Parentage: Considerations and Establishment
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Most of us try to plan our lives as best as possible. We tend to think of milestones happening step by step, not all at once, and in a very distinct order. However, no matter how hard we try, life cannot always be planned and as we get older we quickly learn that the unexpected can happen.
Unexpected pregnancies happen to unwed women of every childbearing age. Quite often, because an expecting mother does not know how to enforce child support through the State, she will go for years either accepting a lesser child support amount than the State requires or choose to forego collecting any child support at all.
Both parents should know what to do when they are thrown this type of curveball. They should know how to handle this situation and more importantly, what obligations it places upon the expecting father.
The law assumes that a child born of a marriage is the biological child of the husband in that marriage. The husband of the marriage, like the wife, is expected to emotionally and financially support the child from its infancy. The New Jersey Parentage Act, N.J.S.A. 9:17-38, provides several other rebuttable presumptions concerning paternity. Other rebuttable presumptions include when the parents are planning to get married or when a man holds a child out as his own. In these situations, the court will presume the man performing these acts is the father of the child, whether biological or not.
Circumstances are exceedingly stressful when the parents are not married and are facing an unplanned pregnancy. The parents have to establish paternity, child support, custody and parenting-time. Further, when a child becomes college-bound, contribution to tuition and other education-related expenses becomes an issue.
These issues mirror those in a typical divorce situation except that in a divorce proceeding parentage has already been defined by way of the marriage. Further, the issue of college contribution has almost always been discussed during a marriage which assists both parties in negotiating their respective contributions, i.e. whether as a marital unit they anticipated contributing to a child's education.
Unwed parents may not have the benefit of prior discussions concerning their child's future. They may not have discussed their expectations for their child. If litigated, it is likely that when the child is college-bound, both parties will be expected to contribute based upon their financial circumstances at that time. The courts can look at whether the parents have college degrees to gain insight into expectations.
A paternity, custody and child support complaint should be filed in your county court in order to acquire a case number. Willing and cooperative parents can arrange to have a DNA test performed and enter into a paternity consent order.
There are many private DNA testing websites to turn to, including, www.dnacenter.com and www.genelex.com. These are just two of the many websites available. If the mother and the alleged father agree to private testing, the mother must do her research regarding the reliability of the testing facility and the sample's chain of custody. This is a very important consideration and should not be taken lightly. Should the father challenge paternity in the future, the mother will want to ensure that the test was reliable. There usually is a fee for private testing, which ranges from $300 to $500.
If the father is unwilling, then he will likely contest the paternity action. The court will take into consideration any evidence relating to sexual intercourse at the time of conception, statistical probability of the alleged father's paternity, and DNA testing.
Once paternity is established, a child support order will be entered against the father. Child support is determined according to the New Jersey Child Support Guidelines, which is based upon the parents' respective incomes.
From here on out, both parents are dealing with all the issues that a divorcing couple with children face. You should establish custody, legal and physical. You should implement a visitation schedule. It is unlikely that the establishment of paternity will be the last time you need to utilize the family court. However, the more thought the parents put into their situation, the better prepared they are going forward.
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IANDOLI & EDENS, LLC
310 State Route 24, Suite A4
Chester, NJ 07930
Phone: (908) 879-9499
Fax: (908) 879-4841
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