Paternity Disputes in Divorce: What Happens When the Husband Isn’t the Father with Attorney Meagan Spomer

When a child’s paternity comes into question, the legal outcome often has little to do with biology. Attorney Meagan Spomer, managing partner at Nebraska Legal Group and a fellow in the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, joins the show to break down how paternity works differently depending on whether the parents are married. She explains the legal presumption that attaches automatically when a husband is married to the child’s mother, why that presumption is difficult to overturn even with proof otherwise, and how the “acknowledgment of paternity” signed at the hospital creates the same binding effect for unmarried fathers. Spomer walks through the fraud or material mistake of fact standard required to challenge paternity after the fact, the four year statute of limitations for establishing paternity, and why courts weigh a child’s best interest and existing bond over strict biology when deciding whether to set a paternity finding aside. The conversation also covers real cases from her time in child support enforcement, including one involving identical twin brothers and a genetic test that couldn’t settle the matter. Spomer closes with practical advice for anyone facing a paternity question, particularly around the risks of signing an acknowledgment of paternity before knowing the full picture.