Paternity cases are those in which the identity or responsibilities of the father of a minor child are sought to be established. According to the National Center for State Courts, the number of paternity cases have declined since 2001, with states reporting fewer filings in 2002 than in any other year in the trend. Learn more about paternity cases from the resources below.

Alliance for Non-Custodial Parents Rights and Articles on Paternity Fraud
Website that provides recent news on paternity fraud.

Paternity Fraud
This website is dedicated to helping children and men discover who's the biological father, assisting deceived, scammed and hustled paternity fraud victims regain their constitutionally protected freedom and their lawful assets.

Paternity Information Page
The Paternity Information Page is a website dealing with the issue of paternity from a father's point of view. This website also offers links to news articles on paternity.

Paternity Timeline
Provides a timeline of milestone case law and legislation regarding paternity testing and what it means for families.

• In 2003, the Massachusetts Probate and Family Courts had 15,927 paternity complaints filed. Of those, 9,007 were adjudicated.
  
  

Some of the following research reports and articles are accessible via the Internet. Others are not accessible on the web as they require a password, such as those law review articles found on Lexis Nexis and Westlaw. Articles may be found in your local library or law library.

Parness, Jeffrey A. Old-Fashioned Pregnancy, Newly-Fashioned Paternity. 53 Syracuse L. Rev.57 (2003)
Syracuse Law Review

Roberts, Paula. Truth and Consequences: Part I. Disestablishing the Paternity of Non-marital Children. 37 Fam. L.Q. 35 (2003)

Roberts, Paula. Truth and Consequences: Part II. Questioning the Paternity of Marital Children. 37 Fam. L.Q. 55 (2003)

Massachusetts Case Law

Department of Revenue v. Roe, 29 Mass. App. Ct. 967 (Mass. 1990)
Paternity tests revealing that defendant was in fact the father of child resulted in an order to pay retroactive as well as current child support.

G.E.B. v. S.R.W., 661 N.E. 2d 646 (Mass. 1996)
The Supreme Judicial Court held that a child can bring suit in paternity cases.

In re Paternity of Cheryl, 746 N.E. 2d 488 (Mass. 2001)
Prior to court proceedings, an alleged father had signed a voluntary paternity acknowledgment and proceeded to pay child support and act as a father to the child. When child support payments were sought to be increased, the man moved to introduce evidence that he was not in fact the father, which the SJC denied as he had failed to do so in a timely manner.

Case Law from other Jurisdictions

In re Paternity of Nicholas, 46 P. 3d 932 (Cal. 2002)
California Supreme Court case affirming a lower court's judgment that a presumption of paternity can only be rebutted by clear and convincing evidence. In this particular case, the presumed father had move in with the mother and child and acted as a father to the child. His admission that he was not the father of the child was not enough to constitute clear and convincing evidence.