DEADLINES TO CHALLENGE PATERNITY IN SPANISH COURTS OF LAW

The Spanish Civil Code distinguishes, in what interests here, two ways of being able to determine the affiliation, which in turn, has different expiration periods for its challenge:

• The matrimonial affiliation (articles 115 and following); within one year from the registration or the discovery of the lack of biological paternity (article 136 of the C.c).

• And the non-matrimonial affiliation (articles 120 and following); period of four years for the father (or the son or heirs) to challenge this determination (art. 140 of the legal body). If both parents marry after the birth of the child, the filiation becomes matrimonial (art. 119).

These terms are expiration dates.