Relationships are often complicated and even painful. And an act of betrayal by someone you were intimate with can be extremely difficult to accept. This is especially true if you discover that a child you were told was yours was actually fathered by another man.
Paternity fraud can be one of the most complicated and stressful issues that a man could ever have to contend with. And if the woman involved is someone the man loves and trusts, it can be that much more difficult.
As we discussed in a previous blog post, if a man is married and his wife has a child, he is the presumed father. In fact, if the man was married to the woman 300 days before the child is born, he is also presumed to be the child’s father, even if the man and the woman later divorced.
Often when a child is born in the aforementioned circumstance, the man may forgo DNA testing, assuming that the child is his. But what happens if it turns out that the child is not his and the man does not want to be responsible for making support payments?
If you are under obligation to pay child support for a child that you believe is not yours, you may be able to correct the situation, but you need to act as quickly as possible. S.B. No 785 of the Texas Family Code provides men the possibility of terminating a parent-child relationship that was based on a falsehood or mistake.
There are several steps you will need to take in order to arrange for a hearing where it will be decided if your child support obligations should be halted. For example, you must file your petition within a year of when you become aware that you may not be the father.
If you want to be relieved of having to pay support for a child that is not yours, a Texas family law attorney may be able to help get the situation corrected. The attorney can help you file your petition and represent your interests during your hearing.