Paternity and Parentage in Colorado

What Legal Parentage Means, and Why It Matters

Colorado law draws a line between a biological parent and a legal parent. A DNA link by itself does not give a father the right to see his child, and it does not let a mother collect child support. Those rights and duties begin only when parentage is established under Colorado's Uniform Parentage Act, found at C.R.S. 19-4-101 and the sections that follow.

Once parentage is legally established, everything else can follow:

• Parenting time and decision-making. Colorado calls this an allocation of parental responsibilities. It is what most people mean by custody.
• Child support. Support is calculated under statewide guidelines, and it can only be ordered against, or collected for, a legal parent.
• Benefits and inheritance. Through a legal parent, a child gains inheritance rights and possible access to health insurance, Social Security benefits, and veterans benefits.
• Identity and health. The father can be named on the birth certificate, and the child gains a documented family medical history.

Courts increasingly say parentage rather than paternity, and the statute's framework can reach parents regardless of gender. This page uses both terms.

How Colorado Presumes Someone Is the Father

A presumption is a legal head start. When one applies, the law treats a man as the child's father unless a court decides otherwise. Under C.R.S. 19-4-105, a man is presumed to be the father in several situations, including:

• He was married to the child's mother and the child was born during the marriage, or within 300 days after the marriage ended.
• He attempted to marry the mother and the marriage later turned out to be invalid, with similar timing rules.
• He married or attempted to marry the mother after the birth and acknowledged the child as his own, for example by consenting to be named on the birth certificate or by a written promise to support the child.
• He received the child into his home and openly held the child out as his own while the child was a minor.
• He acknowledged his paternity in a signed writing filed with the court or the state registrar of vital statistics.
• Genetic testing shows at least a 97 percent probability that he is the father.

Sometimes two men hold presumptions at the same time, such as a husband and a biological father. No test result automatically wins. The court resolves the conflict by weighing policy and logic, including how long each man has actually parented the child and what disruption of that relationship would mean for the child.

Three Paths to Establishing Parentage

1. Sign a voluntary acknowledgment

Unmarried parents who agree can sign an acknowledgment of paternity at the hospital after the birth, or later through the state's vital records office. Once filed with the state registrar, it establishes the legal father and places his name on the birth certificate. It is a serious legal document, not a formality. Either signer may rescind it within 60 days of signing, or before the first court or administrative case involving the child if that comes sooner. After that window closes, it can be challenged only for fraud, duress, or a mistake of material fact, and the person challenging it carries the burden of proof.

2. File a parentage case in court

When parents do not agree, or when certainty is needed, either one can file a parentage action. The court can order genetic testing, enter a judgment naming the legal father, and then address parenting time and child support.

3. Let the state open a case

County child support services can also start a parentage and support case, often when a parent applies for services or receives public assistance. There is an important limit here. The state's case establishes parentage and support. It does not give a father a parenting schedule. That takes separate court orders, and we help parents put those orders in place.

Genetic Testing

Genetic testing in a Colorado parentage case is usually a painless cheek swab collected from the child, the mother, and the man in question. The rules live in C.R.S. 13-25-126, and as of this writing they work like this:

• The court can order testing when parentage is disputed in a case.
• Results from a qualifying laboratory come into evidence without extra formalities.
• A probability of paternity of at least 97 percent creates a presumption that the man is the father.
• That presumption can be rebutted only by other qualifying genetic testing that excludes him or identifies another man as the father.

Testing answers the biological question. It does not always answer the legal one. When another man is a presumed father through marriage, or has raised the child as his own, the court still weighs the competing presumptions with the child's wellbeing in view.

Who Can File, and When

Colorado keeps the courthouse door open to nearly everyone with a real stake in the answer. Under C.R.S. 19-4-107, a parentage action can be brought by the child's mother, by a man who believes he is or is presumed to be the father, by the child, and by the state, including county human services and the child support services unit.

Deadlines matter, and as of this writing they include:

• A mother or father may file at any time before the child's eighteenth birthday.
• A child whose paternity has not been determined may file until age twenty-one under C.R.S. 19-4-108.
• An action to declare that a presumed father is not the legal father, when the presumption comes from marriage or attempted marriage, must be filed within a reasonable time after learning the relevant facts, and never more than five years after the child's birth.

Five years passes quickly, and a reasonable time can be far shorter. If a presumption touches your family, the safest move is to ask your questions early.