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Hi
I wonder if anyway can help me, my ex and I split up when she was 6 months pregnant, the child has now been born and she has not let me have any contact and has changed her phone number, and doesn't answer the door if I go round. The way she is behaving makes me doubt if this child is even mine, if it is I want to be involved and have him in my life, I'm unsure of how to proceed with this when I can't communicate with her or any of her family and friends. If anyone can give me some advice on what steps I can take to sort this out it would be much appreciated.
Thanks
Hi Chestnut
Your first option would be to try mediation to try and open up some dialogue between you both. You would attend at a mediation service and discuss your situation with the mediator who would then contact your ex and ask her to attend.
Mediation is the first step and is compulsory before court action can be taken. If your ex refuses to attend and ignores the request of the mediator, or mediation fails, the mediator will sign off the form to enable you to make a court application. Here's a link to the service
www.nfm.org.uk
At this point you can apply for Parental Responsibility Order and a Child Arrangements Order for contact.
If you continue to doubt you're the father you can apply to the court for a Declaration of Parentage, I've copied and pasted the following information about that, given by Coram Childrens Legal Centre in a previous thread.
In order to establish paternity of the child you would need to take a DNA test. There are two routes to doing this:
1) If the mother was to consent you could visit your GP and request a DNA test to be completed
2) If the mother was not to consent you would need to apply to the Courts for a Declaration of Parentage. This would be asking the courts to order a DNA test be undertaken. To apply for a Declaration of Parentage you would need to complete a form C63 which can be obtained from www.justice.gov.uk. There is a fee for this application which you will need to check with the Court.
...If you are on benefits or a low income you may be entitled to a full or part exemption from the court fees and you can apply for this with form EX160a.
Although legal aid is no longer available for family law cases, you may be entitled to help with mediation costs if you qualify, the mediator will talk to you about that.
Hi chestnut,
Just read your post and it sounds A lot like the situation I was going through for the past 14 months. My ex got pregnant in December 2014 and gave me reasons to doubt the child was mine much like yours. After the child was born I took my ex through the court system and got a DNA test done and I found out last week that I was the biological father to a now 6 month old boy.
So if you want to talk specifics about the process And what to do please don't hesitate to ask on this thread or private mail me π
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