Lawyer filiation Paris

Filiation and actions relating to paternity

Paternity recognition

Recognition of paternity can be prenatal or postnatal, it is made by the father at the town hall and it does not require the mother's agreement on the condition of course that the child has not been recognized beforehand by another man.

When recognition is made before birth or within one year of the birth, the parents benefit from joint legal custody. If the father does not recognize the child within the year of the child's birth, the mother will have exclusive legal custody.

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Establishing the paternity

When a man refuses to recognize a child as his, an action to seek paternity can be initiated by the mother or by the child who has reached the age of majority, before the High Court by a lawyer.

A reform of filiation law entered into force on July 1, 2006 which notably modified the deadlines for bringing the action and simplified the actions.

When a paternity action is initiated, in order to recognize an established parentage, the proof of parentage will be scientific, that is to say that the Judge will have recourse to genetic fingerprints which make it possible to establish proof of parentage over 99%. Thus, the judge will order a genetic expertise, that is to say a DNA test which the defendant may also refuse to submit to.

Genetic expertise is legal, it is enough that the family law lawyer requests it on behalf of his client for it to be granted.

Even if the defendant refuses to submit to the test, the Judge can draw the consequences of his refusal by analyzing this refusal as a confession, by retaining other evidence to corroborate the confession that the family law lawyer will have had care to bring forth.

In France, unlike our European neighbors where the tests can be freely carried out outside the judicial context, DNA tests must imperatively be ordered by the judge: no laboratory in France will carry out genetic expertise if the judge has not ordered it.

Challenging the paternity

Recognition of paternity can be challenged in court to overturn false recognition, for example that of a man who declared a child to be his, when he was not.

The use of DNA is essential in the event of a conflict and constitutes irrefutable proof.

Thus, here again, the Judge will order a DNA test to find the biological truth: if the biological test shows that the author of the acknowledgment cannot be the biological father, the acknowledgment of paternity will fall.

Maître Laurence Mayer, Lawyer, can assist you throughout the procedure for recognition or contestation of paternity before the courts of Paris and Versailles.

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