Rule 49.Paternity

A paternity action starts with filing and serving a petition in the ordinary way. Where the child support enforcement agency did not bring it, the circuit clerk sends the case information statement to the local child support enforcement office within five days.

On receiving the petitioner's case information statement the court sets a case management conference or hearing for a date certain. If paternity is not admitted by or during that hearing, the court orders the parties and the child to undergo genetic blood testing within a stated period, and within three days enters a scheduling order setting a final paternity hearing for a date certain.

Two categories get a specific route. Where there is no paternity affidavit on record and the child was not conceived or born during the parties' marriage, a denial in the responsive pleading triggers a testing order; hearings may be continued until results are available, and within five days of the results being filed an order sets the case for a date certain.

If testing does not exclude the respondent, or the respondent admits paternity, the respondent must provide a completed financial statement for every year since the child's birth up to a maximum of three years before the petition, plus the documentation the financial disclosure rule lists, filed and sent to all parties no later than 14 days before the final hearing — with the same sanctions for failing as apply to financial disclosure generally. A properly served respondent who does not appear, answer or defend in time has paternity established by default. A guardian ad litem must be appointed where paternity is contested and either a paternity affidavit is on record or the child was conceived or born during the marriage. And once paternity is determined, each parent or custodian is ordered to complete parent education by a date certain and file the certificate.