite you to call or contact our attorneys online today for a confidential consultation.
Establishing Paternity for the Unmarried Parent
The most common method of establishing paternity is the Voluntary Declaration of Paternity — an official document typically signed at the hospital by the biological father. If there was no such declaration, as is the case with many unmarried parents, you may have to go through the courts to establish paternity. This requires filing a Petition to Establish Parental Relationship.
At this point, many unmarried parents reach an agreement or the biological father or mother simply does not contest the matter. If neither happens, then — after DNA paternity test results have been obtained — a family court judge will issue a judgment either establishing or disestablishing paternity. This often comes up in a child support case being brought by the Department of Child Support Services.
There are many complex public policies that often clash with perceived common sense in this area of the law. Many people have heard of horror stories of men who believe they are a child's father and willing to accept financial responsibility for the child, only to find out they were not really the child's father.
On the other hand, it is not uncommon for a father to have to go to court to be confirmed as a child's father in order to have all of the attendant rights and responsibilities; nor is it unusual for an unmarried mother to have to go to court to compel a recalcitrant father to accept those responsibilities.
If established, and aside from custody or visitation rights and child support obligations, an official judgment of paternity can make children eligible for government programs such as Social Security or veteran's dependent benefits, qualify them for medical insurance coverage through the father's health plan, and cement their status as legitimate heirs for purposes of inheritance.
To learn more about this issue or your rights as a parent — call any one of our office locations directly or contact us online.
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Orange County: (714) 408-7290 / (866) 586-8231
Riverside County: (951) 817-7665 / (866) 930-1949
San Bernardino County: (909) 327-2065 / (866) 331-9473
