Decision of the Oktyabrsky District Court of Samara on a claim to establish paternity

Establishing the fact of paternity in case of death

Let's start by considering a fairly common topic - establishing the fact of paternity in court in the event of a man's death. As a rule, the plaintiff in such a process are persons who wish to obtain the right of inheritance for the deceased. In this category of court cases, all that is necessary is knowledge and implementation of legal procedures, and the result will not be long in coming.

Establishing the fact of paternity in court after the death of a man is one of the important institutions of family law, since it is a guarantee of protecting the interests of both the child’s non-property rights and his material interests. Establishing the fact of paternity is regulated by the provisions of Art. 48 RF IC, Art. 49 RF IC and art. 50 RF IC, clause 4, clause 2, article 264 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation. In the event of the death of a man who was not married to the child’s mother, and who during his lifetime recognized himself as the father, but who did not submit an application for voluntary recognition of the paternity of the child to the registry office, interested persons can apply to the judicial authorities with an application for recognition of the paternity of their child. Based on the fact that this category of cases excludes a dispute about the law, this dispute is considered in a special proceeding. Evidence in the case may include witness testimony, written and other admissible evidence confirming the fact of paternity.

Help from a lawyer

Emails, SMS, messages on social networks can also serve as evidence. The main difficulty here is subscriber identification. To prove that the SMS correspondence was conducted specifically with the alleged father of the child, you can petition the court to request a certificate from the mobile operator indicating that the phone number belongs to the deceased. Email and social media accounts are also often linked to mobile phone numbers.

Witness testimony, as well as photographs and video materials, are another means of proving the fact of recognition of paternity. For example, witnesses can confirm that during his lifetime the deceased lived with the child’s mother, they ran a joint household, the alleged father participated in the upbringing and financial support of the baby, considering him his own child.

Establishment (recognition) of paternity

Establishing the fact of paternity not only legally ensures family relations, but also establishes a legal connection between the child, his father and relatives. One of the grounds for establishing the fact of paternity, as already described above, is the desire of the child to receive the right to inherit after the death of the father. The decision in case No. 2-609/2015 established the fact of paternity for citizen “N” (the plaintiff had reached the age of eighteen) after the death of the man. As evidence of the plaintiff’s legal position, witness testimony was given, and a forensic examination was carried out, which determined a high degree of probability of kinship. However, the court refused to determine the plaintiff’s right to inheritance after the death of the testator due to the lack of legal grounds to consider the dispute over the right in “special proceedings”.

General procedure for recognizing paternity

According to statistics, every third child is born out of wedlock, and not all men are ready to become a parent. In such conditions, a woman who finds herself in difficult life circumstances is forced to apply to the court with a demand:

• establish a relationship;
• forcibly collect money from the irresponsible parent for the maintenance of the ward.

Standard actions for registering a baby and identifying the father and mother are determined by Article 48 of the RF IC. It is not difficult to enter information about the father if we are talking about children born to a married woman, when paternity is determined in relation to the official spouse of the mother. Even 300 days after the dissolution of the marriage, the former spouse will be considered the father of the newborn. For the recognition of kinship, it does not matter who took the initiative to separate, what is the reason for the termination of family relations. Even the premature death of a husband will not be a reason to refuse to reflect his surname in the “father” column.

Often, in the form of a personal identification document, the column with information about the father remains blank. This fact does not mean that it is impossible to review the case and make changes to the registration records.

Sometimes a man and a woman manage to agree on the registration of a child when both partners resolve the issue administratively by submitting a joint application. If a man refuses to recognize the relationship, the issue of paternity is addressed to a judicial authority.

Establishment of paternity (claim proceedings)

Establishing paternity differs from establishing the fact of paternity in that there is a disputed side. This category of disputes presupposes the existence of a dispute about law, that is, in this case, when there is a dispute about the origin of the child.

Articles on the topic (click to view)

• Conditions for paternity capital for a third child in 2020.
• Do I need to pay child support if paternity is deprived?
• Is it possible to apply for child support without being married to the child’s father?
• Can a mother challenge paternity or maternity without DNA in court?
• What documents are needed to formalize a notarized abandonment of a child by the father?
• How to recognize your paternity in court without the permission of your mother or father
• Claim for recognition of paternity and collection of alimony: sample

It should be noted that establishing paternity in court belongs to a rather complex category of cases. This is often due not only to the difficulty of proving one’s legal position, but also to the length of the case and the difficult moral situation for all participants in the process.

As judicial practice shows, the initiative to establish paternity most often belongs to the mother, but the legislator provides for the possibility of filing claims by other persons (Article 49 of the RF IC).

• the child’s father (if the mother refused to submit an application together with the child’s father to the registry office, part 1, clause 3, article 48 of the IC);
• father, if the mother died (clause 3 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of October 25, 1996 No. 9);
• guardian (trustee);
• persons who have a dependent child.

The intensity of development of new technologies in medicine makes it possible to determine the fact of kinship with a fairly high degree of probability. The statute of limitations for these categories of cases is not established by law. In cases where the child is eighteen years old, only he can file a statement to establish paternity.

Often in judicial practice, in claims for the establishment (recognition) of paternity in order to protect the rights and interests of minor children, claims are made for the recovery of alimony for the maintenance of the child. As a rule, the courts, in cases of establishing paternity, also collect alimony.

In law enforcement practice, when establishing paternity, if the defendant objects to the court’s satisfaction of the claims, a forensic medical examination may be ordered to determine the relationship of the child and the defendant. Federal Law No. 323-FZ dated November 21, 2011 is used as the basis for conducting the examination.

The legal act of establishing paternity is a way of protecting the rights of the child, which is to establish the responsibilities of parents, and who often evade fulfilling them. The legal consequence of the issuance of such an act is the emergence of the child’s right to receive alimony for his maintenance, as well as inheritance rights in the event of the death of the father.

To file a claim to establish paternity you must:

• lack of registered marital relations with the child’s father;
• absence of a joint application submitted to the civil registry office for voluntary consent to recognize paternity;
• refusal or lack of consent (if required by law) issued by the guardianship authority for voluntary recognition of paternity in connection with the submitted application of the child’s father.

This is important to know: Is it possible to apply for alimony without being married to the child’s father?

As for jurisdiction, for such claims, if the plaintiff is the father of the child, the legislator determines general jurisdiction, that is, the claim must be filed at the place of residence of the defendant. If the plaintiff in the case is the mother of the child, then the legislator has determined alternative jurisdiction, that is, the claim can be filed both at the place of residence and at the place of residence of the defendant.

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Citizen A. broke up with citizen M. three years ago and is now suing M. for alimony, declaring that she gave birth to a child from M. The father is not indicated on the birth certificate.

Question

Does A. have the right to force M. to recognize him as the father of the child against M.’s will?

Lawyer's answer

There are two possibilities for establishing paternity - voluntary establishment of paternity and establishment of paternity in court.

Establishing paternity in court can be of two types - establishing paternity in a lawsuit and establishing paternity in a special proceeding, when the child’s father has already died and such establishment is required to protect the child’s inheritance rights.

We will not dwell on the procedure for establishing the fact of recognition of paternity in a special proceeding, because on the merits of the issue, the event itself (the death of the father) is missing.

Article 48 of Federal Law No. 143-FZ “On Acts of Civil Status” establishes the following grounds for state registration in the registry office to establish paternity when the child’s parents are not married.

1. Joint application to establish the paternity of the child’s father and mother, who were not married to each other at the time of the child’s birth.

2. Application to establish paternity of the child’s father, who is not married to the child’s mother at the time of the child’s birth.

3. A court decision to establish paternity or to establish the fact of recognition of paternity, which has entered into legal force.

If the spouse (former spouse, potential father) is not the father of the child, such a record can only be challenged in court at his request, at the request of the person recorded as the father or mother of the child, or the person who is actually the father or mother of the child, and also the child himself upon reaching the age of majority, the guardian (trustee) of the child, the guardian of the parent recognized by the court as incompetent (clause 1 of Article 52 of the RF IC).

Also, the mother of a child who does not consider her spouse (former spouse, potential father) to be the father of the child can register the child together with the real father of the child by submitting a joint application to the civil registry office (clause 3 of Article 48 of the RF IC).

Also, with a joint statement from the father and mother of the child, paternity can be registered if the woman is not in a registered marriage - this is a voluntary establishment of paternity.

Based on Art. 50 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status”, the child’s parents can submit a joint application to establish paternity to the registry office, both before the state registration of the child’s birth, and after the state registration of the child’s birth.

The content of the parents' joint application to establish paternity is regulated by clause 4 of Art. 50 Federal Law “On acts of civil status”, incl. The application must include the father's acknowledgment of paternity of the child and the mother's consent to establish paternity.

In addition, paternity can be established in court by both the father and mother of the child. For example, the child’s mother does not want to register the father’s paternity voluntarily. The child's father has the right to file a petition in court to establish paternity. The child's mother, if she wishes, can establish paternity in court (Article 49 of the RF IC).

Establishment of paternity is resolved by the court in the procedure of claim proceedings in the event of the birth of a child to parents who are not married to each other, and in the absence of a joint statement of the parents, the question of the origin of the child is resolved by the court in the procedure of claim proceedings upon the application of one of the parents, the guardian (trustee) of the child or at the request of the person who is dependent on the child, or at the request of the child himself upon reaching the age of majority (Article 49 of the RF IC).

The jurisdiction of such claims for the father of the child is general - that is, the claim is filed at the place of residence of the defendant. If the mother wants to establish the paternity of the child, she can file a claim of her choice - at her place of residence or at the place of residence of the defendant - that is, the child’s father. Usually, if paternity is established, the mother of the child immediately files a claim for alimony.

According to Art. 107 of the RF IC, a person entitled to receive alimony has the right to apply to the court for the recovery of alimony, regardless of the period that has expired from the moment the right to alimony arose, if alimony was not previously paid under an agreement on the payment of alimony.

Alimony is awarded from the moment you apply to the court. Alimony for the past period can be recovered within a three-year period from the date of going to court, if the court establishes that before going to court, measures were taken to obtain funds for maintenance, but alimony was not received due to the evasion of the person obliged to pay alimony from paying it .

In this regard, the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation in paragraph 8 of its Resolution No. 9 dated October 25, 1996 “On the application by courts of the Family Code of the Russian Federation when considering cases of establishing paternity and collecting alimony” explained the following:

“If, simultaneously with the claim to establish paternity, a claim for the collection of alimony is filed, if the claim to establish paternity is satisfied, alimony is awarded from the date of filing the claim, as in all cases of collection of alimony (clause 2 of Article 107 of the RF IC). At the same time, it must be taken into account that the possibility of forced collection of funds for the maintenance of the child for the PAST TIME is excluded in this case, since before the claim to establish paternity was satisfied, the defendant was not recognized as the father of the child in the prescribed manner.

When satisfying the requirements for establishing paternity and collecting alimony, considered simultaneously, it is necessary to keep in mind that the decision regarding the collection of alimony by virtue of the second paragraph of Art. 211 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation is subject to immediate execution.

Thus, if the court satisfies the claim for recognition of paternity, then alimony must be awarded by the court from the moment the claim is filed in court.

Clause 1 Art. 80 of the RF IC it is established that alimony is paid:

— by oral agreement (unofficially);

— on the basis of a voluntary notarized agreement;

- based on a court decision.

The issues of concluding an agreement are regulated in paragraph 2 of Art. 100 IC RF. The parties can establish any procedure for providing funds in terms of amounts and frequency, if this does not violate the legal rights of the child.

Usually, if the parent does not have a permanent official income, then alimony is set as a percentage of earnings. When cash receipts are not constant or there are no official sources of income, alimony is approved in a fixed amount (Articles 81, 83, 106 of the RF IC).

The amount of a fixed sum of money is determined by the court based on the maximum possible preservation of the child’s previous level of support, as well as taking into account the financial and marital status of the parties and other noteworthy circumstances.

If the payer’s income is extremely insignificant, but he has significant property, collection of alimony payments can be applied to this property. In such cases, alimony payments are collected simultaneously in two types. From the regular part of the payer’s earnings or income, which he receives in Russian rubles, in shares of his earnings. The second part of alimony is from irregular, changing earnings or income, which is paid in kind or foreign currency - in a fixed amount of money.

In the absence of an agreement on the maintenance of minor children, alimony is collected by the court from their parents on a monthly basis in the amount of the following shares of earnings, as well as other income of the parents:

— for one child — 1/4;

— for two children — 1/3;

- for three or more children - 1/2.

The size of these shares may be reduced or increased by the court, taking into account the financial or family status of the parties and other noteworthy circumstances.

By reducing or increasing the size of the shares of earnings or income of the parents collected in the form of alimony, the court takes an individualized approach to determining the amount of alimony. If a parent earns an extremely high income, his one-fourth share may be so large that it far exceeds all the reasonable needs of the child. In this case, the court has the right to reduce the share of income to be collected for child support to reasonable limits. If the parent’s income, on the contrary, is very low and one fourth of it will not allow the child to provide even the minimum means of subsistence, the court has the right to increase the amount of alimony.

The marital status of the parties means the presence in the payer’s family of persons to whom he is legally obliged to provide maintenance. For example:

— presence of other minor children;

— the presence of adult disabled family members to whom the payer pays alimony;

— presence in the family of a parent who pays child support (for example, from a previous marriage);

— the presence of other persons entitled to receive alimony (for example, a former spouse).

One of the cases of a change in the financial and marital status of the payer is the appearance of other minor children. Children have the right to receive equal support from a parent, regardless of whether they live with him or her separately, and whether they are supported voluntarily or by court order. If, for example, previously the payer paid 1/4 of earnings or income for one child, then when he has a second child from another marriage, the amount of alimony should be reduced to 1/6, since 1/3 of the payer’s earnings or income is recovered for two children .

Termination of alimony obligations in relation to one or more minor children increases the amount of alimony for the maintenance of the rest. Thus, when one of the two children reaches adulthood, the amount of alimony for the second child increases from 1/6 to 1/4.

The basis for reducing the amount of alimony is also the presence of other persons (except for minor children) of the parent to whom he is legally obliged to provide maintenance and who are actually dependent on him (for example, his needy disabled parents). In this case, paying alimony may lead to such a significant decrease in his financial situation that he will not be able to provide himself with a means of subsistence. However, in the event of termination of such an obligation (as a result of the death of disabled family members in need, restoration of their ability to work, etc.), the amount of alimony for minor children increases to the level provided for by the Family Code of the Russian Federation.

The marital status of a child is usually not a basis for changing the amount of child support. The presence of a child's stepfather or stepmother, as well as the level of security of his second parent, is not taken into account when determining the amount of alimony from the other parent, since the parents bear child support obligations independently of each other.

The obligation of parents to pay child support to minor children does not depend on the financial situation of the child himself. If children have significant property (apartment, dacha, etc.), which is intended not for generating income, but for the child’s use, then the amount of alimony also cannot be reduced. Only if a minor child has income from property or other sources of income, for example from his business activities, can serve as a basis for reducing the amount of alimony.

Child support is usually paid until the child reaches adulthood. Child support for children over 18 years of age is not collected.

The court's consideration of an application to establish paternity takes place in the manner prescribed by Section II of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

The statement of claim must be prepared in accordance with Art. 131 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, which provides for the form and content of the application. The statement of claim must be accompanied by documents in accordance with Art. 132 Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

When considering in courts issues related to the establishment of paternity, the court is guided by the IC of the Russian Federation, as well as the explanations of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, Resolution No. 9 of October 25, 1996 “On the application by courts of the Family Code of the Russian Federation when considering cases of establishing paternity and the collection of alimony” .

As part of the consideration of a claim to establish paternity, the court bases its conclusions about paternity on the basis of all the examined evidence presented at the court hearing (Article 55 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).

In addition, at the court hearing, taking into account the opinions of the parties, if necessary, the court may order an examination to establish the origin of the child, incl. through genetic fingerprinting.

At the same time, the expert’s conclusion should not have pre-established force for the court (Article 67 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation) and it must be assessed in conjunction with other evidence in the case (Part 3 of Article 86 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).

If a party evades conducting an examination or does not provide the necessary materials and documents to the expert, the court has the right to recognize the paternity of the evading person (clause 3 of Article 79 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).

Based on the results of consideration of the application to establish paternity, the court makes a decision to satisfy the application or to refuse to satisfy the application.

The court decision is made taking into account the requirements provided for in Chapter 16 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation.

A court decision that has not entered into force, taking into account the relevant deadlines, can be appealed through the appellate procedure (Chapter 39 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation), and after entering into legal force, the court decision can be appealed in cassation procedure (Chapter 41 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation), etc.

After the court decision on establishing paternity comes into force in accordance with Art. 49 of the Federal Law “On Acts of Civil Status”, a person wishing to register the established facts submits a package of documents to the registry office at the place where the court decision was made.

Consultation was given in November 2020 as part of the Republican competition “Professional Lawyer 2018”.

Consultant - Sergey Vladimirovich Antropov, legal consultant of the Federal Budgetary Institution "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Udmurt Republic" (branch in the city of Votkinsk), post office

Legal consequences of establishing paternity (voluntary or judicial)

From the moment the father’s paternity is established in court, based on the fact of the child’s origin (Article 47 of the RF IC), rights and obligations arise that do not depend on the nature of the relationship between the parents. But all legal relations between the father and the child, as well as the father’s relatives, are legally established from the moment the child is born, and not from the moment the court decision comes into force. One example of judicial practice is the court decision in case 2-8/2015 (2-8639/2014;) M-7961/2014, which established paternity, as well as the defendant’s obligation to pay alimony for the maintenance of a minor child.

In cases where alimony is collected in a lawsuit to establish paternity, it must be claimed from the moment the relevant court decision enters into legal force (clause 2 of Article 107 of the RF IC). As determined by Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court No. 9 of October 25, 1996, the forced collection of funds for the maintenance of a child for the period that precedes the satisfaction of a claim to establish paternity is excluded.

As judicial practice on the collection of penalties for alimony shows, such a claim can be made in claims to establish paternity and collect alimony. Judicial practice on rape (Article 131 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation) suggests that there is a legal possibility of filing a claim in a civil suit in criminal proceedings to establish paternity.

The entry about the child’s father, which was made by the civil registry office, proves the child’s origin from the specific person indicated in it. In case of challenging paternity (establishing paternity) in relation to a child, if his father is determined to be another specific person, then he must be involved by the court to participate in the case. If the claim to establish paternity is satisfied, previous information about the father must be canceled from the registration record by the registry office of the child’s birth.

Procedure for considering a claim

To establish paternity in court, you must file a claim in court. The following documents should be attached to the application: a copy of the claim for the defendant, a receipt for payment of the state fee (10% of the minimum wage - now it is 10 rubles), a copy of the child’s birth certificate (the original must be brought to court), a certificate from the child’s place of residence, if the claim The mother submits at her place of residence evidence confirming the paternity of the child with copies for the defendant.

Next, the court will review the submitted documents and within 5 days must set a date for a preliminary court hearing in order to prepare the case for trial.

At the preliminary trial, issues regarding the need to obtain new evidence and order an examination will be decided. If it is difficult for the plaintiff or defendant to present evidence, then they should draw up petitions to request evidence, indicate exactly what circumstances this evidence can confirm or refute, and where it is located. Also at this meeting you can apply for an examination to establish paternity.

After the preliminary hearing, a date for trial consideration of the case on the merits is set.

If an examination is ordered, it can be carried out either before the first meeting in order to prepare the case, or later - and, as a rule, this is done - after one consideration of the case on the merits.

The examination is done using a blood test. It is carried out in special institutions. In Moscow, it is carried out at the Forensic Science Bureau (tel. 362-30-94). The cost of such an examination is now about 14,000 rubles. If you win the case, the costs can be assigned to the opposite party.

If the other party avoids conducting an examination, then, of course, the court cannot force an examination. But taking into account other evidence and the refusal of an examination, the court can still make a decision to establish paternity. In accordance with paragraph 3 of Art. 79 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation, if a party evades participation in the examination, fails to provide experts with the necessary materials and documents for research, and in other cases, if, due to the circumstances of the case and without the participation of this party, it is impossible to carry out the examination, the court, depending on which party evades the examination, and also, what significance it has for her, has the right to recognize the fact for the clarification of which the examination was appointed as established or refuted. But since the examination is one of the evidence, it does not have priority over other evidence, the court, in relation to establishing paternity, cannot recognize the fact of paternity only as a result of evading participation in the examination; the court must consider and evaluate all the evidence in the case to make an informed decision.

Other evidence of paternity can be written documents - correspondence, money transfers, documents on receipt of parcels, extracts from the biography and personal file of the defendant, his petition for the placement of the plaintiff’s children in child care institutions, certificates of family composition, documents from medical institutions, questionnaires, messages, postcards, telegrams, documents confirming that the time of conception of the child refers to the period when the parties lived together, etc. You can also attach photos and view video footage. You can ask the court to call as witnesses persons who can confirm the close relationship between the child’s mother and the child’s alleged father, and other circumstances in the case.

It should be borne in mind that until March 1, 1996, the Code of the Russian Federation was in force, according to which there is a different procedure for establishing paternity. Therefore, to establish the paternity of children born before this date, the RSFSR CoBS should be used.

Thus, in relation to children born after the entry into force of the Family Code of the Russian Federation (i.e. on March 1, 1996 and after this date), the court, based on Art. 49 of the RF IC, takes into account any evidence that reliably confirms the origin of the child from a specific person. Such evidence includes any factual data established using the means of proof listed in Art. 49 Code of Civil Procedure of the RSFSR.

In relation to children born before the entry into force of the Family Code of the Russian Federation, the court, when deciding the issue of paternity, must be guided by Part 2 of Art. 48 CoBC of the RSFSR, taking into account the joint residence and running of a common household by the mother of the child and the defendant before the birth of the child or joint upbringing or maintenance of the child or evidence reliably confirming the defendant’s recognition of paternity (clause 2 of the Resolution of the Plenum of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of October 25, 1996 No. 9 “On the application by courts of the Family Code of the Russian Federation when considering cases of establishing paternity and collecting alimony”).

Important

From a legal point of view, cases of recognition of paternity are considered by the courts in separate proceedings in accordance with the norms of the Civil Procedure Code. In this case, the procedural norm provides for the absence of a dispute about the law on the opposite side. In the case of establishing the paternity of a child related to the child’s origin from a specific person, the existence of a disputed relationship on the opposite side is assumed. On this basis, this category of case is considered in the manner of claim proceedings.

In accordance with the Resolution of the Plenum, paragraph 2, when deciding what rule of law should be followed in the proceedings on establishing paternity, namely Art. 49 RF IC or Art. 48 CoBS of the RSFSR, the court must proceed from the date of birth of the child.

Based on the analysis of judicial practice in cases related to the recognition of the fact of paternity and the establishment of paternity, we can conclude that in the presence of an acceptable evidence base, which includes witnesses, written documents, forensic medical examination reports, the courts establish the fact of paternity. The legal consequences of this category of decisions are the possibility of the child exercising his rights to inheritance associated with the death of his father, and during his lifetime, collecting alimony from him for maintenance.

Child support and paternity

In accordance with Art. 53 of the RF IC, children born out of wedlock, if paternity has not been established, have the same rights as others born into a complete family. They also have the right to their father’s assistance in their maintenance through alimony payments.

The problem is that children born in a complete family immediately at birth have both a mother and a father listed on their birth certificate, that is, they legally have both parents. A child born to a single mother does not have a legal father, so until he is identified, collection of alimony is impossible.

Establishing paternity is a legal procedure that establishes the relationship of a minor with his biological parent and, thus, gives him the opportunity to use all the rights that are available to children born in two-parent families.

How to prove paternity and apply for child support

So, the couple had a child, but they are not officially married. There are two scenarios here:

• the man acknowledges his paternity and wants to register the child in his name;
• He does his best to avoid officially recognizing the baby.

Of course, the first option will be optimal for everyone, especially if the biological father and mother of the born baby are completely confident in the paternity of their partner.

There are two ways to recognize paternity:

• administrative;
• judicial.

Administrative procedure for recognizing paternity

If the putative father recognizes his relationship with the baby, he can apply to the registry office with an application to recognize paternity and enter his name in the appropriate entry. Based on this application, the registry office employees include the surname, first name and patronymic of the biological father in the child’s birth record.

The mother of the child must be present together with the father. A change in the birth record of a child is allowed only at the request of the father, but only in cases where the child’s mother has died or gone missing.

Let’s summarize: if the parents are not officially married, but both want to indicate the mother’s common-law spouse as the father of the newborn, then only their mutual desire will be necessary.

Judicial order

Second option: the child’s father does not recognize family ties and is categorically against any official designation of him as the father of the born baby. In this case, according to Art. 49 of the RF IC, there is a judicial procedure for determining paternity. In other words, the only way out of this situation will be to establish paternity through the court.

Recently, one of the main evidence of the relationship between a parent and a child is genetic testing, therefore, in the absence of other compelling evidence, it is this test that is appointed by the court to prove or refute the paternity of the defendant.

But in addition to DNA testing, the court accepts as evidence of family ties:

• photo and video documents;
• paper evidence, for example, bank statements, which show that the father spent his money on the child;
• witness statements;
• other evidence from which it can be concluded that the man is the father of the baby.

Judicial order

Establishing paternity through litigation is used in cases where one of the parents, usually the father, does not want or evades recognition of the child voluntarily. The judicial procedure for carrying out the procedure also provides for the plaintiff to pay a state fee, the amount of which currently amounts to 200 rubles.

In order to establish paternity through the court, it is necessary to send a statement of claim to the court at the place of residence of the defendant - the parent who does not want to carry out the procedure voluntarily. The claim must contain:

• the correct name and address of the court where the document is sent;
• full information about the plaintiff and defendant (personal information, residential address);
• the grounds on which paternity should be recognized (close relationship between the plaintiff and the defendant, lack of a registered marriage);
• information that the defendant does not want or is avoiding recognition of the child voluntarily;
• motivated demands to the court: to recognize paternity by making an appropriate entry in the registry office book.

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Witness testimony from people close to the parties, documents, including correspondence and recordings of negotiations can be used as evidence in the case. However, the most significant evidence in establishing paternity is genetic testing.

It should be noted that a court decision to recognize paternity is the basis for formalizing alimony obligations in any of the ways established by law.