Legal Question in Family Law in Virginia

Protection against blood test of my child by the father.

I recently had a child, and the man i am with now is the father and he is on the birth certificate and has full custody of my child. well a previous boyfriend thinks that my son is his son. is there a protection i can have that can prevent him from taking me to court. also can he put juridiction on me. If i move out of state can i follow him. also can emails hold up in court. He says he has emails that i have said he is the father.

thanks.

ck


Asked on 2/15/01, 8:57 am

2 Answers from Attorneys

Glenn R. Tankersley Regency Legal Clinic

Re: Protection against blood test of my child by the father.

I've always said, "You can sue anybody for anything if you've got the filing fee; it's getting money (or whatever other desired commodity or result) that's the real trick." In Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court you don't even need the filing fee.

You could certainly discourage the former b.f. by getting your new b.f. to submit to a DNA paternity test. On the other hand, if the DNA shows the new b.f. ISN'T the father, that might encourage the former b.f.

You can contact your local social services department to get the names and addresses of some companies that will do the DNA testing privately for a fee.

Interestingly, you said, "If i move out of state can i follow him." If you are referring to the ex b.f., I thought you were trying to get away from him. Could that have been a freudian slip on your part? If so, you are leading too complicated a life.

E-Mails, because they are so easy to fake, are absolutely worthless in court. The bottom line is the DNA test, which is virtually infallible or, at least, is treated as being so.

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Answered on 3/30/01, 11:15 am
Lisa Lane McDevitt McDevitt Law Office

Re: Protection against blood test of my child by the father.

He can certainly file an action to bring you to court and force a paternity test to determine if he is the bio dad. I would strongly suggest that you have your current boyfriend take a dna test now to determine if he could be the father. If he is you can move to dismiss any case your ex decides to file. If the dna test shows that he couldn't be the father then you have a problem on your hands. The ex could file for custody and child support. Fact of the matter is you can't stop him from taking you to court you can only try and protect yourself if he does.

I didn't understand your question about moving out of state but I think I can answer it this way. You can ALWAYS move out of state prior to him filing an action for custody.

As for the email, YES they are admissible and are used quite often in family law cases. You can object to its admission on hearsay grounds but it will likely come in anyway under an exception to the hearsay rule (admission by party-opponent). You could also object that you never wrote the email but you can't perjure yourself if you actually did write it. So DON'T lie (to the court) because at the end of the day it doesn't really matter what you said it's what the DNA test says! Good luck! If you have any questions, feel free to call my VA office at 703-598-9220 or my MD office at 301-652-0663.

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Answered on 3/30/01, 3:13 pm


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