KARLSRUHE, Germany, April 1 (UPI) -- Parents in Germany can be forced to keep in touch with their children only if a court finds that contact is in the child's best interest, a court has ruled.
The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, the state's highest court, found that in most cases forcing an unwilling parent into a relationship would not help a child, Deutsche Welle reported.
The court ruled in favor of a Brandenburg man who had been fined $39,000 for failing to maintain a relationship with the son he fathered in an extra-marital relationship.
The ruling comes as a new law takes effect making paternity tests easier to have done. Under the previous law, all three parties involved had to agree to the test.
As of Tuesday, either a putative father, the child's mother or the child can request a test, the report said. Under the old law, a man who wanted a paternity test without the mother's consent had to go to court.
