Colorado § 14-5-402 - Proceeding to determine parentage.

§ 14-5-402. Proceeding to determine parentage.

A tribunal of this state authorized to determine parentage of a child may serve as a responding tribunal in a proceeding to determine parentage of a child brought under this article or a law or procedure substantially similar to this article.

Source: L. 2015: Entire part amended, (HB 15-1198), ch. 173, p. 554, § 27, effective July 1.

COMMENT

This article authorizes a "pure" parentage action in the interstate context, i.e., an action not joined with a claim for support. The mother, an alleged father of a child, or a support enforcement agency may bring such an action. Typically an action to determine parentage across a state line or international border will also seek to establish a support order. See Section 401. An action to establish parentage under UIFSA is to be treated identically to such an action brought in the responding state.

In a departure from the rest of this act, in UIFSA (2001) the term "tribunal" was replaced by "court" in this section. The several states have a variety of combinations of judicial or administrative entities that are authorized to establish, enforce, and modify a child-support order. Because the Uniform Parentage Act (UPA) (2000) § 104 restricts parentage determinations to "a court," see UPA (2000) § 104, the drafters took the view that only a judicial officer should determine parentage as a matter of public policy. This conclusion was in error insofar as some states are concerned and is reversed in this iteration of the act.

Related to Convention: art. 2. Scope; art. 6. Specific functions of Central Authorities; art. 10. Available applications.

PART 5

ENFORCEMENT OF ORDER OF ANOTHER STATE WITHOUT REGISTRATION

Editor's note: This article was repealed and reenacted in 1993, and this part 5 was subsequently amended with relocations in 1997, resulting in the addition, relocation, and elimination of sections as well as subject matter. For amendments to this part 5 prior to 1997, consult the Colorado statutory research explanatory note and the table itemizing the replacement volumes and supplements to the original volume of C.R.S. 1973 beginning on page vii in the front of this volume and the editor's note following the article heading. Former C.R.S. section numbers prior to 1997 are shown in editor's notes following those sections that were relocated.

INTRODUCTORY COMMENT

This article governs direct filing of an income withholding order from one state to an employer in another state. Except as provided in Section 507, the provisions of this article only apply to an interstate case and do not apply to an income-withholding order from a foreign country. While U.S. employers routinely enforce sister state income- withholding orders, enforcement of the wide variety of possible foreign support orders would provide too many complexities and challenges to justify requiring an employer to interpret and enforce an ostensible foreign income-withholding order. Indeed, income- withholding orders from a foreign country are quite rare at this time, although instances of that enforcement remedy probably will increase in the future.