Though many laws about child support and child custody are different from state to state all of them require that there is solid proof that a relationship exists. If you want to get custody of a child you believe to be your own you need to prove that you are indeed related to that child. If someone takes you to court seeking child support they must prove your biological relationship to the child. Traditionally relationships between parties has often fallen to judgment by common law or what was "reasonable" to assume. Now that DNA technology is available for widespread use it has caused a change in the way paternity claims are dealt with.
More often than ever before a large group of shocked alleged fathers are finding that the kids they've raised as their own aren't really "theirs." While the mental impact of such a discovery can be distressing to say the least, there is further emotional distress when the man who has been known as the child's father suddenly gets the fact that he's paid years of child support payments, sometimes many, many thousands of dollars,that he shouldn't have had to pay.
Case in point: Bert Riddick of California. As reported in a Los Angeles Times story Mr. Riddick was getting ready to leave on business when the woman who would soon be his wife discovered a court summons. In that summons Riddick was called forward as the father of his ex-girlfriend's baby. Riddick had to attend to business elsewhere and couldn't go to the hearing. When he returned home Mr. Riddick found that his wages were already being garnished. The common practice of declaring a man "guilty" by default had declared Riddick the father because he had not proven otherwise.
It didn't take long before the court's ruling destroyed Riddick's new family financially. Wage garnishments followed him wherever he found work and soon there wasn't any way he could support his now growing family. Soon after their second child was born the family car was repossessed, the Riddicks were thrown out of the home they rented and his wife was forced to apply for welfare benefits.
The Riddick family was forced to rely on the kindness of relatives who allowed them to stay in their home, the Riddick children in a tiny room together. Though Riddick's life had been brought to ruin and his family became destitute a simple home DNA test eventually proved that Bert Riddick was not the father of the child he'd had his wages garnished for all these years.
One Michigan man, Doug Richardson, paid child support for fifteen years on a kid that wasn't his, an amount of roughly $80,000. He claims in the Detroit News that not only was he supporting a child who was not his, but he was financially supporting the child's real father a man involved with Richardson's ex-wife. Doug says he's been tormented by this issue for the last fifteen years. At one time Richardson was forced to file bankruptcy because he couldn't pay his bills. He has back taxes and the penalties that go with them to pay. Fraudulent child support collections have destroyed his life but Doug Richardson is ready to fight back. With the assistance of DADS of Michigan founder Murray Davis, Richardson is looking for legislative support that could offer relief for those paying child support for kids that aren't theirs. This move would request that courts are required to nullify support orders where DNA testing has proven that paternity fraud exists.
A dozen other states offer legal protection to men who disprove paternity in such cases and there are a great number of men in Michigan who would welcome the change. In 2005 almost twenty five percent of the states DNA paternity tests done for children born out-of-wedlock proved to be negative. In Georgia, if a man proves that he is not a child's father his child support order will be ended. Maryland no longer has a limit on how long one can take to challenge a paternity case, something a lot of other states are looking at seriously. DNA paternity testing is now an established and important legal part of many paternity cases in the United States.
"There's no reason you should be embarrassed about not knowing about an Shreveport paternity test. <= Click here to get the information you need on DNA tests and finding out who the father is. People have been getting DNA tests for paternity for a very long time and it's much easier than you think. Visit our Shreveport paternity test site to learn more. Join the thousands of people we have already helped by visiting us now."
No comments:
Post a Comment