Establishing paternity is the first step to gaining custody, visitation, or support rights for your child. A paternity order determines who is, and who is not, a child’s legal father.
If the child is born to married parents, the law recognizes two legal parents. Married spouses do not need to take additional legal steps to establish paternity.
If the child is born to unmarried parents, the law does not recognize the biological father as a legal parent until paternity is established. When the biological father is recognized as a legal parent, he takes on the benefits, rights, and duties of a parent.
In Texas, paternity can be established several different ways:
A legal presumption (if the parents are married)
Filing suit (a court order)
Filing an acknowledgment of paternity
A. Legal Presumption
A presumption is a legal assumption the court makes if specific facts are established and not contradicted. A man is presumed to be the child’s biological father if:
He was married to the child’s mother when the child was born or conceived.
He was married to the child’s mother any time during the 300 days before the child was born.
He married the child’s mother after the child’s birth and voluntarily claimed paternity with the Vital Statistics Unit, on the child’s birth certificate, or in a record, in which he promises to support the child.
He continuously lived with and represented the child as his own during the first two years of the child’s life.
The presumptions of paternity are “rebuttable.” A presumption can be overcome by introducing evidence, such as DNA testing, that the presumed father is not the child’s biological father in a suit to determine paternity.
B. Filing Suit
Unmarried parents who disagree about paternity can get a court order through the Attorney General’s Office or by filing a lawsuit.
The mother of the child or a man who believes he is the child’s father may file suit to establish paternity. Also, a presumed father may file suit to contest his identity as the child’s legal father.
The court may order DNA testing to determine the biological father. A DNA paternity test involves no more than a cheek swab. Suppose you are determined to be the biological father. In that case, you can ask the court to decide custody, support, and visitation so that you can begin to exercise your legal rights and duties as a parent.