Title 15
Domestic Relations

Chapter 8.1
Uniform Parentage Act

Article 4
Presumed Parentage

R.I. Gen. Laws § 15-8.1-401



§ 15-8.1-401.  Presumption of parentage.


(a) Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, an individual is presumed to be a parent of a child if:

(1) The individual and the individual who gave birth to the child are married to each other and the child is born during the marriage;

(2) The individual and the individual who gave birth to the child were married to each other and the child is born not later than three hundred (300) days after the marriage is terminated by death, annulment, declaration of invalidity, divorce, or dissolution;

(3) The individual and the individual who gave birth to the child married each other after the birth of the child and the individual at any time asserted parentage of the child and the individual agreed to be and is named as a parent of the child on the birth certificate of the child; or

(4) The individual resided in the same household with the child, and the individual and another parent of the child openly held out the child as that person's own from the time the child was born or adopted and for a period of two (2) years thereafter, including periods of temporary absence, and assumed personal, financial or custodial responsibilities for the child.

(b) A presumption of parentage shall be rebuttable and may be overcome, and competing claims to parentage resolved only by court order under this chapter or a valid denial of parentage pursuant to article 3 of this chapter.

(c) A presumed parent shall be established as a legal parent by the execution of a valid voluntary acknowledgement of parentage under article 3, by an adjudication of parentage under this chapter or as otherwise provided in this article.

History of Section.
P.L. 2020, ch. 59, § 2; P.L. 2020, ch. 60, § 2.