[§584A-203] Who may bring action; when action may be brought; process, warrant, bond. (a) A child or guardian ad litem of the child, an individual who is the child's parent under this chapter, an individual whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated, a personal representative of a deceased parent of the child, a personal representative of a deceased individual who otherwise would be entitled to maintain a proceeding, or the child support enforcement agency may bring an action for the purpose of declaring the existence or nonexistence of a parent-child relationship in accordance with the following:
(1) If the child is the subject of an adoption proceeding, an action may be brought:
(A) Within thirty days after the date of the child's birth in any case when a parent relinquishes the child for adoption during the thirty-day period; or
(B) Any time before the date of execution by a parent of a valid consent to the child's adoption, or before placement of the child with adoptive parents;
(2) If the child has not become the subject of an adoption proceeding, within three years after the child reaches the age of majority or any time after that for good cause; provided that any period of time during which the individual whose parentage is to be adjudicated is absent from the State or is openly cohabitating with a parent of the child or is contributing to the support of the child, shall not be computed;
(3) This section shall not extend the time within which a right of inheritance or a right to a succession may be asserted beyond the time otherwise provided by law relating to distribution and closing of decedents' estates or to the determination of heirship; and
(4) A personal representative for purposes of this section may be appointed by the court upon a filing of an ex parte motion by one of the parties entitled to file a parentage action. Probate requirements need not be met. Appointment of a personal representative in this section shall be limited to representation in proceedings under this chapter.
(b) When an action is brought under this section, process shall issue in the form of a summons and an order directed to the individual whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated, requiring each party to appear and to show cause why the action should not be brought. The court, in its discretion, may waive a hearing on an uncontested parentage complaint submitted by an individual who gave birth to a child, an alleged genetic parent of the child, a presumed parent of the child, or a functional parent of the child with proof provided by affidavit.
If, at any stage of the proceedings, there appears probable cause to believe that the individual whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated will fail to appear in response to the summons or will flee the jurisdiction of the court, the court may issue a warrant directed to the sheriff, deputy sheriff, or any police officer within the circuit, requiring the individual to be arrested and brought for pretrial proceedings before the family court. Upon the pretrial proceedings, the court may require the individual to enter into bond with good sureties to the State in a sum to be fixed by the court for each individual's appearance and the trial of the proceeding in the family court. If the individual whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated fails to give the bond required, the court may immediately commit that individual to the custody of the chief of police of the county, there to remain until that individual enters into the required bond or otherwise is discharged by due process of law. If the individual whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated fails to appear in any proceeding under this chapter, any bond for that individual's appearance in any proceeding under this chapter shall be forfeited; provided that the trial of, or other proceedings in, the action shall proceed as though that individual were present, and the court shall make orders as it deems proper upon the findings as though that individual were in court.
In case of forfeiture of any appearance bond, the money collected upon the forfeiture shall be applied in payment of the judgment against the individual if they are adjudicated to be a parent under this chapter.
(c) Regardless of its terms, an agreement, other than an agreement approved by the court in accordance with section 584A-502(a)(2), between a parent and the individual whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated shall not bar an action under this section.
(d) Except as otherwise provided in section 584A-910, if an action under this section is brought before the birth of the child, all proceedings shall be stayed until after the birth except service of process and the taking of depositions to perpetuate testimony.
(e) Subject to the requirements of section 584A-303(a), with respect to a child who was not conceived through assisted reproduction, where a married individual has not had sexual contact with the married individual's spouse nor resided in the same house with the spouse for at least three hundred days before the birth of the child and the spouse cannot be contacted after due diligence, the court may accept an affidavit by the married individual, attesting to the married individual's diligent efforts to contact the married individual's spouse and providing clear and convincing evidence to rebut the presumption of the parentage of the subject child, and upon the court's satisfaction, notice of the spouse may be waived and the spouse need not be made a party in the parentage proceedings. The court, after receiving evidence, may also enter a finding of non-parentage of the spouse.
(f) With respect to a child who was not conceived through assisted reproduction, where a married individual has not had sexual contact with the married individual's spouse nor resided in the same house with the spouse for at least three hundred days before the birth of the child, and the biological parent is known, parentage in the married spouse may be disestablished by submission of affidavits of both spouses and the biological parent stating the name and birth date of the child and acknowledgment that the spouse is not the parent and that the biological parent should be adjudicated as the legal parent. [L 2025, c 298, pt of §2]