Often, the non-custodial parent, or a parent that does not have full custody of a child, may find himself or herself in difficult financial circumstances, especially with the current economic effects of today’s recession. Most recently, many celebrities are finding themselves facing liens and court judgments for failure to pay child support.
The worst thing that a person can do during tough economic times is to ignore their bills. Although your first instinct may tell you to avoid facing your creditors, your expenses are not going to disappear, simply because you refuse to answer the phone when bill collectors call.
Bills and child support payments will continue to come to your home address, and eventually, you may find that more than your credit score takes a beating, if the court decides to take away your driver’s license,garnish your wages for failure to pay child support, or worse, throw you in jail.
Despite numerous negative reports of custodial parents using children to extort money through the court system, it is important to remember that the law is still the law, and a person still has to follow the law whether they like it or not. Accepting this fact is the first step necessary to tackle your challenge of default child support payments.
While you may not be capable of immediately changing the legal system, you still have to work within it. After confronting negative feelings about a child support order, you can gain control over your thoughts, so that you can focus on what legal remedies you need to accomplish through the courts.
Instead of purposely avoiding child support payments or quitting a job to avoid wage garnishment for child support payments, keep a monthly report of all of your expenses and savings in a formal, type written report. This report should be formatted in a way that you would be comfortable showing to a judge, because one day, you may have to do so. Your records should also include receipts or copies of receipts from expenses.
Creating this monetary report offers proof to a judge and to the parent with custody of your child or children that you are temporarily facing financial difficulties. Remember, this financial report should also include receipts from rent payments, copies of utility bills, car loan payments, and even current savings account information excluding child support payments.
Your financial report establishes two things. First, it creates your credibility as a person who is temporarily experiencing financial difficulties, and second, it shows proof of why you cannot fulfill your child support obligations, despite your best efforts.
Next, you should calculate your residual income. This income will consist of the amount of money left over minus the cost of your child support payments. If this is a negative number, be sure to note this in your expense report, because you must continuously make your case.
Additionally, you should include a second calculation where you divide your child support payments by your monthly income before your pay for your monthly expenses. This should give you a decimal, which you will convert to a percentage. Define this percentage as the amount of your income distributed towards child support.
If this percentage is over 50%, you should also make this notation on your expense report. Title III of the Consumer Credit Protection Act states that federal law only permits 50% or less of wage garnmishment for child support payments.
After compiling your report of your financial standing with both your monthly expenses excluding your child support payments and your general expense report, you should file a motion for modification of a child support order with a family court. Your motion for modification of child support allows you to use the legal options that are available to you, but you should note that some judges may look unfavorably upon you, if you procrastinate in filing this motion.
Now that you have compiled all of the evidence that your income has changed, a judge may or may not grant a modification of a child support order, which may include a temporary reduction in payments until your income increases. Be sure to keep all documentation clear and concise, as judges do not like confusing information.
Also, continue to make payments on your child support, even if you cannot pay the full amount, pay as much as you can. Because you do not want to appear a person delinquent of child support payments, keep track of how much you were unable to pay each month.
In the meantime, also continue to search for ways to increase your income, and record your efforts for a judge. Inform the judge of other job searches that you have conducted and other business ventures that you have attempted to increase your payment efforts. In fact, starting your own business while also working a job may prove an effective strategy toward minimizing the effects of default child support payments, including wage garnishment.
Most state laws evaluate child support based on a “best interests of a child principle.” As a parent, child support is something that contributes to the best interests of your child, but it is not the only factor that contributes to your child or children’s best interests.
At the end of the day, laws can be unfair, but your best bet to avoid further complications from unpaid child support, is to exhaust all legal options available to you, and to continue working to do whatever you can to fulfill your obligations,.Child support payments are temporary, your job as a parent is permanent.
Source(s):
Admin. “Child Support Issues,” Divorce Law Information Center .
U.S. Dept. of Labor. Wages and Hours Worked: Wage Garnishment,” Employment Law Guide.
