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Child Support Question

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Artax

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia

I know you all are going to hate on me for this, but please let me ask my question, get some advice, and then hate on me all you want.

My husband separated from his ex-wife in 2005. I believe the divorce and custody order were finalized in 2007. When he was thrown out, he was a house husband. His wife forced him to take care of the cleaning, child care, etc but made him quit working and school. He even let his apprentice plumbing license lapse in an effort to make her happy. When he left her they had 2 kids together, and he later found out she was pregnant when he left. The child support order was set arbitrarily at almost $600 though he was not employed at the time. Of course due to not being employed for a while he immediately went into arrears. Every time he has worked since then he has sent or had garnished at least half of his paycheck. All gains from tax returns go straight to her. Any requests he puts in to have the amount re-evaluated just simply go nowhere.

Unfortunately the arrears are pretty significant. In October 2010 my husband fell 30 feet off of a ladder and fractured 3 of the transverse processes of his spine. He was understandably laid up for quite a while, and did not work again for almost a year. CSE rather than being understanding and trying to help him get his support order readjusted decided to do nothing except garnish his workman's comp. He was out of work for about a year although he received the workman's comp for only 6 weeks.

Fast forward to today. For the past year and a half my husband and I have been working at a hotel. He gets paid $500 a month, and half goes to child support. I get paid less than minimum wage and work more than full time. When we have extra money it goes to his ex. Things were going ok, we had made some gains, and then we find out I am pregnant. No problem, I managed to find a higher paying job but about 4 months into the pregnancy I started having some extremely serious complications. So much so that I have two letters from different doctors telling me that if I want my health to improve I need to quit the full time job, and keep only my part time job.

No big deal, we can do this. The part time job is the higher paying job and I can make enough money for the time being for us to live off of. Money will be tight but it will be ok. What concerns me is that when I leave the full time job at the hotel they will fire my husband. There is no question about this, we were hired as a team with the understanding that they were only hiring my husband because of me. We live in an extremely seasonal area. It is not likely he will be able to get a job for about 3 months at the earliest.

So my question becomes is there anything my husband can do to get some relief from the child support payments? My income at the part time job will only be enough to support us. I don't want to have him stop paying and cause the arrears to go higher or him to lose his license or worse. Contacting his ex-wife is out of the question. She refuses to have any contact with him and has excluded him from the life of his children since she kicked him out. She would not even give us the address they live at when we wished to send a birth certificate to them that somehow had ended up in his things. There is the possibility he will get unemployment but it is not a certainty so I don't want to depend on it. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.
 
Last edited:


Antigone*

Senior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Georgia

I know you all are going to hate on me for this, but please let me ask my question, get some advice, and then hate on me all you want.

My husband separated from his ex-wife in 2005. I believe the divorce and custody order were finalized in 2007. When he was thrown out, he was a house husband. His wife forced him to take care of the cleaning, child care, etc but made him quit working and school. He even let his apprentice plumbing license lapse in an effort to make her happy. When he left her they had 2 kids together, and he later found out she was pregnant when he left. The child support order was set arbitrarily at almost $600 though he was not employed at the time. Of course due to not being employed for a while he immediately went into arrears. Every time he has worked since then he has sent or had garnished at least half of his paycheck. All gains from tax returns go straight to her. Any requests he puts in to have the amount re-evaluated just simply go nowhere.

Unfortunately the arrears are pretty significant. In October 2010 my husband fell 30 feet off of a ladder and fractured 3 of the transverse processes of his spine. He was understandably laid up for quite a while, and did not work again for almost a year. CSE rather than being understanding and trying to help him get his support order readjusted decided to do nothing except garnish his workman's comp. He was out of work for about a year although he received the workman's comp for only 6 weeks.

Fast forward to today. For the past year and a half my husband and I have been working at a hotel. He gets paid $500 a month, and half goes to child support. I get paid less than minimum wage and work more than full time. When we have extra money it goes to his ex. Things were going ok, we had made some gains, and then we find out I am pregnant. No problem, I managed to find a higher paying job but about 4 months into the pregnancy I started having some extremely serious complications. So much so that I have two letters from different doctors telling me that if I want my health to improve I need to quit the full time job, and keep only my part time job.

No big deal, we can do this. The part time job is the higher paying job and I can make enough money for the time being for us to live off of. Money will be tight but it will be ok. What concerns me is that when I leave the full time job at the hotel they will fire my husband. There is no question about this, we were hired as a team with the understanding that they were only hiring my husband because of me. We live in an extremely seasonal area. It is not likely he will be able to get a job for about 3 months at the earliest.

So my question becomes is there anything my husband can do to get some relief from the child support payments? My income at the part time job will only be enough to support us. I don't want to have him stop paying and cause the arrears to go higher or him to lose his license or worse. Contacting his ex-wife is out of the question. She refuses to have any contact with him and has excluded him from the life of his children since she kicked him out. She would not even give us the address they live at when we wished to send a birth certificate to them that somehow had ended up in his things. There is the possibility he will get unemployment but it is not a certainty so I don't want to depend on it. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.
:rolleyes::rolleyes:Bring out the violins.

If huby wants his child support modified, then so be it. He should go down to the court and get the paperwork to make it happen.

eta. There would be no "eye rolling" if you had just stated the facts and left out the drama about the evil first wife.
 

Artax

Junior Member
Sorry, Drama from first wife felt relevant because we would just talk to her if we could. But that isn't happening.

We are in Oregon, and the divorce paperwork specified that all action was to be made under the courts in Georgia. Can paperwork be filed from here? We have tried before, and never had a response from her or the court reach us.

We tried to have the order altered several times, especially around the time of his accident. We sent them a letter asking for paperwork, and received nothing back except a garnishment order for his workman's comp. CSE has been less than helpful in telling us what we need to do.
 

TheGeekess

Keeper of the Kraken
Self-help legal resources


For those who want to consider filing an action in court on their own, below is a list of resources. These sites have forms and instructions, which include forms for legitimation and visitation.

Fulton County Family Court - Home - Family Court This is the site of the Fulton County Superior Court Family Division's Family Law Information Center. Any resident of the State of Georgia can visit the center in person at its location. The address is 185 Central Avenue, Atlanta, Ga. 30303. The phone is 404-335-2789. One can receive a free, brief legal consultation with an attorney by calling and making an appointment. However, a non-custodial parent must follow the guidelines of the county with legal jurisdiction over his/her particular legal issues.

DeKalb County Police Department This is the site of DeKalb County Superior Court's Family Law Information Center. Any DeKalb resident or person with a family law issue related to DeKalb County can visit the center at its location at 120 West Trinity Place, Decatur, Ga. 30030. The phone is 404-687-3990. Brief, legal consultations with an attorney are available for $10 by calling and making an appointment.

Cobb County Government This is the site of the Cobb County Superior Court Family Law Workshop. Any Cobb resident or person with a family law issue related to Cobb County can visit the center at 30 Waddell Street, Marietta, Ga. 30090. The phone is 770-528-1812. The workshop is free of charge and provides answers to basic questions about divorce, paternity/legitimation, contempt, and modification cases.

http://production.albany.ga.us/law_library/LL_forms_family_law.htm This is the site of the Dougherty County Superior Court Law Library. Any Dougherty resident or person with a family law issue related to Dougherty County can visit the center at its location at 225 Pine Avenue, Room 212, Albany, Ga. 31702. The phone is 229-431-2133. The library manager, who is an attorney, is available to provide assistance with conducting research, finding appropriate materials and possible legal resources, suggesting self-help resources, and answering legal reference questions in person or by e-mail. However, the library manager is not permitted to give legal advice or interpret specific legal situations.

Northeastern Judicial Circuit Family Law Information Center and Guardian ad Litem Program - Hall County, Georgia This is the site of the Hall and Dawson County Superior Court Family Law Information Center. Any Hall or Dawson resident or person with a family law issue related to Hall or Dawson Counties can visit the center at its location at 225 Green Street, S.E., Gainesville, Ga. 30501. The phone is 770-531-2463. Brief, legal consultations with an attorney are available at no cost in Dawson County. However, a financial qualification is required for attorney consultations in Hall County.

Appalachian Family Law Information Center This is the site of the Appalachian Family Law Information Center serving Fannin, Gilmer, and Pickens counties. Any Fannin, Gilmer or Pickens resident or person with a family law issue related to these counties can visit the center at its location at 1 Broad Street, Suite 102 A, Ellijay, Ga. 30540. The phone is 706-299-1444. Brief, legal consultations with an attorney are available by appointment for income-qualified individuals.

LegalAid-GA.org | A guide to free and low-cost legal aid, assistance and services in Georgia This site is a project of the Atlanta Legal Aid Society, the Georgia Legal Services Program and the Pro Bono Project of the State Bar of Georgia. It is a guide to free legal information and services including the topics of legitimation, visitation, and custody.

A list of the Georgia Superior Court Clerks for every county is on this web site: GSCCCA.org - Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority.

DHS-OCSE


Child Support guidelines/calculators here: DHS-OCSE
 

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