N. Carolina Man Paying Support for Child That Can’t Be His
Randall Smith, a North Carolina native, is being forced to pay child support for a child the court claims is his. The catch: it’s physically impossible for the Smith to be the child’s father.
The way the story goes, Smith came down with lymphoma in 1999. As part of the treatment, he ended up having to get a vasectomy, which he had tested to ensure that everything was correct. He kept documents of the procedures, and the confirmation that the vasectomy had been a successful operation.
Not long afterward, he had met a woman and they were married. Five years later, however, she ended up pregnant. Smith had his vasectomy tested again and found that nothing had changed, he was still physically unable to have kids.
Smith decided to see things through with his wife, though, and agreed “to be there” for the child. He claims that they made an agreement, though, that if they did happen to get a divorce, that she wouldn’t ask for child support.
They did get a divorce. She did ask for child support. In the words of Smith, “she’s double-crossed me again.”
After having an injury which left him disabled, Smith now has $7,000 in arrears with his child support.
Smith tried clearing things up with the court, but it’s been too long since the child was born for him to disprove that he’s the child’s father. While he’s in his legal right to not have to pay child support even if he acted as the child’s father, showing support physically, emotionally, and financially, he’s waited too long to disprove that he’s the biological father. He had up to a year after finding out about the child to prove that he wasn’t the dad.
However, because Smith never had any tests done to disprove he was the child’s biological father, it’s looking like his support payments are here to stay.
If you feel that your current child support situation is unfair, you may be entitled to having it changed. While you could try to represent yourself in court, your best bet would be to hire a child support attorney and let their expertise guide you. A child support attorney is a legal professional who knows all of the ins-and-outs when it comes to child support cases, and they are your best bet to ensuring you reach a reasonable and fair outcome with your child support situation.
Don’t wait until you’ve fallen too far behind in child support payments, call us today to see how we can help you.