FINAL BILL REPORT

SHB 419

                                  C 441 L 87

BYHouse Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Representatives Hargrove, Wineberry, Padden, Brekke, Holm, Patrick, Winsley, Brough, Silver and Moyer; by request of Department of Social and Health Services)

Providing for administrative determination of paternity.

House Committe on Judiciary

Rereferred House Committee on Ways & Means/Appropriations

Senate Committee on Judiciary and Committee on Ways & Means

SYNOPSIS AS ENACTED

BACKGROUND:

Washington has adopted the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA).  The UPA provides for a judicial means to establish whether there is a parent-child relationship.  The UPA establishes circumstances in which a parent-child relationship is presumed to exist.  These include instances in which the mother and the alleged father were married at the time of conception or had attempted to be married, instances in which the alleged father receives the child into his home as his child or instances in which the alleged father acknowledges paternity in writing.  The UPA also establishes procedures for notifying an alleged father of the initiation of a court proceeding to establish paternity and for hearings on the issue of paternity.  The Department of Social and Health Services provides funding to county prosecutors to pay for the costs of paternity establishment cases.  The department also uses the attorney general for these cases.

In investigating a claim for support enforcement, the department may not question the mother about her sexual activity except to resolve a dispute about the child's parentage.  If the mother states that a particular man is the father, the department may not question the mother further on her personal life unless the man denies that he is the father.

SUMMARY:

The Department of Social and Health Services is directed to augment its present paternity establishment practice by hiring additional assistant attorneys general or contracting with private attorneys.  Private attorneys may be hired only on six-month contracts and only in counties or judicial districts where prosecutors or the attorney general are unable to handle the caseload.  The department is required to report to the Judiciary committees of the House and Senate and to the prosecutors about circumstances in which it hires private attorneys.

The department is authorized in the course of its investigation into the paternity of a child to question the mother about her sexual activity to the extent necessary to identify and locate possible fathers and establish paternity.

VOTES ON FINAL PASSAGE:

      House 91   4

      Senate    49     0(Senate amended)

      House 95   2(House concurred)

EFFECTIVE:July 26, 1987