BILL REQ. #:  S-3800.1 

Read first time 01/16/2004.   Referred to Committee on Children & Family Services & Corrections.

     AN ACT Relating to proceedings to adjudicate parentage; and amending RCW 26.26.530.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1   RCW 26.26.530 and 2002 c 302 s 507 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Except as otherwise provided in subsections (2) and (3) of this section, a proceeding brought by a presumed father, the mother, or another individual to adjudicate the parentage of a child having a presumed father must be commenced not later than two years after the birth of the child.
     (2) A proceeding seeking to disprove the father-child relationship between a child and the child's presumed father may be maintained at any time if the court determines that:
     (a) The presumed father and the mother of the child neither cohabited nor engaged in sexual intercourse with each other during the probable time of conception; and
     (b) The presumed father never openly treated the child as his own.
     (3) A proceeding to disprove the father-child relationship between a child and the child's presumed father may be maintained at any time if results from genetic testing administered within ninety days prior to the proceeding find that there is zero percent probability that the presumed father is the father of the child and the court determines that:
     (a) The genetic test was properly conducted and meets the requirements of RCW 26.26.400 through 26.26.450;
     (b) The presumed father has not adopted the child;
     (c) The child was not conceived by artificial insemination while the presumed father and the child's mother were in wedlock;
     (d) The presumed father did not act to prevent the biological father of the child from asserting his paternal rights with respect to the child; and
     (e) The presumed father with knowledge that he is not the biological father of the child has not:
     (i) Married the mother of the child and voluntarily assumed the parental obligation and duty to pay child support;
     (ii) Acknowledged his paternity of the child in a sworn statement;
     (iii) Been named as the child's biological father on the child's birth certificate with his consent;
     (iv) Been required to support the child because of a written voluntary promise;
     (v) Received written notice from the department of social and health services, any other state agency, or any court directing him to submit to genetic testing which he disregarded;
     (vi) Signed an acknowledgment of paternity; or
     (vii) Proclaimed himself to be the child's biological father.