my wife and I were separated and living apart and I had an affair with a married woman who now claims to be pregnant with my child but will ...

Question

my wife and I were separated and living apart and I had an affair with a married woman who now claims to be pregnant with my child but will not provide any proof of pregnacy or will not cooperate with establishing paternity with dna. Is there any way legally I can force her to provide these things?

Answer

Not until the child is born. Once the child is born, you can file a petition to establish (or not) paternity, and in that court proceeding she will be required to admit the child is not yours or submit the child to DNA testing (nothing but a QTip cheek swab these days). If she and her husband were cohabitating at the time of conception, however, you may not need to bother. There is a legal presumption that the husband of a married woman is the father of her children unless he can prove they were only legally married but not living as husband and wife at the time. If they were cohabitating, the burden is on him to file a proceeding to establish that he is NOT the father.

Answer

I am going to have to disagree with Mr. McCormick. You don't have to wait for a child to be born, you can file a petition for paternity if you think she is pregnant with your child. The form clearly allows this option.

You may have problems, however, after filing a petition with the presumption that Mr. McCormick sets forth regarding the presumption that the husband of a married woman who is not sterile and is cohabiting with her is the father of the child. You do not state whether the husband is sterile or whether they were cohabiting.

Answer

I stand corrected on whether you LEGALLY have to wait. However the pre-natal testing is sufficiently invasive, that unless there is some great urgency, or the petition is filed by the mother, it is extremely unlikely that a court will order a test before the birth. Therefore, for all real purposes, you have to wait until the birth.