No, you can’t. That leaves me wondering why you quoted me.
And this would be why I pushed and pushed my friend to go talk to a damn divorce attorney instead of just floating along. Because if you don’t know the rules, you can screw yourself over.
Hell, most of them do a free initial consultation and will give you the basic information right then.
But in any case, I would agree that this is wrong. If a parent is paying support for their child, they should get credit for that.
When you receive notice of a legal action, that is your chance to tell your side of the story. If you do not choose to tell your side of the story, chances are good that the judge will accept a version of the story he or she has actually heard. That story included information about the amount of money and/or time the father was contributing to the child. The father did not correct anything in the story, therefore the father was basically agreeing that the story was correct. The judge lacks any independent information about the parties and must rely on what the parties say (within reason). When one party chooses not to speak, they get stuck with whatever story the other party told.
I don’t see anything shocking here.
Sorry, just building off the general concept of the “double payment”, which is neither a factual nor theoretical issue for the case in the OP.
;)No worries.
Yes and no. Consistent money is more valuable than inconsistent money that could change or stop at any time. Child support works best when it is reliable. A kid can’t attend private school during the months when the non-custodial parent is feeling flush, and public schools during the months when the non-custodial parent had a bad day at the slots. Any money is nice, but it’s hard to raise a kid when you have no idea what your financial situation will be one week to the next.
If a non-custodial parent is making a consistent effort at realistic support, I think that should be taken into account. But if the non-custodial parent throws down a fifty whenever the guilt happens to hit them, that’s not really “support.” That is actually a gift.
They did a similar thing over here when I had to claim child support. They back dated the support to the day I filed the claim. Presumably that’s because it’s not my fault that a judge was not immediately available to make a ruling, and maybe to give the other party no incentive to draw proceedings out. They awarded me child support from the date I indicated a need for it by filing for it, and they did not penalize me for the court’s inability to hear the case and make a ruling immediately. Looks exactly like what happened in this case.
Please, please Scumpup do tell us how you paid without a court order, got receipts and still got screwed over and double charged for back overdue child support!
I really could chuckle about the father in this case and I would if it didn’t piss me off so much. Stupid is too nice a word to describe this idiot. Sometimes I’m sorry I have called him a friend. As I stated earlier, he agreed to everything. He came to the first preliminary hearing. Not sure what is actually done at that hearing, but he talked to her lawyer and told him that he agreed with all that was claimed. No indication was given that he may contest anything. There was one more court session where he could have brought his lawyer and contested the case. He didn’t even show up, so he lost automatically.
Fast forward to yesterday. He got his hard copies of the whole case in the mail, including how much he will have to pay in support. NOW, after everything is signed by the judge and is law, he says he is going to get a lawyer and contest the case!! :smack: What a dilrod!! Apparently he doesn’t get that the time to have contested the amended decree was BEFORE it was signed and finalized.
Granted, he may have just been blowing off steam. But what it says to me is that he is just pissed because he is going to be inconvenienced by having to support his child. And that really pisses ME off because the only one that will really suffer from all of this is the little girl.
You’re surprised? Seriously? I called that halfway through the OP. I further predict that whether he contests the case or not (I suspect not, as that would be an awful lot like putting some effort in), he will fail to pay the ordered child support and will eventually wind up a guest of the state for said non-payment.
No, truth be told, I’m not surprised at all. There is the possibility though, however rare that may be, that he may just surprise everyone involved and step up to the plate and accept his responsibility.
But I won’t hold my breath.
But the scenario you described is such that he did not live up to the deal he agreed to. Not paying support hinged on the assumption he was actually going to share custody, right?
I have my child 50% of the time. I pay my ex wife no child support, because it would not make any sense to do so, since I cover half the Small One’s living expenses. If I paid chld support logically she’d have to pay me child support too. It’d be silly.
Now, if I had agreed to do that but then taken off to a city 180 miles away and NOT had her half the time, thus forcing my ex wife to cover all the costs, wouldn’t I have reneged on the agreement? Wouldn’t that mean I broke the deal, and owed her some money? Seems that way to me. And isn’t in the job of courts to enforce contracts?
Or done something to modify the agreement to each others mutual satisfaction to keep the joint custody going in different circumstances - you get the kids summers (25% of the time), she gets them school months, and you make all the 529 contributions.