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parentage litigation, in a fashion similar to the acknowledgment of | | paternity process provided in subchapter 3. Acknowledgment | | pursuant to this section reduces the time in which the parentage of | | the nonmarital presumed parent can be factually challenged to two | | years after the filing of the acknowledgment. Failure to | | acknowledge, or failure to get a court adjudication of parentage by | | the nonmarital presumed parent eliminates the need to give that | | person notice of the commencement of child protection proceedings, | | termination of parental rights proceedings, guardianship and | | adoption proceedings. However, that person may ask the court for | | permission to intervene and participate in those proceedings. | | Finally, the failure of the nonmarital presumed parent to | | acknowledge or be adjudicated may permit the expedited paternity | | process to take place without notice to the nonmarital parent, | | without however, disestablishing that person's parentage. |
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| | | VOLUNTARY ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF PATERNITY |
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| | | Voluntary acknowledgment of paternity has long been an | | alternative to a contested paternity suit. Under UPA (1973) § 4, | | the inclusion of a man's name on the child's birth certificate | | created a presumption of paternity, which could be rebutted. In | | order to improve the collection of child support, especially from | | unwed fathers, the U.S. Congress mandated a fundamental change in | | the acknowledgment procedure. The Personal Responsibility and | | Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA, also known | | as the Welfare Reform Act) conditions receipt of federal child | | support enforcement funds on state enactment of laws that greatly | | strengthen the effect of a man's voluntary acknowledgment of | | paternity, 42 U.S.C. § 666(a)(5)(C). This statute is reproduced | | in Appendix: Federal IV-D Statute Relating to Parentage, infra. | | In brief, it provides that a valid, unrescinded, unchallenged | | acknowledgment of paternity is to be treated as equivalent to a | | judicial determination of paternity. |
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| | | Because in many respects the federal act is nonspecific, the | | new UPA contains clear and comprehensive procedures to comply | | with the federal mandate. Primary among the factual circumstances | | that Congress did not take into account was that a married woman | | may consent to an acknowledgement of paternity by a man who may | | indeed be her child's genetic father, but is not her husband. | | Under the new UPA, the mother's husband is the presumed father of | | the child, see § 204, supra. By ignoring the real possibility | | that the child will have both an acknowledged father and a |
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