CJane
Senior Member
What is the name of your state? MISSOURI
I am considering seeking child support from my ex-husband. We've been divorced for a little over a year, and there is no support order in place due to the fact that he was self-employed with no verifiable income at the time of the divorce, and that I agreed that it would cause undue financial strain on him to pay it. The amount in the decree (that was then dismissed) was $357/month.
Since the divorce was final, he has become 'gainfully employed', making almost 2x what I'm making. I am NOT interested in 'taking him for all he's worth', but I AM interested in my children having their needs met. While I'm currently scraping by, things would be a LOT easier if I was getting support.
My questions are:
1) Do I need an attorney to file for support? I currently have one on retainer, but it's for a custody issue, and I don't want to have to pay her $150/hour to file my CS request if it's something I can do on my own.
2) What info will I need to supply when filing?
3) I've thought about filing for assistance, which would (I think) make the state file for CS. If I choose this route, will they simply attempt to get from him whatever I'm getting in assistance, or will they actually use the 'calculator' for my state in an attempt to get what is actually fair? (Yeah, I like the idea of 'them' being the bad guy.
4) Are his debts taken into account when assessing CS? He's one of those people that will ALWAYS be in debt, no matter how much he makes.
5) He has a trust fund. While I had no rights to it, since he had it before we were married, is the income from those investments taken into account when deciding about child support?
6) I asked this question in another thread, but I'm putting it with these also so everything is together... I googled "Factors in Modifying Child Support in Missouri" and found this...
7) If he have joint custody, with roughly 50/50 visitation, does the court figure things differently than the state calculator implies? When I filled in the information, I included the fact that he has them 1/2 the time, that he pays daycare and insurance for them, etc - and it still figured that I was owed $400+/month.
I'm guessing that more than a few of you have been through this. Since this is my first attempt at any sort of child support, I'm hoping for information that will make this as successful as possible.
I am considering seeking child support from my ex-husband. We've been divorced for a little over a year, and there is no support order in place due to the fact that he was self-employed with no verifiable income at the time of the divorce, and that I agreed that it would cause undue financial strain on him to pay it. The amount in the decree (that was then dismissed) was $357/month.
Since the divorce was final, he has become 'gainfully employed', making almost 2x what I'm making. I am NOT interested in 'taking him for all he's worth', but I AM interested in my children having their needs met. While I'm currently scraping by, things would be a LOT easier if I was getting support.
My questions are:
1) Do I need an attorney to file for support? I currently have one on retainer, but it's for a custody issue, and I don't want to have to pay her $150/hour to file my CS request if it's something I can do on my own.
2) What info will I need to supply when filing?
3) I've thought about filing for assistance, which would (I think) make the state file for CS. If I choose this route, will they simply attempt to get from him whatever I'm getting in assistance, or will they actually use the 'calculator' for my state in an attempt to get what is actually fair? (Yeah, I like the idea of 'them' being the bad guy.
4) Are his debts taken into account when assessing CS? He's one of those people that will ALWAYS be in debt, no matter how much he makes.
5) He has a trust fund. While I had no rights to it, since he had it before we were married, is the income from those investments taken into account when deciding about child support?
6) I asked this question in another thread, but I'm putting it with these also so everything is together... I googled "Factors in Modifying Child Support in Missouri" and found this...
The bolded text is what has me curious. I was under the impression (and it was posted in my original thread) that the income of a new spouse has no effect on support. This seems contradictory to that. However, if I go to the Missouri "Form 14" page and fill in information, it only asks for the income of the NCP. I'm confused.
7) If he have joint custody, with roughly 50/50 visitation, does the court figure things differently than the state calculator implies? When I filled in the information, I included the fact that he has them 1/2 the time, that he pays daycare and insurance for them, etc - and it still figured that I was owed $400+/month.
I'm guessing that more than a few of you have been through this. Since this is my first attempt at any sort of child support, I'm hoping for information that will make this as successful as possible.
