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Child support arrearage--what happens after step-parent adoption?

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kmborgy

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? WI

My husband will be adopting my 18 year daughter. What I'm wondering is if that will have any affect on the child support arrearage my ex-husband has accumulated in the last 15 years. He has paid a whopping $1,100--a warrant was issued 13 years ago. Will the adoption have any affect on that at all?

Thanks in advance!
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
It should have no bearing on arrearages at all.

Is this really for you, or is it for a friend? (Post hx)
 

latigo

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? WI

My husband will be adopting my 18 year daughter. What I'm wondering is if that will have any affect on the child support arrearage my ex-husband has accumulated in the last 15 years. He has paid a whopping $1,100--a warrant was issued 13 years ago. Will the adoption have any affect on that at all?

Thanks in advance!
As Z mentions an order of adoption does not have a retrospective effect in ending a parent's financial responsibilities.

But why is this of such a concern to you now?

I could understand if you were actively seeking the several legal remedies available to you, but all I'm read here is complacent tolerance. If not, then -

What if anything have you done with respect to having him cited and held in contempt and punished by the family court; securing a money judgment for the arrearages; efforts to levy execution on such a judgment; court ordered wage withholding; have his vehicle operator's license suspended, etc. etc.?

What have you done of recent to bring about his prosecution and incarceration either under Wisconsin's criminal laws or the federal Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act?

Will the adoption process be by means of the father's written and certified consent or by a combined petition for adoption and termination of the parental relationship?
 

torimac

Member
Will the adoption process be by means of the father's written and certified consent or by a combined petition for adoption and termination of the parental relationship?
As the child is now 18, is the father's consent required?
 

kmborgy

Junior Member
As Z mentions an order of adoption does not have a retrospective effect in ending a parent's financial responsibilities.

But why is this of such a concern to you now?

I could understand if you were actively seeking the several legal remedies available to you, but all I'm read here is complacent tolerance. If not, then -

What if anything have you done with respect to having him cited and held in contempt and punished by the family court; securing a money judgment for the arrearages; efforts to levy execution on such a judgment; court ordered wage withholding; have his vehicle operator's license suspended, etc. etc.?

What have you done of recent to bring about his prosecution and incarceration either under Wisconsin's criminal laws or the federal Deadbeat Parents Punishment Act?

Will the adoption process be by means of the father's written and certified consent or by a combined petition for adoption and termination of the parental relationship?

Are you kidding me??? What have I done to have him held in contempt of court and punished by the family court? If I would have given you all of the details for the past 15 years, you would have had a snarky comment about that, so I kept it short.

As I said, there is an active warrant for his arrest. He served six months in jail for his first contempt charge. He got out and a few months later he was again charged with contempt--as the Judge sentenced him to serve another six months in jail, he ran out of the courtroom (courthouse was locked down for three hours) and I haven't seen him since. Judge issued warrant--13 years ago. Feel free to ask for a link to the many newspaper articles that were published in the days following this. Because of the warrant in Wisconsin he eventually left the state ended up Florida. He was not working regular (legal) jobs so there wasn't a paycheck to garnish. Have his license suspended? He hasn't had a valid driver's license for many years so there wasn't a license to suspend--read below for more details on this. Have his tax refund intercepted?? He currently has multiple IRS tax warrants. Two years ago I was notified that he was arrested for killing a motorcyclist while driving drunk--1:00 in the afternoon on a sunny Florida day. DA was seeking manslaughter by culpable negligence and said based on this being his 5th DUI arrest he was asking for minimum of 20 years incarceration. They ended up offering him a plea agreement--DUI manslaughter--he must serve minimum of 10 years for that. Feel free to ask for a link to one of the multiple newspaper articles that were written about this whole thing too. Remember the part about him not having a license to suspend? He was charged with "DRIV W/LIC S/R/C/D FELONY" (I got that from his very own Florida Department of Corrections page--I copied it to avoid another snarky comment about me typing it wrong) and was sentenced to 5 years for that but I'm pretty sure that runs concurrent.

All I was asking is if anything would happen to the arrearage. There is really no expectation for him to ever pay any of the arrearage--if he ever did it would go to my daughter. My daughter petitioned the court at age 14 to take my husband's last name…In Wisconsin a child 14+ can petition without having the consent of the other parent. We were required to post a notice in the newspaper of his last known county--we posted a notice in the local paper here in Wisconsin and also in the county in Florida we thought he was residing--this 2nd posting was not required. At that time we discussed my husband adopting her--petitioning to terminate my ex-husband's parental rights would not have been a difficult process--just based on abandonment alone. We talked to a few counselors about this. Based on her age and her fear of hurting her grandparent's feelings (and it's a long drawn out process being a minor), we decided not to go ahead with the adoption. Shortly after she turned 18, she brought it up again and here we are--papers are filled out and notarized. In her words, when she goes to college "all of the pieces will be put back together".

I'm not quite sure what your point was in trying to make me sound like an idiot. I've read posts on here and some of them are either blatantly made up for entertainment purposes or it says "my friend named, uh Bob, was caught doing this". There was absolutely no need to be so disrespectful. I came here with this question because I had asked another question last year--I of course got a few snarky comments, but I also got six private messages that were actually extremely helpful.

So, here you go. More information than you needed to know. Please remember that there are real people on the other side of the posts that some of you find the need to critique so harshly.
 

stealth2

Under the Radar Member
Please remember that there are real people on the other side of the posts that some of you find the need to critique so harshly.
Please remember that we can only go by what you post. A long-winded explanation isn't necessary. You were asked reasonable questions based on what you told us.

Nor was your diatribe based on those questions - and info you did NOT provide - necessary. And do not expect it to prompt anyone else to be interested in helping.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
Please remember that we can only go by what you post. A long-winded explanation isn't necessary. You were asked reasonable questions based on what you told us.

Nor was your diatribe based on those questions - and info you did NOT provide - necessary. And do not expect it to prompt anyone else to be interested in helping.
Her question was does stepparent adoption effect arrears...the answer was, it doesn't. Which Zig answered.

None of Latigo's questions were necessary to answer the OP's question. In addition, he ignored the fact that OP's daughter is a legal adult and therefore dad's permission is not needed for a stepparent adoption.
 

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