Paternity is the relationship between the biological father and the child. It is possible that the biological parent is not the paternal parent. For example if a Mother had 100% of the time with the children and is married or lives with someone who is not the biological Father, and the biological Father has not contacted the children, then the children living with Mother may be considered the psychological parent.
The idea behind a psychological parent is that the child has bonded with this psychological parent but not bonded with the biological father. The court feels in these situations that the psychological parent has rights with the children because they’re in the best interest of the children. Establishing paternity gives the biological parent rights to the child.
Married couples are presumed to be the biological parents of the children. In order to establish paternity one must provide the court with genetic testing for the alleged Father and child. Generally genetic testing is very obvious. If you’re not the Father it’ll be very low percentages. If you are the Father it’s going to come back in the 90% range. So there’s not a lot of room for error in those.
Kate Miller is a Denver, Colorado attorney focused exclusively on the practices of divorce and family law. She has lived many of the issues regarding divorce and child custody, and is passionate about helping people through this process. To learn more about Kate and her firm visit www.MillerFamilyLawLLC.com.
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