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When addressing child support emancipation age, it’s important to understand the significant role it plays in divorce or custody proceedings. This legal milestone affects both financial obligations and emotional dynamics for everyone involved. While recipients depend on these payments to meet their children’s needs, those making the payments often face challenges as their children reach the emancipation age. Navigating this transition requires careful consideration of both the legal aspects and the emotional impact on all parties, ensuring fair and responsible outcomes for the child’s future.
In Texas, as in many jurisdictions, navigating the complexities of family law cases involves delving into the intertwined histories and emotions of the individuals affected. Thus, beyond the financial aspect, the process can be emotionally taxing, requiring delicate handling to ensure the well-being of all parties, especially the children.
Understanding child support: perspectives of payers and recipients
For one, if you are the parent who is receiving child support, then you likely believe that your Co-parent should be paying you more than they are. The reason for this is that the cost of raising a child almost certainly is greater than what your Co-parent pays you in child support per month. Child support aims to significantly contribute to the monthly expenses of raising a child, but it doesn’t cover every cost.
The other factor to consider for the parent who is receiving child support is that you may not be working full time after a divorce or child custody case or may even be attending school to complete a degree or earn a certification. As a result, these child support payments may be the one form of income coming into your house for a certain period.
On the other hand, if you’re the parent who pays, you probably feel apprehensive about directly giving money intended for your children to your ex-spouse or the other parent. Based on your relationship with this person, I probably couldn’t blame you. Not exactly having the most trust in the world when it comes to paying this person sums of money would not be out of the ordinary. Money problems and trust issues may have been the root cause of your divorce or breakup. Having to pay this person somewhat large sums of money each month with seemingly no accountability is enough to make apparent a little apprehensive in many cases.
How child support is paid and received
In Texas family law cases, both paying and receiving child support adhere to a specific process. Contrary to common belief, co-parents shouldn’t directly exchange child support payments. The agency responsible for tracking child support in Texas doesn’t record informal payments like these, rendering them unsuitable for monthly support. Typically, the Office of the Attorney General Child Support Division manages child support, overseeing support for Texas families. Although opting for a government agency may not be the preferred choice, processing payments through a state body presents advantages over personal accounts.
Payments processed through the state offer greater accountability, eliminating any ambiguity about who paid what and when. The Attorney General’s website maintains clear records of payments, preventing disputes between co-parents regarding support transactions. If the support amount isn’t recorded on the website, it indicates that the official payment hasn’t been made.
By channeling child support payments through the Attorney General’s office, you gain an added advantage: clear documentation for legal purposes. Should any issues necessitate court involvement regarding child support, having records of payments made or missed becomes essential. This approach relieves the burden of manually tracking payments, particularly for busy parents, streamlining the process. In the event of a court appearance for modification or enforcement of a child support order, presenting a printout of the Attorney General’s child support ledger provides tangible evidence for the judge.
Setting up a wage withholding order
As mentioned earlier, the process of automating your monthly child support payments through the Attorney General’s office typically starts before your divorce or child custody case concludes. Following your family law case, if you’re responsible for paying child support, you should draft a wage withholding order for approval by all parties, including the judge. This order authorizes your employer to automatically deduct a specified amount from your paycheck each month and remit it to the Attorney General’s office to fulfill your child support obligation.
As the parent responsible for paying child support, you must ensure that you make your child’s support payments. Don’t assume that just because the judge has approved and sent the wage withholding order to your employer, the money is being paid. I recommend checking your statement on the Office of the Attorney General’s website each month to ensure that your co-parent receives the payment.
It’s advisable to maintain a professional relationship with your co-parent regarding child support matters. While daily communication isn’t necessary, periodic check-ins to confirm receipt of payments and address any concerns can foster trust and prevent disputes. Proactively collaborating with your co-parent post-family law case can nip potential issues in the bud, reducing the likelihood of resorting to court intervention for resolution.
What if the Child Support figure no longer suits your family after a family law case?
As it happens, circumstances for your family will likely change at some point after your family law cases come to an end. Those circumstances may change a year after your family lowercase or more or may take five years. Either way, if circumstances do arise that require a change to your child support, then you have options, no matter if you are the parent who is receiving child support or the parent who is paying child support. Let’s walk through a modification of child support.
From the Texas family code perspective, a material and substantial change needs to have curd in the life of you, your child, or your Co-parent to justify a formal modification of any aspect of your court orders. This would include child support. There must be a fairly substantial change that is taking part in one of your lives to justify changing the amount of child support paid each month. You could have changed; you are Co-parent could have undergone the change, or your child’s circumstances may have changed.
Process and considerations
A modification petition would need to be filed in the same family court for your divorce or child custody case withheld. From there, you would need to provide evidence to a court that would justify your request to modify the Child Support either upwards or downwards. From the perspective of a parent who is receiving child support, you may find yourself in a position where you need an increase in child support. This may be because your child’s needs have changed or circumstances regarding your co-parent’s income have changed.
For example, you may have come to find out that your co-parent’s income has increased because they got a new job or got to pay an increase at their employer. In that case, you may be justified in requesting an increase or modification of the Child Support upwards. To do so, you would need to obtain proof from your Co-parent that their income has changed and calculate the new figure of child support based on the increase in your parent’s net monthly income. This could be done informally through the negotiation process or formally in a modification hearing with a family court judge.
Medical needs and financial changes
Additionally, your child may have developed a medical condition that requires care greater than what you can provide on the current levels of child support. If this is the case, you can request to have Child Support increased to an amount that considers the change in circumstances your child has undergone due to their medical needs. This is a bit of a less cut-and-dry situation than how much to ask for in an increase in child support, so you should consult with your experienced Texas family law attorney before proceeding to court.
They will be able to guide you on a reasonable increase based on the circumstances of her family. Finally, if you are a parent who is paying child support, you may find yourself in a position where you need to request that the Child Support baby be decreased each month. You may have suffered a disability that has drastically reduced your pay, or you may have just had your hours reduced as a result of any number of reasons at work. In that case, I would recommend that you have an attorney to assist you in providing evidence of your pay decrease to your Co-parent and a will Tina go she ate the decrease in child support with your Co-parent based on your changing circumstances.
What happens if your Co-parent stops paying you child support?
If your co-parent stops paying child support, it’s a serious situation that can disrupt your family budget. For parents who have been out of work or have low earnings, child support payments can be crucial. It’s important not to approach the issue casually.
You can address missed child support payments through an enforcement lawsuit filed in the same family court where your divorce or child custody case occurred. Within the lawsuit, you would allege the violations of your court order, specifically citing missed child support payments. You would need to specify the amount of child support missed, the dates, and any other background information that the judge should know. As we discussed a moment ago, comma attaching proof from the attorney general’s website of child support payments missed would be a wise idea.
Your Co-parent would be able to potentially offer some defenses regarding their failure to pay the Child Support. A family court judge would then be able to consider the arguments and decide whether or not you met the burdens of your enforcement case. A family court judge can award relief that ranges from putting your Co-parent on a schedule to repay you child support, penalties like having him or her pay your attorney’s fees, and even assessing jail time for serious cases of missed child support. Just as with a modification case, handling an enforcement case requires the assistance of an experienced Texas family law attorney.
When does the responsibility to pay child support come to an end?
As with most things in life, the need to pay child support does eventually come to an end. In Texas, the age of emancipation when it comes to child support is when your child turns 18 or graduates from high school, whichever occurs later. This means that even when your child graduates from high school, you may still be liable to pay child support depending on your child’s age. This is an important distinction to draw, and a client of mine learned early in the process.
One of the first cases I worked on as a family law attorney involved a client whose ex-spouse had failed to pay child support. Innocently enough, the ex-husband had stopped paying child support when his daughter turned 18. He had assumed that once she reached 18 there was no longer any obligation to pay support. Our client had had casual discussions with him about paying the rest of his child support but had not paid much attention. As such, it came as a surprise to him that he still owed child support even after his child had turned 18.
We had to file an enforcement lawsuit to compel him to pay back child support, but we eventually succeeded. His attorney worked with him to confirm that this was the case, and we avoided having a court hearing when the attorneys and parties were able to work together. This was an easy enough circumstance to work through but not every enforcement lawsuit is that way.
Conclusion
Understanding the child support emancipation age is vital when navigating the complexities of divorce and custody proceedings. This legal milestone not only has financial implications but also carries significant emotional weight for both the recipients and the payers. Recognizing these emotional dynamics ensures that all parties—especially the children—are considered throughout the process. In Texas, where family law cases often present unique challenges, open communication and empathy are essential for achieving outcomes that prioritize everyone’s well-being. By addressing these factors thoughtfully, families can move toward fair and equitable resolutions that best serve the child’s future.
Questions about the material contained in today’s blog post? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you have any questions about the material contained in today’s blog post, please do not hesitate to contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. Our licensed family law attorneys offer free-of-charge consultations six days a week in person, over the phone, and via video. These consultations are a great way for you to learn more about the world of Texas Family Law and how your family circumstances may be impacted by the filing of a divorce or child custody case.
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