Statute of limitation...whichever state's statute provides longer period

[MtnMoon]

What is the name of your state? CA order...CO has jurisdiction

To recap...our original CA child support order states child support ends at 18. CO obtained jurisdiction. My ex anticipates that when our child turns 18 in a couple of months, child support will end. A letter from CSE indicates that child support will continue until next year, when our child turns 19. Apparently, under CO statutes, child support ends at 19; therefore, CSE said according to the federal Full Faith and Credit for Child Support Orders Act, they can go by CO statutes. CSE said if it was the reverse, if CA was the forum state and CO was the state of the order, support would still end at 19 because the statute which applies is whichever one provides the longer period of limitation.

Anyone run across this before? I don't see how to get CSE to terminate child support in a couple of months and only collect arrears. Also, CSE doesn't collect interest. I'm thinking of forgiving the interest since there's going to be another year of child support payments...even though the interest exceeds the amount of one year's payments. So, once child support is paid in full (excluding the interest), should I ask the CA court to forgive the interest? CO will close the case once arrears are paid in full. I plan on giving this next year's worth of payments to our child who will be in college. Hopefully my ex won't blow a gasket about the additional year... He said he was going to start giving the same amount to our child after child support ended anyway... so by me giving it to our child...it might help settle things.

 

[VeronicaGia]

You need to look into the UIFSA for your answer. From what I understand:

Once CA started the support order, CA state laws would prevail in emancipation no matter what. CO could enforce the order, modify the amount, and things of that nature, but CA law would apply for emancipation. The catch here is that CA emancipation is when the child turns 18 AND has graduated high school. That may be the problem??? Will the child still be in high school after reaching age 18?

The point of the UIFSA, as you know, is to prevent "support shopping." This means that if you start the order in CA where emancipation is 18 and graduated high school, you cannot move the order to a state that goes till 21 and expect CS to go until 21 (such as IN) or longer (such as NJ). IN in this case would be able to modify the order, but CA law on emancipation would rule the order. People would flock to states where support goes on and on and then demand their orders be changed.

In your case, the order specifically states when support ends, and I don't think a judge in one state can overrule a judge in another state in this way. The court order clearly states when support will end......

I hope I've been helpful.