Paternity Dispute Meaning: What Does It Mean?
What does a paternity dispute mean?
A paternity dispute is just as it sounds, a dispute. Often an unmarried man or even a married man may be provided a reason to question if a child is biologically related to himself.
Many times questioning paternity occurs during an argument or more commonly the looks of the child may be questioned by friends and/or by family. When this occurs, the alleged father may experience an emotional roller coaster of thoughts pertaining to betrayal, public embarrassment, and how his resources may be affected for the foreseeable future.
How should a man handle a paternity dispute?
The ideal time for a man to dispel or eliminate being faced with questioning the paternity of a child is to perform a paternity test shortly after the birth of the child. If an unmarried alleged father is unable to perform a paternity test on the child due to a contentious relationship with the mother of the child.
Then the only option available will be for the alleged biological father to file a paternity petition with the Family Court in the county of the city you reside in.
It should be noted that filing a paternity petition may not be successful if the mother of the child is married and she conceived a child with another man that is not her husband.
When a married woman becomes pregnant by another man that is not her husband. The unmarried man has no jurisdiction over the child. The husband will be looked upon as the legal father of the child. If the biological father who is unmarried wants the responsibility of raising his child. The husband (the legal father) and the wife must agree to work together.
In this scenario, normally the husband wants to terminate parental child support. Both the mother and father must agree.
Once the termination of parental responsibility is completed. The unmarried biological can work with the mother by filing a paternity petition in Family Court and the Judge will request a paternity test be performed to establish paternity.
We recommend that you speak with a Family Law professional to learn more about paternity dispute situations and what legal recourse may be available to you.
If you require a legal paternity test. Please contact our office today at 888-204-0583 to learn more.