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joint custody/does he still pay?

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Jenna6363

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Arkansas

We have been divorced for 4 year (separated for 6 before that). He has never paid a dime in child support due to our "joint custody" outlined in the divorce decree. It has not been a tremendous problem until he remarried 2 years ago and now hardly provides for our two kids at all. Our daughter now lives with me permanently. Our son lives with me the majority of the time. He pays for their medical/dental. He pays some other recurring bills such as car insurance and cell phone bill. Other than that, he rarely buys them clothing or basic personal necessities like shampoo/conditioner, razors, etc. He gives them no allowance, and every time they ask for money, he often makes it contingent on whether they come out there to stay or clean their rooms, etc. It is an absolute fight for them to get anything at all from him these days. He makes more than twice my salary. Can I get child support even though we have joint custody according to our decree? If so, what kind of legal fees am I looking at to pursue child support? How long might the whole process take?

Thanks for any help at all.

Jenna6363
 


Gracie3787

Senior Member
Jenna6363 said:
What is the name of your state? Arkansas

We have been divorced for 4 year (separated for 6 before that). He has never paid a dime in child support due to our "joint custody" outlined in the divorce decree. It has not been a tremendous problem until he remarried 2 years ago and now hardly provides for our two kids at all. Our daughter now lives with me permanently. Our son lives with me the majority of the time. He pays for their medical/dental. He pays some other recurring bills such as car insurance and cell phone bill. Other than that, he rarely buys them clothing or basic personal necessities like shampoo/conditioner, razors, etc. He gives them no allowance, and every time they ask for money, he often makes it contingent on whether they come out there to stay or clean their rooms, etc. It is an absolute fight for them to get anything at all from him these days. He makes more than twice my salary. Can I get child support even though we have joint custody according to our decree? If so, what kind of legal fees am I looking at to pursue child support? How long might the whole process take?

Thanks for any help at all.

Jenna6363
Apparently it is no longer a true "joint custody" situation, if the kids are now spending more time living with you, you'll need to file to modify the custody order and for CS. My guess is though that he'll suddenly want the kids to live with him, so my suggestion is to get an attorney if he's going to fight you on it.
 
Gracie3787 said:
Apparently it is no longer a true "joint custody" situation, if the kids are now spending more time living with you, you'll need to file to modify the custody order and for CS. My guess is though that he'll suddenly want the kids to live with him, so my suggestion is to get an attorney if he's going to fight you on it.

Exactly. He is probably going to fight you on it and start taking the kids more often. Is that what you want? You could also start documenting how often he has them incomparison to you. The expenses he pays versus you. Also, get online and figure out the amount of child support that would actually be awarded. It might balance out to the amount he is paying you now.
 

ceara19

Senior Member
Jenna6363 said:
What is the name of your state? Arkansas

We have been divorced for 4 year (separated for 6 before that). He has never paid a dime in child support due to our "joint custody" outlined in the divorce decree. It has not been a tremendous problem until he remarried 2 years ago and now hardly provides for our two kids at all. Our daughter now lives with me permanently. Our son lives with me the majority of the time. He pays for their medical/dental. He pays some other recurring bills such as car insurance and cell phone bill. Other than that, he rarely buys them clothing or basic personal necessities like shampoo/conditioner, razors, etc. He gives them no allowance, and every time they ask for money, he often makes it contingent on whether they come out there to stay or clean their rooms, etc. It is an absolute fight for them to get anything at all from him these days. He makes more than twice my salary. Can I get child support even though we have joint custody according to our decree? If so, what kind of legal fees am I looking at to pursue child support? How long might the whole process take?

Thanks for any help at all.

Jenna6363
You will probably need to modify the custody order to give you primary legal custody and keep joint legal custody. Like Gracie said though, be prepared for him to start getting the kids at the times stated in the original agreement to avoid having to pay support. In all fairness to dad, my kids' allowences are also conditional. If they don't do their chores, they don't get the money.
 

Jenna6363

Junior Member
Much Thanks

Thank you to those of you who responded to my post. I greatly appreciate your comments and your time. It's nice to know that there are people who read and respond.

Thank you
 

NotSoNew

Senior Member
NJ has a clause in their guidelines that states:

If an award is adjusted propectivly for PAR time and the non custodial parent , over a reasonable period, does not conform with the PAR time schedule included in the parenting plan or court order, the custodial parent may file and application with the family division requesting that the child support order be adjusted to relfect the level of PAR time that is being exercised.

now i know your not in NJ but mayne arkansas has something to this effect, it might be easier to do then trying to change his custody level which he will fight. I tried to look up to see if Arkansas does but it was too much for me.

ANd like another poster said run the numbers on an Arkansas calculator, see how much it will be with his parenting time and without. The credit for parenting time usually isnt all that great.

did you ever file for child support? does your order just say hes supposed to have "joint custody" or does it spell out the times he is supposed to have them?
 

Ohiogal

Queen Bee
Jenna6363 said:
What is the name of your state? Arkansas

We have been divorced for 4 year (separated for 6 before that). He has never paid a dime in child support due to our "joint custody" outlined in the divorce decree. It has not been a tremendous problem until he remarried 2 years ago and now hardly provides for our two kids at all. Our daughter now lives with me permanently. Our son lives with me the majority of the time. He pays for their medical/dental. He pays some other recurring bills such as car insurance and cell phone bill. Other than that, he rarely buys them clothing or basic personal necessities like shampoo/conditioner, razors, etc. He gives them no allowance, and every time they ask for money, he often makes it contingent on whether they come out there to stay or clean their rooms, etc. It is an absolute fight for them to get anything at all from him these days. He makes more than twice my salary. Can I get child support even though we have joint custody according to our decree? If so, what kind of legal fees am I looking at to pursue child support? How long might the whole process take?

Thanks for any help at all.

Jenna6363
What is your parenting schedule? Do you tell your kids they have to go see their dad or do you let THEM dictate? I dont blame dad for not giving the kids an allowance if the kids dont go see them. And there is nothing wrong with him tying an allowance to them doing minimal chores like cleaning their room. You can go back to modify but be prepared for the judge to question visitation as in how often you make the kids go, why they dont spend more time with dad, and various other questions.
 

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