Paternity Case Presentation by Scott Card

Scott Card gave a presentation to a group of over 100 students from Payson High School about the legal consequences of out-of-wedlock pregnancy and child birth, better known as a paternity case. The main point he wanted to convey to the high school students was the significant legal issues and costs that arise with the birth of a child to an unwed mother.

In his presentation, he focused on the law as it relates to the unwed mother, the alleged father, and the child. This discussion included how a father is identified, the amount of child support, medical expenses, birth expenses, insurance costs and other legal obligations that both parents have to their child. Scott also pointed out the power of the government in collecting support obligations from parents for the benefit of their children.  Also in the presentation, Scott outlined the rights of the parents as it relates to their child, including parent-time visitation. To conclude the discussion, Scott identified several statistics that relate to the illegitimate child’s future and the child’s general lack of opportunities. The general feedback from the students is that they had no idea of the costs of having an illegitimate child, the legal hassle, and the disadvantage that they would cause the child to face in his or her life. 

Scott has been presenting this information to high school students for 17 years and has presented to classes and assemblies in schools in the Alpine, Provo, Nebo and Juab School Districts. This important topic needs to be addressed as the number of illegitimate children is approaching 45% of all births. Scott is happy to speak to any group of youth or adults about this important topic. 

Photo courtesy of Flickr by kris krug