As you start to think more critically about child support it may not occur to you yet that the needs of your family may change over time. While getting through today or this upcoming family law case may seem like the most pressing goals in your life they may not remain that way. Circumstances change over time and when they do you need to be ready.
This is where a child support modification case may become necessary. A modification case involves you filing a petition with the same court that issued your initial child support orders. In your petition to modify you would need to show that a material and substantial change in circumstances has occurred which has led to your child support orders no longer being in the best interests of your child. Something in your life, that of your co-parent or your child himself has changed to the point where a court needs to become involved.
When it comes to child support, the most likely update that the court needs to consider is an increase or decrease in the amount of child support that needs to be paid. Let’s consider each of those circumstances individually. An increase in child support may be necessary when the parent who pays child support begins to earn substantially more money than he or she did at the time the initial child support orders were issued. People get raises, change jobs, or take on new opportunities that allow them to earn more money. A support modification could occur if it can be shown that the paying parent earns much more money now than he did back when all parties were in court for the first time.
On the other hand, a decrease in child support may be warranted when the paying parent earns substantially less money than he did the last time that the parties were in court. Imagine a situation where that parent worked in a field that was previously more lucrative than it is now. In that case, a decrease in child support may be warranted. Job changes can have major impacts on household budgets. Paying an incorrect amount of child support for an extended period can result in big-time problems as far as meeting the requirements of your home as far as the household budget is concerned.
Another reason why a parent’s income may change enough for child support to be altered is due to disability. If you or your co-parent have become disabled, then that would be a material and substantial enough cause to present a petition to the court. Suppose that you were a topflight executive six years ago but hurt your back in an accident a few years ago. Now you can still work but at reduced hours and not do the same thing as you were before. In that case, it would be difficult to imagine a scenario where you can maintain the same level of child support.
Additionally, your child’s disability status may have changed since the last time that you were in court. Suppose that your child developed a disability that requires care from a nurse or other help that has a fixed monthly cost. Those costs should be considered in child support. On the other hand, if your child is no longer disabled then that would remove a tremendous financial burden off your back and that of your co-parent. As a result, the amount of child support may be able to go down now as your child’s health has improved.
Whatever the circumstances are, when you pay child support you need to be aware of what the circumstances are in your life and that of your child. It could be the case that you are paying less in support than you ought to and should anticipate a modification case being filed against you. By the same token, if you have lost your job or become disabled in recent years then a decrease in child support could be forthcoming if you were to file a modification with the court.
In any event, working with an experienced family law attorney throughout the child support modification process is a wise decision. Nobody understands better what you are facing in times like these than one of the experienced family law attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan. We work with families like yours in complicated matters involving child support. These are cases we take seriously, and we would be honored to take on the same responsibility for your family, as well.
What can you do if your co-parent stops paying child support?
Put yourself in the following situation. You are the custodial parent of a nine-year-old daughter. This little girl is the apple of your eye, but like all nine-year-olds, she is a handful when it comes to your daily bills. Since she lives with you her portion of the food, medical, and other bills have become considerable as she has gotten older. You wouldn’t change a single thing about her living with you, but you also want her father to pay his fair share towards your daughter’s financial support each month.
This is why you went through all the trouble of filing that child custody and support case a few years ago. What you did in creating child support orders was supposed to sustain your family until your daughter graduated from high school. Now you find yourself only a few years out from that family law case and your co-parent has stopped paying your child support of any kind. He doesn’t even bother paying you late or making a partial payment. He has completely stopped paying child support. It has become bothersome and tedious to have to constantly remind him to pay you child support but that is what you have become reduced to.
Your first inclination was to fight fire with fire. You asked an experienced family law attorney with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan what your options were, and you were told that you cannot withhold visitation time until you start to receive child support. A court would not look favorably upon your decision to do that, one of our attorneys told you. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
This didn’t exactly make you feel good about yourself or your options. Without the ability to withhold visitation as a means of forcing your co-parent to start paying your child support again, your concern was that you were never going to be able to have enough money in your budget to care for the monthly needs of your child. What other options exist to help you out in a situation like this?
Fortunately, one of the experienced family law attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan tells you that you are in luck. There are other options for you to pursue as far as child support enforcement cases are concerned. What you should aim to do is attempt to hold your co-parent’s feet to the fire by filing an enforcement case with the same court that issued your child support orders in the first place.
Essentially, you would want to point out all the violations of your child support orders to that court. We recommend that a parent in your position take good notes and document every violation of the court order. When it comes to child support you can go to the website for the Office of the Attorney General and they keep an accurate record of payments and missed payments that can be utilized in a child support enforcement case. This way you do not have to necessarily keep notes and a record of every missed child support payment. The number of missed payments and the total arrearage should be listed in your enforcement petition that is filed with the court.
Once you have provided your co-parent with notice of your lawsuit having been filed you have options in front of you. First, you can begin to negotiate with your co-parent. He or she may have a good reason as to why those child support payments have been missed. Job loss, sickness, and problems with transferring money are just a few of the reasons why missed child support payments may have occurred.
Hopefully, your co-parent has communicated with you about why those payments have not been received. However, filing the enforcement lawsuit may have been the motivator to get your co-parent to the bargaining table. Even if he has missed payments due to a legitimate reason that does not necessarily mean that he does not have to pay you back. The two of you can spend this time working together to come up with a repayment schedule.
If you can negotiate a repayment schedule, then you can go ahead and mediate the case and get that agreement contained in a mediated settlement agreement (MSA). That MSA would then be written out into order form and put together for all parties’ signatures. This is an ideal situation where you and your co-parent would not have to go before the judge for a final hearing in your case.
However, if you are not able to settle the case between you and your co-parent then you would need to bring the issues discussed in your petition before a judge. You could present evidence showing that the missed payments occurred. The onus would then be on your co-parents to defend themselves. Once all evidence has been presented the judge could issue a ruling and potentially find that your co-parent is in contempt of court for having violated a court order.
Should you ever consider paying child support directly to your co-parent?
Before going to court you and your co-parent may have exchanged child support directly. You could have paid her in cash outside of her house or even with a check that you mailed to her. At the time, this may have seemed like a logical move for you to make. You would know that the payments made it to her, and she never seemed to complain. In some cases, you may have even given your child a check to hand off to their mother once your visitation weekend was over.
However, now that you have gone through a family law case and have had child support set up through a court you are wondering whether it is a good idea to ever pay child support directly to your co-parent. The reality of the situation is that these direct payments of child support are not counted as official payments any longer. The Office of the Attorney General Child Support Division will keep track of all child support payments that are made in your case. You can check online to see the status of your payments and whether you are behind or caught up.
Since there is an official ledger of payments now the issue that you and your co-parent will run into is that the OAG does not know if you were to make a direct payment of child support to your co-parent. This payment would not be reflected in the official list of child support payments that are owed in your case. You would not be credited for direct payment of child support which means that your co-parent could try to come back and argue that you missed that payment. This results in a headache and the potential for you to have to pay your co-parent twice when you should not have to do that.
Rather than put yourself in this situation, go ahead and make all child support payments through the OAG moving forward. This way you have an accurate counter of the child support payments that have been made.
What to do if you cannot make your child support payment that month
Let’s put ourselves in a situation where you as the non-custodial parent are unable to make a child support payment each month. This is out of the ordinary for you, but you have lost your job and simply don’t have the money in your budget to pay child support. You had a wage withholding order set up at your former employer but now that you no longer work there the order is not going to allow child support to be paid any longer.
Here you are, wondering about how to make ends meet in your own life and you also have this child support obligation hanging over your head. You need to balance your own need to survive financially with the need to provide for your child and meet this obligation. How can you move forward in a way that is as fair as possible?
First, you should immediately communicate what is going on to your co-parent. This does not mean that she is going to be happy about what is happening but that is beside the point. When you run into a situation where something beyond your control has taken place it makes sense to inform your co-parent of that. She will need to know and will find out eventually even if you do not share the news with her. At least by telling her directly, you take some of the mystery out of the situation. Better for her to know what is going on rather than to have her imagination run wild.
From there, the two of you can work together to see if you can come up with a plan as to how to attack this issue. You may agree that for the next month or even two, any amount of child support that you can pay would be acceptable. After that point, once you have found a job, a payment plan could be agreed to where you would begin to pay back any child support that is owed. Hopefully, you do not owe any additional child support and the number would be low that needs to be paid back.
The alternative to this situation would be to not communicate what is going on to your co-parent and to allow her imagination to run wild with scenarios as to why you are not paying her support. This will almost certainly end up in a place where she assumes the worst. In a situation like this, she may decide to hire an attorney and move toward the filing of an enforcement lawsuit against you. Hopefully, the attorney will mail you a letter and ask that you provide an update as to why the child support has not been paid. This would allow you to explain yourself before any legal action can be taken.
At the end of the day, child support-related issues are emotional. The payment of money from one parent to another is almost always a circumstance where some sort of disagreement will arise from time to time. If you and your co-parent can communicate your way through these times you allow yourselves to avoid going to court. However, if going to court is inescapable for whatever reason, the attorneys with the Law Office of Bryan Fagan can assist you in representing your interests.
Need guidance on child support matters? Contact the Law Office of Bryan Fagan
If you need help with anything related to child support, the Law Office of Bryan Fagan has your back. Our attorneys are inside the courtrooms of the State of Texas every day serving our clients. We can do the same for you. To schedule a free-of-charge consultation with one of our licensed family law attorneys please reach out to us today.
Evan Hochschild was raised in Houston, TX and graduated from Cypress Creek High School. He went on to graduate from Southwestern University in Georgetown, TX with an undergraduate degree in Political Science. While in college, Evan was a four-year letterman on the Cross Country team.
Following in the footsteps of his grandfather and uncle before him, Evan attended law school after he completed in his undergraduate studies. He graduated from St. Mary’s University School of Law and has practiced in a variety of areas in the law- including family law.
Mr. Hochschild is guided by principles which place the interests of clients first. Additionally, Evan seeks to provide information and support for his clients with the heart of a teacher.
Evan and his wife have four small children together. He enjoys afternoons out and about with his family, teaching Sunday school at his church and exercising. A veteran attorney of fourteen years, Mr. Hochschild excels in communicating complex ideas in family law simply and directly.
