Paternity

I am a Firefighter in Texas and need advice on a paternity issue. I was married for 2 years and am now divorced and we have joint custidy of our 2 yr old son. I pay child support to my ex-wife as she is primary custodian. Life was good.. Until just the other day my ex-wife informed me that a partner she had about the time she conceived our son (long story) Is claiming he is the father of our sun and wants to be part of his life. The problem is this young man and his family are not the most outstanding people in the world (drugs violence etc ..) I fear it would destroy my sons future, if anything ever became of this. I am my sons father regardless what any test says, but i fear for our future. My question is .. Is there any time limitation on parental test?? My ex-wife and I are not giving into any demands of this family, we are making them go to court for test that will be done. What are my options if for some reason this man is givin rights to see my son?Sorry for such a long question.. I feel you need to know alittle of the background..

Desperatly in need of advice
Sengir

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

Originally posted by sengir
I am a Firefighter in Texas and need advice on a paternity issue. I was married for 2 years and am now divorced and we have joint custidy of our 2 yr old son. I pay child support to my ex-wife as she is primary custodian. Life was good.. Until just the other day my ex-wife informed me that a partner she had about the time she conceived our son (long story) Is claiming he is the father of our sun and wants to be part of his life. The problem is this young man and his family are not the most outstanding people in the world (drugs violence etc ..) I fear it would destroy my sons future, if anything ever became of this. I am my sons father regardless what any test says, but i fear for our future. My question is .. Is there any time limitation on parental test?? My ex-wife and I are not giving into any demands of this family, we are making them go to court for test that will be done. What are my options if for some reason this man is givin rights to see my son?Sorry for such a long question.. I feel you need to know alittle of the background..

Desperatly in need of advice
Sengir

My response:

So, basically, what you're saying is that you married a woman who, at or around the time of your marriage to her, was sleeping with, and having sexual relations with, other men.

Nice woman.

Your "options", if he is shown to be the biological father, are to step aside and to follow the court's orders concerning his visitation rights. Your "automatic" rights to visitation will be cancelled, and any visitation time you might receive will be at the exclusive decision of mother and biological father.

IAAL

[tigger22472]

Not that I'm here questioning you IAAL. However and I'm sure this is where I'll get chastized Several years ago on TV I saw a movie with Peter Strauss that was supposed to be a true story about a guy who had raised a little boy as his own for like six years when someone came in claiming to be the father. Paternity tests proved the other guy was the bio-father. However the guy still fought and won rights. In fact(and this part might not be true), he got custody even. The judge had said that in the little boy's eyes that was his father and he had every right to be a part of his life. If in fact it's true it could give this poster a bit more hope.

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

Originally posted by tigger22472
Not that I'm here questioning you IAAL. However and I'm sure this is where I'll get chastized Several years ago on TV I saw a movie with Peter Strauss that was supposed to be a true story about a guy who had raised a little boy as his own for like six years when someone came in claiming to be the father. Paternity tests proved the other guy was the bio-father. However the guy still fought and won rights. In fact(and this part might not be true), he got custody even. The judge had said that in the little boy's eyes that was his father and he had every right to be a part of his life. If in fact it's true it could give this poster a bit more hope.

My response:

"Dramatic License" and "Real Life" are two, very different concepts. As you know, and as a result of "Troxel," life and the law changed as we once knew it. The only possible hope for our writer is if the child has a "psychological dependence" on our writer - - but, it's highly doubtful that a two year old would have such a "dependence", and one that wouldn't fade with time in any event.

This is not to say that his former wife wouldn't see things differently, and continue to allow our writer to go on seeing and visiting with the child. The only difference that there might be is that any such visitation would be at the "approval" of mother, and on her visitation time. So, our writer, if he wants to still see and be with the child, would now be required to obtain the permission of the bio-mother and / or the bio-father (should it turn out that the "other man" is, in fact, the bio-father).

IAAL

[CMSC]

Here are some helpful links. Try the very first link I gave you, it is Texas law on paternity and divorce.

You also may want to make it known to the alleged father that if he is found to be daddy, he will be responsible for everything, make a long list of what all it takes to raise this child. If he is more worried about his drinking and drug habits then he will not want to foot the bill! Then it could be possible (very rare) for you to adopt this child, it would take his consent. I have only heard of a few cases in which this has happend but it would be worth it to give it a shot.
[url]http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/fa/fa016000toc.html[/url]
[url]http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/statutes/fatoc.html[/url]
[url]http://incolor.inebraska.com/eaustin/adopt16.html[/url]
[url]http://www.fathers4kids.org/html/4_Buck.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.deltabravo.net/custody/links.htm[/url]
[url]http://www.abanet.org/legalservices/probono/home.html[/url]
[url]http://www.peak.org/~jedwards/paternity.html#stat[/url]
[url]http://www.vix.com/men/child-support/pater-limit.html[/url]

Here is some case law that will help with the statute of limitation issue:

Gomez v. Perez, 409 U.S. 535, 538 (1978) (emphasis
supplied). Following the decision, Texas authorized illegitimate
children to obtain support from their fathers. But the legislature
required as a first step that paternity must be judicially determined, and imposed a limitations period within which suit must be brought of one year from birth of the child. If suit is not brought within that period the child could never obtain support at any age from his father. No limitation was imposed on the opportunity of a natural child to seek support, up to age 18.

In Mills v. Habluetzel, 456 U.S. 91 (1982), the
Court invalidated the one-year limitation. While a State has an interest
in avoiding stale or fraudulent claims, the limit must not be so brief as to deny such children a reasonable opportunity to show paternity.

Similarly, a 2-year statute of limitations on paternity and support
actions was held to deny equal protection to illegitimates in Pickett v. Brown, 462 U.S. 1 (1983), and a 6-year limit was struck down in Clark v. Jeter, 486 U.S. 456 (1988). In both cases the Court pointed to the fact that increasingly sophisticated genetic tests are minimizing the ``lurking problems with respect to proof of paternity'' referred to in Gomez, 409 U.S. at 538. Also, the state's interest in imposing the 2-year limit was undercut by exceptions (e.g., for illegitimates receiving
public assistance), and by different treatment for minors generally; similarly, the importance of imposing a 6-year limit was belied by that state's more recent enactment of a non-retroactive 18-year limit for paternity and support actions.

I hope this helps you out. Here is one more site that has some case law [url]http://www.restoreliberty.com/csupport.htm[/url]