California residents may be interested in the story of an Iowa man who is being asked to pay child support after his wife had a child with another man. Although the two are still officially married, they separated in 1999 and have been estranged ever since. The man’s wife admitted to having the baby with another man after a one-night stand, and she was trying to get that man to pay support instead.
However, paternity in the state is automatically granted to whoever was married to the baby’s mother at the time of birth. This was according to a representative from the Iowa Department of Human Resources. Therefore, it did not matter if the child belonged to the man or if he was able to prove that he wasn’t the father. The only option for the man was to get a divorce to de-establish paternity of the child, but that has proven difficult as he was recently laid off from his job at a John Deere facility.
Therefore, he had to turn to crowdfunding sites to raise the $2,000 he needs for an attorney’s retainer. The 45-year-old father of two children says that his goal is to put a spotlight on the child support laws and get them changed.
In most child support cases, the identity of the parents are quite clear, whether or not they are married to each other. California law requires both parents to provide support to their children, and when the parents separate or divorce, the non-custodial parent is often ordered by a court to make monthly payments to the custodial parent. A person who has been ordered to pay support but subsequently becomes unable to do so may want legal assistance in requesting a modification.
