Child Support Arrears/modification

What is the name of your state? TX
This is a long message..

My husband has an 11 year old son of which he pays child support and $100 for arrears each month. He follows the court order to the T. Anyway, my husband settled in court for an accident he had and we are finally able to pay off the back child support of over $18,000.

However, my husband just talked to an attorney today that said that he may be able to get a majority of that credited back to him. History: His ex took off with their son (they were not married) and he looked for them for over 2 years. We have her on audio tape admitting that she did not have to tell him where she was. He told her that he tried to send child support payments (not court ordered) but was unable to locate her. Well when he did locate her after 2 years she filed with the AG's office and they slapped my husband with over $16K in back child support and they threw him in jail because he didn't have any physical proof but we do now.

Anyway, the attorney gave us this to look over:
154.123.Additional Factors for Court to Consider
In determining whether application of the guidlines would be unjust or inappropriate under the circumstances, the court shall consider evidence of all relevant factors, including:
1. the age and needs of the child;
2. the ability of the parents to contribute to the support of the child;
3. any financial resources available for the support of the child; ....etc.


I'm looking primarily on numbers 2 and 3 because we do have evidence now. Do you think this would hold up in court? I think it was wrong for her to take off with their son and then do this to my husband. What do you think?

I'm not seeing how those apply. Would you expand on that a bit?

stealth2 said:

I'm not seeing how those apply. Would you expand on that a bit?

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2. the ability of the parents to contribute to the support of the child;

because my husband did not know where his ex was to contribute child support payments. This affected his ability to contribute to the support of the child and it was not of his own doing. He tried everything possible to send payments but where was he suppose to send them. They were not going through the AG's office.

--PARIDISE-- said:

I don't see it either. The whole story seems odd. He finally finds her and yet he gets slapped with arrearages. What did he do in court on that issue? Did he not seek custody or visitation?

She had to have filed for support earlier because you can only get arrearages from the date filed.

Makes no sense.

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She took him to court and they now have joint custody but they still charged him with back child support. He tried to fight it but they still charged him with arrears. She had never filed court documents before he found her. She only filed after he found her. I know it sounds odd! It's been like this for a long time...we have other issues too but I think this is confusing enough.

--PARIDISE-- said:

If there was no order to begin with, they can't order him to pay arrearages. So, he's not telling you something.

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Believe me I have seen every court document that goes to this case. I stood at the court house and looked at every single court document/order with my husband by my side. There was no order. I have been to the AG's office with my husband by my side. I have looked into all the files. I think I know more about his case than he does. There was nothing filed with the AG's office until after he found her. Anyway, I think I'll just stick with the attorney and let her figure it out.

--PARIDISE-- said:

If there was no order to begin with, they can't order him to pay arrearages. So, he's not telling you something.

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It is possible that he was actually charged retroactive child support, but OP may be using the word arrearages instead of retroactive.

To OP :

Check the order to see if the word used is retroactive, or arrears. There is a HUGE difference between the 2 terms. As Paridise said, arrears cannot exist without a PRIOR order- if he was charged ARREARS, the attorney may be able to have them removed on the basis of no prior order.
If he was charged RETROACTIVE support- the attorney can try to have them removed on the basis of laches or waiver.
Make sure your Husband talks to the attorney about these possibilities.

Good luck.
Gracie