My question involves paternity law for the State of: California
Here is my question, to put the background information in context....If a man signs a voluntary declaration of paternity, but is not in fact the biological father, what are the barriers for the actual biological father to challenge that declaration?
I had a baby with my ex boyfriend. We broke up when I was 7 weeks pregnant. He repeatedly denied that the baby was his. He was not involved during the pregnancy whatsoever. He is not on the birth certificate. After the baby was born, I bent over backwards to make the baby available to him. He did not even contact me until the baby was 2 weeks old, didn't see the baby until the baby was over a month old, and only visited with him a handful of times. During one of our latest conversations (which happen every month of so when he's been drinking), he didn't even know the baby's DOB. He hasn't paid a dime in child support. No one in his family has met the baby. The baby has never been to his house, and he has never "held him out as his own."
In the mean time, I met someone else and have been involved with him for quite some time. We are both over-planning worry warts. So we want to be prepared to handle paternity/adoption or whatever is best when the time does come. Step parent adoption was our first thought, but it would be fiscally detrimental to us both to be married (I would lose the scholarship for my son's expensive private day care that I couldn't afford without the scholarship, there is separate property issues with me owning a house and him not, his student loan payments would increase, and our combined incomes would put us in the highest tax bracket). So we were wondering, if my current boyfriend just signs a voluntary declaration of paternity, what happens if my ex challenges it down the road? I know the person signing it can't challenge it after it has been two years. We are trying to avoid a situation where my ex comes around in 5 years and decides he wants to be a part of the baby's life (and then, as is typical of him, he comes in and out as he pleases). We want the baby to have the most stable family environment. So, if Step Parent adoption is the only way to do that, we will. But we were hoping there was a way we could achieve the same result without having to get married.

