Legally liable for children in other countries?

[aqu...@dodgeit.com]

If an American man were to get a Canadian woman pregnant in Canada,
would he be held legally liable for the child?

Would he be forced to pay child support?

[David Martel]

A court in the US which received some sort of child support order issued
by a Canadian court would certainly give strong consideration to enforcing
the order. This is controlled by treaty between the governments.

Good luck,
Dave M.

[kuac...@yahoo.com]

The issue is more complex than the OP realizes. I researched this issue
on behalf of a client once. The pregnant woman, if she has the means,
can contrive to have a domicile where support payments are high, such
as California.

While a putative father can object to a change in the child's domicile
after s/he is born, he cannot control the child's first domicile.

A Canadian civil judgment will be enforced by a US court, if the
judgment debtor was properly service. That goes for a judgment of any
sort but taxes, and there is a Protocol to the tax treaty under which
the IRS can collect Candian taxes from a Canadian (but not an American)
and vice versa. It's the Uniform Foreign Money-Judgment Recognition
Act. That would not apply to future support, and as to that you can
google "international child support"

http://www.ncsea.org/international/
http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/support4kids/
and so on.

[Digital Nights]

You're all wrong. If DNA evidence is proven that the father is indeed the
biological father..... He is 100% liable for child support etc. Just went
through it. Well, My sister actually. She got pregnant by a putz from
Chicago... we proved biologically he's the baby daddy, and he's on the hook.
Was relatively easy too......

<kuac...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1127938299....@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...

[kuac...@yahoo.com]

I certainly didn't say anything that was "wrong".

My point was solely to mention that the pregnant woman can contrive to
be domiciled in a jurisdiction of her choosing, whereas once the chld
is born the father may (and probably will) be able to restrain her from
changing her domicile.

Moving to a jurisdiction like California can greatly increase the child
support payments. When I did the research we were comparing California,
New York and England. We would have had jurisdiction in the father in
any of the three.

How US legislation will help with a putative Canadian father is a
different issue. In response to "the growing problem of interstate
[*2] enforcement of child support," Congress passed the Child Support
Recovery Act of 1992 ("CSRA"), Pub. L. No. 102-521, § 2(a), 106 Stat.
340 (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 228 (1994)), to "punish certain persons
who intentionally fail to pay their child support obligations." H.R.
Rep. No. 102-771, at 4 (1992). United States v. Faase, 265 F.3d 475
(6th Cir. 2001) (You should be able to find that case onliine either at
http://www.findlaw.com or http://www.lexisone.com )

You might have a look at the following article on conflict of laws
problems in child support:
http://www.angelfire.com/co4/legalstuff/dewitt_childsupport.pdf

See also, on habitual residence -- which is the criterion for "child
abduction" under The Hague Convention:
http://www.angelfire.com/co4/legalstuff/1997juridrev137.html

and
In re Delvoye, 329 F.3d 330
which you can likewise find at Findlaw and at Lexisone.

Those address the strategy the pregnant woman can use to maximize both
control of the child's place of abode and of child support. It's far
more than the question asked, and useful for the woman to know.