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Paternity Suits

Conroe Child Custody, Support and Visitation Lawyer

The father-child relationship is established by an unrebutted presumption of the man's paternity, an acknowledgment of paternity, an adjudication of paternity, adoption of the child or children, or the man's consenting to assisted reproduction by his wife, which resulted in the birth of the child or children.

When there is doubt as to paternity, a man is presumed to be the father of the child or children if one of three tests is met.  In the first instance, a man is presumed to be the father if the child was born during the marriage, or was born within 300 days after the marriage is terminated by death, divorce, or annulment.  In the second instance, a man is presumed to be the father if he married the child's mother after the birth of the child, and, he voluntarily asserted his paternity by filing a record with the Bureau of Vital Statistics, voluntarily named himself as the child's father on the birth certificate, or he promised in an official record to support the child as if it was his own.  In the third instance, a man is presumed to be the father if during the first two years of the child's life he lived in the same household as the child and represented to others that he was the child was his own.

Paternity actions typically are initiated by a mother of a child in the process of seeking child support, where the father denies paternity, or by the father of a child seeking to establish paternity when the mother of the child denies the father's paternity.  There is a four year statute of limitations with regards to paternity actions, which in simple terms means that a paternity action must be brought within four years of the child's birth.  Paternity may be rebutted either by genetic test results which prove that the alleged father is not the biological father of the child, or by a written denial of paternity by the presumed father in conjunction with a written acknowledgment of paternity by another man.

Due to the complexity involved in paternity actions, it is important to hire the Conroe paternity suit lawyers at Smith & Garg, to ensure that your rights are protected whether you are asserting paternity, or denying allegations of paternity.

Please contact our office to see how we can assist you. Learn more about our Areas of Practice.

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