Establishing paternity can be crucial for both parents and children. A child has the right to know their biological father and get the love and support they deserve. On the other hand, the alleged father has the right to know if he is indeed the biological father and to take responsibility if he is. However, there are situations involving mistaken paternity where a man may be identified as a child's father when someone else is the child's actual biological parent. In these situations, it may be possible to challenge a presumption of paternity, a voluntary acknowledgment of paternity, or a denial of paternity by another party. If you are an alleged father in Texas, it is important to know how these issues may be handled.

Presumption of Paternity

Texas law states that a man is presumed to be a child's father if he was married to the child's mother and the child was born during the marriage. A presumption of paternity will also exist if a man was formerly married to the mother, and the child was born before the 301st day after the marriage ended. If a couple got married after a child was born, and the husband was named on the child's birth certificate or agreed to support the child, paternity may be presumed. Finally, paternity will be presumed if a man lived in the same home as a child from when the child was born until they reached the age of two and represented himself as the child's father to other people.

Challenging Paternity

If a man is not a child's presumed father, he may be named as the legal father by signing an acknowledgment of paternity. On the other hand, if a man is a presumed father but believes he is not the child's actual biological father, he may sign a denial of paternity. This document must be accompanied by an acknowledgment of paternity by the child's biological father.

A prenuptial agreement, often called a “prenup” for short, is a legal document that a couple drafts and signs before they get married. The main purpose of a prenuptial agreement is to set forth directives regarding the spouses’ income and assets in the unfortunate event of divorce, separation, or death. Prenups can contain instructions about marital property and non-marital property, spousal support, inheritance rights of children from previous relationships, each spouse’s debts, and financial rights and responsibilities of both spouses during the marriage.

Making a Living Online

Some couples choose to include clauses in their prenuptial agreement that address the role of social media in a couple’s marriage. At first glance, this may seem like an unnecessary consideration. However, for many people, social media is not just a means to stay in touch with friends. For some people, social media is their job. Making a living through YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram is more common than you may think. The “influencer market” is valued at over $16 billion dollars and many experts expect this number to grow. 

Reputation Matters

You may be wondering what social media as an occupation has to do with prenuptial agreements. The answer boils down to public image. When a person’s online reputation is profoundly connected to their income, it makes sense to legally protect that reputation. Prenuptial agreements that involve a social media clause may include provisions about the kind of information and images couples can share about one another across social media platforms.

Marriage and divorce are complex subjects, and when children are involved they become even more difficult. Blended families (made up of children belonging to one parent or the other and often also involving children born of both parents) are among the most complex arrangements of all - especially when parents of blended families get divorced.

Divorced parents of stepchildren have often spent many years integrating these children into their lives without formally adopting them. Yet while the lack of a formal legal relationship with the child does not minimize the history of care, love, and respect between a stepparent and stepchild, it can make it very difficult to seek visitation with the stepchild after a divorce, especially if the relationship between the stepparent and the stepchild’s biological parent is now hostile. If this situation sounds familiar and you are a Texas stepparent seeking visitation rights, read on and then contact a family lawyer for help.

Seeking Visitation as a Stepparent in Texas

Once a stepparent has gotten divorced from a child’s biological parent, Texas law views the stepparent as an interested third party - that is, someone who has no automatic visitation rights but who may petition a family court to request visitation. Because these petitions often involve hostile relationships between former spouses, judges are usually left to make the decision after looking at the evidence in a particular case. The factors the judge will consider include, but are not limited to:

While establishing paternity is not always easy or straightforward, doing so is important for a number of reasons. Every child deserves to know his or her father, and extensive research on the subject is very clear that children do better by every measurable outcome when fathers are involved in their lives. Furthermore, a mother deserves help from a child’s father, even if it is only in the form of child support. Finally, fathers deserve to be given a chance to uphold the responsibility they share for bringing a life into the world. 

Despite many good reasons to establish paternity, some men resist cooperating. They may hope that the mother will eventually give up or that, by dodging DNA testing or court dates, they will not be saddled with child support payments. Fortunately for mothers, Texas courts give them options as they seek to establish paternity, even when a child’s father is trying to avoid responsibility. To learn more about proving paternity, read on and then contact a Texas paternity lawyer for help with your case. 

How Can I Prove Paternity? 

Texas law allows paternity to be established in one of three ways. The most common way is through marriage - when married couple has a baby together, the father is automatically assumed to be the child’s legal parent. 

Making decisions about your children during divorce can be a confusing, frustrating, and stressful process. You may recognize and appreciate that your children need to maintain their relationship with your soon-to-be ex, but the thought of giving up time with them can feel heartbreaking. You may find that their best interests are difficult to disentangle from your own preferences. Yet a final parenting agreement must be created, and Texas law will expect both parents to play a major role in the life of each child unless there is a provable reason to do otherwise. Here is how child custody cases are typically decided in Texas. 

Four Things to Know About Texas Child Custody Decisions

The first thing to know about child custody in Texas is that it is split into two separate but overlapping areas: conservatorship, which is the authority to make important decisions regarding education, healthcare, religion, and extracurricular activities; and possession and access, which determines the visitation schedule. 

The second thing to know is that parents are encouraged to create a parenting plan together, rather than relying on the courts for help. While cases of partner violence, child abuse, or extreme hostility between parents may make it impossible for parents to work together, generally speaking, parents are expected to handle the matter themselves, using the help of a mediator if necessary.