What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California
My ex-GF filed for child support in October without telling me. I was never properly served - the process server served my old neighbor who is a close friend of my ex. She didn't tell me (not sure if she was complicit in this scam). Somehow the judge accepted it. I was completely unaware there was even a hearing. Child Support Services (CSS) couldn't find any W-2s for me so they calculated the child support based on minimum wage (I make much more than that). So the court ordered that I pay $288/month. All correspondence was mailed to our old address so I wasn't aware of any of this until May.
In the meantime, my ex and I made several attempts at reconciliation. During that period I directly paid her rent, auto expenses, and provided a credit card for groceries etc... From October to present I have paid approximately $15K in direct child support. CSS told me she needs to sign off on a form acknowledging that I made direct payments. She is refusing. Furthermore I just had to pay CSS over $3K to get them off my back for the $288/mo and interest that has been accruing for 9 months. My only recourse is to take her to court and prove that I made the payments directly.
It has now become clear to me that she is scamming me and the system. She claims she doesn't have a job, but in fact has been earning cash under the table all the while. She is also collecting from me and the state. If I go to court, she is going to have to reveal all this or purger herself. They will also go after her for all the payments they made to her since I was paying directly. Unfortunately she is a completely irrational and unreasonable person. She has refused my offer to increase the payment to $800/mo. She is delusional and somehow thinks I'm supposed to pay her $1500-2000/month. I ran the calculations with our case officer and I should be paying about $660/mo. so my offer is very generous. The really odd thing is CSS won't increase my payment unless one of us petitions. He also advised me not to do anything about it until I settle the issue with her not acknowledging my direct payments. He also stated that there is no way they can go back to October and recalculate the amount I owe, even though my income is in fact higher. He's not an attorney though so I cannot accept everything he says as gospel.
So I really have 2 questions:
1) Is it true that the child support payments will never change unless one of us asks for a hearing? If so, it would seem every day she does nothing, she loses out.
2) Is there any way the court will go back and recalculate my child support since last October i.e. retroactively raise it from $288/mo to $660/mo.
I want to amicably resolve this with my ex but I need to be prepared if she continues to be unreasonable.
My ex-GF filed for child support in October without telling me. I was never properly served - the process server served my old neighbor who is a close friend of my ex. She didn't tell me (not sure if she was complicit in this scam). Somehow the judge accepted it. I was completely unaware there was even a hearing. Child Support Services (CSS) couldn't find any W-2s for me so they calculated the child support based on minimum wage (I make much more than that). So the court ordered that I pay $288/month. All correspondence was mailed to our old address so I wasn't aware of any of this until May.
In the meantime, my ex and I made several attempts at reconciliation. During that period I directly paid her rent, auto expenses, and provided a credit card for groceries etc... From October to present I have paid approximately $15K in direct child support. CSS told me she needs to sign off on a form acknowledging that I made direct payments. She is refusing. Furthermore I just had to pay CSS over $3K to get them off my back for the $288/mo and interest that has been accruing for 9 months. My only recourse is to take her to court and prove that I made the payments directly.
It has now become clear to me that she is scamming me and the system. She claims she doesn't have a job, but in fact has been earning cash under the table all the while. She is also collecting from me and the state. If I go to court, she is going to have to reveal all this or purger herself. They will also go after her for all the payments they made to her since I was paying directly. Unfortunately she is a completely irrational and unreasonable person. She has refused my offer to increase the payment to $800/mo. She is delusional and somehow thinks I'm supposed to pay her $1500-2000/month. I ran the calculations with our case officer and I should be paying about $660/mo. so my offer is very generous. The really odd thing is CSS won't increase my payment unless one of us petitions. He also advised me not to do anything about it until I settle the issue with her not acknowledging my direct payments. He also stated that there is no way they can go back to October and recalculate the amount I owe, even though my income is in fact higher. He's not an attorney though so I cannot accept everything he says as gospel.
So I really have 2 questions:
1) Is it true that the child support payments will never change unless one of us asks for a hearing? If so, it would seem every day she does nothing, she loses out.
2) Is there any way the court will go back and recalculate my child support since last October i.e. retroactively raise it from $288/mo to $660/mo.
I want to amicably resolve this with my ex but I need to be prepared if she continues to be unreasonable.
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