In family law cases that involve children, the very first thing that must be established is whether or not a parent-child relationship exists. Usually, the answer as to who the child’s mother is is not an issue. Texas Family Code Section 160.204 covers presumption of paternity. Here are 5 circumstances where a man is the presumed father of a child.

1. The man is married to the mother of the child and the child is born during the marriage.

2. The man is married to the mother of the child and the child is born before the 301^st day after the date the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce. In other words, the man is married to the mother of the child and the child is born within 300 days after the marriage is terminated.

3. The man married the mother of the child before the birth of the child in apparent compliance with the law, even if the attempted marriage is or could be declared invalid, and the child is born during the invalid marriage or before the 301^st day after the date the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, or divorce. To put it more simply, the possibility a court may deem the marriage invalid does not matter. As long as the parties followed the law to become married and the child is born during that marriage or within 300 days after that marriage is terminated, the man is the presumed father.

4. The man married the mother of the child after the birth of the child in apparent compliance with the law, regardless of whether the marriage is or could be declared invalid, he voluntarily asserted his paternity of the child, AND (1) the assertion is in a record filed with the vital statistics unit, (2) he is voluntarily named as the child’s father on the child’s birth certificate; or (3) he promised in a record to support the child as his own. Even if a man marries the mother of a child after the child’s birth, he can still be the presumed father if he voluntarily makes a record that he is the child’s father.

5. During the first two years of the child’s life, he continuously resided in the household in which the child resided, and he represented to others that the child was his own.

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