Divorce Advice for Men | Fathers Rights Divorce | Child Custody

Question:

I am married, but a woman I had a brief sexual relationship with is claiming she is pregnant and the child is mine.

How do I protect myself and my family financially if genetic testing proves I am the child's father? Will I have to pay child support, and if so, can I have the wages come out of my paycheck and not my wife's?

By Sara Pitcher

Cordell & Cordell Men's Divorce Lawyer

Some states require a putative father to submit his information to a database – a putative father registry - to preserve some of his rights as the father of the child.

A putative father is a man who may be a child's father, but who is not married to the child's mother on or before the date that the child is born, or who has not legally established paternity of the child before the filing of an adoption petition for the child.

This impacts any man who thinks he is the biological father of a child born out of wedlock. As soon as a man believes he may be the father of a child, he should determine whether the state that the woman lives in has any requirements for registering as a putative father.

If you suspect that you are the father of a child born out of wedlock who is under the age of 18 years old, you should immediately determine whether there is a putative father registry in your area.

Question:

During our marriage I knowingly signed the birth certificate of my wife’s child even though I knew I was not the biological father.

If we get divorced, do I still have parental rights since I signed the birth certificate and he was born during our marriage even though he is not biologically mine?

By Nathan Arnold

Special to DadsDivorce.com

Biological fathers rights in Michigan earned a victory with a new law allowing biological dads to establish paternity of a child that was born to a married woman.

Previously, Michigan paternity laws did not give parental rights to biological fathers if the mother of the child was married to another man at the time of the child’s birth.

The husband of the child’s mother was automatically presumed to be the father.

Question:

If a paternity test determines I am not the father of a child, is it possible to stop paying child support?

I married a woman partially based on the fact that she convinced me she was pregnant with our child, but I have my doubts.

It appears I am the presumed father, but it seems like most courts just look for the man who can support the child regardless of who the biological father is.