Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina
3rd Party Trying To Establish Paternity
My son is 10mos old. My ex husband is on his birth certificate because we were married when he was conceived and not divorced for over xx amount of days when he was born. About a month after he was born I got remarried. The man I married ended up having abusive tendencies so I sent my son to live with my ex husband. I then left my husband. Now, he is trying to establish paternity of my son saying its his son not my ex's (there is a slight possiblity) but neither me or my ex want him to be able to establish paternity. He has shown violent tendencies (some are on record) and he has not had anything to do with my son in 9 of the 10mos since hes been born. My ex and my son have established a very loving father-son relationship. Can my estranged husband try to establish paternity against our wishes? And does my ex's name being on the birth certificate and the fact that he has a father-son bond with my son count for anything?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: 3rd Party Trying To Establish Paternity
The fact that your ex-husband's name is on the birth certificate and that you were legally married at the time of your son's birth give rise to a presumption that your ex-husband is the father of your son. In addition, I would assume that your divorce proceedings contain an aknowledgement by your ex-husband that he is your child's father, and that he continually acknowledges he is the father. Under these circumstances he is estopped from claiming he is not the child's father if he later has a change of heart and decides he no longer wants to support the child.
Another man can bring a civil action to establish paternity, and he can obtain a court order for tissue testing (blood test), but he would most likely have to pay for this himself. It would be a difficult and expensive proceeding for him to undertake. In addition, even if the tissue results show that this other man is statistically likely to be your son's father, this other man must prove that he is the father by clear, cogent and convincing evidence.
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