Legal Question in Family Law in New Jersey

Paternity test back, he's not the father and wants to sue me

I just got the paternity test back for my 4 month old son. (I'm a single mother) The man I thought was the father is not. Now he is threatening to sue me for the child support he has voluntarily been paying. He has made other threats too, that I'm "going to get what's coming to you" and "you're going to pay" Am I responsible to pay him back? I don't have the money to. And are those kind of threats serious enough for me to take action? I'm scared. Thank you for the advice, I can't afford a lawyer.


Asked on 2/23/98, 5:46 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys

John Maus Law Office of John R. Maus

Suing to Recover Erroneous Child Support Payments

This response to your posting is not intended to be the giving of legal advice or the establishment of an attorney-client relationship. In this Office, such a relationship is undertaken only upon the execution of a written fee agreement, and legal advice is not given to non-clients.

Your posting does not say what the basis was for your belief that the payor of child support was the child's father. Assuming that he was intimate with you during the time you became pregnant, and there is no obvious indication that he was not the child's father (e.g., wrong race or ethnic features), I think that the putative father will be unable to recover his payments to you. To pursue either a criminal charge for something like obtaining money under false pretenses, or a civil charge for fraud, he would have to show not only that you made a representation that was false, but that you KNEW it was false. The reasonableness of your belief in his paternity has a lot to do with this. His best bet is not to open his wallet so quickly next time.

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Answered on 2/26/98, 9:07 am


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