[Rytwyng]

Mamzelle,

ANY man, regardless of celibacy, monogamy, or vasectomy, is currently at risk for financial ruin due to child support. Here's how it works --

(A)A slut whom I've never slept with, let alone sired a child on, randomly picks me and names me the father of her child.
(B) She submits my name to the Child Support agencies, but gives a false or old address.
(C) I never receive the notice, and don't show up in court. (The court will not make any further attempt to locate me... BEFORE the judgement, anyway.)
(D) Since I don't show up, I never have a chance to contest paternity, or demand a DNA test.
(E) The court enters a "default judgement" of paternity which CANNOT be overturned.
(F) All of the sudden, personnel at work calls me to tell me about a garnishment order. (That's the first time I'll ever hear about it.) A large percentage of my money will be taken away, and my family will plummet into POVERTY.

At this point I have no recourse. It doesn't matter if the DNA doesn't match. It doesn't matter if I never slept with the woman. In fact, it doesn't even matter if I never met the woman -- some men have been nailed just by having the same name as an accused father! Once a default judgement has been entered, it's all over.

My sexual morality doesn't protect me... or your husband.... or your son. A man like me, who stayed a virgin til marriage and has been 100% faithful afterward, can STILL be plundered to support a child that's not his. And neither my rights, nor my wife's rights, nor the best interests of MY OWN children would matter a hill of beans.

Therefore, despite my morals, paternity fraud threatens me, too. So, much as I may disapprove of promiscuous men, I totally agree with them on this issue.

[kaylar]

Looks like we're on the same track. If anyone accuses you of making up an absolutely unbelievable chain of events, refer them to Goldberg's Bias, which gives names, places , and dates of just such cases.

[kaylar]

Looks like we're on the same track. If anyone accuses you of making up an absolutely unbelievable chain of events, refer them to Goldberg's Bias, which gives names, places , and dates of just such cases.

[Mamzelle]

Such a scenario would make a great movie. But in real life, you might have to hire a lawyer if you were such an object of fraud, and put up with a substantial nuisance before the issue was resolved. Be interested in a case of such a thing happening.

[BuddhaBoy]

Nice Post. You summed it up perfectly.

No man WITHOUT a vasectomy and proof of when it was done, is safe from this situation, and in some cases, might not be safe ANYWAY. "For the children".

[Myrddin]

Your scenario almost happened to me last June. I received child support lawsuit papers from the City of Los Angeles. The biological father shared my first and last name, but not my middle name. The LA court has access to California DMV and Social Security databases. The information on the bio dad was incomplete, so they picked me randomly out of the DMV records. Shortly, I found that my information was plastered all over this investigators records. My employer had been contacted and my former residence identified. It took 6 weeks of data collection and long distance calls to disentangle this fraud. The name of the "respondant" on the suits was not my name, but all the information fraudulently gathered from California DMV and Social Security databases was my info. I could easily have ended up with forced child support payment for children of a woman I've never met, in a city I've never visited and at least one child who was a biological impossibility due to the consequences of my cancer treatments in 1985. The outrageous laws need to be fixed. No DNA match, no responsiblity...unless you have informed consent and intentionally adopt the non-biologically related child.