Article 80 of the Russian Family Code imposes an obligation on parents to provide their own minor children with financial support until the latter reaches their eighteenth birthday.
The parties (parents) have the right to voluntarily agree on the amount of such financing, as well as the procedure for paying the allocated amounts, regardless of whether paternity is formalized or not. However, if the parents fail to reach some kind of compromise on the issue of alimony payment, the interested party may demand payment of alimony payments through the court.
In this situation, the difficult question arises about the possibility of collecting alimony payments if the child is not documented to be registered with the father.
The absence of an official record of the paternity of a particular citizen, from a legal point of view, means that the man (even if he is the actual father) has no legal obligations to the minor.
Accordingly, if the marriage of the actual parents of a minor citizen did not take place, the presence of a record of paternity in the child’s birth certificate has important legal significance when collecting alimony payments. If there is no record or it was made only from the words of the mother, and the father himself does not recognize the child, in order to collect alimony payments, you will first need to carry out a legal procedure to establish paternity.
Recognition of paternity, as well as payment of alimony payments, can occur both voluntarily and in court. In the situation under consideration, when the actual father evades voluntary financing of the child, we are usually talking about judicial establishment of paternity.
Procedure for establishing paternity and collecting alimony
So, if a child who needs financial support from his father until he comes of age is born before the marriage by his parents, and the real father categorically refuses to acknowledge the fact of paternity, the mother of the minor will have to prove this fact in court proceedings. Accordingly, before requesting alimony payments, she will first need to prove in court that it is the defendant who is the father of the child.
A claim to establish paternity, in addition to the mother of a minor, according to family law, can also be filed by the guardian (trustee) of the child, or the person who is dependent on the minor, or the child himself, who has reached the age of majority.
Claims aimed at establishing paternity are filed by the applicant in the district court. If the plaintiff intends to demand alimony payments from the defendant, it is advisable to immediately file a second claim - for the collection of alimony payments. However, it is possible to submit a request for alimony payments later, when the fact of paternity is reliably established by the court.
To establish paternity and recover child support payments from the defendant in court, the plaintiff will need:
- draw up and file a claim to recognize the defendant as the father of a minor and to recover alimony payments from him;
- attach the necessary documentation to the request;
- provide evidence of the defendant's paternity (the evidence base for confirming the plaintiff's rights to receive financial support from the defendant father may include the conclusion of an expert DNA study, family photographs, videos in which the defendant father is, testimony of witnesses who can reliably confirm that the man can actually be the father of the child, and other evidence).
If it is difficult for the plaintiff or defendant to independently provide some evidence (for example, documents confirming paternity are located in a medical institution and are not provided at the request of citizens), it is possible to file a petition in court to obtain the necessary evidence. To do this, you need to specifically indicate which facts the requested evidence can confirm or refute, and where it is located.
If the defendant does not admit paternity during the proceedings, the plaintiff may ask the judge to order a genetic examination aimed at confirming the fact of paternity. It is possible to apply for the appointment of this expert study before the start of the trial itself, at the stage of preliminary proceedings in court.
If the fact of paternity of a citizen (defendant) is established in court, alimony payments, according to legislative rules, can be collected only from the date of establishment of paternity. For the previous period (from the birth of the child until paternity is established in court), alimony payments cannot be collected.
Law on identifying a child with his father
The rules governing the relationship between parents and children are established by a number of legislative acts. In particular, the responsibilities of parents towards children are referred to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1959.
To assert the rights to raise a child, you must be guided by:
- The Family Code of the Russian Federation, which defines the equal rights of both parents;
- Civil Code of the Russian Federation.
In case of separation, the second parent also has the right to participate in the upbringing and obtaining information regarding the life, study, and health status of the minor. The father, along with the mother, has the right to defend the ward, representing him in government agencies and in court. A separate place of residence does not give the right to deprive of seeing and spending time with the child.
Required Documentation
Initially, an applicant who wants to request alimony from the father of a minor who is not recorded in the documents will need to draw up a claim indicating the name of the court, personal data and addresses of the parties. The claim sets out in detail the essence of the demands against the defendant, provides specific evidence of the fact of his paternity, lists witnesses and indicates the attached documents.
Attached to the claim:
- a copy of the plaintiff's passport;
- birth certificate of a minor;
- documentary evidence;
- payment receipt for state duty.
If a claim for alimony payments is filed after paternity has been established, you will need to submit a certificate of paternity to the court. To assign alimony payments, based on the nuances of a particular situation, additional documents may be required, for example, certificates confirming the amount of income of the father and mother of the minor.
Payment amounts
The size of the monthly payment is determined by the income of the parent from whom alimony is being collected and the number of children in the family. If there is only one child, the law requires one-fourth of all income to be paid for his maintenance. For two children you need to pay one third, and for three or more - half.
When assigning an amount, they take into account not only wages, but also other official income of the person - for example, money from renting out real estate or professional activities, part-time work. The other party will have to prove that these incomes exist. If the mother files for collection of alimony, she must provide the court with evidence that the father, in addition to his salary, has other sources of income. You must provide information about your place of work, part-time work, account information and bank cards. If this information is not available, it can be requested through the court.
You can claim money not as a percentage of your father’s earnings, but as a fixed amount. This is preferable if the parent often changes jobs or hides income. The minimum amount in Russia today is set at 14,900 rubles per child. There is no maximum threshold.
“If a child has special needs, for example due to a disability or chronic illness, he needs regular treatment and the purchase of medicines, the mother can present these arguments in court and demand a large amount that covers half of all monthly expenses for the child,” the lawyer clarifies. Ruzanna Khanamiryan.
Genetic examination
Thanks to modern research technologies, proving paternity using DNA testing will not be difficult. However, the parties need to take into account that the DNA procedure is a fairly expensive study. If the defendant's paternity is proven in court, the financial costs related to the paternity establishment procedure will have to be paid by the defendant. If the expert opinion reveals a negative result of the study, the costs are borne by the person who filed the corresponding request to order a DNA examination. Accordingly, both parties should think in advance about the need to bring the case to DNA research.
If the defendant evades the ordered DNA examination, of course, the judge cannot force the man to visit a specialized medical institution and give DNA samples. But taking into account other evidence presented by the applicant and the fact that the citizen refused the expert study conducted to establish paternity, the judge still has the right to make a decision confirming the fact of paternity and obliging the defendant to pay alimony payments.
Thus, according to paragraph 3 of Article 79 of the Russian Civil Procedure Code, when a participant in legal proceedings evades participation in an expert study, fails to provide experts with the required materials and documentation to carry out the examination, and in other situations when, due to the specific circumstances of the case and without the direct participation of this citizen, the expert study impossible to carry out, the judge, taking into account which party is evading the appointed examination and what research is important for it, can recognize the fact for the establishment of which this examination was appointed, recognized or refuted.
At the same time, according to the law, expert DNA research is only one piece of evidence of possible paternity.
Accordingly, it does not have any advantages over other evidence presented by the parties, therefore the judge does not have the right to recognize the fact of paternity only on the basis of the participant’s evasion from participating in the ordered DNA examination. The judge must comprehensively consider and evaluate the entire evidence base in order to make a reasoned, fair decision.
The court is on the side of the plaintiff: cases
Court cases where an elderly father files a claim for child support are rarely practiced.
The court may side with the plaintiff in the following situations:
- The mother did not file for child support. A settlement agreement was not concluded between the parents, and the woman did not submit a corresponding application to the court.
- The father paid partial child support. By law, habitual defaulters are defined as individuals who have deliberately avoided fulfilling their financial obligations for 4 consecutive months or longer.
- The father did not know about the existence of the child. The woman did not inform the man about the presence of children.
Other evidence of paternity
The judge must, according to the RF IC, take into account any evidence provided that reliably certifies the origin of the child from a specific man.
In addition to DNA research, evidence of paternity of citizens can be:
- written documentation: correspondence of the parties, money transfers in favor of a minor or his mother, documentation of the receipt of parcels, a man’s petition for placement of a minor in child care institutions, documentation from medical institutions, certificates of family composition, various questionnaires, written messages, telegrams, documentation confirming, that the parties lived together at the time of the child's conception and other documentary evidence;
- photographs, video shooting;
- testimony of witnesses confirming close communication between the mother of a minor and the alleged father, or other circumstances capable of confirming the fact of paternity;
- other evidence permitted by the Russian Civil Procedure Code.
In what situations are parents required to pay child support?
Parents are required to financially support their children until they turn 18. In some cases, this age may be reduced or increased. Thus, a parent is released from the obligation to support a child if he acquired full legal capacity before this age, that is, entered into an official marriage, or was emancipated. And, on the contrary, disabled children in need have the right to count on receiving financial support from their parents even after 18 years of age.
At the same time, it does not matter at all whether the child’s parents are married or not, whether the child was born in a registered marriage or not. To receive alimony, you only need the fact of recognition of paternity. If a citizen is indicated in the child’s certificate, or in the certificate of recognition of paternity, as the father of the child, then he is obliged to support him financially.
How to use GetContact
If you decide to use the application, you can download it for free on the AppStore and Google Play websites.
Procedure:
- After installation on the gadget, the first time you log in to the system, you must confirm permission to access information .
- To register, enter your phone number and receive an SMS with a code .
- In your account, enter your Last Name, First Name, and Email and complete registration.
- To obtain information, enter the desired telephone number in international format or the person’s first and last name into the search field, and activate the “search” .
The requested information is generated and displayed on the device screen. The application “How I am recorded by others” is very popular among young people. Adults don’t care how their number is recorded in others’ phones.
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Is it possible to find out how you are registered in another person’s phone?
Mobile phone users often write down contacts so that it is more convenient to remember an unfamiliar person. Emoticons, nicknames, and descriptions of a person’s characteristics are used. Sometimes it is useful to see how your number is signed in the contact list of your friends , acquaintances, and relatives. Not so long ago, a curious person could find out this only by looking into someone else's device.
At the beginning of 2020, Russians had the opportunity to find out all their nicknames without digging through someone else's mobile phone.
The new GetContact option allows you to see what nickname is written under your phone number.
