Legal Question in Family Law in Oregon

Re: Paternity & Child support

QUESTION:

My ex-wife is going after child support for our 6 yr old; we have 50/50 custody, she is unemployed & pregnant with another man's child, and I pay for medical and childcare. I believe I am not the biological father, but don't want to lose any parental rights - but frankly don't want to pay child support. Would getting a paternity test help in this case or make things worse?

ANSWER:

To say "I don't want to lose any parental rights - but frankly don't want to pay child support," is pretty much akin to say "I don't want to work but I want my employer to pay me anyway."

Bottom line: Parental RIGHTS go hand-in-hand with parental RESPONSIBILITIES. You really can't have one without the other.

If you did not think you were the child's father, that issue could and should have been raised and resolved at the time of the divorce. If you raise the issue now, and prove that you are not the child's father, you will then have no parental responsibilities. And you will also have no parental rights.

So if you want to continue to be a DAD (regardles of whether you were the sperm donor) you should leave well-enough alone.

If you take legal action to prove your non-paternity of the child, and you prevail, your chances to continuing to be DAD will be greatly deminished, if not totally destroyed.

Lastly, consider how your taking legal action to prove that you are not the father (and thereby proving that some other man is) is going to be viewed by the child. He's only 6 now, but he will soon understand that you are not his "real" father after all (and that some other man is), and that you felt it necessary to go to court to prove that fact. This is not a good way to good way to improve and strengthen your child's respect and admiration for the man he THOUGHT was his father.