Legal Question in Family Law in West Virginia

D.N.A Testing, paternity dealing with a minor

If a minor is acused of paternity and the mother is also a minor who is responsible for the D.N.A. test and also if paternity is proven who is responsible for child support and how is the amount of child support determined if mother and father are both unemployed high school students.


Asked on 8/05/99, 12:55 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

Carolyn J. Stevens CJ Stevens|Law

Re: D.N.A Testing, paternity dealing with a minor

I don't know the specific law in your state and I am not licensed to practice there, so take this answer with a grain of salt.

The "accused" father can either acknowledge paternity or can rule out paternity with the DNA test. Most likely, father pays for his, mother pays for the baby's but the court can order either party to pay the entire cost.

Child support calculations are based on lots of factors including incomes of both parents, the time the child resides with each parent, who pays the insurance premiums, who pays the day care costs. With adults, even if they're unemployed, the child support agency or the attorney calculating child support can "impute" income to the unemployed parent. Typically, we impute about $11,000, the salary from a full time minimum wage job.

If the mother wishes to relinquish the child for adoption and the father voluntary relnquishes his parental rights and consents to the adoption, no child support obligation will exist for either parent.

Either parent can call the regional child support office to have child support calculated, to ask questions, to find out about DNA testing.

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Answered on 8/21/99, 5:53 pm


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