Paid Child Support with no court Order

[DesireeT]

What is the name of your state? Colorado
My brother has two children, but was never married to his ex girlfriend, has been paying her child support in cash ( I know, told him this was VERY stupid) since my neice and nephew were babies they are 7 and 3. Should he register with the state child support enforcement? He has been paying her almost $700 a month. She makes good money and he does pretty good. She gets health insurance through her employer now and he pays her back what is deducted out of her check. Any advice on what he should do? He also has both kids every weekend and sometimes a few days out of the week. Any advice would be very helpful.
Thanks in Advance
Concerned Sis

 

[Phnx02]

What is the name of your state? Colorado
My brother has two children, but was never married to his ex girlfriend, has been paying her child support in cash ( I know, told him this was VERY stupid) since my neice and nephew were babies they are 7 and 3. Should he register with the state child support enforcement? He has been paying her almost $700 a month. She makes good money and he does pretty good. She gets health insurance through her employer now and he pays her back what is deducted out of her check. Any advice on what he should do? He also has both kids every weekend and sometimes a few days out of the week. Any advice would be very helpful.
Thanks in Advance
Concerned Sis

Yes he should. He needs to have all his monthly CS payments legally documented as paid and can only do this by having a court order for such. Otherwise, the ex girlfriend can come back at any time and file for CS and he may have to "back pay" all these months/years he's already paid. Especially since he's paid in cash, this may be considered "a gift" and not CS. However, certain conditions may apply. If paternity has not been established, then your brother is not nor has been legally responsible for paying CS and the state cannot hold him in arrears. He will only be obligated to pay CS from the date paternity has been established. If paternity has been established (in some states this is done simply by signing the birth certificate), then he could still be held in arrears, even though he's paid, simply becasue it was paid in cash and not documented as paid by a court order. Since he's such an up-standing guy and has been paying all this time w/o a court order (I assume), then he should protect himself by paying by court order. So nothing will come back to haunt him.