Maintenance, District Court

Jay Cee

Can anyone tell me how long one wud expect to be in the district court over a maintenance application? The childs father is denying paternity so a dna test may have to be ordered. But roughly how long wud the sitting take and how many times wud I have to go??

My child is almost two, I havent had any contact with his father since I was pregnant and he has made no attempt to see him. He has never offered me money (apart form when I was pregnant, he offered my a large sum for a termination). Im unsure if im doing the right thing here by not pursuing him as like I mentioned he‘s denying paternity and I think this is unacceptable. it was never an issue before but I believe he is doing this to protect his ’image’ when word got out he had a child…. I only discovered he was saying this through some friends.
Im terrified my sons father might ask for guardianship and get it.. after everything that’s happened. There will never be a good relationship between us and that cant be healthy for the child. Also maintenance will make little difference to us financially.
Iv read a lot of information regarding these matters but unable to find out the length of the district court process.
If anyone has been through this I wud appreciate any information on their experiences, please don’t be too harsh

Ickle Magoo

Moved from PI :cool:

Jo King

A paternity suit must be brought in the Circuit Court. After there has been a declaration of parentage you can then apply for child maintenance in the District Court. How long it might take depends on how awkward he is and how good your lawyers are. Anything from 6 months to 4 years.

angelfire9

Jo King wrote: »

A paternity suit must be brought in the Circuit Court.

Not true
You can apply for maintenance in the district court and when he denies paternity the judge will order a DNA test and adjourn the case until the results came back
So the length of time you are talking about depends largely on the length of the family law waiting lists in your local area

bulmersgal

sent you a pm

Jay Cee

Thank you all for ur feedback,
appreciate it!