By Nathan Arnold
Special to DadsDivorce.com
Biological fathers rights in Michigan earned a victory with a new law allowing biological dads to establish paternity of a child that was born to a married woman.
Previously, Michigan paternity laws did not give parental rights to biological fathers if the mother of the child was married to another man at the time of the child’s birth.
The husband of the child’s mother was automatically presumed to be the father.
The inspiration behind the “The Revocation of Paternity Act” is Daniel Quinn who, after a court-ordered DNA test proved him to be the biological father of a daughter born to Candace Beckwith, was continually denied visitation rights for the past four years due to Michigan’s former Paternity Act, which had been in effect since 1956.
This new law eliminates Michigan’s former Paternity Act and gives biological fathers the chance to establish paternity of a child if filed within the first three years of the child’s life.
Additionally, there is a safety clause that permits the filing of an action if done within one year of the effective date that the Act was passed on; so, no later than June 12, 2013.
Quinn told MLive.com that this new paternity law is not meant to take the rights away from current stepfathers when the biological father is seen as unfit.
“What this will do,” Quinn says, “is on both sides it would open the door for fathers, and untie the hands of our judges and allow them to rule what is best for the child.”
The full text of the new law may be read at on the Michigan Legislature’s website.
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