Child support question

[TCool]

What is the name of your state? WI

I currently have a custody/placement agreement in place. It states that the mother and I have joint custody with our daughter being primarily placed with me. Specifically, I have her during the week and she has visitation on the weekends. The only thing about child support in the agreement is that it will be dealt with by a seperate order, because I would not have been able to get the mother to sign the agreement with any child support included. Now that we have that agreement signed I have a feeling she is not going to live up to her promises to pay me to help support our daughter, or for any of the bills she owes me money for. So, now I need information on how to go about getting an order for child support, just incase she tries to get away with not helping financially. I want to try to do this without a lawyer, since I am very low on money at the current moment. So, my specific questions are:

1. How exactly do I get the process started? Like, what forms do I need to look at etc...?

2. Is she going to be able to turn around and fight the custody/placement agreement we have in place since we would be going to court? I heard once that when you try to make a change with child support it opens up the entire custody/placement order up for review. And, since it has only been in place a couple weeks I'm worried that if she had that opportunity, and tried to take advantage of it, the courts would rule against me.

3. Currently she is unemployed and living off of unemployment payments (I believe $350/wk), so would I be able to get child support from that? Because, I'm pretty sure she is going to milk that unemployment for as long as she possibly can.

4. Is it possible for me to get child support going back to when my daughter was born? I supported my daughter and her mother 100% since she was unemployed for the first 3 years of my daughters life, and if I dig hard enough I can get information to prove it.

I hope I provided enough specifics for you guys, since I know how you like to jump down peoples throats if they don't.

Thanks for the help, again.

 

[ceara19]

What is the name of your state? WI

I currently have a custody/placement agreement in place. It states that the mother and I have joint custody with our daughter being primarily placed with me. Specifically, I have her during the week and she has visitation on the weekends. The only thing about child support in the agreement is that it will be dealt with by a seperate order, because I would not have been able to get the mother to sign the agreement with any child support included. Now that we have that agreement signed I have a feeling she is not going to live up to her promises to pay me to help support our daughter, or for any of the bills she owes me money for. So, now I need information on how to go about getting an order for child support, just incase she tries to get away with not helping financially. I want to try to do this without a lawyer, since I am very low on money at the current moment. So, my specific questions are:

1. How exactly do I get the process started? Like, what forms do I need to look at etc...?

The cheapest way to go about it would be to use your state's child support services office. You can find the application here:
http://www.dwd.state.wi.us/dwd/forms/dws/pdf/DWSC_11053.pdf
and a list of offices here:
http://dwd.wisconsin.gov/bcs/cslist.htm

2. Is she going to be able to turn around and fight the custody/placement agreement we have in place since we would be going to court? I heard once that when you try to make a change with child support it opens up the entire custody/placement order up for review. And, since it has only been in place a couple weeks I'm worried that if she had that opportunity, and tried to take advantage of it, the courts would rule against me.

You heard wrong. Child support and custody are separate matters. If she wishes to revisit the custody matter she will need to file a separate action with the court AND have a significant change of circumstance (for the child, not her), in order for the court to even consider revisiting the custody matter.

3. Currently she is unemployed and living off of unemployment payments (I believe $350/wk), so would I be able to get child support from that? Because, I'm pretty sure she is going to milk that unemployment for as long as she possibly can.

IF she is ordered to pay support, it can be garnished from her unemployment. I say IF because your state takes both incomes and number of overnights into consideration when calculating child support. If there is a large income disparity between what you earn and what she is able to earn, she may not be ordered to pay support. Your state's child support calculator can be found here:
http://www.dwd40calculator.com/

4. Is it possible for me to get child support going back to when my daughter was born? I supported my daughter and her mother 100% since she was unemployed for the first 3 years of my daughters life, and if I dig hard enough I can get information to prove it.

Not gonna happen. I am assuming that the 2 of you were never married. If that is the case, mom had SOLE LEGAL custody of the child until the court ordered otherwise. You could TRY to ask that child support be made retroactive to the date of the custody order, but that would be a long shot at best, because of the fact that you had the opportunity to petition the court for child support at that time, but CHOSE not to.

I hope I provided enough specifics for you guys, since I know how you like to jump down peoples throats if they don't.

Thanks for the help, again.

The only thing you left out is whether or not you and mom were ever married and that information really isn't necessary since there is already a court order covering custody.

 

[TCool]

Awesome! Thanks for the help!

No, we were never married, however the court did make a paternity ruling shortly after my daughter was born, which ordered me to pay birthing expenses. So, paternity was established before this order. However, that order did not address custody or placement issues, so I guess that means I can't, oh well, too bad.

 

[Zephyr]

Once you have the custody order completed through the courts, you can go to your county's child support office and file for child support, they will get financial info from you both and let you both know how much should be paid and to whom, if either of you disagree with that number then you have the option of taking it to court for a non-standard amount, but after the custody order is done, it is a relatively simple process if no wrenches are thrown into it

 

[TCool]

Alright, thanks again.

1 more question:
This isn't related to this topic, but I figured I'd just ask here instead of starting another thread. It's only been a couple weeks with this agreement, and already the mother has failed to be with our daughter on the weekends. So, I want to know if there is some certain time during the weekend where if she doesn't take our daughter she loses her chance for that weekend? So, basically, if I have plans one weekend and she doesn't show up to wherever we agree to meet, after a certain amount of time if I can't get a hold of her can I just go about my plans (such as leaving town for the weekend and just bringing my daughter with)? Or, do I have to sit around all weekend waiting in case she eventually decides she wants to spend time with her daughter?

Thought I'd add that agreement states mothers time with daughter starts 5:30 PM on Fridays. And, sorry bout posting the original question in the wrong forum, wasn't paying enough attention.

 

[Zephyr]

if your order is not yet complete, you can certainly add in wording to that effect

 

[TCool]

No, its complete. It says she has visitation on weekends starting Friday at 5:30, and she hasn't been doing very good with it. I have plans on taking a few trips down to Madison on certain weekends, so I wanna know if I can just bring my daughter with me if her mother ends up not showing up to get her on a weekend I want to go out of town, or do I have to sit around and wait to get a hold of her mother just incase she wants her sometime during the weekend?

 

[ceara19]

Alright, thanks again.

1 more question:
This isn't related to this topic, but I figured I'd just ask here instead of starting another thread. It's only been a couple weeks with this agreement, and already the mother has failed to be with our daughter on the weekends. So, I want to know if there is some certain time during the weekend where if she doesn't take our daughter she loses her chance for that weekend? So, basically, if I have plans one weekend and she doesn't show up to wherever we agree to meet, after a certain amount of time if I can't get a hold of her can I just go about my plans (such as leaving town for the weekend and just bringing my daughter with)? Or, do I have to sit around all weekend waiting in case she eventually decides she wants to spend time with her daughter?

Thought I'd add that agreement states mothers time with daughter starts 5:30 PM on Fridays. And, sorry bout posting the original question in the wrong forum, wasn't paying enough attention.

You don't have to sit around waiting, but you do have to make reasonable accomodations if mom wants to pick the child up at some point during her court ordered time. You can't make big elaborate plans on mom's weekends, but you are allowed to go on with your normal life.

As Zephyr stated, you can add it into the order (ie - if she doesn't arrive by 7 or call to make arrangements, she forfeits her time) if the order hasn't already been made final. This isn't something that would warrant a trip back to court on it's own though.

 

[LdiJ]

No, its complete. It says she has visitation on weekends starting Friday at 5:30, and she hasn't been doing very good with it. I have plans on taking a few trips down to Madison on certain weekends, so I wanna know if I can just bring my daughter with me if her mother ends up not showing up to get her on a weekend I want to go out of town, or do I have to sit around and wait to get a hold of her mother just incase she wants her sometime during the weekend?

You would be wise to inform mom that you have plans, and that you will have to take the child with you if she doesn't show up to pick up the child.

 

[Zephyr]

You would be wise to inform mom that you have plans, and that you will have to take the child with you if she doesn't show up to pick up the child.

in writing if possible.....

 

[TCool]

Alright, sounds like a good plan, I will do that for weekends I have big plans.

Thanks for the advice.