Legal Question in Family Law in California
Hello,
Can I seek legal financial responsibility for prenatal needs from the baby's father before the actual birth? Including such things as maternity health care assistance (the out of pocket coinsurance portion) , baby needs in preparation for birth, etc. Or does the baby have to be born and legal paternity to be established first?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Mr. McCormick is wrong. You can file a paternity action before a child is born. Box 2.b on the mandatory Judicial Council form provides for this. You can even ask the court to award the reasonable costs of the pregancy and the birth of the child. That is box 9.
You can look at the form here: http://www.courtinfo.ca.gov/forms/documents/fl200.pdf
There are fillable forms for free on that site if you need them.