Children are entitled to being supported by their parents whether or not their parents are married to each other.
In a paternity case, the court can order a father to pay child support if he has voluntarily acknowledged paternity (on a Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage form) or if the court has decided that he is the father (by issuing a Judgment of Paternity).
Fathers of children born to parents who are not married to each other acknowledge paternity on the Voluntary Acknowledgment of Parentage form. If both parents have signed this form and you need to go to court to get a child support order, you file a Complaint for Support-Custody-Visitation. You also file the Acknowledgment.
If the father has not acknowledged paternity and you need a child support order, you file a Complaint to Establish Paternity and check off the appropriate box in paragraph 6.
The judge can make a temporary child support order while the case is going on.
If paternity is contested, that is if the parties do not agree that the named father is in fact the father of the child, then the judge may make the party moving for child support wait until the genetic marker test results are available.
If the results of the genetic marker testing say that the probability of paternity is 97% or higher, Chapter 209C says that the court shall on motion of any party or on its own motion issue a temporary child support order. The court will consider him to be the father unless he can show otherwise.
The courts use the Child Support Guidelines to figure out the amount of child support.
For more information see Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 209C, section 9.
Produced by Jeff Wolf, Massachusetts Law Reform Institute Created November, 2011