How to Get a Legal Paternity Test

Human DNA

Legal paternity testing is a way to establish the identity of a child's father in a court of law through DNA paternity testing procedures. Many home paternity kits purport to sell a legal paternity test kit. But be aware how these kits are used, as you'll incur additional costs for paternity testing.

Things You'll Need

• Court order (usually)

Instructions

1. If you want a legal paternity test, get a court order first. Although many home DNA test kits will sell you the "legal" version of a home paternity testing kit, they require you, your child and the child's alleged father to go to an approved laboratory, submit identification, and have lab technicians do DNA testing at the facility. This so-called "legal paternity testing" results in considerable cost-close to or the same had you simply walked into the lab for paternity testing.

2. Use paternity home kits for curiosity purposes only--or so that a child's alleged father can know if he should sign an acknowledgment of paternity or submit to a court order naming him as a child's father. Unless a court approves of a specific method of DNA testing, you cannot supply your own legal paternity test results as "evidence."

3. Make sure you know your rights, and that the father of your child knows his rights, too. Establishing legal paternity through DNA testing or any other means gives both of you certain parental rights and responsibilities. You get the right to receive child support, while the father of your child gets the right to pursue child custody or visitation.