Proposed Legislation -Child Support, Maintenance (Alimony) & Paternity

Senator Koster has sponsored proposed legislation that, if passed and signed by the governor, will repeal several statutes in Chapter 454 and enact others in lieu thereof.  SB 493 (identical to HB 472) will affect child support, spousal support (maintenance/alimony), and paternity.  These new enactments will be known as the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.  When two states are involved in a child support issue, the  Act  will determine the jurisdiction and power of the courts in the different states  and  which state's law will be applied.  It further  establishes rules requiring every state to defer to child support orders entered by the courts of the child's home state; the place where the order was originally entered holds continuing exclusive jurisdiction; and only the law of that state can be applied to requests to modify the order of child support, unless the original tribunal loses the continuing exclusive jurisdiction.

The Act also changes provisions relating to maintenance/alimony and paternity.  One of the issues this proposal changes is how an acknowledgment of paternity will be used as evidence.  Right now a male can acknowledge paternity by registering with the Putative Father Registry.  The male also registers with the Registry if he believes he is the biological father of a child but doesn't know for certain. The registration can be revoked.   Right now this registration can only be used as evidence in a trial if the male has not revoked his registration.  Under this proposed Act, any certified copy of a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity may be admissible to establish parentage of a child.  This means that whether or not the registration has been revoked, it can be used against the male later if he contests the paternity of the child named in the Registry.  This may not mean a lot if the genetic tests come back conclusively finding that the male is not the father.  It may mean a lot if the tests are not so conclusive.  This will probably be a rare case but I can see it happening if the biological father of the child and the male alleged to be the father are related.  I have had one case where the biological father of the child could have been one of two brothers.  So it is possible to have a situation where I would not want the Registry acknowledgment to be used as evidence against a client if he is denying paternity after learning facts that would lead him to believe he is not the biological father of the child.

The effective date of this Act will be August 28, 2007 if passed and signed by the governor.  To read the full text of this proposed Act, go to Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.