When parents decide to end their relationship, the law dictates that the non-custodial parent must pay a monthly allowance to the custodial parent. This money, referred to as child support, is intended to help cover childrearing expenses. A custodial parent may have difficulty exercising child support rights and receiving the order or there may be problems with enforcing or modifying it and a lawyer can help with these. And the best part? Most lawyers give free child support consultations (we do!!!).
Lawyers Fix Child Support Issues
Whether the support is negotiated out of court or via court order, a lawyer for child support plays an important role. This individual helps a parent determine eligibility for support and enforce child support rights that he or she has. Only a custodial parent, one with primary physical custody, is entitled to child support. In joint custody cases, both parents are considered custodial and an attorney will help determine whether a client is due child support payments from the other parent.
Even if someone is designated as a custodial parent, there may be barriers to receiving child support. If the location of the other parent is not known, additional steps are required. If the father disputes paternity, a paternity test may be required to determine this. If the parents have not gotten a child support order, there may be no way to enforce payment.
A lawyer for child support helps a client navigate these and other child support situations. If the non-custodial parent is hiding income, the lawyer can make a case to raise child support. When support payments are not received as agreed, the attorney can help the client recoup back support. A non-custodial parent can also retain a lawyer to request that the support payments be lowered in the event of income reduction.
Child support was designed to make it easier for a custodial parent to maintain a certain lifestyle for the child. If a non-custodial parent violates a child support order, he or she may be subjected to jail time per the Child Support Enforcement Act of 1984. Other enforcement measures include wage garnishment, property seizure, and revoking the driver license.
Custodial parents should not be shy about retaining a lawyer to help them exercise child support rights because doing so benefits their child. A child support order can be enforced across state lines and courts take a hard line when enforcing child support. The sooner the order is put into place, the sooner payments can begin, and overdue payments will not be excused. The best way to fix child support problems is hiring an attorney, or at least speaking to one for free right now!
I’m in Indiana and my 11 year old daughter lives with her mother in California. I am re-married and so is the ex. She has another child with her current husband, me and my wife do not have children together, my wife’s son is 25 and out on his own. I currently pay 350 a month in child support.
I have never missed a cs payment and I have never missed birthdays, Christmas’s, etc. I would love to at least get a phone call from my daughter, maybe video chat once a week. At present, I am lucky to get a few lines of text from her once a month or so. I can not afford to fly out to California to see her, and my ex refuses to let my daughter come stay with me (summer vacations, xmas vacations, etc,). I don’t push the visitation issue with my ex because I feel that even though the ex can be quite difficult about letting me see my daughter, she is safe and healthy where she is at. Me and my ex are at least civil to each other and try to do what is best for our child.
That being said, here is my problem. The Mendocino County CS CW has put a garnishment on my payroll check, even though as I have said I have never been late on a payment. I recently switched jobs, and according to the CW, the computer spits that info out and an automatic wage garnishment is issued. My child support recently went from 200/month to 350/month around the same time. If I have never missed a payment and I have no back support in arrears, is it even legal for the CW to garnish my checks? I e-mailed the CW about this and she said she will stop the garnishment but if it becomes an issue with the state because she stopped it, then the garnishment will resume. Apparently, according to the CW, they get audited by the state and flagged if they don’t garnish a person’s paycheck after they switched jobs, is this true? If it isn’t, should I get a lawyer to prevent her from causing me and my wife unnecessary stress because of the wage garnishment?