Legal Question in Family Law in California

Re: Mistaken Identity

Your boyfried must be served with a Petition to Determine Parentage. If he has been served this, then he better take care of it or he will be paying child support for the next 18 years. If the Family Support Division just has your boyfriend confused with another person with the same name, then your boyfriend can bring his own petition to determine parentage unless a parentage judgment has already been entered. If the judgment has been entered against the right guy, and the DA just has the names confused, then your boyfriend can contest enforcement efforts with a motion to quash when the DA attempts to enforce the order (i.e. attach wages). If a judment has been entered against your boyfriend, then you can move to set aside the judgment. When contesting a paternity action brought by the county, the county has to pay for the paternity tests, but if the tests come back positive, then the county is paid back by the New Happy Father. Saving a few hundred bucks by not hiring a lawyer is pretty sharp thinking. When your boyfriend has paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in child support for a child that is not his, he can look back and say, "Just think of all the money I saved by not hiring a lawyer."