Revoking Paternity

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I'm working on a script in which a married woman has a child by another man. Originally the husband is listed on the birth certificate as the father. Then there's a DNA test and the paternity is officially changed to the boyfriend. Later, if the boyfriend and the woman both changed their minds, and claimed they had not had sex and that he was not father of the child. Further the husband claimed he was father of the child. It would be all three people's words against a paternity test. The paternity test is not 100%, so could they over turn the paternity test? It seems like this would be possible simply because there is no offended party. The currently listed father no longer wants the child and the husband wants the child. Legally would this be achievable? I'm not asking if it is morally right, or if they people pushing the paperwork would think well of the people. I'm just asking is it doable?

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Type: Question • Score: 6 • Views: 5,757 • Replies: 47

[+3] - joefromchicago - 03/17/2011[quote="MrIVI"] Oh, possibly I explained that badly. The husband always wanted paternity of the child. [/quote] Well, that simplifies things tremendously. In that case, the...

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@MrIVI,

Insanely complicated plot. You expect someone to buy and read or follow this mish-mash? whether or not it's legal or the ramifications is irrelevant. It's hardly marketable. What producer or director would buy in?

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Complicated is good. It's my job to make it followable in the script, and yes, it will definitely work.

1 Reply

@MrIVI,

MrIVI wrote:

Complicated is good. It's my job to make it followable in the script, and yes, it will definitely work.

NNooooooot so sure about that

I ask again: are you going to credit the fine posters of A2K, for whom you've asked tremendous amounts of plot advice?

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@MrIVI,

A husband is presumed to be the father of any child born to his wife during their term of their marriage. It would be extremely difficult for a husband to disclaim paternity of a child born in this circumstance. It's not as simple as ordering a paternity test -- the husband would have to overcome that presumption as well as the courts' reluctance to make a child born into an established family into a bastard. The courts are also very leery of people who change their minds about these sorts of things -- if the husband claimed he wasn't the father, and then later claimed that he was, I don't think the courts would be very sympathetic. A family court wants, above all else, to make sure that the child has a father, not a rotating cast of putative parents, which is why there's the presumption that the husband is always the father. There are plenty of stories of men who are held responsible for raising children fathered by somebody else.

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@joefromchicago,

Oh, possibly I explained that badly.
The husband always wanted paternity of the child.
But the "boyfriend", the guy the wife was having the affair with, claimed he was father of the child, the wife backed his statement, and a DNA test supported his claim.
But due to plot events, the husband, originally stated father, gets them to falsify their statements in effort to get the paternity to revert to him.

2 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

Quote:

I ask again: are you going to credit the fine posters of A2K, for whom you've asked tremendous amounts of plot advice?

I apologize I know this will be considered offensive, but the people who are always asking me if they are going to get credit never even try to contribute anything. This is a forum if you don't want to contribute don't.

The honest truth is I'm no famous screenwriter. I work a day job, and I have trouble getting credit myself sometimes.

1 Reply

@MrIVI,

MrIVI wrote:

Quote:
I ask again: are you going to credit the fine posters of A2K, for whom you've asked tremendous amounts of plot advice?

I apologize I know this will be considered offensive, but the people who are always asking me if they are going to get credit never even try to contribute anything. This is a forum if you don't want to contribute don't.

The honest truth is I'm no famous screenwriter. I have trouble getting credit myself sometimes.

Well, I just see a never-ending stream of questions from ya here which amount to you crowdsourcing your ideas instead of coming up with them yourself. But hey, whatever floats yer boat

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@Cycloptichorn,

It's a forum.
If people aren't interested in the conversation they don't need to contribute.

1 Reply

@MrIVI,

MrIVI wrote:

It's a forum.
If people aren't interested in the conversation they don't need to contribute.

Yeah, and now I'm contributing my opinion that crowdsourcing ideas for your scripts sucks. If you don't like it, tough ****.

Asking if you're going to credit all these people who you ask for ideas was a nice way of saying that.

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

@MrIVI,

Quote:

Oh, possibly I explained that badly.

So, let me understand this; you explained it badly here but you're the scriptwriter. If you can't explain it easily, then how do you expect readers or viewers to follow it?

Why not find a more marketable script direction? It might just be me, but I think if I wanted success with a script, I'd find the path of least resistance - not greater.

You know what people do if a movie plot is as convoluted as this one? They walk out or toss the book away. That's assuming that a director and/or producer or potential publisher hasn't torn up the script or rejected it.

As a forum, we tend to give our unvarnished opinions. Deal with it.

Don't give up your day job.

2 Replies

@Ragman,

Quote:

So, let me understand this; you explained it badly here but you're the scriptwriter. If you can't explain it easily, then how do you expect readers or viewers to follow it?

Why not find a more marketable script direction? It might just be me, but I think if I wanted success with a script, I'd find the path of least resistance - not greater.

You know what people do if a movie plot is as convoluted as this one? They walk out or toss the book away. That's assuming that a director and/or producer or potential publisher hasn't torn up the script or rejected it.

As a forum, we tend to give our unvarnished opinions. Deal with it.

Don't give up your day job.

This is what everybody always wants credit for.

1 Reply

@MrIVI,

do you think we really want credit for your screenplay?

If so, you're missing the point entirely

Cycloptichorn

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

PS: I just wanted to say thanks to JoeFromChicago for always being so helpful to me!

1 Reply

@MrIVI,

MrIVI wrote:

Oh, possibly I explained that badly.
The husband always wanted paternity of the child.

Well, that simplifies things tremendously. In that case, the situation you describe COULD NEVER HAPPEN. A court would never allow a paternity test when a husband was claiming that he was the father of his wife's child. Like I said before, there is a presumption that a husband is the father of his wife's child, and a court won't allow some third-party to come in and try to rebut that presumption. It just won't. Never. Never never never never.

Now, just because something could never happen doesn't mean that it could never happen in a movie. Movies and television always get the law wrong. In the movie Double Jeopardy, for instance, Hollywood completely screwed up the law on -- not surprisingly -- double jeopardy. That didn't stop them from making the movie.

2 Replies

@Cycloptichorn,

Quote:

do you think we really want credit for your screenplay?

Quote:

I ask again: are you going to credit the fine posters of A2K, for whom you've asked tremendous amounts of plot advice?

Usually when someone asks for something I assume they want it. I'm just old fashioned that way.

1 Reply

@joefromchicago,

Quote:

Now, just because something could never happen doesn't mean that it could never happen in a movie. Movies and television always get the law wrong. In the movie Double Jeopardy, for instance, Hollywood completely screwed up the law on -- not surprisingly -- double jeopardy. That didn't stop them from making the movie.

Yeah, I remember that movie. It was driving me nuts the whole time I watched it. I was like you've got to be kidding me.

0 Replies

@MrIVI,

MrIVI wrote:

Quote:
do you think we really want credit for your screenplay?

Quote:
I ask again: are you going to credit the fine posters of A2K, for whom you've asked tremendous amounts of plot advice?

Usually when someone asks for something I assume they want it. I'm just old fashioned that way.

Did you read my post to you?

Quote:

Yeah, and now I'm contributing my opinion that crowdsourcing ideas for your scripts sucks. If you don't like it, tough ****.

Asking if you're going to credit all these people who you ask for ideas was a nice way of saying that.

This conversation would make a better screenplay than the idea you posted.

Cycloptichorn

0 Replies

@MrIVI,

You're welcome. And don't worry -- I'm not interested in any screen credit.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Sounds like he is writing scripts for one of the many really awful soap operas out there. If that is the case, he can use all the help he can get, from any source. No matter what he writes, the acting will be so awful that it won't make much of a difference.

2 Replies

Revoking Paternity

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