Court Ordered Paternity Testing In Australia

By Author: Glenn Farrier
Total Articles: 123
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A court ordered paternity test is done following the stringent requirements of a court order. Once this order is issued, the concerned parties will need to make sure to get a legal paternity DNA test which is carried out following all the necessary steps to ensure that it is accepted in a court of law.

A Western Australian man is required by a court to take a paternity DNA test to disprove him as the father of a child. Given the fact that he had a vasectomy in 1994 and met the mother of the boy in 2000, the father knows the child cannot be his. However, there is more to this case. In fact, what happened was that after the two met in an internet chat room the man agreed to have his name put down on the child’s birth certificate so as to easy immigration procedures and enable the 18 month old boy (at the time) to live in Australia. The Australian father turned down a DNA paternity test or a blood test which was recommended by the authorities as a control measure so as for the father to be absolutely sure regarding the issue of paternity.

Shortly after meeting the two got married; however, the marriage fell apart ...
... in 2006 and the father of the boy wanted nothing else to do with neither the woman he married nor the boy he accepted as his son. At this point the man also wished to waiver his financial responsibilities towards the boy that was not his biological son.

The mother stood her case in court and pushed towards the father and son meeting once a fortnight and also to have the father pay maintenance to the child. He has already been paying maintenance to the tune of 800$ per month since 2007 but this money has been held back by the Child Support Agency until the paternity test results and the court case were finalized.

The mother tried to get the courts to apply US laws but the courts rejected her appeal; under Australian law, it is of utmost important to help any child find their biological parents. Moreover, the law also takes into consideration the psychological implications of the child discovering later in their life that the person the thought was their parent is in fact not their biological one. The mother claims that the court ordered paternity test will exclude the man who registered himself on the child’s birth certificate as the father but will not help the child find his real dad. The paternity test result will tell.

Karl McDonald is a professional writer specializing in the field of genetics and is the writer of the following website: http://www.paternitytestingaustralia.net/ . Other areas of interest include specifications of the Cost of Paternity test, the latest updates in the field of DNA tests and the differences between Legal paternity testing and at home tests.