Are You a Child’s Father? How Can You Know?

For several very important reasons, when a child’s parents have not married, the child’s father may have to be identified. If you are involved or expect to be involved in a paternity matter in the San Antonio area, you must be represented and advised by a San Antonio paternity lawyer.

Establishing legal and biological paternity is important for children and for their parents as well. All children have a fundamental right to know their biological fathers, and they have the right to the love and support they need. A biological father may ask the court for visitation rights or even custody, even though not married to the mother.

Fathers also have the right to know that they’re fathers, and if they are, along with their parental rights, they also have the many legal responsibilities and obligations that fatherhood entails.

Why Is Establishing Paternity Important For Children?

Establishing paternity may provide a child with access to important information about his or her inherited health conditions. Additionally, establishing paternity may provide a child with access to:

  1. life and health insurance benefits
  2. inheritance rights
  3. Social Security dependent benefits or survivor benefits
  4. veterans’ benefits

When Does Paternity Become a Legal Matter?

Questions about paternity often emerge in custody, child support, and visitation disputes when the parents have never married. A paternity case may be brought by either parent to establish biological fatherhood or child custody, to arrange a visitation schedule, or to seek child support.

However, there are cases of mistaken paternity where someone has been identified as a father, but someone else is, in fact, the biological father. For example, if the mother is married to someone else, the law presumes that the husband is the father unless proven otherwise. Sometimes the wrong person is named as father on a birth certificate. What can happen in Texas when a presumption, a voluntary acknowledgment, or a denial of paternity is challenged by another party?

If you are a father in Texas, or if someone is claiming that you are a father and you’re not, it is important to know how these issues may be handled, and it’s also important to know when you should reach out to a San Antonio paternity attorney for the legal help you may need.

When is There a Legal Presumption of Paternity in Texas?

If a man is married to a child’s mother, and if the child’s birth takes place during the course of the marriage, state law in Texas makes the presumption that the man is the child’s father. Texas law also presumes paternity:

  1. if a man is divorced from the child’s mother but the child was born within 301 days of the final divorce decree
  2. if a couple marries after a child’s birth and the husband is named as the father on the birth certificate or agrees to support the child
  3. if a man lives in the same home with a child and represents himself as the child’s father from the child’s birth until the child is at least two years of age

When May Paternity Be Challenged?

When a man is not a child’s presumed legal father, he may be deemed the legal father when he signs an acknowledgment of paternity. However, when a man is a child’s presumed legal father, but he believes he isn’t the biological father, he may sign a denial of paternity document. If the mother is claiming that a man is the biological father, but the man denies it, the court can order the parties to submit to genetic testing.

Before you sign any acknowledgment of paternity in Texas, you must be certain that you are, in fact, the child’s biological father. If there is any question, a DNA test should be conducted. If a paternity acknowledgment is signed, a man has sixty days to rescind that acknowledgment.

After that sixty-day deadline, it is still possible for a presumed legal father to challenge paternity, but only if the acknowledgment of paternity was signed because of duress, fraud, or factual error. In other words, paternity may be contested by a presumed legal father after sixty days only if:

  1. He was threatened or pressured to sign the acknowledgment of paternity.
  2. He was deceived into believing he was the child’s father.
  3. He and the child’s mother both mistakenly believed he was the father.

In What Other Circumstances May Paternity Be Challenged?

If a child in Texas has a legally presumed father, and if no denial of paternity document was signed, in most cases, any other challenge to paternity must be brought before the child reaches the age of four. However, paternity may be challenged after this deadline in these circumstances:

  1. The legally presumed father and the mother were not living together (and did not have intercourse) around the time of the child’s conception.
  2. The presumed father failed to meet the legal deadline for filing a paternity challenge in Texas because he mistakenly believed he was the child’s biological father.

What May Be the Consequences of a Paternity Challenge?

In Texas, a paternity challenge is sometimes filed when someone is ordered to pay child support based on a presumption or belief that he is the biological father. If a court determines that he is not the biological father, he is no longer legally obligated to make child support payments.

However, that determination also means that he will no longer be considered the child’s legal parent, and he will no longer have any child custody rights, visitation rights, or any legal right to be a part of the child’s life.

Who Should Represent You in a Paternity Case?

If you are not sure whether you are a child’s biological father, you may need to take action quickly to protect your interests. If the child’s last name is to be changed, it is usually best to do that before the child is of school age. At the Laura D. Heard Law Firm, we can help you establish legal parenthood or help you challenge acknowledged or presumed paternity.

San Antonio paternity attorney Laura D. Heard offers sound advice and represents clients who are dealing with all matters of family law. Whether you are divorcing, adopting a child, or filing a paternity challenge, she will assess your needs and bring your case to its best possible outcome.

In or near the San Antonio area, if you need to establish your legal rights as a father, or if you need to file a paternity challenge, now or in the future, schedule a consultation promptly with a San Antonio paternity lawyer and call the Laura D. Heard Law Firm at 210-775-0353.