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paternity suit

British  

noun

  1. law the US (and in Britain a nontechnical) term for affiliation proceedings

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

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A blood test ordered in a 2016 paternity suit confirmed one of the children, an 11-year-old girl, was Elkins’s child, although she didn’t use his last name, court records show.

From The Wall Street Journal Apr. 20, 2026

In 1990, Murphy filed a paternity suit against Casey.

From Los Angeles Times Jan. 29, 2024

In 2019, a DNA test confirmed that, despite his repeated denials, Hunter Biden had fathered a child with an Arkansas woman who filed a paternity suit against him.

From BBC Aug. 15, 2023

The relationship ended on Sept. 16, 2011, according to her paternity suit.

From New York Times Oct. 7, 2022

One woman even filed a paternity suit falsely claiming that Walter was the father of her child, a child that was born less than eight months after Walter's release.

From "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson

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