Alimony and Child Support Question

[brookmey]

DH's best friend recently filed for divorce from his alcoholic wife. She has 2 DUIs on record, got her 3rd in December (she blew a .33) and got her 4th in early February. She's been to court for the 3rd, but has yet to be sentenced. She hasn't been formally charged with the 4th so it's considered pending. The 4th caused an accident, luckily no one was hurt, but her car and the other driver's car were totalled. The tow truck driver who was there told her husband that in 17 years of towing for the police dept. he had never seen a person as drunk as she was. The friend's divorce lawyer has said that she most likely will go to jail for the 3rd since it's now considered a felony. Once the 4th goes into record, she'll probably receive jail time for that as well. Because of her drinking and her DUIs, DH's friend has full custody of their 3 kids. Currently she is not allowed to see the kids, but they have another custody hearing on Monday to determine if she will get supervised visits.

DH and I have been wondering how alimony and child support work. The wife is seeking alimony, but the husband has custody of the kids and there is no reason to believe that will not continue, especially if the wife is in jail. So, technically, she should have to pay the husband child support, right? But she doesn't have a job, so her only source of income would be alimony. Would she have to turn around and pay him child support out of the alimony that she receives? How does that work when 1 parent pays alimony to the non-custodial parent? Do they cancel each other out?

I know things vary state by state and this is all taking place in MI. I'm just wondering generally, how would this be handled?

 

[Carnie]

Depends on the state.

Looking at Michiigan, it appears that alimony is not rehabilitative (meaning short term until the spouse can get a job on her/own).

Your friend probably needs a GREAT lawyer to lessen his finanicial obligation. It looks like amounts and time paid are at the discretion of the court

 

[chloelovesdisney]

If he has custody of the kids he should be entitled to child support.

Did she work or stay at home?

If she's in jail she doesn't need alimony anyway, the tax payers will be providing her shelter and food.

 

[cabanafrau]

It's all contingent upon their divorce agreement. If the agreement was non-modifiable at the time, that's the end of the story. I have not personally seen a permanent alimony situation in at least five years in the court system I do work for. The last time I remember seeing any they involved senior citizens who were either retired or self-employed business owners and had been married for decades and raised a family together. Permanent alimony is definitely not the norm in MI. Rehabilitative alimony is also becoming less common in my experience and the duration seems to be shortening as well.

The general procedure is both parties' incomes will be run through the calculator to determine their share of child support. Lack of employment does not excuse a parent from providing support to their child. It may preclude the payment of support assessed, but the amount will be assessed nonetheless.

 

[Colleen27]

The odds of her getting alimony are slim. It doesn't seem to be ordered often in Michigan except as a short-term measure, and even then it isn't a given. It is mostly limited to relatively long marriages where one spouse has not worked by mutual agreement, and I've personally seen one friend successfully fight his ex's demand for alimony by using her substance abuse as evidence that her not working wasn't by mutual consent (the kids went to daycare when he was at work because she couldn't be trusted to care for them).

She will be ordered to pay child support, most likely based on an assigned minimum wage income, but he shouldn't hold his breath on actually receiving any. It is still fairly easy to avoid paying and enforcement against the unemployed is almost non-existent; after all, you can't collect from someone with no income and the state doesn't want to rack up court and incarceration bills for someone who lacks the ability to pay. Speaking from experience, she'll be able to play the "But I can't find a job" card pretty much indefinitely while the arrears pile up well beyond any hope of ever being paid.

 

[brookmey]

Thanks for the replies.

DH's friend does not expect to see any child support from her, but he does not want to have to pay her alimony because he knows that money will be used to feed her addiction. They've been married 12 years and she has not worked at all. At first they had an agreement that she would be a SAHM, but about 4 years ago he started pushing her to get a job but she wanted to continue staying home with their youngest. Right now though, she is incapable of holding down a job. She's pretty much drunk all the time.

 

[cabanafrau]

The odds of her getting alimony are slim. It doesn't seem to be ordered often in Michigan except as a short-term measure, and even then it isn't a given. It is mostly limited to relatively long marriages where one spouse has not worked by mutual agreement, and I've personally seen one friend successfully fight his ex's demand for alimony by using her substance abuse as evidence that her not working wasn't by mutual consent (the kids went to daycare when he was at work because she couldn't be trusted to care for them).

She will be ordered to pay child support, most likely based on an assigned minimum wage income, but he shouldn't hold his breath on actually receiving any. It is still fairly easy to avoid paying and enforcement against the unemployed is almost non-existent; after all, you can't collect from someone with no income and the state doesn't want to rack up court and incarceration bills for someone who lacks the ability to pay. Speaking from experience, she'll be able to play the "But I can't find a job" card pretty much indefinitely while the arrears pile up well beyond any hope of ever being paid.

Ironically I have seen more parents incarcerated for failure to pay child support over the past two to three years than I have in all my years working in the court system. Substance abusers in particular get no mercy from the bench. If you've got money to abuse, you've got money to feed your kids.