House panel deals with child, family support issues

Kanye West said it 11 years ago: “I know somebody paying child support for one of his kids… And on her 18th birthday he found out it wasn’t his.”
The House Committee on Civil Law and Procedure attempted Monday to enact legislation that would expand the time frame fo r men who are identified as the father to disavow the child and support payments.
There is a presumption under current Louisiana law that the husband of the mother is the father of the child, Andrea Carroll, interim associated dean for student and academic affairs at the Hebert Law Center at LSU. Louisiana’s one-year disavowal period is the shortest in the U.S., she said. After that year, even if the biological father becomes known, the husband of the wife is stuck with support payments.
House Bill 388, sponsored by Rep. Patrick Jefferson, D-Homer, extends the time a husband can disclaim paternity of a child from the child’s first birthday to the time the husband knew or should have known he has reason to believe he is not be the biological father, whichever is later, a discovery that Jefferson referred to as “a eureka moment.”
HB388 deals only with fathers who are husbands or former husbands of the child’s mother. There currently laws on the books dealing with fathers of children born out of wedlock.
Husbands or ex-husbands currently have until the child’s first birthday to determine if he is the child’s father. The bill also takes out the reference of signing the birth certificate that is conducted electrically.
The committee also dealt with seven other child and family support measures. All but the first one below, HB493, which was deferred, were approved. They are:
HB493, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Miller, R-Norco, which provides federal and state tax deductions in child support calculations.
HB330, also by Miller, calculates the amount of child support a parent should pay based on an income earning potential equal to 32 hours at minimum wage when evidence of a patent’s income is absent.
HB396, by Miller, gives the Louisiana State Law Institute Marriage and Person Advisory Committee the authority to send either designee or a reporter to serve as a member of the child support review committee.
Miller’s HB395 allows the court to consider separate child support payments, not a part of that proceeding, when determining the adjusted gross income used when determining child support payments.
Rep. Paula Davis, R-Baton Rouge, sponsored HB212 requiring employers to report an employee’s pending lump sum payments of $500 or more to the Department of Children and Family Services to help pay for child, spousal and medical support. The employer must notify the department within 15 days of transfer of payment. The department has 15 days to respond on whether all or some of the payment should be withheld for child support. If the deadline passes, the employer can pay the entire sum to the employee.
HB325, sponsored by Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Marksville, repeals the provision in the Vital Records Law regarding allegations of paternity for child support purposes. Johnson said there already exists a more effective law regarding the obtaining the information.
Johnson also sponsored HB484, which passed, allowing judges to make a non-custodial parent responsible for cash medical support until that parent provides health insurance when private health insurance is not available for either parent at a reasonable cost. Cash medical support cannot exceed 5 percent of the non-custodial parent’s gross income, which will be paid to the Department of Children and Family services.
All passed bills were sent to the House for full consideration.
Contact Tierra Smith at tierrasmith_13@ymail.com.