Legal Question in Family Law in New York
not my child
i raised a child as my own for 13 years. got divorced and had a paternity test
done proving i am not the biological parent. Will I be made to give child
support payments and if the biological father is found will he be responsible
for support.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: not my child
Yes to both questions.
It is likely you will be adjudged the "natural father" by the Court and have all the attendant rights and obligations, including the obligation to pay child support.
Your belated paternity test may not overcome the court's tendency to strongly favor the "legitimacy" of a child; and the Court's disinclination of Unsettling a child's perception of his/her father, especially if the child is more than 5 yrs of age.
Even if the biological father is found, the Courts, have of late, have not seen a father's interests as being superior to that of [the] child's interests in being supported (sometimes by both fathers).
If there is a reasonable and credible explanation re your failure to obtain a paternity test in the first 5 years of the child's life, you might have grounds to claim that you should not be adjudged "the father." But, why would you consider doing that to a child, who knows only you as her father?
GOOD LUCK,
PHROSKA L. McALISTER,ESQ
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