here is how this works now a days:
1. baby is born (lots of unwed, young, low income mothers have medicaid to help with the health bills of that pregnancy and the bill of the birth at the hospital.)
2. you may be asked to sign a birth certificate at the hospital (don't yet.)
3. if the mother was on or applies to be on medicaid, food stamps or applies to get afdc (welfare check) or childcare based on her income..... she must sign a statement saying that she will provide the local child support office with the father's information due to child support laws.
4. these offices contact the child support division and she is sent a letter telling her she has an appointment on x day at x time.
if she does not show, they will mail her another, this time they tell her that she is obligated to show up and give them the information and if she does not she will lose the subsidy help she is receiving and could be made to pay back all the help she gets.
5. mother gets scared and goes to the appointment.
6. mother fills out a paper in front of them, which asks who she thinks is most likely the father and must give info.
7. father is sent a letter. he has 20 days to acknowledge this child. he either must sign the form and return it within the time frame to request a dna test or he will be deemed the father, or he could sign the paper saying the child is his. it tells him that if he is not the father, he will not owe anything, but if he is the father, he might be billed for the testing. (DO IT ANYWAY)
8. both parents are contacted by phone or mail to discuss dna test day.
9. you go into their child support division site and they have the lab people there to swab the mouths.
10. you get the results in the mail. if you are more than lets say 98.99% or whatever, then you are most likely the father and deemed as the father from that point on.
11. a court date is set.
12. the child support division will contact you in between this and the court date to decide the amount you should pay. they will contact your employers to find out your wages.
13. you go to court, and child support is set by the judge based on the child support division's calculations.
14. depending on your state, you may or may not pay the back pay.
example: in alabama, you are not the father until the day the test results are provided to you. you do not pay back pay before this date. child support starts on this date.
in kentucky: they have the right to make you pay back pay since the date the child was born, they do not always do that, but they can. the state can keep this due to the medical bills or whatever. the mother usually just starts getting the current support but the state reserves the right to make you pay back every dime of the delivery bill and any other health bill, afdc, child care and any past due support. it doesn't mean they always pursue it, but they can.
15. you start paying the payments, usually garnished. (thats for your protection so no one can lie and say you did not pay it. its also great not to have her calling asking for the money, cause you can say they take it from my check)
16. if you are asked to pay arreages at this time, they usually just calculate it at the court date, in with the current support to be garnished.