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Paternity and Filiation Lawyers

It is inherent to every person the right to know his or her biological truth, his or her provenance or origin, his or her natural family, to know whose child he or she is. It is so important that it is a matter of public order in which the Public Prosecutor’s Office is always involved in these legal proceedings.

The legal filiation of a person (who is listed as your father and mother on your birth certificate) does not have to coincide with your biological filiation, i.e. who is really your father or mother by procreation.

Lawyers who are experts in filiation or paternity can help you to obtain judicial recognition of who your father is, as well as to challenge the filiation or the supposed paternity that you have recognised in the Civil Registry and which is not the biological paternity that corresponds to you.

Claiming non-marital paternity, i.e. determining who your biological father is who was not married to your mother, may be a relevant event in your family that makes it advisable to turn to lawyers specialised in family and paternity.

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What are paternity and filiation claims?

Filiation is the legal or biological link between parents and children from which a series of effects, rights and obligations derive. Furthermore, it produces its effects as soon as it takes place. These effects are retroactive as long as they are compatible with the nature of the previous ones.

It determines the surnames and entails the attribution of parental authority to the parents. The parents have the obligation to provide maintenance. Filiation also determines the birth of inheritance rights and grants the right to obtain Spanish nationality.

To find out more about the legal effects of filiation or paternity, e.g. the inheritance rights you are entitled to as the child of a certain person, contact a lawyer who is specialised in paternity and inheritance. Our law firm is specialised in both areas.

Lawyers specialised in filiation, paternity and maternity in Madrid

Our law firm in Madrid is specialised in Family and Inheritance Law, that is to say, in all the most private and intimate aspects of a person’s life. To this end, one of our specialisations as lawyers are filiation procedures, recognition or non-marital paternity claim and official paternity challenge.

As family and paternity lawyers, we will accompany you throughout this process, providing you with individualised and close treatment, in accordance with such a private and delicate circumstance as the recognition or challenge of paternity.

By means of several personal meetings in our law firm in Madrid or via videoconference, we will study your case, giving you prior advice as specialised lawyers.

We will inform you about all aspects of the subject, the type of filiation, how to determine unacknowledged parenthood or how challenge the existing one, as specialised lawyers.

We will advise you on whether it is possible to settle the matter out of court or whether it is necessary to take legal action.

A detailed study will be made of the evidence you have on this issue, and you will be advised on any further evidence that may be necessary for the recognition of your entitlement.

In order to successfully carry out this type of process, different types of evidence are needed and a series of requirements must be met, which is why an expert lawyer in paternity and filiation is required who knows how to approach the whole process from the beginning. The experience of the lawyer in this type of process is fundamental, as the claim for recognition of non-marital paternity is one of the few that, in our civil law, is not admitted by the court, if sufficient evidence is not provided with the claim.

Our law firm is located in Madrid, however, we practice throughout Spain, where we have carried out this type of legal proceedings with excellent results and to the satisfaction of our clients.

Filiation proceedings

The procedure on filiation, paternity and maternity can be defined as a special process regulated in article 764 and following of the Civil Procedure Act, the object of which is limited to the exercise of actions to claim paternity or maternity or to challenge legally established filiation.

The purpose of this procedure is to obtain the judicial declaration of a non-determined filiation, or of a filiation different from the one previously determined. It is the procedural channel for the determination by judgment of filiation, both matrimonial and non-matrimonial. It requires the intervention of a lawyer and a legal representative (procurador).

The procedure will be initiated by filing a complaint that will follow the summary procedure (juicio verbal) with special provisions. You will have to accompany the complaint with all the evidence in your possession to accredit this filiation, such as photographs, documents, messages, videos, letters, etc. that provide sufficient proof of the relationship between your biological parents and your birth.

In this application, you can also request other evidence such as biological evidence or testimonies.

The defendant has 20 days to respond to the claim. The intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office is necessary in this procedure.

Subsequently, the parties will be summoned to a trial where the evidence admitted by the Court will be examined. The proceedings will conclude with a judgment that may be appealed before the Provincial Court. These proceedings will be subject to preferential processing.

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Types of affiliation

The Civil Code establishes two types:

By nature: This is that which exists between parents and biological children, whether naturally or through assisted reproduction, and which, in turn, may be matrimonial or non-marital.

By adoption: This takes place through the adoption of a child by means of a judicial decision issued in a Voluntary Jurisdiction Proceedings on adoption.

In our law firm we will inform you about these issues. We are expert lawyers in filiation.

What types of evidence are admissible in a filiation proceeding?

How is filiation determined?

By registration in the Civil Registry, by the judgment that legally determines it, by the presumption of marital paternity and, in the absence of the previous means, by possession of status.

The determination of one filiation shall not be effective as long as a contradictory filiation is established.

This means that if you initiate paternity proceedings, you will have to challenge the filiation of the person who officially appears as your father on your birth certificate in the Civil Registry. It is therefore advisable to consult lawyers who are experts in paternity claims.

Procedural specialties

In order to be admissible, the claim shall be accompanied by prima facie evidence of the facts on which it is based. All types of evidence, including biological evidence, shall be admissible, and even in the absence of direct proof, filiation may be declared based on recognition, possession of status, or cohabitation, among others.

An unjustified refusal to submit to a biological paternity or maternity test will allow the court to declare

the claimed filiation. This will be the case if there are other indications of paternity or maternity and proof of paternity or maternity has not been obtained by other means. The lawyers specialised in non-marital paternity claims will inform you about all of this. We are at your disposal in our law firm.

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We answer your questions

Frequently asked questions regarding filiation and paternity

Filiation produces its effects from the moment it takes place. These effects are retroactive as long as they are compatible with the nature of the previous ones.

It determines the surnames and entails the attribution of parental authority to the parents. The parents have the obligation to provide maintenance. Filiation also determines the birth of inheritance rights and grants the right to obtain Spanish nationality.

By registration in the Civil Registry, by the judgment that legally determines it, by the presumption of marital paternity and in the absence of the previous means, by the possession of status.
The determination of filiation will not be effective while a contradictory filiation remains established.
This means that if you initiate proceedings to claim non-marital paternity, you will have to challenge the filiation of the person who appears officially as your father in your birth certificate in the Civil Registry.
For this reason, it is advisable to use lawyers who are experts in paternity claims.

The court shall adopt appropriate protective measures concerning the person and property of the individual subject to the parental authority of the apparent progenitor, and may order provisional maintenance to be paid by the respondent. This is typically done after hearing the person concerned, unless urgent circumstances dictate otherwise. The consideration of such precautionary measures requires the advice of specialised lawyers. We can provide such advice at our law firm.

To determine which procedure to follow and which type of paternity or filiation action you should bring, it is advisable to consult a law firm specialised in Family Law and, more specifically, specialised in paternity or filiation.matters.

  • Action to claim marital filiation: This is an imprescriptible action that corresponds to the father, the mother or the child, and also, with limits, to their heirs, if the child dies.
  • Claim of non-matrimonial or extra-marital filiation: In the absence of possession of status, the child shall be entitled to claim non-marital filiation for the duration of his or her life.
    • Action to challenge filiation: By the husband, within one year of registration, by the child from the age of majority, or by the wife, in cases of supposition of the birth or if the identity of the child is not certain.
    • Mixed action, challenging contradictory filiation: The main action for the determination of paternity or maternity and another action to challenge filiation are brought simultaneously.
    This mixed action is very common in which the claim of non-marital filiation entails that, as an ancillary matter, it is necessary to challenge the contradictory filiation registered in the Civil Register, in which another person appears as the apparent father. It may be that paternity is attributed on the occasion of the marriage or subsequent recognition without actually being the biological father.
    The complexity of this type of procedure requires the intervention of lawyers specialised in family law and, specifically, in filiation or paternity. You can come to our law firm and we will advise you.

The active legal standing to bring an action for non-marital paternity or to challenge filiation corresponds to the son or daughter throughout his or her life.
If the child is a minor, this action may be brought by his or her legal representative or by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, indistinctly.

If it is a person with a disability who has support measures in place for exercising their rights, these actions may be brought by them, by the person providing support who is expressly authorised to do so, or, failing that, by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.
In all these proceedings for recognition of paternity or maternity and challenge of the existing filiation, if the claimant child dies, his or her heirs may continue the actions already filed.

In the same way as paternity recognition can be claimed, paternal filiation recognised in the Civil Register can be challenged.
The time limit for challenging this paternal filiation varies depending on who the plaintiff is.

  1. The husband may bring an action to challenge paternity within one year of the registration of the filiation in the Civil Register. However, the time limit does not run as long as the husband is unaware of the birth. If the husband dies without knowing of the birth, the year shall be counted from the time his heir knows of the birth.
  2. The child. Paternity may be challenged by the child during the year following the registration of filiation.

If the child is a minor, the time limit for challenging paternity shall be one year from the date of coming of age.

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