question regarding support order????

[NCPhelp]

What is the name of your state? New York

My husband pays support for his son. The son is now 19 year old, will be 20 this summer. He graduated from high school June 2005, he is not going to college, he is working. For a little while him and his girlfriend lived in their own apartment. Then they moved down to North Carolina together and were down there about 3-4 months. They came back to New York in January of 2006. He is now living at his girlfriend's parents home with her. All this time the support monies continued to go to the mother. I don't know if we could get support stopped on these grounds or not. Our lawyer said we would have a tough case to prove that he was supporting himself, which I have to agree with him on that one. We really don't mind continuing to pay support until he is 21, that is just a short 17 months away, and believe me, we are counting the days.

My question is this. We have not heard from the mother since June of last year when she nailed us with $350 worth of graduation expenses. We did pay it, even thought we didn't have to. We showed the bills to our lawyer and he said technically it was not part of the support order currently in place. She sent us a nasty note, along with a copy of my husbands support order that all medical, dental, eyeglass, etc. expenses were to be reimbursed in the following manner. I guess she thought the etc. meant all his graduation expenses. My husband said, let's just pay it, cus if we don't she land us back in court again. So against our better judgement, we paid it.

My other question is this? According to the current support order it states the mother is obligated to cover health insurance for the child. He is 19 years old, and not going to school full time anymore, so if he can't be covered under his mothers health policy any longer, and she is not covering him at all, is she in contempt of the order? And secondly, it states we reimburse her for 50% of all uninsured medical bills, dental, eyeglass, etc. If she send us a bill for him for 50% of the total medical bill, can we ask for proof that he is insured by her before we will pay the uninsured portion?

Thanks for everyone's help, sorry this is so long.What is the name of your state?

 

[BL]

Did your Lawyer tell you if the child is not living with the mother , the mother shouldn't be receiving the child support payments ?

It may be hard to prove the child is not self sufficient , but the support payments should be going for the child's needs .

When the child moved out of state , not in school or college , that would have been the time to Petition modification . You could file now . The Judge will wonder why you didn't file then , but at least if the Judge does not terminate the payments , it should be ordered it go directly to the child .

As far as medical , it's clear what the court's order is . If she hasn't a coverage for the child , again why would you HAVE to pay 1/2 of the uncovered bills .

That can be addressed as well , it could be a form of contempt also .

The $350.00 , I see as a gift .

Really , it doesn't cost anything to Petition for modification with out an attorney , and this can all be addressed .

Who knows , if you can prove he moved out of State , Etc , you might get lucky and have the CS payments terminated , but it's a long shot , because if the child is not self supporting their selves , the State won't want to .

 

[NCPhelp]

response to previous poster

Thanks for your response.

I totally agree with you. We were going to petition for a modification when he moved out of state, but by the time we found out he did in fact move out of state we heard he was moving back, so we figured, why bother.

And prior to our son graduating from high school he did not live with the mother. He has not lived with her since June of 2004, and the support payments are still going to her. But if I know her and the son, in court, I am sure they would just say she was giving them to him, when I know she was not. She never gave the family dime one that he was living with his whole senior year.

I feel we could have grounds for a modification, but we are reluctant to do so, for my husband is making a little more money now, and the last time they went to court was in 1992. And his original amount has only been increased once since then for the COLA increase, so we consider ourselves lucky that he could be paying a whole lot more than he is. I guess that is why we paid the graduation bills, even though we technically did not have to.

The son will be 21 in August of 2007, which is a mere 17 months away, but it still burns me up that we are still supporting him (actually her), and he is out of school, working and not continuing on in school, lived out of the state for awhile, it just does not make any sense whatsoever.

When the time does come, like in July of 2007. What steps do we have to take to get the support terminated. Do we just file the paperwork with the Support Cellection Unit. I know that the only way it can be stopped is Family Court has to stop it. My husbands payments are garnished, so I guess that is why.

And also, if the son is only working part time at the time he is 21 years old, would the courts have support continue because he isn't supporting himself. I hope not, cus he is just like his mother and doesn't want to work for anything he is given.

Thanks for your help.

This state of New York sucks in this case......

 

[BL]

In NY the age of majority is 21 , unless a court order otherwise .

I'd file a modification , to get an order just to be sure , there's an order to stop garnishments , but by all means inform support collection the day the kid is 21 .

Personally , I'd file now , and take my chances . Even if it's to stop mom from benefiting .