Request modification? Many times the judge will refuse to lower it, under a concept called "ability to earn."
Ask me how I know.
That's bogus. It's unfortunate that if you are the guy, you are automatically behind the 8 ball in any state in this country. (Other countries too apparently, lol). Kids need to be supported and they need a dad. It's just too bad that folks don't understand that you have to modify (lower) your court order if you are not making enough money to cover your child support obligations. Basically, you are ordered to pay support regardless of your personal situation. If you lose your job, or switch jobs and you make less money, it is your responsibility to go back to court and bring that to the judge's attention. Not enough people know this. they think it is automatically adjusted. The system is broken because the payor's don't know they have to modify it, or they don't care (guys are stubborn and just say f it), and even if you do know you have to get into court, it takes 5-6 months to get a hearing. It's too bad really.
why should he pay more than he can currently afford?
would the family's life situation have changed if they were still married, and his job and income was reduced?
yes, it would have. and everyone would have to adjust, if the parents were responsible.
you are engaged to this woman. when does his responsibility end?
don't get me wrong, Alky, I respect you for taking on a woman with kids and taking care of the kids. But certainly you don't expect him to be held completely responsible after a certain point, right?
How much does she make and put towards the kids? 0, right?
It would take a remarkable woman to convince me to get married. In the USA, there is no benefit to men in getting married. For women, it's a golden parachute.
I don't want kids anyway, but the divorces I've seen definitely add more reason to not have kids.
That's what I don't understand. If the father is putting forth, say $500 per month, then the mom should be putting an equal amount towards the kid PER MONTH.
Out troll.
She is contributing $500 per month currently.
Which is nothing for 2 children. Additionally, that $500 includes herself. $500 a month for 3 people, including her children, is insane. IN FRACKIN SANE!
That is as much as she can get for 3 people on assistance right now and what they deem as enough. Her ex is sending in $500 per month (not the deadbeat dad). If everyone paid what they were supposed to, it'd be $1575 per month which would be close to $25k a year gross.
I am providing the difference in what's needed.
It's clear you just want to troll like you did when it was discussed in L&R which the details you are disclosing have come from which is against the rules.
Your definition of "troll" is literally just "someone else's different opinion that I very much do not want to recognize as potentially valid."
Someone who does such damage to their children, in addition to refusing to work to provide to them, is the very definition of a deadbeat. The father's payments are the least of the concerns here.
Anyhow, we are getting off topic.
Dude if the story is as Alkemyst says it is, the dude not paying and then getting a reduced payment on previous owed amounts is bogus.
Even if true that the mom is a deadbeat (I'm not saying she is or isn't, I have no real opinion), that doesn't mean the dad isn't, and that it isn't harming the situation.
So for once, I agree with Alkemyst, go troll elsewhere.
It's a huge fallacy that women get golden parachutes in a divorce. It's far more complicated and one usually must be married 10+ years to even consider alimony in many places.
1. Failure to pay child support can land you in jail.
2. Suddenly paying it all back after you've already been charged somehow absolves you?
Which is easier to find? A man that got screwed over financially in a divorce or a woman that got screwed over financially in a divorce?
If a man is caught cheating on his wife, does he get alimony in a divorce? What about the other way around?
Actually, better move: don't have kids. Keep it in your pants, until you've grown up enough to be a responsible adult, who can find another responsible adult to then marry and have kids with.
Too often, divorce (and the subsequent custody battles) results from two immature people who get married because they're "in love".....then realize, after a kid or two, that they can't stand each other.
A family friend in Maryland was sacked from his job of 14 years, out of the blue, a year after his divorce. He tried to keep up the payments, his financial situation wasn't the best, the divorce really tapped him out. He found another job making half of what he was before, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep up. The ex-wife put the screws to him, so he was dragged into court, the judge essentially told him to "make more money" and if he missed another payment there would be a warrant issued for his arrest.
Fast forward 1 year. After selling everything he had left and taking another job he was able to pay the support... for about 4-5 months, then he was late, a week after that he paid the money but a bench warrant was issued anyway. Since he had no money for bail, he stayed in lockup, which caused him to lose both his jobs. When he finally got out another payment was due, but he was broke and he told the court he had nothing. They threatened him, he finally cracked, and I can't say I blame him, and told the judge that it was impossible to get blood from a turnip and "you can all blow me". He went to jail again, and at that point he gave up and stopped trying.
Now his wife gets nothing, the court has nothing to garnish or take from him (he really was completely broke), and he has all this free time to read, watch TV, and loaf around. I've not spoken to him in a while, but the last time I did he said that he'd rather stay there, it's less stressful.
I have also found most 'dead beats' over exaggerate what they paid and how they paid it. Anyone can request a child support ledger from the family law area in the court house with just the case number.
The court ruled against him because his payments had not gone though the "friend of the court" office so they considered all payments to be "gifts" to her. So he had to re-pay it all, and her court/atty fees (in addition to his own), or face jail time.
Because state child support agencies are given matching dollars for every dollar they collect. It's part of a federal program designed to incentivize states to efficiently enforce child support rulings. What it's resulted in is a bloated, self-perpetuating apparatus that takes more and more money from men and transfers it to women & the government.
Meanwhile, we see the result of those market forces in the plummeting marriage rates and birth rates of white, middle class men.
And when the house of cards burns everyone will stand around lamenting the loss of american values and reminiscing about the good ole days.....
I keep telling my now 20 year old son to avoid marriage and especially children. The odds are just not compelling and the downside risks are severe.
And most mothers lie in divorce proceedings about how their husbands beat them in order to get restraining orders against good fathers because greedy whores always want more money.
You really wanna get into generalizations?