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With modern-day technology, paternity is much simpler to establish. Texas statutes have also outlined the requirement for establishing and rebutting paternity. Let’s take a look.
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Paternity by Texas Law
To be a presumed father, Texas law will presume an individual to be the father of a child until that presumption is proved or rebutted.
The Texas Family Code outlines specific instances and situations in which the state presumes a man to be the father of the child. According to the Texas Family Code, FAM §160.204, the presumption of paternity is defined as follows:
Sec. 160.204. PRESUMPTION OF PATERNITY. (a) A man is presumed to be the father of a child if:
(1) he is married to the mother of the child and the child is born during the marriage;
(2) he is married to the mother of the child and the child is born before the 301st day after the date the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce;
(3) he married the mother of the child before the birth of the child in apparent compliance with law, even if the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and the child is born during the invalid marriage or before the 301st day after the date the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce;
(4) he married the mother of the child after the birth of the child in apparent compliance with law, regardless of whether the marriage is or could be declared invalid, he voluntarily asserted his paternity of the child, and:
(A) the assertion is in a record filed with the vital statistics unit;
(B) he is voluntarily named as the child’s father on the child’s birth certificate; or
(C) he promised in a record to support the child as his own; or
(5) during the first two years of the child’s life, he continuously resided in the household in which the child resided and he represented to others that the child was his own.
Rebuttal Of Presumed Paternity
The Texas Code also provides the means in which presumed paternity can be rebutted,
“(b) A presumption of paternity established under this section may be rebutted only by:
(1) an adjudication under Subchapter G [FN1]; or
(2) the filing of a valid denial of paternity by a presumed father in conjunction with the filing by another person of a valid acknowledgment of paternity as provided by Section 160.305.”
As the statute states, the paternity may be rebutted by a judicial proceeding; or an Acknowledgment of Paternity singed by the child’s presumed father, determined father, and mother. The Acknowledgment of Paternity should include the presumed father’s denial that he was the child’s father, along with the filing of another person acknowledging paternity and is to be filed with the Vital Statistics Unit.
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