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Father Takes DNA Paternity Fraud Case To U.S. Supreme Court!
Fi May 31, 8:55 AM ET
To: National and City Desks
Contact: Jeffery Leving, 312-807-3990, or Jane Spies, 330-534-8948, both for The Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving, Ltd.
CHICAGO, May 31 /U.S. Newswire/ — Carnell A. Smith is a father who is forced by court order to pay child support for another man’s child. This child is neither his biological nor adopted child. Smith has tried to get the lower courts to overturn the child support order, but they have refused.
Carnell Smith is now asking the U.S. Supreme Court (news - web sites) to hear his DNA “paternity fraud” case. Nationally renowned fathers’ rights attorney and advocate, Jeffery M. Leving of Chicago, has filed an appearance with the high court to represent Smith.
Although this court ruling sounds unusual, it isn’t. There are countless men who find themselves in Smith’s situation.
Partially as a result of the availability of DNA paternity testing, men are discovering in alarming numbers that children they believed were their biological offspring are not. It was reported that in 28 percent of paternity tests conducted in 1999, the man being tested was not the biological father. Nevertheless, many of these men continue to be liable for child support for other men’s children or suffer the consequences of jail.
This can happen to married men because many states adhere to a 500-year-old English common-law doctrine that presumes a married man is the father of a child born of the marriage. Never-married men can find themselves in this precarious position through default paternity and child support judgments. Such a judgment can be court ordered without the alleged father’s knowledge. For example, the alleged dad does not show up at court to contest the paternity action because he did not know about the court date. This can result when the alleged father is not personally served notice of the court date by a process server or law enforcement officer.
“The issue is crystal clear. Paternity fraud is just as reprehensible as any other kind of fraud from which Americans need protection. When we condone fraud in paternity DNA cases, we undermine our entire system of justice. It’s time to correct this injustice,” said Leving.
This is an issue with urgent national significance.
“Paternity fraud is the only crime where the victim is persecuted for the actions of the guilty party,” said Smith. “My case is representative of many similar cases nationwide. A correct decision by the U.S. Supreme Court would offer justice and relief to many.”
“My petition to the high court argues that the Georgia statute enables the Georgia courts to have the power to force biological fathers to pay child support, but this power does not extend to forcing a non-relative who did not adopt a child to pay,” said Smith.
“Making men pay child support for children proven by DNA testing not to be theirs is not in the best interests of children and families. It can also deprive children of ever knowing their true biological fathers,” said Leving.
Nationally, this issue has picked up great momentum. Ohio and, most recently, Georgia have passed legislation that allows men proven by DNA testing not to be the father of a child to be released from child support payments. Georgia passed paternity legislation with votes overwhelmingly in favor of releasing non-dads from being forced to pay child support. In Georgia, the legislation passed the House 163-0 and the Senate 45-5. California is currently considering similar legislation.
Leving believes that this U.S. Supreme Court case could bring relief to countless victims of paternity fraud in America and stop the needless suffering of children and families. Otherwise, the laws dealing with paternity and child support issues must be changed gradually state by state, which will be unnecessarily time-consuming and will prolong the injustice.
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About The Author
I am a victim of fraud in a child support case but a different type of fraud. One where the mother stole the child, ran off with another man telling him that he was the father. She told me I was not the father. The birth certificate said father unknown. The mother refused to allow me a DNA test. She filed a case behind my back without telling me, even though I had given her money.(Not knowing if I was the father or not) She had process of service made on her own address using my name.(Although I never lived there or was told by her about the case) Service was by alternate service giving her full access to the complaint and papers. She falsified all documents including her complaint and application for support. She listed false information of my location when she knew exactly where I was and how to contact me. She had a long history of fraud when and before she filed this case. I resided in another state months before the service date. My address was well known to the mother who was in contact with me but never told me about a case. she concealed this from the court. She severed all contact and disappeared after she apparently got her judgment. I was never served. The state never had personal jurisdiction even by their own statutes and court rules. I found out about the case 10 years later, was denied a DNA test. I found out about it when my bank account was levied. I was denied a DNA test and was threatened with 5 years in jail if I did not pay on a $50,000 judgment with arrears. The mother did not want me found. She plainly stated under oath in court that she knew I lived in another state when she filed her case but that I was not her responsibility to tell the Court or Friend of the Court where I lived. (Her complaint listed a bogus address/a post office box for me, that she knew was closed over a year prior) She had told the child for 10 years that another man was her natural father. I was forced to pay under penalty of enforcement of a warrant for my arrest. I was forever denied all Due Process and equal protection under the law. I was denied any visitation rights. After fighting and paying for two years, I obtained visitation. When I tried to enforce it, the child was deliberately and totally alienated by the mother which was even acknowledged by the court but they did nothing. And she flat out refused to ever honor her visitation and did not show up for any visit for over 4 years. The court did absolutely nothing. And I am stuck with a insurmountable debt. My credit has been destroyed, I cannot get a decent job even though I have made all of my payments since finding out about this case.
THE INSANE And BLATANT BIAS HAS TO END. THESE VICIOUS AND HEINOUS LAWS MUST BE CHANGED.
End the fraud, justice now.
I am also a victim of Paternity Fraud from the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. In 1989 I joined the Army and a few monthe later an ex-girlfirend told me she had given birth to my child. I married this girl in 1991 to make things right and give the child a family. This did not work out and we divorced two years later in 1993. I payed child support for this child for 20 years and in June 2010, out of curiosity, we conducted a DNA test. It turned out to be negative! The mother claims that is imposible, and threatens to sue me for doing that test… I am opening a paternity challenge suit in Puerto Rico since that’s where the documents are at and corrections need to be made. LAW 215 of 2009 in PR supports Paternity Cahllenge and corrections to the birth certificates, along with child support suspensions.
I am a victim of paternity fraud as well in South Carolina. My “daughter” had emergency surgery which could easily have been life-threatening and even in this, her mother still hid from me the true father’s role in her life. She was willing to risk her life to keep money coming in to her! This needs to stop… not just in certain states but in ALL STATES. No one should be obliged to pay for someone elses responsibility just because the mother wants a check. And this is not a stab at good mothers who are actually honest. My wife and family are suffering financially due to the great loss of income due to this deciet. I pray that courts all over wise up and see this corruption for what it truly is. And deal with it with true justice.
I am a victim of Paternity fraud. I live in South Carolina and the ex spouse, told what I thought to be our son, that I was not the Biological father, when he turned 18 a DNA test was done and now he has reunited with his father whom I had never had any knowledge of. I paid support obilgations for 18 years. Edgar Hinson.
I am in a similar situation awaiting a dna test for paternity. I hope that if the child is not mine that I can obtain a lawyer to STOP paying on another man’s child
I live in Texas and I was told that a child was mine, therefore I signed an acknowledgement of paternity. I find out 4 years later that the child is not mine and it cannot be challenged in Texas. The Texas Attorney General is also at fault for allowing this kind of paternity fraud to continue. I am stuck paying for a child that is not mine. DNA needs to be submissable in Texas courts no matter how long it has been. I have paid child support on a child that IS mine for 16 years without a hiccup and now I have 14 years on one that is not mine.
It is amazing how many women can get away with this. I live in Orange County California and Judges routinely screw men over. Right off the bat women are given majority custody (80%)for no reason other than being a women. Why not 50%? All they have to do is falsely accuse an man of anything, such as paternity, and the man is presumed to be guilty. Sad times indeed. This is why the rate of marriage of adults finally fell below 50% for the first time in the history of the country a couple of years ago.
This is a serious problem that needs more attention such as this.
We all need to shout louder!
i am a victim of paternity fraud, i in the middle of this issue waiting on a judge to decide if she going to allow a paternity test,
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Screw the corrupt government that is trying to take away our constitutional rights with their unjust laws.