Single mother ordered to pay legal and paternity test costs to ex-boyfriend she named as father of her child

A QUEENSLAND single mother has been ordered to pay legal and paternity test costs to an ex-boyfriend she incorrectly named as the father of her child on a birth certificate.

A Family Court judge made the order after finding the woman had put the man to unnecessary expense to prove he was not the father.

The man had a two-year “casual relationship’’ with the woman, who had the child in 2012.

“I am unaware if, during the time (she) went out with other men or what any relationship may have been,’’ he told the Family Court.

For “some time" the single mother maintained he was the father of the child and even named him on the child’s Queensland birth certificate, the court heard.

The woman also completed an application for assessment for child support, based on the “fact" that he was the father.

The court heard the woman only told the Child Support Registrar he was not her child's father after a parentage test mid last year excluded him.

Justice Paul Cronin said the man “unnecessarily had to go through the process to establish the outcome".

The man then applied to the Family Court for a declaration that he was not the father of the child and that he should not be assessed for any child support costs as he was not the parent.

Justice Cronin made the orders on January 14, also ordering the woman to pay the parentage test procedure and report costs.

After hearing that the man earned $1360 a week and the woman was supporting the child on a low income, the judge still ordered her to pay $1000 towards his legal costs.

“The (man) has incurred legal costs to some extent unnecessarily,’’ Justice Cronin said.

He said the legal proceedings could have been avoided if the woman had made earlier concessions about paternity.