Child Support in The United States - Paternity Fraud, Not-adopted, Non-biological Children

Paternity Fraud, Not-adopted, Non-biological Children

Paternity questions complicate the issue of child support, either because of incorrect information, fraudulent intent or default judgements. Paternity fraud mainly affects four groups of individuals; the defrauded man forced to pay support for a child that is not his, the child deprived of a relationship with his/her biological father, the biological father who loses his relationship with his child and the mother of the child in question.

Some jurisdictions, such as California limit the amount of time allowed to challenge paternity or allow women to claim paternity in nearly anonymous conditions.

Even if paternity fraud was proven through DNA testing, the alleged father may still be liable for child support. In most jurisdictions the courts have declared the male who acts as the child's father to be the father through the equitable operation of an estoppel. Once the child has been declared to be someone's offspring and has lived with the man for a period of time, the court may burden the putative father with all of the obligations of parenthood, effectively freeing the biological father from obligations, even if the biological father gains custody of the child. This was the case for a Michigander who was forced to pay child support for a child to a child's biological father.

Even if paternity is proven false and the alleged father was not even aware of the child's existence, once the court determines a man is the child's father and the deadline for challenging paternity, as little as 20 days, a man can still be liable for child support. This happened to a man in Florida who was named as the father of a "daughter" that he never knew about until she was 11 years old. Despite DNA results that show that he had not fathered the child and despite an affidavit from the girl's mother saying he's "not the father", Florida demanded that he support the girl, and pay more than $10,000 already "owed". He spent a night in jail.