What Country Takes the Longest to Establish Paternity?

Sweden just may win the prize. In at least one Swedish case, establishing paternity takes 14 years … and counting.

In Sweden, an unmarried mother is supposed to report her out-of-wedlock child’s birth to a social welfare administrative board (Board), so that it can determine the child’s father and implement child support.

The process of establishing paternity in Sweden is supposed to be completed within one year after the mother’s report.

But in this particular case, the father still has not been determined 14 years after the mother’s report.

As a result, the Board is now under review (and attack).

The Board’s defenses are that the father has been hard to get a hold off – and the mother has moved around a bit.

The more likely culprit may be that it appears that the case was mistakenly “archived” during a restructuring of storage of government records.

In the same area of Sweden, however, there are fourteen other open cases that have not been resolved within a year.

By comparison, Florida courts look positively speedy. Our typical paternity case is concluded in well under 14 years.

Read more in this Sweden’s Local article: Paternity test takes 14 years.

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