DNA Tests Could End Child-Support Checks

http://durangoherald.com/asp-bin/art...n.asp?article_
type=news&article_path=/news/04/news040303_3.htm
March 3, 2004

DNA tests could end child-support checks

By Charles Ashby
Herald Denver Bureau Chief

DENVER - Fathers who pay child support but
later discover that children they thought
were theirs actually aren't can have a court
end payments under a bill that received House
approval Tuesday.

The measure, which passed the House on a
33-32 vote, is designed to free from
child-support obligations men who believed
false assertions from their former wives that
they were the fathers. The men would be freed
of child support only if they have DNA to
prove they are not the fathers.

Rep. William Sinclair, R-Colorado Springs,
who introduced House Bill 1083, said it's
only fair to give falsely named fathers a
legal option to terminate child-support
payments that they shouldn't have been forced
to pay in the first place.

"This bill would put the law in concert with
current science and technology," Sinclair
said. "Seven other states have this law, so
it's time for Colorado to set the tone here."

The measure, which heads to the Senate,
applies only to cases where a court
determines that ending support payments does
not unduly harm the child.

[ Note this massive out clause, by which a kourt
could tell a man " Yes, you have proof you're not
the father, but this child- meaning mommy- needs
money from *someone*... " ]

While disputes over parentage crop up only
rarely in Southwest Colorado, family-law
attorney James Shaner, who practices in
Cortez and Durango, said he suspects it might
become a bigger issue if the bill becomes
law.

He said paternity cases that stem from county
social services agencies routinely require
DNA tests to ensure proper identification of
the father.

With legal recourse, more men may choose to
check parentage years after the birth of a
child if they suspect they are not the actual
fathers, Shaner said.

"DNA testing is usually done prior to a
(child-support) order being approved," Shaner
said. "Under the law right now, there's
what's called presumptive fathers, where if
the father signed his name on the birth
certificate or an acknowledgment of paternity
when the child is born, that creates a legal
presumption that he is the father."

That presumption can be challenged later, and
Sinclair's bill would help with a paternity
challenge, Shaner said.

The bill would allow courts to reject
paternity lawsuits based on DNA evidence if
the man had acknowledged paternity knowing he
was not the biological father or if the child
was adopted.

--
THE mens movement website:-
http://www.angryharry.com/
---------------------------------------



--
" I'm a man... But, I can change... If I have to... I guess. "
The Man Prayer, Red Green.