Legal Question in Family Law in Texas

I have a 13(almost 14) year old son. There has never been a court order for child support. His father did help out here and there up until about 4 years ago. My son has mostly been raised by my current husband and I had no plans to ever take him to court. My son does not seem to want to see his biological dad, so I did not want to push the issue. I have been thinking that it might be in my sons best interest to have the monetary support of his dad, seeing as he is getting older and things like braces, cars and college are just around the corner! Can I even take him for support after almost 14 years? And can I file back support even though there was never a court order? Also if my son does not want to go to his dads will the courts make him, and if so do they have some kind of supervised getting to know kind of program? His father did sign his birth certificate.


Asked on 5/21/12, 2:13 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mark Dunn Mark D. Dunn

Yes, you can sue for paternity at this late date. The courts probably won't give you more than four years' worth of retroactive child support.

If the child is 13, the court might not be willing to make an order that "eases into" the visitation; a 13-year-old can call you if he gets in trouble. The typical visitation order requires you to "surrender" the child to Dad at the beginning of each period of visitation; it doesn't have provisions for what happens if the 13-year-old doesn't want to go.

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Answered on 5/22/12, 6:33 am


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