Boise Family Law Lawyers - Divorce Attorneys (208) 472-2383

Interesting Family Law Issues
As a Boise Family Law Attorney I deal regularly with divorce, custody, paternity, modification, child support and domestic violence.  Even though some of these issues can be complicated by conflict the concepts involved in these issues are fairly straight forward.  However, every once in a while something will throw you a curve ball.

Paternity
As a Boise Divorce Attorney, I have handled divorce and modification cases that seem routine.  Occasionally, however, some interesting issues arise.  One such issue is Paternity.  Now and then a new client will come into my office seeking a modification or responding to one.  This isn't unusual.  What is unusual is when the client has been paying child support and having visitation with a child that is legally not theirs.

Sometimes it is the case of mistake.  Sometimes they presumed it was their child.  Sometimes that is a mutual mistake for both parties.  Sometimes the one party was convinced by fraud that the child is theirs.  Other, more rare situations, are when the client knows the child is not theirs but they felt obligated to provide for the child anyway.

How to Fix Paternity Issues in Idaho
So what happens in these various situations?  If the presumption is wrong, and the child is not biologically the child of one of the parties, and no fraud was committed, your Boise Divorce Attorney or family law attorney will petition the court to terminate any child support order.  If you know the child is not yours but you want to have a relationship with that child and the child's biological parent is ok with it, you can ask that the existing order be kept in place or even modified (one caveat; not all judges will ok a stipulation for you to pay child support and have visitation with a child that is not yours even if both parties agree).  If, however, you were fraudulently convinced that the child was yours and you have paid child support for that child, you can bring charges against the other parent, if they were the one that committed the fraud.  They have to have known with a degree of likelihood that you were not the biological parent and taken child support from you anyway.  If this is the case you can either seek reimbursement from the mother, who collected child support or the child's actual father who should have paid child support that whole time.

If you are public assistance and your child was born out of wedlock, the state will automatically require the father to have a paternity test to avoid the exact problems I outlined above.

If you need to speak to a Boise Divorce Attorney about divorce, custody, child support, modification, termination, adoption or domestic violence, give us a call to speak with one of our Boise Family Law Attorneys, (208) 472-2383 and see what we can do for you.  Call now, you will be glad you did.