Child Support Out of State

[GOOFY4DONALD]

I am hoping someone can make me feel a bit better. My DD's father owes 4K in back child support. He has not paid anything in 4 months. He decided to quit his job and move to another state to live with his family with the sole reason being that he does not want to pay child support. He is working right now but he is self employed and usually does not file taxes. My DD has to have almost 8K worth of orthedonic procedures only about 1/3 is paid for by insurance. My atty told me that unless I take him to court and sue (even though he is already required to pay 1/2) I may have to pay a lot of court costs with little or no result. I have accepted that part but I would really like to use the child support to help out. I am feeling like he can just run away and not have to cover a thing...I guess I am just venting right now but it just doesn't seem fair. Has anyone ever had any luck with a situqation similar ti this? I just feel like it is a lost cause.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

anyone?

 

[coles1mom]

Contact your local FOC. They will serve him with paperwork to appear in court. Get all her records from your orthodontist. Braces are not a normal expense unless for a medical reason. No lawyer was needed in my case.

I won the case, but getting the money is a whole nother issue When and if he ever gets a job, files taxes or draws social security, you'll get paid. Many moms and dads are quite suprised when they lose half their SS, unemployment, etc. down the road for back support.

Not filing taxes will catch up to him sooner or later as well.
Hope this helps.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks. I do have an open case with my state's child support enforcement. They keep telling me they will get him but it has been over 4 months and they can't even find him even though he is staying with his mom or aunt and I gave them physical addresses of both places.

 

[ilovejack02]

Contact your local child support enforcement and get them on this asap. Most of my friends have had luck doing this.
Now.. not saying you will get money, but one day he will start making money.. maybe YEARS from now and you will get what you deserve.
My friends father had to pay child support well into her 20s because he had to pay back on what he didnt pay when she was a child.


Good luck.

 

[bumbershoot]

That's rotten of him.

My dad didn't pay much child support over the years...my mom could never go after him b/c of the court costs (and the way our part of CA was at the time...just not easy on the custodial parent).

However, when I got married at 33 (once you turn 30 it's hard to ask a parent for a wedding), my dad paid for it all (he offered), and I took it without a bit of guilt in the world, b/c I felt like he was paying my mom back, through me. So that was an upside, ha ha.

 

[CharityLynn]

He can be put in jail for this too. My Uncle thought moving to Arizona (from Michigan) would keep him from paying child support. Well I believe he has been put in jail at least 3 times becuase of back child support.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks to everyone. I have contacted child support enforcement. I have talked to the at least twice a month for the last 4 months. They have all his info...I gave it to them..they just don't seem to be doing anything with the info I give them.

 

[ilovejack02]

Thanks to everyone. I have contacted child support enforcement. I have talked to the at least twice a month for the last 4 months. They have all his info...I gave it to them..they just don't seem to be doing anything with the info I give them.

Just keep going with it.. ya never know what will happen.
Some states seem to move slower than others, but it always seems to catch up with them.

 

[Janet Hill]

My daughter is 26 and I am still collecting child support. The problem is that since he is self employed they cannot garnish his wages, so it's a bit harder for them to extract money from him. If he ever gets a regular job they will garnish his wage immediately. They will also snag any state or federal tax refunds he is owed as these are easy targets as will.

Good Luck mine still owes me $30,000, I guess I will be getting half of his SS check someday.

 

[SereneOne]

I am really tired so I may not be thinking straight, however, I think there is an Act that covers this called the ERISA Act. If a person who owes CS leaves the state to avoid paying they are faced with jail time and other punishments. Please look up ERISA Act. Once I get some sleep I can be more helpful.

 

[claudia]

I was in your exact position years ago. Fortunately the Florida department of motor vehicles helped me out by giving me his information which I passed on to my local child support agency. It did take some time but I did receive the past child support due and the support continued until my DS reached 21.
SereneOne mentioned the Act you should read and here is a wiki link that is pretty good in explaining it.....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uniform_Reciprocal_Enforcement_of_Support_Act
when I was going through this it was called URESA, but that was in the mid-90's so I am not sure if it is called the same today. You may very well have to file a lawsuit to collect the 1/2 that he is required to pay. Since it would be a relatively small amount (his share would be about $2700) you may be able to file yourself in small claims court. The likelyhood is that he wouldn't appear to answer the summons so you would at least have a judgement against him for that amount.....then maybe you could bring that judgement to family court to have it enforced??? not sure....
I'm sorry that I can't be of more help....it's been a long time since I have been knee deep in this. My advice would be to stay on top of your support officer, or make an appointment to see him/her and be sure to ask about the Act. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Best of luck.

 

[DizBelle]

I really wonder about the lowlifes who don't feel any responsibility to the life they helped create. It's just crazy.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Thanks, again. I did get a return call from my case worker. She told me that as soon as he gets a job they will go after him...until then they can only notify the labor board (don't really know what that would mean). I told her that his line of work is pretty much free lance or self employed. I told her that he would not be working for a paycheck and he never filed taxes. She said she would get back to me but there isn't a lot they can do until he gets real far behind. Since he owes 4,000 (as of May 1) and he hasn't paid in 5 months (as of May 1) I don't know how far he has to get behind in order for it to be considered a large amount.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Claudia...I did not let me kids real this thread but I did let them see your siggy. It is just too cute

 

[SereneOne]

It does not matter how little he owes, your case worker is not doing their job. My husband and I both had custody of our children. At one point I was owed several thousand dollars however my ex was a traveling nurse so it was hard to find him. My husband's ex would not pay and then just before they would have court she would pay just about all of it and then start the cycle all over again. But even if she was a payment behind, they would persue her. They have thirty days to pay their support, then they get a letter stating that they are behind and have thirty days to catch up. Then after that CSE has 30 to 45 days to decide to take it to court and then court could take another 60 to 90 days to get a date. Let us say his ex was suppose to pay 287 and she did not pay for five months, she would owe 1435. She would pay like 1300 and then the cycle would start all over again. No payments for several months and then just before court, BAM. It used to be a couple grand and then eventually they got sick of it and when ever she was behind they would automatically start the procedure. She had her driver's license revoked several times and even had a warrant out for failure to show for court and then she paid most of it and started it all over again. CSE knew she just did it to play games but as long as she paid it up they could not do anything except start the procedure all over again. The kids are now grown, I would not want to go through that again. Hang in there!

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

It does not matter how little he owes, your case worker is not doing their job. My husband and I both had custody of our children. At one point I was owed several thousand dollars however my ex was a traveling nurse so it was hard to find him. My husband's ex would not pay and then just before they would have court she would pay just about all of it and then start the cycle all over again. But even if she was a payment behind, they would persue her. They have thirty days to pay their support, then they get a letter stating that they are behind and have thirty days to catch up. Then after that CSE has 30 to 45 days to decide to take it to court and then court could take another 60 to 90 days to get a date. Let us say his ex was suppose to pay 287 and she did not pay for five months, she would owe 1435. She would pay like 1300 and then the cycle would start all over again. No payments for several months and then just before court, BAM. It used to be a couple grand and then eventually they got sick of it and when ever she was behind they would automatically start the procedure. She had her driver's license revoked several times and even had a warrant out for failure to show for court and then she paid most of it and started it all over again. CSE knew she just did it to play games but as long as she paid it up they could not do anything except start the procedure all over again. The kids are now grown, I would not want to go through that again. Hang in there!

Thanks for the reply. I do not know why parents think that this is either not important or a game. These are their kids' lives. Maybe if I just keep on them they will work harder. I really annoyed my case worker at one point. She actually told me not to call anymore. Well I kept calling and things eventually got moving. This was, of course, before he got moving...literally.

 

[SereneOne]

His ex tried not paying by saying she was a student and had no income and the judge told her she better find some because she had kids to support. She had eleven jobs in one year and has had about sixty in the last seventeen years.

It is ridiculous that she was able to get away with that all those years, there should be something in the statues that when they are that blatant about using child support as a controlling ploy that there are severe consequences. When there are negative consequences CSE gets better responses. The case worker shared with us how many deadbeat parents would miraculously come up with their back child support when it came to jail time. (Now I am not talking about parents who do pay and then something happens, like not purposeful job loss or a bad accident).

Moving though to avoid CS does have penalties. And this case worker of yours, I would report her. DH and I where constantly on our case workers butts and I think that is one of the reasons why we recieved good results.

Hang in There! This too shall pass.

 

[baby1disney]

Goofy4Donald---Please don't give up as I am in the same boat, if not bigger!!

My DS's sperm donor(he hasn't seen his child since I was born) owes me over $23,000 I believe!!! I've been calling at least once a month and they me the same thing--they can't find him and when they do, they'll get him. They also keep saying that the address that they have for him isn't correct. Everytime they send something, it comes back return to sender.

I know a couple of years ago, there was this website called www.SupportKids.com

I think if the person who was supposed to pay owes over $5,000, they would go after them. But, I beleive it had to be something like 6months to a year of non-payment.

I'm going to keep calling until they get sick of me!! Keep your head up and just be thankful he's not that far behind like mine is.

 

[GOOFY4DONALD]

Well they took his tax return. It was only 200.00 but at least it was something. The government also took out a percentage for themselves (which I think is so stupid..if they have to take anything they should attach it to him). This is probably the only money I will see all year. Knowing my case worker, I am sure she hopes this will keep me quiet for a while.