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If unmarried in NJ and man is married to someone else. Can a person seek child support plus arreers if never filed before?
Anonymous4 views3 answers
A friend had a baby of a man married to another woman a couple of years ago. He is still married to his wife. She hasn't done anything about getting child support. Can she get support and include support for the first two years of the kids life as well?
The dad's marital status is irrelevant, except that there's no legal presumption that he's the child's father. If he asks for a paternity test, he automatically gets one.
She can ask for support going back two years, but the court will generally only order that support is effective as of the date she files for it.
I agree that support would probably be retroactive to the filing date and not before that time. The paternity test shouldn't deter her from filing because it is relatively easy and inexpensive. That man has an obligation to support his child, if in fact it is his child, regardless of his marriage to another person.
Perhaps he would be interested in an out-of-court settlement in this delicate situaton, but otherwise a motion would be needed. In either case, an attorney could be helpful in understanding and calculating the child support guidelines so that there is a resolution fair to everyone's interests.
Yolanda NavarreteFamily Law AttorneyMorristown, NJNJ licensed ·
I agree that the fact he is married to someone else does not affect the child's right to child support in any way. The support will probably date only as far as the date momm files for it, and not the two years.
