Delaware House committee stonewalls the paternity fraud bill?
The 2010 – 2011 session has brought some promising hope to a special little boy and his mother to correct a paternity fraud problem in Delaware. The great citizens of Delaware should be proud of Senator Bruce Ennis and many other DE lawmakers for sponsoring this bill.
The bill would give judges discretion to correct situations of paternity fraud or paternity mistakes and apply an ounce of prevention to creating additional cases after becoming law. The Nathaniel Act, as affectionately known by supporters, would help children obtain accurate family medical history from both parents along with the right to be supported by both biological parents.
This would only apply in situations where the alleged, presumed or putative father has been proven as “not the biological father” by a DNA paternity test. It goes without saying, when the legal paternity test results indicate zero percent paternity, there is no way that the accused man caused the mother’s pregnancy of that child.
Thanks to a grass roots advocacy team, Delaware Citizens Against Paternity Fraud (DE-CAPF) led by Roger Hall, joint collaboration from the DE Family Law Commission and expert assistance from Robert Parker Jr, Director of Legislative Affairs & Policy (US Citizens Against Paternity Fraud) — the bill SB171 passed the Senate and referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Suddenly, the bill SB171 was pulled from the House committee with claims of terrible problems. Among those claims by a House Representative, that the bill should be modified to include language to narrow the scope and limit the use by imposing other hurdles:
- Vague language “such as the alleged father should have known that he was not the father” prior to a legal DNA test and;
- No requirement of full disclosure of material facts to the alleged father regarding “existence of other paternity candidates”;
- NO requirement of notice from the only person that would know pre-testing that the alleged father is NOT the father.
- No requirement of a legal DNA paternity test before executing signed paternity confessions nor default judgments
- No requirement of legal representation for the man or teenager to fully understand the dangers of signing a paternity confession
And there is more, but why linger? We believe that SB171 could be passed in the House, too “as is”. We think that it would be great to help Nathaniel now.
It is amazing that the main supporters of the Sb171 are the divorced parents seeking to correct the situation while having to fight the DE family court, DE Appellate Court and child support enforcement agency. If the existing Delaware law did not interfere, the Hall’s could have corrected the paternity of Nathaniel in less than a week, three years ago. They have been forced to become activist for truth-in-paternity legislation because the courts are upholding little known, Delaware Uniform Parentage Act.
Why are some of the Delaware lawmakers afraid of making truthful paternity, the defacto standard in family court? Obviously the corrective paternity disestablishment law works in Ohio and Georgia while neither state has lost any federal funds meeting paternity quotas.
Hopefully the news of the legislative stonewalling will reach the ears of the Delaware citizens to stop adding new victims of paternity fraud or paternity mistakes.
Everyone should warn military men and parents of teen sons under Delaware child support rules –it is not smart to sign any paternity documents until DNA tests confirm paternity.
For more information about paternity fraud and the shell game used for child support, visit www.CarnellSmith.com and www.PaternityFraud.com . In the words of President Carnell Smith PfV, “Trust, but verify with a legal paternity test”.
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