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Senate Bill 502 |
Senate Author: West |
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Effective: 9-1-11 |
House Sponsor: Thompson |
Previous law authorized a signatory in an acknowledgment or denial of paternity to rescind the acknowledgment or denial by commencing a proceeding to rescind before a specified deadline and established a procedure for such a proceeding. Senate Bill 502 amends the Family Code to remove that authorization and instead authorize a signatory to rescind an acknowledgment or denial of paternity by filing with the bureau of vital statistics a completed rescission, on a form prescribed by the bureau, in which the signatory makes certain declarations under penalty of perjury. The bill includes provisions relating to the deadline for filing a rescission, the voiding of an acknowledgment or denial of paternity affected by a completed rescission and the amendment of the birth record of the child, proceedings to contest a rescission and challenge an acknowledgment or denial of paternity, and conditions under which a proceeding to adjudicate the parentage of a child having a presumed father may be maintained. The bill makes it a third degree felony for a person to alter, destroy, conceal, fabricate, or falsify genetic evidence in a proceeding to adjudicate parentage and makes an order excluding a man as the biological father of a child based on genetic evidence shown to be altered, fabricated, or falsified void and unenforceable.