A Senator in the US Virgin Islands legislature has introduced a bill that will allow DNA testing to be used to prove the paternity of a child for inheritance purposes. Currently, the laws in the island chain only allow children to inherit if the child was acknowledged by the father before his death or a court rules otherwise and only then for intestacy. Now a child, once proved by DNA testing, may be able to inherit even through through a class gift in a will or intestacy which represents the first change to island’s inheritance laws in over 50 years. Currently, the bill is awaiting the governor’s signature to be passed into law.
See Ernice Gilbert, Bill Giving Inheritance Rights Through DNA To Children Who Fathers Neglect Heads To MAPP, The Virgin Islands Consortium, December 18, 2015.
Special thanks to Brian Cohan (Attorney at Law, Law Offices of Brian J. Cohan, P.C.) for bringing this article to my attention.
