How to Deal Effectively with Paternity/Pregnancy Claims
Posted: Sunday, October 02, 2011
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
When you are an “alleged father” or “unwed father” and are potentially subject to Paternity Actions -- sometimes called “establishment” hearings, “filiation” hearings, or “parentage” actions, you need to have a proper fear and respect for what you are facing for many sociological, psychological and familial reasons. The main reason to salute and pay attention is that you can be subject to child support and therefore have a right to visit a child you may love for the rest of your life.
There are several kinds of “father”: Acknowledged Father, Step Father, Equitable Parent, Presumed Father and the one we are focusing on in this article: ALLEGED or UNWED FATHER
IF YOU HAVE NO DOUBT ABOUT YOUR PATERNITY AND WANT TO BE CONSIDERED the Acknowledged Father, then you understand that you this will likely lead to having to pay child support.
Situations that cause Doubt, but should be Attended to Nevertheless
First let it be said that ANY claim of paternity that comes to you should be attended to, regardless of your memory or lack of memory about a relationship with any woman.
That being said, you should realize that “marginal situations” in which uninformed or “forgotten conduct” give you what you consider “reasonable doubts” are still reasons to pay attention to a paternity claim.
Let us just list some hypotheticals that might be flying in our heads chirping “Regret, Regret”, and “Doubt Doubt”, but should be calling “Test, Test”:
1) Drunken group sex where you and she were there together, but that’s all you can remember.
2) Again, you were drunk or under some kind of chemical influence and you performed what is called, along with other names, “dry hump”, but alas, things were not that dry, and you can’t remember much about the state of EITHER party’s underwear.
3) You ejaculated on the outside, on clothes or skin and you were both in one of those screaming writhing states, and you awoke from “post coital bliss” twenty minutes later.
4) You always use a rubber, yes, but she helped you put it on, and she was highly excited and cursed when she thought it tore, but all that talk was lost in a mutuality of passion. You were both almost non compos mentis.
5) She is very young and does not understand birth control pills as well as she should, and you get the luck of the draw.
6) Oral sex on her part and oral sex on your part coincided relatively close to each other, and you wrestled and tickled and laughed and then went to sleep.
7) If you and she and a hot tub all got together for some out of control fun.
8) Under the topic of innocence or ignorance, both individuals come in close genital contact, but are assuming that lack of penetration is a pregnancy preventative.
9) You had one date, and she fell in love with you, and she had other partners, but you feel you were “caught in the general accusation”.
10) You and she were at a hotel under the assumption that a bidet had birth control assurance.
Again, don’t talk yourself out of facing this claim because these kinds of facts make you doubt.
PATERNITY
Blood Type Matching is a way of determining if you could be the father, which then requires another test, or, you could not be the father, because the matching declares that you are excluded from possible being the father.
Blood Type Matching
If the blood types do match up it only means that you could be the father and a DNA test will be needed to know for sure.
In order to match blood types you need to know the answers to three questions;
what is the father’s blood type,
what is the mother’s blood type
and what is the baby’s blood type?
A baby’s blood type is determined by the blood types of its parents and it is an exact science as to what possible blood type a baby can have based on the types of the parents. It may sound confusing but it is really very simple.
The blood type of the baby is determined by a combination of its’ parents' blood types. If the baby has a blood type that could not be the result of the combined blood types of both parents then the paternity is usually called in to question (since in natural conception maternity is never at issue).
So what is the difference between a positive and a negative blood type match? Rh factor aside (which determines if the blood type is positive + or negative – and is not effected by paternity) a baby will have the same blood type as either its mother or its father or it will have a combined blood type based on the types of both parents. A negative blood type matching happens if a baby does not have the father’s or mother’s blood type or if the blood type that a baby does have is not a possible combination of the father’s and the mother’s. A positive blood type matching happens when a baby has the same blood type as the mother, the same blood type as the father or a blood type that is a combination of the parent’s blood types.
Blood type matching is the cheapest and simplest test but it does not determine paternity it only tells you if it is possible that you are the father. If the blood types don’t match up there is no possible way you are the father and no other tests are needed.
Cost
The cost of paternity tests run the gamut from about $150 to about $1,000 for the most expensive. At-home test kits usually cost about $25 to $30 to purchase, but the lab work is in addition to the cost of the kit and usually costs about $120. If you go to a lab or medical facility to have the test run, you can expect to pay between $450 and $600.
There are Two Basic Types of Paternity Tests.
The first is called the PCR (which stands for Polymerase chain reaction). This test is a fairly recent development in DNA testing and the results are relatively quick to determine (usually within 3 days to a week). In the PCR test, a swab is used to collect a DNA sample from the inside of a person's cheek (called a buccal swab).
The second type of test is called a RFLP analysis. RFLP stands for Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism. This is a more traditional DNA test; the one usually used in crime labs to help identify suspects in a crime. This test requires a larger sample of DNA, and that usually takes the form of a blood draw. However, because of recent technology advances in DNA testing, a buccal swab sample has been used in RFLP analysis, and may become over time the preferred method for DNA paternity testing.
Fatherhood
There are several kinds of “father”: Acknowledged Father, Step Father, Equitable Parent, Presumed Father and the one we are focusing on in this article: ALLEGED FATHER
Alleged or Unwed Father. An unmarried man who impregnates a woman is often referred to as an alleged father, or sometimes simply as an unwed father. An alleged or unwed father will be required to pay child support , if a court determines or he acknowledges that he's the father; in addition, an alleged or unwed father has the right to visitation with his child and may seek custody.
Paternity Actions
A paternity action, a court suit filed to have a man declared the father of a child, can be brought by either the mother or the father. Paternity actions are sometimes called establishment hearings, filiation hearings, or parentage actions.
Most paternity actions are initiated by welfare officials who provide TANF (Temporary Aid to Needy Families) to the mother and are required by law to seek reimbursement from the father. The mother must cooperate in these proceedings; failure to do so can result in a reduction or loss of her TANF grant.
Today, blood and DNA tests can affirmatively determine paternity with a 99.99% accuracy and can rule out paternity with 100% accuracy.
If paternity is established following a paternity action, the court will order.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/paternity-issues-child-support-29847.html
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Top-level comments on this article: (4 total)Christofer,
Just when I think there can not be another How To article you come up with a seriously funny and funny serious subject. I think you have outdone yourself on this one. Great job!!!
ArleneArlene: I await your sharp eye. If you can handle this nutty approach, then I am proud.
I thought you did such a great job I sent it to my face book page and also my twitter or tweet or whatever the heck it is called.OK, then I will do the same. If you think I can be proud of it, I will.
Oh yes, Christofer,
You completely covered an otherwise taboo subject with common sense and humor and one that needs to be written about that way.
Arlene
You've outdone it. You treated this tough subject with detail and a good bit of humor in part. Most interesting information and I daresay I've never had to worry about it. But then, I've watched an episode (or two) of Maury and Jerry and this paternity thing is greatly important and the details of it, well, three cheers to you Christofer. Superb writing.Knowing how men process these things, I thought I would help guys out a bit. "This is important, your future is at stake". Thanks for your comment. Yeah, Maury has made this a cottage industry.
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