NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1981 SESSION

CHAPTER 634

HOUSE BILL 696

AN ACT TO PERMIT A SPOUSE TO GIVE TESTIMONY IN A PATERNITY ACTION.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1. Article 7 of Chapter 8 of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section, G.S. 8-57.2, to read:

"§ 8-57.2. Nonaccess testimony by spouses whenever paternity issue arises. - Whenever an issue of paternity of a child born or conceived during a marriage arises in any civil or criminal proceeding, the presumed father or the mother of such child is competent to give evidence as to any relevant matter regarding paternity of the child, including nonaccess to the present or former spouse, regardless of any privilege which may otherwise apply. No parent offering such evidence shall thereafter be prosecuted based upon that evidence for any criminal act involved in the conception of the child whose paternity is in issue and /or for whom support is sought, except for perjury committed in this testimony."

Sec. 2. This act shall become effective October 1, 1981.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 22nd day of June, 1981.