Garnishment of pay for past due child support.

I owe $13000 in back child support. My pay has been garnished 50% ($600) per month. I live in IL and my child lives with her mother in WA. I am trying to get the amount reduced to $400 per month but the state of WA will not help me in any way, including the forms I need to request a reduction. What can I do. I have 48 days to request this action and have only 14 days to go. Please help.

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by donkatsuko:
[b]I owe $13000 in back child support. My pay has been garnished 50% ($600) per month. I live in IL and my child lives with her mother in WA. I am trying to get the amount reduced to $400 per month but the state of WA will not help me in any way, including the forms I need to request a reduction. What can I do. I have 48 days to request this action and have only 14 days to go. Please help. [/b]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>


My response:

Apparently, the court "imputed" to you a certain "earning capacity" in conjunction with the calculation of your arrearages. At the rate of $400.00 per month, the child would be 78 years of age before your arrearages would be paid in full. Even at $600.00 per month, your child will have graduated from college by the time you finish paying the arrearages - - of course, I may be exaggerating just a bit, but in other words, it's going to take a long time to catch up to pay for what you should have been paying a long time ago. There is no excuse for having $13,000.00 in arrearages, and can only mean that you were being purposefully "recalcitrant" in your disobedience of the court orders. I'm surprised, actually, that you aren't writing your post from jail.

So, that's one of the reasons why the court won't give you assistance, and the other reason is that you have probably failed to give the court a "legally cognizable reason" for lowering your support obligation - - saying you can't afford it is not a legally cognizable reason.

Your only recourse is to get a better paying job, and one that pays up to your potential earning capacity.

IAAL

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[This message has been edited by I AM ALWAYS LIABLE (edited September 11, 2000).]