Acknowledgement of Paternity
Be sure before you sign. Health-Link can perform a Legal Paternity Test and provide you with peace of mind that you need prior to signing an Acknowledgement of Paternity.
Paternity is considered to be a legal and social acknowledgement of the parental relationship between a child and his or her father. For Testing Fees Click Here
Typically, a child born during a marriage is presumed to be the husband’s child. This presumption could be overcome by a DNA Test results that show that the child was not the husband’s child. However, establishing Paternity where paternity of a child is in question, any party, the mother, the father, or the child, can ask the court for a determination. That means a lawsuit can be brought by a private party or by the state. We usually see the mother requesting to legally establish paternity in order to get Child Support.
A person identified as the child’s father in a paternity suit is called the “putative father” or the “alleged father”
When the suit names the putative father as a defendant in a paternity case, he has a choice of either consenting to the entry of a paternity judgment or contesting the action.
Acknowledging Paternity by Consent
In order for the putative father to consent, he must sign an Affidavit Acknowledging Paternity, sometimes referred to as an AOP (Acknowledgement of Paternity) which establishes the legal relationship between the father and the child. When the putative father consents to a paternity order, he consents for life. Most courts will not allow him to escape the consequences of the order, which include child support, even if it is later proved that he is not the child’s biological father. If you consent to being named as the child’s father, be sure that you are willing to live up to that responsibility no matter what you may learn later. That is why it is imperative that you seek the advice of an attorney in your area before consenting. More information about DNA Paternity testing
DNA Testing
If the putative father denies that he is the father or is not sure, DNA tests based on a cheek swab conducted on him, the mother, and the child can indicate a probability of paternity. The tests can exclude a man who is not the biological father and show the likelihood of paternity if he is not excluded.
DNA testing has become the most powerful test for determining paternity and is admissible as evidence in paternity trials. The percentage of probability varies from state to state, but it is usually from 95 to 99 percent. That means that if the test determines that the probability is that percentage or higher, paternity is presumed. The burden is on the putative father to rebut the presumption, a very difficult task.