The parentage of a child may need to be determined in disputes relating to parenting, child support, child maintenance or adult child maintenance, where the person seeking assistance either:
- cannot rely on a presumption of parentage
or - needs to rebut a presumption of parentage.
Legal assistance may be available under this guideline to:
- apply for or oppose a finding of parentage by a court
and/or - apply for an order from a court for the male party to undergo parentage testing.
Guideline
Victoria Legal Aid (VLA) may make a grant of legal assistance to apply for or respond to an application for the determination of the parentage of a child where:
- parentage is an issue in a dispute relating to child support, child maintenance or adult child maintenance and the person has sought and is unable to obtain assistance from our Child Support Legal Service or a community legal centre
or - the person has been, or will be funded by us in relation to another Commonwealth family law matter, for example for a parenting dispute
and - the following threshold tests are met:
- forum test
- means test
- Commonwealth merits test (see also Parenting disputes where the person is in custody)
- contravention test.
and
- a party to the dispute denies that a male party is the child’s father
and - where the person seeking assistance is the male party and he denies he is the father of the child, the person:
- can provide adequate reasons in support of his denial
and - agrees to undergo parentage testing.
- can provide adequate reasons in support of his denial
For examples of adequate reasons in support of a denial of parentage, see the notes on guideline .
Determining parentage in disputes about who a child lives with, or spends time with
In disputes about who the child lives with, or spends time with (parenting disputes), the person applying for legal assistance is not required to first seek assistance from the Child Support Legal Service.
Legal assistance will generally not be available to a male party to determine parentage, when the facts suggest that he plays a significant role in the child's care and/or welfare. For information on how to determine this, see the Notes on the Commonwealth Family Law and Child Support Guidelines.
Conditions
When a fee is claimed for the client’s share of the cost of parentage testing and the outcome favours the client, the lawyer is usually required to seek an order from the court for the other party to pay the full cost of the testing. For more information, refer to costs recovery.
Fees available
For information about fees available for a grant under this guideline, see Stage 2A – application for determination of parentage, Magistrates' Court.
Documentary requirements
Applications for assistance under this guideline are within the simplified grants process and are submitted through ATLAS. Lawyers submitting an application must ensure that evidence supporting the application is kept on the file.
Ongoing assessment that client meets the guidelines
The lawyer must inform us if, at any point during the life of the grant, they are no longer satisfied that the client meets the guideline, including the Commonwealth merits test and the substantial issue in dispute test.
Notes on this guideline
For commentary and examples on the eligibility criteria, grants assessment process, documentary requirements and fees and billing relevant to this guideline, see the Notes on guideline .
Reviewed 20 April 2023