Q: What is a petition to determine the existence of the father child relationship ?
A:
This is also known as a "parentage" action. Someone is trying to establish, in a court order, that you are the father of a child. A paternity action is commenced by the filing of a petition to declare the existence of a father-child relationship and may be brought by the child, the mother, a pregnant woman, any person or public agency who has custody of or is providing financial assistance to the child, a man presumed to be the child's father, or a man alleging himself to be the child's father, either before or after the birth of the child. 750 ILCS 45/7.
The Parentage Act provides that a man is presumed to be the natural father of a child if (1) he and the child's natural mother are or have been married to each other and the child is born or conceived during the marriage, (2) he and the child's mother marry after the child's birth and he is named with his written consent as the child's father on the child's birth certificate, or (3) he and the child's mother have signed an acknowledgment of paternity. 750 ILCS 45/5.
Once it has been determined that you are the father, you may owe child support.
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