I live in Ohio and I am listed as the father on my daughter's birth certificate. She is 10 years old and there has always been a question as to whether I am her biological father or not, but it never bothered me too much, but now there are issues of rumors going around our small town about how much she looks like another man living here, and I find that I now want to know for sure. My question is, how hard would it be to get a court to issue an order to have a paternity test done? My ex lives in Florida now with the children and would never voluntarily agree.

Do you have visitation or custody of the child ? Are you on the birth certificate? Have you been paying child support ?

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Originally Posted by califdadof3

Do you have visitation or custody of the child ? Are you on the birth certificate? Have you been paying child support ?

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Yes I signed the birth certificate and pay support. visitation is still set at standard visitation, but should be long distance.

You need to check your paperwork. If you already have those things then most likely you have joint legal custody. That is the right to make choices in your child's life. If that is the case then when you and the child have visitation you can have the test done and your within your legal limits to do so. It doesn't have to be done with a court order. If the test come back as inaccurate then you would generate a complaint and get a court ordered test done to sort out the problem.

Even if the DNA test shows you are not the biol father, you are the legal father and a it may be too late to challenge that. If you just want to know for your own peace of mind then as califdad, says, the next time she visits, you take her to a lab. You can make up some excuse why.