I may be wrong about CSE's established date, but

Many times, children fall through the cracks because of a parent's lack of knowledge, or bad experiences with workers, or a myriad of reasons, but here is the story of one such child:

A child is born in 1981 Louisiana. Welfare and WIC offices are abundant, but the best that I can understand, child support has newly been established.  Welfare offices however, get absent father’s names to try and get support for children, whether born inside of marriage or out.

   The man has traveled, most of his life, between his (fathers)home state and LA. (his mother’s)  His father has recently passed away and he is living with his mother, ostensibly to help assuage her grief.
   He enrolls at a local university, where he meets a young girl who is also in her freshman year: recently separated and hoping for a divorce and a return to her maiden name.  They spend lots of time together, and eventually, the young girl finds herself “in the family way”.  But since theirs was, admittedly, a relationship of convenience and casual sex, the man has returned to his home state and the young girl does not believe that she has any way to notify him.  She meets and begins to date another man who tells her that the child’s paternity is irrelevant, and so they begin to try and make a life together.
   After 15 months together, another child is conceived but this man is now in search of things other than a family life and the young woman is, once again, with child and now on her own; but now she has a child dependent on her already.
   When she applies for welfare benefits in order for the second child to be born in a hospital, Louisiana Child Support Enforcement steps in and wants to get the father’s to pay their due.  So the first father is sent a letter, away off in another state.
   His response, a single page, typed, single spaced with .03 margins (I’m telling you there was not an hairsbreadth of space on that paper wasted) was provided to the mother by then DHHS;  a response in which he vehemently denied the possibility of paternity because he is a married man (true, but not until 10 months after the child was born), the mother was still legally married to another man (attorney did not file motion for divorce or name change like he was paid to do)when the child was born and said man was legally the child‘s father, etc. and REFUSED to show up for a court ordered blood test, even though it was scheduled in his home state, and as near to his home as LA could get it. His excuses went on and on, and ended only with his veiled threat against the mother and the state of Louisiana, which he felt absolutely comfortable and justified in making based on the fact that he was related to a judge in the same judicial district as any court hearings would have taken place.
   La DHHS made no further attempts to force the issue of him submitting to the blood test; no arrest warrants were forthcoming for contempt of court or any other charge, and for all intents and purposes, to the State of Louisiana, it was a closed case.
   The mother moved her small family to another state, went to work for an insurance company, and hired a skip tracer to locate the father.  When she had acquired his physical address and social security number, she went to that state’s Support Enforcement to try again.  No further notifications were forthcoming and the mother decided to give the child whatever information was pertinent and let the child do with that information as he pleased when she was grown.
        The small family returned to LA when the elderly grandparents required daily care, and once again, the mother attempted to file suit against the absent fathers of her children.  The State of LA was concerned only with the fact that she had purchased a small parcel of land, and would not even consider any assistance until the property was sold; so once again, the father's escaped unscathed....
   That child is now grown, and has made numerous attempts to contact her father, whose wife always grabs up the phone from him(he has actually spoken with the child once or twice) and has made insults against her mother and against the childs own character but still wants to be acknowledged by her natural father.

What sort of rules/ethics/laws/options would apply here?
   Re-opening the child support case?
   Re-opening the order for blood work, or in this society, DNA?
How does one re-open a child support case; or can it be done?  Can an adult child sue, and have another court order issued for DNA testing? 

Lost is what this now 29 year old is: and looking for answers that, sadly, only the father can provide.

Help?

MSKJN

[My life has been crazier than a work of fiction.....who'da believed?]

The legal father is the father who was married to the mother when the child was born, period. The only one who could potentially change that is the bio father, who could ONLY succeed in having the child have TWO fathers. Yes, in Louisiana -- it is possible to have two legal fathers.

If the child wishes to contact bio father, the best way would be to send a certified return request letter with the requirement that HE be the only one to sign for it.

There may be more I could answer but your question is very confusing with comments about casual sex, etc. That kind of stuff is legally irrelevant in most cases. Looks to me like you have two kids and two cases. Two questions might be better.

3kidsmom

WOW.  Are you serious?   

The 'child' is a 29 year old adult. 

NO, you cannot 'reopen' the child support case.

NO, you cannot 'reopen' the request for blood work.

NO, the adult 'child' cannot sue. 

Especially not to VALIDATE THE MOTHERS VENDETTA.


What does this 29 year old adult want? 

Most of your requests seem to be focussed on money... trying to get a retroactive order for 18 years of child support.  WOW, that would be just evil.

If he is looking for a relationship with his father, then he needs to approach his father, as an adult, and ask the man politely if he will agree to a DNA test to establish that fact.

If the man does not want anything to do with him, as seems likely (perhaps because of past demands immature demands for money) then the 'child' will need to accept that fact.

Nicholas James

The legal father is the father who was married to the mother when the child was born, period.

Indeed so.

Which begs the question as to why the 'legal father', the ladies husband, was not put on the hook for this child by SES.

That point was missing from this vendetta post.

Nicholas James

THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY!

And you are all definitely mistaken about it being a "vendetta".  The term 'child' was used to try and prevent even the mention of gender (although I think that was a failure).

Several years of support would certainly be due SOMEONE who had to raise a child without any financial support if the bio father had complied with a court order, especially since it was all done as the state required; the fact that his refusal to comply was simply 'accepted' by the state of Louisiana negated the purpose of the law enforcing child support payments.  IMHO

But in answer to the question, "what does this child want?"; this adult wants validation as the child of the man;; and answers (as stated previously) Acceptance is, most assuredly, another matter.

To the best of my knowledge, there have been no asset checks run, no financial records requested, and no silly immature demands for money (although given that it was the LAW who required this man to submit to a blood test way back then, I fail to understand why you would say that any demands for money would be anything less than justified, at least back then, since none are being made now). Why wouldn't an adult child be entitled, for lack of a better expression, to what SHOULD have been provided for all those years?  Or is just that you consider ALL parents who sue for child support to be making "immature" demands?

But I digress:

Pursuant to Louisiana law, which the bio father violated back then, what options MIGHT this young woman have if she needed medical history/records?  There are certain hereditary ailments, you know?

I guess the other questions just came up, just a thought, since non-payment of child support can get you jail time, suspended licenses, etc.; sort of wondering what might come of it, if anything.

REITERATION: THIS IS NOT ABOUT MONEY.

MSKJN

[My life has been crazier than a work of fiction.....who'da believed?]

If it wasn't about the money then you wouldn't be talking about establishing paternity at this time.....you'd be looking at more reasonable ways to do it, like arranging to bump into the potential bio parent at the Piggly Wiggly and just say, hey, I need to know my medical history.........cause i think i'm yours and i DONT CARE ABOUT MONEY.

Do you not understand the laws regarding child support? Even if he were found to be the bio dad..........he would NOT be paying child support back then, because he was not the LEGAL father. The LEGAL FATHER is the guy who was the husband at the time of the birth. THAT's the legal father. THAT is the one who would have paid child support.

The child (now adult) had a legal father. End of story. If the "child" wants a medical history they need to be an adult and figure out a nice polite way to get it.

3kidsmom

She has actually been trying to establish paternity since she was old enough to make a few decisions on her own; Louisiana dropped the ball first, then the second state, then Louisiana again:  He refused to submit to a court ordered blood test and the law appeared nonchalant: young people with little or no knowledge of the law somehow seem to depend on "the law" to be enforced by those in the position of doing so.    Go figure, huh?

But 'bumping into him at Piggly Wiggly' will never be possible because at least two thousand miles separate the two, and always has.  They have never met, and except for grainy photos taken from very public internet sites, recognition would be faulty at best.

But having the information about the legal father making the difference may at last help to direct her energies in, hopefully, the right direction.

And it's STILL not about money.

MSKJN

... But 'bumping into him at Piggly Wiggly' will never be possible because at least two thousand miles separate the two, and always has...

Amazing.

Has the '29 year old' ever heard of that new fangled invention called the train?

Nicholas James

...The child (now adult) had a legal father. End of story. If the "child" wants a medical history they need to be an adult and figure out a nice polite way to get it.

Indeed so.

Nicholas James

Now where has our 'vendetta' lady gone off to?

Nicholas James

"The 'vendetta' lady" has a job that requires much of her time be spent away from the computer.

I believed that this was a public forum; thank you so much for correcting me with the knowledge that it is your own personal playground and that anyone who shows up must play by your unwritten rules or suffer your ire. I'll bet nobody is allowed to park in your parking spot at church either.

How veerry junior high.

MSKJN

Guess that answers that question.

She didn't catch a train to Louisiana to talk the man she thinks might be her daddy.   

Nicholas James