Sunday, June 12, 2011

IF FATHER ISN'T ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE, CAN HE BE ORDERED TO PAY CHILD SUPPORT?

QUESTION: Does the father have to be on the birth certificate in order to be required to pay support? Does a mother have to put a father on a birth certificate in order for him to pay child support??


MY RESPONSE: It doesn't matter whether or not the father is on the child's birth certificate. If he is the child's biological father, he can be required to pay child support.

A DNA test can establish whether or not he is the child's father.

You can seek child support through your local county's child support agency, or by way of a paternity case. The child support agency attorneys are free of charge, but they tend to work slowly, they don't represent you and they will be hard or impossible for you to reach by telephone.

If you would prefer to seek child support by way of a Paternity case, you would likely need to retain an experienced Family Lawyer to prepare and prosecute the paternity case, at your expense (although you might be able to get an order that the father pay some of your attorney's fees), and the father could seek rights in the paternity case that he could not seek through the child support agency case. A private attorney would represent you and would likely work much faster and be far easier to reach than a child support agency attorney, but you would have to pay for his/her services.

This educational blog is brought to you by DONALD F. CONVISER, an effective and aggressive Los Angeles Family Law Attorney and Divorce Lawyer serving clients in the courts of Los Angeles and Ventura County for over 35 years,owner of Warner Center Law Offices, with offices in Woodland Hills and Century City. Call 888.632.4447 or 818.880.8990 for a free confidential consultation with a Certified Family Law Specialist to discuss your divorce or family law issues. | www.conviser.net | www.conviserfamilylaw.com |

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