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Statute of Limitations and Civil Judgments

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harjo2

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?
My state is California--is there a statute of limitations for collecting child support payment in arrears? If a child is not emancipated, but released from the welfare system at age 15, has an order of child support-would they be due the child support not owed the welfare system from age 15 to 18.

Has there ever been a civil judgment/with damages against a parent for child neglect/abandonment when the custodial parent is sent to prison for abuse and the remaining parent has the financial wherewithall to care for a child but refuses to support that child?

Thanks for the help.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
harjo2 said:
What is the name of your state?
My state is California--is there a statute of limitations for collecting child support payment in arrears? If a child is not emancipated, but released from the welfare system at age 15, has an order of child support-would they be due the child support not owed the welfare system from age 15 to 18.
The child is not due child support - the custodial parent (generally) is.
Stay tuned for more information.
 

ceara19

Senior Member
harjo2 said:
What is the name of your state?
My state is California--is there a statute of limitations for collecting child support payment in arrears? If a child is not emancipated, but released from the welfare system at age 15, has an order of child support-would they be due the child support not owed the welfare system from age 15 to 18.

Has there ever been a civil judgment/with damages against a parent for child neglect/abandonment when the custodial parent is sent to prison for abuse and the remaining parent has the financial wherewithall to care for a child but refuses to support that child?

Thanks for the help.
I'm not exactly sure what your question is. It would be easier to answer if you explained what the actual facts of the situation are instead of speaking hypothetically. If one parent is in jail and the other refuses to support the child, exactly where is the child?
 

nextwife

Senior Member
ceara19 said:
I'm not exactly sure what your question is. It would be easier to answer if you explained what the actual facts of the situation are instead of speaking hypothetically. If one parent is in jail and the other refuses to support the child, exactly where is the child?
Was the other parent given the opportunity to have custody, out of curiousity, or is this one of those cases where CP moved away and did not update NCP about wherabouts, so NCP was never able to take over custody when CP lost it?
 

harjo2

Junior Member
re: statute of limitations

Here are the facts as I know them...I have a friend who is now 36 years of age. At birth he was adopted into a family with three other adopted children. At age 3 his adoptive parents divorced-at that time there was court ordered child support paid-occassionally. When my friend was about 11 he and his three adopted siblings were taken from the adoptive mother for abuse and sent to Orangewood Children's Home in Orange County California. The mother was sent to prison for 12 years. The adoptive father took only one of the children to support and left the other three in the home. At 15 my friend left the welfare system, but was never emancipated, and became a transient/homeless.

Would a child not be due court ordered child support if the custodial parent was imprisoned and the welfare system failed to care for him?

Thank you.
 

ceara19

Senior Member
harjo2 said:
Here are the facts as I know them...I have a friend who is now 36 years of age. At birth he was adopted into a family with three other adopted children. At age 3 his adoptive parents divorced-at that time there was court ordered child support paid-occassionally. When my friend was about 11 he and his three adopted siblings were taken from the adoptive mother for abuse and sent to Orangewood Children's Home in Orange County California. The mother was sent to prison for 12 years. The adoptive father took only one of the children to support and left the other three in the home. At 15 my friend left the welfare system, but was never emancipated, and became a transient/homeless.

Would a child not be due court ordered child support if the custodial parent was imprisoned and the welfare system failed to care for him?

Thank you.
Until he is emancipated or a judge orders otherwise, he is a ward of the state. If he were somehow able to file a lawsuit over this mess, he would automatically go back into state custody. Only this time, he would likely end up in a lock-down facility so that he wouldn't be able to "leave the welfare system" again.
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
ceara19 said:
Until he is emancipated or a judge orders otherwise, he is a ward of the state. If he were somehow able to file a lawsuit over this mess, he would automatically go back into state custody. Only this time, he would likely end up in a lock-down facility so that he wouldn't be able to "leave the welfare system" again.
a 36 year old would go in to "state custody"? :rolleyes:

As for the OP - the (now) 36 year old person could collect nothing. He was not a party to the child support action in the first place.
 

ceara19

Senior Member
Zigner said:
a 36 year old would go in to "state custody"? :rolleyes:

As for the OP - the (now) 36 year old person could collect nothing. He was not a party to the child support action in the first place.
:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: I only saw the "15". I need more coffee!
 

nextwife

Senior Member
harjo2 said:
Here are the facts as I know them...I have a friend who is now 36 years of age. At birth he was adopted into a family with three other adopted children. At age 3 his adoptive parents divorced-at that time there was court ordered child support paid-occassionally. When my friend was about 11 he and his three adopted siblings were taken from the adoptive mother for abuse and sent to Orangewood Children's Home in Orange County California. The mother was sent to prison for 12 years. The adoptive father took only one of the children to support and left the other three in the home. At 15 my friend left the welfare system, but was never emancipated, and became a transient/homeless.

Would a child not be due court ordered child support if the custodial parent was imprisoned and the welfare system failed to care for him?

Thank you.
Being adopted has no bearing on this situation - why do you keep DIFFERENTIATING the family because of the way they became a family? If he became their child because of IVF, would you keep referring to his PARENTS as his "IVF" parents? If they used donor eggs or sperm, would you keep pointing out these were his "DONOR RECIPIENT" parents? Plenty of biological families have similar stories- adoption plays no parrt in this. It is WRONG to keep referring to one's adoption status. Adoption is what happened back then to become a family, just like birth did. Once adopted, these were his parents, good or bad, just as bioparents are good or bad.
 

Gracie3787

Senior Member
harjo2 said:
Here are the facts as I know them...I have a friend who is now 36 years of age. At birth he was adopted into a family with three other adopted children. At age 3 his adoptive parents divorced-at that time there was court ordered child support paid-occassionally. When my friend was about 11 he and his three adopted siblings were taken from the adoptive mother for abuse and sent to Orangewood Children's Home in Orange County California. The mother was sent to prison for 12 years. The adoptive father took only one of the children to support and left the other three in the home. At 15 my friend left the welfare system, but was never emancipated, and became a transient/homeless.

Would a child not be due court ordered child support if the custodial parent was imprisoned and the welfare system failed to care for him?

Thank you.
As already stated, the mother would be the one who has standing to collect. However, in this situation the mother can only collect arrears from BEFORE the children were taken from her.

Out of curiosity- are you saying that your friend was kicked out (for lack of a better wording) of the state foster care system, and was NOT placed with ANY adult at age 15???
 

nextwife

Senior Member
Gracie3787 said:
As already stated, the mother would be the one who has standing to collect. However, in this situation the mother can only collect arrears from BEFORE the children were taken from her.

Out of curiosity- are you saying that your friend was kicked out (for lack of a better wording) of the state foster care system, and was NOT placed with ANY adult at age 15???
Or did they choose to disappear from the system at that age?
 

harjo2

Junior Member
re: Adoptive parents

nextwife said:
Being adopted has no bearing on this situation - why do you keep DIFFERENTIATING the family because of the way they became a family? If he became their child because of IVF, would you keep referring to his PARENTS as his "IVF" parents? If they used donor eggs or sperm, would you keep pointing out these were his "DONOR RECIPIENT" parents? Plenty of biological families have similar stories- adoption plays no parrt in this. It is WRONG to keep referring to one's adoption status. Adoption is what happened back then to become a family, just like birth did. Once adopted, these were his parents, good or bad, just as bioparents are good or bad.
I differentiated simply for informational purposes. I am not a lawyer and had no idea whether it would have any legal bearing if the parents were adoptive or otherwise. As you could probably gather from the tone of my e-mail, I believe the adoptive parent has the exact same obligation legal/financial as a biological parent. I did not intend for my post to be offensive.
 

fairisfair

Senior Member
harjo2 said:
I differentiated simply for informational purposes. I am not a lawyer and had no idea whether it would have any legal bearing if the parents were adoptive or otherwise. As you could probably gather from the tone of my e-mail, I believe the adoptive parent has the exact same obligation legal/financial as a biological parent. I did not intend for my post to be offensive.
ah, don't worry about it. In this case if you hadn't have said adoptive, we would have been confusing them with the bio parents. Who are (or at least were) also a part of the story. So the "new" parents were getting child support from the "old" parent/s or from the state? (Either way your friend doesn't have any thing coming, sad as it may be).
 

nextwife

Senior Member
fairisfair said:
ah, don't worry about it. In this case if you hadn't have said adoptive, we would have been confusing them with the bio parents. Who are (or at least were) also a part of the story. So the "new" parents were getting child support from the "old" parent/s or from the state? (Either way your friend doesn't have any thing coming, sad as it may be).
No, the bioparents were NEVER part of this story. He was adopted at birth.
 

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