Combating the Risks of Paternity Scams

Accounting for about 41% of all births in the United States, millions of children are born to unmarried couples according to the National Center for Health Statistics and Pew Research Center. Unlike married parents, unwed couples bring unique challenges to family court. When relationships sour, allegations of abuse, neglect and even fidelity may surface and hurt feelings often drive these former partners to extreme actions or confessions. One of the newest and most saddening consequences facing judges today is paternity scams.

In our modern culture, so many babies born out of wedlock face poverty without financial support from both parents. As a result, establishing paternity, or fatherhood, is crucial. Governments seek to identify fathers for those children receiving public assistance. The effort is driven by the need for reimbursing public coffers and qualifying for federal subsidies. For children, established paternity grants the children direct support and in the cases of abuse and neglect, creates an alternate placement option other than foster care.

Establishing paternity is as simple as a man's acknowledgment that he is the father of a child; however, acknowledgment implies belief that a woman has remained monogamous and faithful to the man. With 300,000 paternity tests performed annual as per report of the National Library of Medicine, some groups, including the American Association of Blood Banks, report that almost 30% of tests exclude the presumed fathers.

In some cases, these excluded fathers have paid support or have developed close relationships with their presumed child. Learning that a man is not the father can in many cases be just as damaging for the child as it is the man. And, the issue arises as to whether the mother did know or should have known that another paramour actually fathered her child.

While these situations may seem ripe for soap operas, they are real world situations that are heard in our court's every day. In the case of Joseph Golden, his girlfriend presented another person's child as her own and claimed he was the father. Without any other proof than her word, Golden paid $ 1,600 in support and demanded visitation. His ex-girlfriends deception eventually came to light. For Carnell Smith, his legal challenges caused him to advocate for the rights of fathers. Once married, he presumed the child born during his marriage was his own. He paid support and visited his child. Following suspicion about paternity of another one of his kids, he had his wife's child tested and learned the child was not his own. While DNA relieved him of future support obligations, he continued to battle the courts about the fairness of his having to pay prior support.

With increasing numbers of babies born out of wedlock each year, children are at risk for poverty, behavioral issues and social instability; however, parents need to understand and protect themselves from unnecessary court involvement. Men should specifically request paternity tests to ensure that they can have relationships with their children and preserve their rights as parents in the face of maternal fraud