My fiancé just got papers for a court date in February for a child he has never seen before and the child is 16 years old why would someone wait that long to put someone on child support and to tell them about this child.

He needs to demand a DNA test to prove it before he admits to anything.

More than a few guys have been falsely accused of being the father... sometimes because they had a higher earning potential than the real father... sometime because of a bad guess by the mother, sometimes because the mother was angry at the real father. If its his, then he should step up...but one persons "word" that it is, isn't enough.

Why? They probably need money now. All the more reason to demand absolute proof. And there is none better than DNA testing.

Countless reasons - not wanting the father in the child's life before is the biggie, I'd guess. A 16 year old might be asking a lot of questions about his father, maybe even wanting to know him. And the mother may be bitter so now wants money.

If he pays support, he is going to be given visitation at the least, unless he is a child molester or many times criminal. Did he know the child existed all those years ago? Is there DNA proof that he is the father?
How much of it might be retroactive depends on what state. He can ask questions at his local courthouse.

Does not really matter why, they have a legal right to do this. Reasons is not even an issue for court.

As noted, he should ask for a DNA test and hire an attorney.

The reason she waited so long don't matter and you don't know if your guy was the first or only guy contacted about this child. Don't speculate on that and just focus on verifying whether he is indeed the bio father.

It's also possible he knows of the child and now that he has a fiancé, she wants a child support payment set up through the courts rather than on the side. Secret kids happen more often than people think.

Did it ever occur to you that your fiancée may have ducked out of his responsibility? And it took them 16 years to find him? That is also a possibility. As noted there could be any number of reasons the mother waited this long. From all of a sudden needing the money, to the state trying to get something back on the public assistance they laid out, to his hiding from the mother. Or a combination of factors.

The point is what does he do now. The first thing would be to demand DNA testing to confirm paternity. If it confirms paternity, then he needs an attorney to fight any retroactive awards (assuming he truly was not aware that he got someone pregnant).