**SPONSORED CONTENT BY DIVORCE INCORPORATED**

Married women sometimes have children with men who are not their husbands. Of course, the reverse also happens, but when a married woman has a child, her husband is presumed to be the legal father. This presumption is true even when it is clear that the husband is not, could not, be the father. This presumption of parentage, however, can be overcome. This proof must be accomplished by a DNA test and a court order.

Until the order on paternity says otherwise, husbands are the legal father of their wives’ children. Tennessee courts have upheld this common law precedent for many years. Gower v. State, 290 S.W. 978 (Tenn. 1927), Jackson v. Thorton, 179 S.W. 384 (Tenn. 1915), Cannon v. Cannon, 26 Tenn. 410 (Tenn. 1846). Now, Tennessee statute confirms this old law: Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-2-304 states that the “A man is rebuttably presumed to be the father of a child if the man and the child’s mother are married or have been married to each other and the child is born during the marriage or within three hundred (300) days after the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce.”

For example: If you have been separated from your wife for two years, and you have not seen her since she stormed out, and she is living with her new boyfriend, you could be a Daddy! If you do not want to be a daddy, or if you do not want your husband to be your child’s legal parent when you know that he did not supply his biology for the occasion, do a paternity test, through the court. Do this test as part of the divorce. Do not assume that paternity is a non-issue. Waiting may bar future paternity actions after the divorce.

By Daniel P. Bryant, Attorney at Law

Daniel P. Bryant is an attorney in the Clarksville offices DIVORCE INCORPORATED, Tennessee’s Family Law Firm. His primary areas of practice are divorce, family and juvenile law litigation. Attorney Bryant may be contacted at 931-896-2400 or dbryant@divorceincorp.com. For more information, go to www.divorceincorp.com.