Parentage
(proving paternity")
Parentage is the process by which a parent who wants to request a child support or child custody & visitation order from the family law court can do so, when the parties weren’t married at the time of the child’s birth. For example, Kranjis MacBasketball and his girlfriend, Suzy Cantstandjabits, dated for 3 years. They never married. They had one child together, Kranzy MacBasketball. Kranjis wants to visit his son, but Suzy will not let him. So, he needs to get a court order that he can have some visitation with his baby. In California, a child born during a marriage is already deemed by the court to be the child of the married couple. However, if the parties were not married at the time of the birth, these parties must first establish parentage. This will not only allow the family law court to give Kranjis some custody and visitaiton, but will allow Suzy to request child suppor.t Neither of them will be able to request this from family law court until they establish parentage.
The party wanting to establish parentage will need to file for parentage and prove paternity. This can be done via an affidavit of paternity or a birth certificate with the parents’ names on it. An affidavit of paternity is usually signed by the father in the hospital shortly after the baby is born. If no affidavit of paternity exists, and the father’s name is not on the birth certificate, Kranjis will need to request the court oder a paternity test be done. The parties can also agree to the paternity to avoid haveing to take a paternity test. Should Suzy deny that Kranjis is the father, and the family law court orders a paternity test that shows Kranjis IS the father, Suzy may have to reimburse Kranjis for all of the costs associated with the paternity test. Thus it is much faster and esier for both parents to agree to paternity if they are sure who the father is.