CODE OF VIRGINIA

RELIEF FROM LEGAL DETERMINATION OF PATERNITY (§ 20-49.10)

An individual may file a petition for relief and, except as provided herein, the
court may set aside a final judgment, court order, administrative order,
obligation to pay child support or any legal determination of paternity if a
scientifically reliable genetic test performed in accordance with this chapter
establishes the exclusion of the individual named as a father in the legal
determination.  The court shall appoint a guardian ad litem to represent the
interest of the child.  The petitioner shall pay the costs of such test. A court
that sets aside a determination of paternity in accordance with this section
shall order completion of a new birth record and may order any other appropriate
relief, including setting aside an obligation to pay child support. No support
order may be retroactively modified, but may be modified with respect to any
period during which there is a pending petition for relief from a determination
of paternity, but only from the date that notice of the petition was served on
the nonfiling party.A court shall not grant relief from determination of
paternity if the individual named as father (i) acknowledged paternity knowing
he was not the father, (ii) adopted the child, or (iii) knew that the child was
conceived through artificial insemination.

HISTORY: 2001, c. 814.