767.895.Motion to reopen judgment based on statement acknowledging paternity.
Subch. IX: Paternity · Last amended 2005 · Current through 2025 Wisconsin Act 247 · Last verified September 8, 2026
Full Text of Section 767.895
Amendment History
Wisconsin prints each section’s legislative history as a single “History” line naming every act that created or amended it, and every renumbering. It is reproduced verbatim below.
History: 1987 a. 413; 1997 a. 191; 2005 a. 443 s. 206; Stats. 2005 s. 767.895.
Plain-English Summary
A narrow doorway, kept open for a particular group of people.
A judgment adjudicating a person to be the father of a child, based on a statement acknowledging paternity that was signed and filed before April 1, 1998, may be reopened if no trial was conducted: at any time on motion or petition for good cause shown; on a motion under the general relief-from-judgment statute; or within one year after entry of the judgment.
The date is the line between two regimes. Acknowledgments made from April 1998 onwards carry the attestation that both parties received oral and written notice of the legal consequences, the rights and responsibilities, and the alternatives before signing, and those are governed by the voluntary acknowledgment section. Earlier ones came with no such assurance, and a judgment resting on one is easier to revisit.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an old Wisconsin paternity judgment be reopened?
Where it was based on a statement acknowledging paternity signed and filed before April 1, 1998 and no trial was conducted, yes — at any time for good cause, on a motion under the general relief-from-judgment statute, or within one year after entry.
Why does April 1998 matter?
Acknowledgments from that date carry an attestation that both parties received oral and written notice of the legal consequences, rights, responsibilities and alternatives before signing. Earlier ones did not.
What if there was a trial?
This section applies only where no trial was conducted.