§ 16-2342 — Who may bring a complaint; time.

(a) A proceeding to determine parentage may be brought by the District of Columbia, a person whose parentage of the child is to be adjudicated, a child’s mother, putative father, guardian, legal or physical custodian, the IV-D agency, the person whose parentage is to be determined, if an adult, or a licensed child-placing agency.

(b) A proceeding to determine parentage and provide for the support of a child with no presumed parent under § 16-909(a)(1) through (4) or § 16-909(a-1)(2) may be instituted after four months of pregnancy or at anytime until the child’s twenty-first birthday.

(c) Except as otherwise provided in subsection (d) of this section, a proceeding to rebut the presumption of parentage of a child having a presumed parent under § 16-909(a)(1) through (4) or § 16-909(a-1)(2) shall be commenced not later than 2 years after the birth of the child, after which time the presumption becomes conclusive.

(d) A proceeding seeking to disprove the parent-child relationship between a child and the child’s presumed parent under § 16-909(a)(1) through (4) or § 16-909(a-1)(2) may be maintained at any time if the court determines that the presumed parent did not live with the child’s mother during the 300 days before the birth of the child and never openly held out the child as his or her own.

Legislative History

Dec. 23, 1963, 77 Stat. 591, Pub. L. 88-241, § 1; July 29, 1970, 84 Stat. 544, Pub. L. 91-358, title I, § 121(a); Oct. 1, 1976, D.C. Law 1-87, § 20(b), 23 DCR 2544; Sept. 26, 1984, D.C. Law 5-123, § 2, 31 DCR 4056; Apr. 3, 2001, D.C. Law 13-269, § 106(k), 48 DCR 1270; July 18, 2008, D.C. Law 18-33, § 3(h), 56 DCR 4269