Legal Question in Family Law in North Carolina

Re: 3rd Party Trying To Establish Paternity

The fact that your ex-husband's name is on the birth certificate and that you were legally married at the time of your son's birth give rise to a presumption that your ex-husband is the father of your son. In addition, I would assume that your divorce proceedings contain an aknowledgement by your ex-husband that he is your child's father, and that he continually acknowledges he is the father. Under these circumstances he is estopped from claiming he is not the child's father if he later has a change of heart and decides he no longer wants to support the child.

Another man can bring a civil action to establish paternity, and he can obtain a court order for tissue testing (blood test), but he would most likely have to pay for this himself. It would be a difficult and expensive proceeding for him to undertake. In addition, even if the tissue results show that this other man is statistically likely to be your son's father, this other man must prove that he is the father by clear, cogent and convincing evidence.