Married spouses automatically establish themselves as their child’s parents at birth. The court also presumes paternity when a child is born within 300 days after a divorce. But when parents are unmarried in Colorado, the child’s genetic father isn’t automatically recognized as the father. Our skilled family lawyers in Denver can help establish paternity in Colorado.
Instead, the parents can establish the father’s paternity in three ways: either through a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity (VAP) signed by both parents in the hospital, through an administrative parentage order, or through a judicial paternity order. Either parent may choose to establish paternity at any time before a child turns 18.
There are many reasons for one or both parents to wish to establish legal paternity. In Colorado, the court considers it an obligation for both parents to support their child. By establishing paternity, a father has a duty to pay child support.
They also have a right to participate in raising their child through a shared child custody plan as agreed upon by both parents, or ordered by a judge in court. Paternity also allows a father to provide health insurance coverage for a child and establishes inheritance rights.
Establishing paternity is crucial for the Colorado family court to make decisions that meet the state’s standard of deciding cases in the best interests of the child. The outcome of establishing paternity plays an essential role in the outcome of child custody cases, visitation rights, and financial matters.
The easiest way for non-married parents to establish paternity is for both parents to agree to sign a voluntary acknowledgement of paternity form, which adds the father’s name to the birth certificate. The parents may sign this form at the hospital or later at a child support office or the Health Department.
A VAP form is the easiest way to establish paternity and legally recognize the child’s father; however, this form of establishing paternity only works when both parents agree to sign.
Beginning in 1992, Colorado’s administrative paternity statute authorized county child support enforcement offices to establish paternity without the court’s involvement. This authority includes ordering paternity testing when paternity hasn’t been legally established and in cases when both parents do not agree to the child’s parentage.
A court order for paternity testing in a state-approved laboratory facility is sometimes necessary to establish paternity for child custody and child support cases, or when there is a dispute over a child’s parentage.
After a paternity test establishes paternity, the child’s father has all of the legal rights and obligations of parentage in Colorado, including the right to custody and the obligation to support their child.
If you are facing a legal question of parentage that requires establishing paternity, or you are facing a court order for a paternity test, it’s important to know your legal rights and obligations.
Call the Denver, Colorado family attorneys at Ciancio Ciancio Brown, P.C. for the experienced legal counsel that will safeguard your rights and clarify your legal obligations.
