Who Can Request Paternity Tests
Often times I hear stories from potential grandparents that their son told them he might have or did in fact get a girl pregnant. They want to know if they can request a paternity test to find out if the child is really their grandchild or not.
So anyone can order an at home paternity test to find out answers for their own peace of mind. Getting the parties in question to agree to take the test may be a different story.
Paternity tests that need to hold up in court for legal reasons are required to be legal paternity tests. This requires a neutral third party Certified DNA Collector who has no vested interest in the outcome to collect the DNA from both parties. The collector is the only one who can open the kit, collect the samples and put the samples back into a sealed envelope. The collector then signs and dates the sealed envelope and personally sends in the samples back to the lab for testing. This is called a chain of custody of the DNA samples so that the courts can be sure nobody tampered with or sent in false samples.
Photos of the persons providing the samples along with photocopies of their drivers license or ID and their signatures are also sent back along with the samples.
The only persons who can request a legal paternity DNA test are the biological mother, the person alleging that they are the biological parent of the child in question, the child if he or she has reached the age of majority or the minor childs guardian or custodian, an attorney, a judge or a government social services worker.
So if a grandparent had legal custody of the child they could request a paternity test but if they are not the legal guardians or do not have legal custody then they can’t legally require a paternity test to be performed. They might be able to talk their son into requesting one though.
If the son is unwilling or unavailable to take a paternity test and the mother and child agree to voluntarily take a legal grandparent DNA test that would be an alternate way to confirm the paternity but all the testing parties would still need to follow the chain of custody requirements for the test to stand up in court. If the parties just want to know for their own peace of mind doing a private, non-legal test will still provide the exact same results it just doesn’t require the chain of custody steps so it is faster and costs less.
