Upon and after the establishment of paternity pursuant to G.S. 49-14 of a child born out of wedlock, the rights, duties, and obligations of the mother and the father so established, with regard to support and custody of the child, shall be the same, and may be determined and enforced in the same manner, as if the child were the legitimate child of the father and mother. When paternity has been established, the father becomes responsible for medical expenses incident to the pregnancy and the birth of the child.
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 49-15
Custody and support of children born out of wedlock when paternity established
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case In the Matter of Legitimation of Locklear by Jones (1985)
Most recently applied in 262 N.C. App. 17 - County of Durham by and Through Durham DSS v. Burnette (October 2018)
1967, c. 993, s. 1; 2013-198, s. 23.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: North Carolina General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain North Carolina statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.