When Child Support and Presumptions of Paternity Collide

A person paying child support in Colorado is generally the child’s or children’s biological mother or father. Occasionally, it is someone who has assumed all the responsibilities and rights of a parent through adoption or signing an ‘Acknowledgment of Paternity” form. All create an obligation to pay child support if the couple either divorces or one files to receive government-issued benefits. Men who have established a parental relationship by signing an Acknowledgment of Paternity, can find themselves in complicated situations either establishing their own biological tie to a child when the mother is married to another man, or signing an Acknowledgment of Paternity and then discovering the child is not his.

At Plog & Stein, P.C., we have witnessed a lot of unique family situations in the pursuit of advocacy and resolution. No matter how odd or complicated you feel your personal situation is, one of our experienced attorneys is here to help you sort it out.

The Colorado Court of Appeals assessed a specific legal question that arose from a child support case where the lower court determined a man who signed the Acknowledgment of Paternity form was the presumptive father and not the wife’s ex-husband who fathered the child while they were still married. The mother was dating the man who later signed the Acknowledgment of Paternity while she was married. She conceived the child during her marriage and then divorced while she was still pregnant with no discussion or acknowledgment of her pregnancy by her or her husband in any of the paperwork or proceedings. Her boyfriend signed an Acknowledgment of Paternity and had his name placed on the birth certificate for the child after they moved in together, even though there had been tests that revealed the child wasn’t his.The mother and the boyfriend ended their relationship after several years of the boyfriend acting as the child’s father. The boyfriend sought parental responsibilities for the child, and was granted parenting time. The mother later sought benefits from the state of Colorado and the local enforcement unit, based on information she submitted, pursued her ex-husband for child support. A DNA test established a 99.99% probability that he was the father. The enforcement unit also discovered that the boyfriend signed the Acknowledgment of Paternity form and asked the court to help determine who was the child’s legal father.

The Court of Appeals ultimately upheld the lower court’s decision granting the boyfriend parental rights and child support responsibility. The search for a father to assume Colorado child support obligations led to the court choosing which competing presumption of paternity outweighed the other. You had the ex-husband who fathered the child during the marriage and was shown by genetic testing to be the biological father, and the boyfriend who voluntarily assumed responsibility and had formed an actual relationship with the child. This was all seriously considered by both the lower and appellate court because the child had a greater stake in the outcome beyond the child support determination. Legal presumptions are not, by themselves, considered to be conclusive. They were meant to be evaluated to determine what is in the child’s best interest.

If you need assistance from one of our Denver-area lawyers with your child support case, contact Plog & Stein, P.C. for a logical analysis of your case at a competitive price.