High school years can be rough at times for students in Washington and throughout the nation. A young man in another state might agree with that assessment as he thinks back on his own life. When he was a teenager, he married his then girlfriend who happened to be expecting a baby. Now, the two are engaged in a child support dispute in which a judge recently made a decision, then changed it.
After a few years of marriage, the man said his relationship fell apart. The couple divorced. When his child became a 3-year-old, the man sought a paternity test. In the state where the man lives, the law states that when a child turns two, the state presumes the father is the legal parent.
This means the man in this particular situation submitted his request an entire year after the cut-off date. He was shocked to learn he was not, in fact, the biological father of the child. He asked the court to relieve him of his child support obligation. A judge did just that.
However, the very same judge then changed his decision, citing Oklahoma law as described in this post. In essence, the court has said the child support dispute is resolved and the man is to continue making payments for the child even though he is not the biological parent. Every state’s laws are different, and a concerned parent in Washington will want to seek clarification before taking any type of formal action in court.
Source: mrctv.org, “Oklahoma Man Forced to Pay Child Support for Kid That Isn’t His“, Ashley Rae Goldenberg, Jan. 16, 2017
