You have questions about a child’s paternity. Perhaps you’re a mother and you need to prove the father’s paternity so that he will pay child support. Or perhaps you suspect you are the child’s father, and you want to have custody rights, so you have to show that you really are their biological parent before the court will issue such an order.
You can buy DNA tests on the internet and use them at home. If you do this, and it demonstrates that you are the child’s father, is that enough for you to get a custody or support order?
These cannot be used in court
It’s true that at-home DNA tests are available and that much of the information they provide is the same information you would get with a lab-ordered DNA test. However, it’s important to note that these home tests are generally inadmissible in court, so they’re not going to help you with any court orders. For that, you need to take an official test at a lab, and the results need to be submitted to the court through the proper channels.
Why is this done? For one thing, the court may only have a certain list of tests that they consider to be accurate. For another, the court doesn’t know if the at-home test was administered properly or if any mistakes were made along the way. Technically, the court doesn’t even know that the correct individual took the test in the first place. Doing it in a lab ensures that all of these details can be confirmed, so only these tests can be used in court.
Issues about paternity can certainly be complex, and it is very important to know about all of your legal options at this time.
