Accurate, Affordable DNA Testing in Columbia, TN – Legal & At‑Home Options

You can test at GameDay DNA collection sites or use an at‑home cheek‑swab kit for private peace of mind. For court or child‑support cases, many families work with their local child support office, and the Tennessee Department of Human Services’ page on establishing paternity explains that the child support office can schedule DNA testing through a certified lab and, once positive results are returned, will use them to establish paternity through a court order and set support.

Tennessee law requires courts to order genetic testing in most IV‑D child‑support and parentage cases when a party properly requests it. The statute on tests to determine parentage provides that an accredited laboratory must perform the tests, that a written report of blood, genetic, or DNA test results is admissible without live testimony unless timely objected to, and that a rebuttable presumption of paternity arises when testing shows a statistical probability of at least 95%, with results of 99% or greater allowing the court to establish the individual as the legal father and order child support.

Most legal paternity tests in Tennessee use buccal‑swab (cheek‑swab) DNA samples from the child and the alleged father, and often the mother. Tennessee paternity explainers such as Paternity in Tennessee and law‑firm guides on establishing paternity in Tennessee describe how the court may order DNA testing and that modern tests typically involve swabbing the inside of the cheeks of the child, mother, and alleged father and sending those samples to a laboratory for analysis to determine whether the man is the biological father.

For at‑home kits, use the sterile swabs in your kit, rub firmly along the inside of each cheek for the full time listed in the instructions, let the swabs air‑dry, and seal them in labeled envelopes before mailing. Tennessee‑focused family‑law resources for unmarried parents, paternity, and custody emphasize that legal paternity testing should be done through accredited companies that collect cheek‑swab samples under strict chain‑of‑custody procedures so the results can be used in court, while private at‑home tests that do not follow those procedures are generally not accepted as legal proof.

GameDay DNA provides results by secure online portal or encrypted email, with printed reports available for legal tests. When testing is arranged through the child support program, the DHS page on establishing paternity explains that the local child support office receives the DNA results from a certified lab and then uses those results at a court hearing to establish paternity and set support, so parents learn the outcome through official notices and court orders rather than directly from the lab.

Yes—Tennessee statutes spell out how genetic tests are ordered and used as evidence in paternity cases. The law on tests to determine parentage states that written reports of blood, genetic, or DNA test results from an accredited lab are admissible without foundation testimony unless a timely written objection is filed, and that tests showing a 95% or greater probability of parentage create a rebuttable presumption that the tested man is the father, with results of 99% or more allowing the court to establish paternity and order support unless the presumption is successfully rebutted.

Either parent, the child (through an appropriate representative), or the state (through the child support program) can be involved in initiating a paternity proceeding in Tennessee. Tennessee family‑law guides like Paternity in Tennessee and Unmarried Parents in Tennessee: Paternity & Custody explain that a mother, alleged father, or the state (when the child receives public assistance or child‑support services) may ask the court to determine paternity, and that within the same proceeding the court can issue orders on custody, visitation, and child support after considering DNA results and other evidence.

In complex situations—such as when an alleged father is deceased or cannot be tested—Tennessee courts can still consider genetic evidence and other proof to resolve parentage. Commentaries on Tennessee paternity law, including a Tennessee Bar Association article on custody rights between unmarried parents and appellate decisions discussing paternity tests in parentage actions, highlight that Tennessee courts rely heavily on genetic testing under § 24‑7‑112, may order additional testing of other potential fathers, and can consider genetic evidence together with other facts (such as affidavits or relationships) when determining parentage in difficult or unusual cases.