A court erred in giving the former legal father joint legal custody and visitation once DNA testing showed that another man was the father, Virginia’s Court of Appeals ruled in Bedell v. Price (6/11/19). The former legal father had helped raised the child and acted as his father for five years, first living with the mother and later having 50-50 time-sharing. Until the DNA test, there was no reason to be sure that he was or was not the father. The award of joint custody and visitation was based on the trial court’s finding that the “legal father” was “a parent”, and that was improper because it was based on the disproven fact that he was the natural father. The appeals court remanded to the trial court, indicating that it might nonetheless award “third party visitation” if it could satisfy the more stringent tests required by the natural parents’ “constitutionally protected liberty interests in parenting their child.”