Child Support Modification

[dlcollbran]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I recently relocated out of Florida and my ex husband tried to prevent this relocation. We went to court and we were granted permanent relocation as well as a time sharing/parenting plan revision. The only thing that was not part of this whole thing, was child support. My ex is now almost $7,000 in arrears and 10 months past due. Our attorney we had was not very aggressive. (He did not file a motion of contempt or anything related to his arrears) I have opened a CSE case where I live now and am waiting for it to become active to find out more of what I can do, but was hoping maybe someone had been through something similar.
Today I received a document where he is trying to downward modify his child support payments via mediation. I in no way want to mediate an agreement with him but want him to pay the full obligation he is required to pay. I am in debt to my attorney that helped us with the relocation and simply cannot afford representation in this new matter. Am I able to simply refuse mediation so that it goes to trial? He lies constantly on his financials so I would need to subpoena them in order to prove that his income to the court. Does he need to be current in his arrears to even request a modification? Any advice/help would be appreciated.

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida

I recently relocated out of Florida and my ex husband tried to prevent this relocation. We went to court and we were granted permanent relocation as well as a time sharing/parenting plan revision. The only thing that was not part of this whole thing, was child support. My ex is now almost $7,000 in arrears and 10 months past due. Our attorney we had was not very aggressive. (He did not file a motion of contempt or anything related to his arrears) I have opened a CSE case where I live now and am waiting for it to become active to find out more of what I can do, but was hoping maybe someone had been through something similar.
Today I received a document where he is trying to downward modify his child support payments via mediation. I in no way want to mediate an agreement with him but want him to pay the full obligation he is required to pay. I am in debt to my attorney that helped us with the relocation and simply cannot afford representation in this new matter. Am I able to simply refuse mediation so that it goes to trial? He lies constantly on his financials so I would need to subpoena them in order to prove that his income to the court. Does he need to be current in his arrears to even request a modification? Any advice/help would be appreciated.

You can refuse mediation if you wish.

He doesn't have to be current to request a modification, although he won't get a retroactive modification - it will only be for amounts going forward.

(In other words, he can't wipe out the arrears but might be successful getting the current obligation lowered. If that happens you can ask that the court keep the amount the same until the arrears are paid off)

 

[dlcollbran]

You can refuse mediation if you wish.

He doesn't have to be current to request a modification, although he won't get a retroactive modification - it will only be for amounts going forward.

(In other words, he can't wipe out the arrears but might be successful getting the current obligation lowered. If that happens you can ask that the court keep the amount the same until the arrears are paid off)

Ok good, that's helpful. Is this something that CSE will help me with? i.e. modification? I don't know how involved they really get and since I can no longer afford representation I was hoping they would be an avenue for help if this does go to trial. Like, can they subpoena his financials to show that he is lying about his current income?