Paternity Suits
There are many kinds of situations which require paternity suits other than the common one, in which a woman who is not married to the man seeks to prove that he is the father of her child and to obtain an order for child support. For example, a child, through a "guardian ad litem", can file a paternity suit. The man can file the suit to prove he is the father, and establish custody and visitation rights. A county child support collection department can file the suit to establish paternity and obtain orders against the natural father to reimburse it for AFDC and other benefits it has paid to or conferred on the mother. Any other "interested person" can file it, such as the child's guardian, a foster parent, an adopting parent, or other persons. There are also situations in which there is a court battle between two or more men who claim to be the child's father, as in the Anna Nicole Smith case, or by a mother against two or even more men whom she believes could be the father.

There are legal distinctions between "alleged" fathers (possible biological fathers) and "presumed" fathers, those who, after the child is born, receive the child into their home and hold themselves out to the world as the child's father. There are even cases in which, because of a long history of acting as the father and supporting the child, the man can be legally declared to be the father even if HLA blood tests prove that he is not the biological father, and he can be ordered to continue paying child support, or he can use this "parenthood by estoppel" argument to obtain visitation and custody rights, or the child can use it to be determined to be an "heir" for inheritance purposes.

Even this list of situations is no means all-inclusive, and life is often stranger than fiction, where creative lawyering and aggressive representation is urgently needed by someone involved in a paternity-related matter. With my rich and varied experience and background, I am the man for the job, regardless of which side you are on, or which party you are.

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