A judge I recently worked with to update one of our family law books described the paternity chapter as a “moving target.” It started with the Revocation of Paternity Act (RPA) in 2012, which drastically changed the landscape. By providing new procedures and expanded standing to establish (and revoke) paternity, the RPA eroded one of the primary methods for establishing paternity out of wedlock, i.e., the Paternity Act.
As of March, 17, 2015, there are two more avenues for establishing paternity out of wedlock: the Genetic Parentage Act (GPA) and the Summary Support and Paternity Act (SSPA). The GPA can be used to establish paternity if either the mother or the alleged father is receiving Title IV-D services. Under the GPA, parties take a genetic test with an accredited lab. If the test results show that the man’s probability of paternity is 99 percent or higher, he is conclusively determined to be the child’s father. The SSPA permits a Title IV-D agency to establish paternity for a child who is receiving public assistance or whose mother or alleged father has applied for Title IV-D services. The agency does this by filing a statement regarding the child’s birth and conception with the court. The statement, which can be signed by the agency alone or by one of the parties, must be served on the parties, along with a notice of intent to establish paternity. The nonfiling party has 21 days to admit paternity in writing, submit a written request for genetic testing, or produce proof of a paternity exclusion. Of course, there is a lot more to each of these acts. You can read a full analysis here.
I wondered if the GPA and SSPA would further diminish the Paternity Act’s use, so I posed the question to ICLE contributor Kate Weaver. Kate believes “the Paternity Act will be used less frequently . . . but not for awhile.” Because the GPA and SSPA both require action by a Title IV-D agency, “the Office of Child Support will be working on policy on how each office in Michigan will service these new laws.” Kate explained that “drafting policy takes a lot of time and man hours,” so the Paternity Act will still be used in the meantime. Delay is common in the court process for establishing paternity, so Kate says she’s excited to see whether the more administrative processes in the GPA and SSPA “can make the system more efficient for families.”
See Kate discuss these new acts, along with other important paternity changes, in the Family Law Update.