Paternity Test and Child Support
People who are going through divorce or child support case must be familiar with the terms- child support and paternity. Basically, child support is financial support to the children when his/her parents are no longer living together. It is designed to make sure that children have sufficient financial support to meet their finances. Usually, the non-custodial parent pays support to the custodial parent in order to manage their kid’s expenses.
Speaking about the paternity test, it is a legal process that is used by the court to find the biological father of a child. Until the court finds out the biological father of the child, the alleged father doesn’t hold any responsibility or rights to the child. It means he doesn’t need to pay child support or the right to enjoy visitation or custody with the child. Either parent can have the right to ask the court to establish paternity or court is also free to open paternity case on its own to establish child support.
When a couple is married and has a child, their names were written on the child’s birth certificate. But this is not the case when parents are not married and in such cases, paternity should be established.
To get child support from a biological father who is not married to the mother, it is important to prove that he is the actual father of the child. Sometimes the mother is not sure about the biological father of the child or father denies that he is not the actual father of the kid. Here DNA testing can help! However, it may require the proceeding of the court to order DNA testing and establishing paternity, but when paternity is established this way, the court gets the authority to father to pay child support.
Paternity cases start when either parent files a formal application with a court to establish paternity. A simple blood test of child and father is required to establish paternity in front of the court. Blood tests and DNA are 99.9% precise at finding out the biological father of the child. If the court establishes paternity, the judge will either grant him custody, visitation rights or order the father to pay for the child support.
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