What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? AL
My daughter is a Senior in high school and will graduate in May 2009. Her 18th Birthday is in February. Her Father recently enclosed a very ugly letter in with his child support check informing me that he would not be sending anymore money after her Birthday. We were never married and do not have a court order. My daughter's Father and I were estranged for several years following her birth. During that time he married someone else and has two younger children with his current wife (I was not married at the time that I gave birth and his last name is included on her birth certificate, hyphenated with my maiden name). We reunited when my daughter was around 7 years old and he began seeing her regularly. Finally I mentioned child support and he set up an appointment with a lawyer. The lawyer informed us that since we were never married we would have to submit to a paternity test and he would have to pay for it if he was the one contesting it. Also the amount that he would have to have paid me according to the calculations the lawyer did (10 years ago) were more than he said he could afford. When we left the lawyers office he told me that he had no question that she was his daughter and asked me to accept a lesser amount of child support. We finally agreed upon $300.00 a month and he began paying me. A few years later I asked for an increase and he increased it to $350.00 a month and it has remained at that amount since then (far below what he would be required to pay had we gone through the courts). I was deeply hurt by the tone of his letter as it insinuated that I, in some way, had misappropriated the money he sent away from my daughter's support. I have always taken care of my daughter and she has never needed or wanted for anything and he knows that. I don't understand why he wrote the letter in the tone that he did but I'm gravely concerned for both mine and my daughter's situation if he discontinues the support. We barely make ends meet as it is and absolutely nothing in or about her life or her lifestyle is going to magically change when she turns 18. She will still be a full-time student and still be living with me and will still be solely supported by me (sans a small wage she could possibly earn at a part-time job). I don't want my daughter to be made to feel like graduating from high school is going to automatically mean she has to go to work full-time. She plans to go to college! I don't really know what recourse I have but I have made personal sacrifices for 17 years for my daughter and I will continue to do so but having that child support just one more year would certainly make her graduation from high school and her transition into the college life (still living at home with me) a little easier on both of us. Please tell me what, if anything I can do? How can I tell him in a nice and intelligent way that 18 is not such a magic number? I know if I had a lawyer that this whole situation would probably be a simple phone call, but I don't even know where to turn right now.
My daughter is a Senior in high school and will graduate in May 2009. Her 18th Birthday is in February. Her Father recently enclosed a very ugly letter in with his child support check informing me that he would not be sending anymore money after her Birthday. We were never married and do not have a court order. My daughter's Father and I were estranged for several years following her birth. During that time he married someone else and has two younger children with his current wife (I was not married at the time that I gave birth and his last name is included on her birth certificate, hyphenated with my maiden name). We reunited when my daughter was around 7 years old and he began seeing her regularly. Finally I mentioned child support and he set up an appointment with a lawyer. The lawyer informed us that since we were never married we would have to submit to a paternity test and he would have to pay for it if he was the one contesting it. Also the amount that he would have to have paid me according to the calculations the lawyer did (10 years ago) were more than he said he could afford. When we left the lawyers office he told me that he had no question that she was his daughter and asked me to accept a lesser amount of child support. We finally agreed upon $300.00 a month and he began paying me. A few years later I asked for an increase and he increased it to $350.00 a month and it has remained at that amount since then (far below what he would be required to pay had we gone through the courts). I was deeply hurt by the tone of his letter as it insinuated that I, in some way, had misappropriated the money he sent away from my daughter's support. I have always taken care of my daughter and she has never needed or wanted for anything and he knows that. I don't understand why he wrote the letter in the tone that he did but I'm gravely concerned for both mine and my daughter's situation if he discontinues the support. We barely make ends meet as it is and absolutely nothing in or about her life or her lifestyle is going to magically change when she turns 18. She will still be a full-time student and still be living with me and will still be solely supported by me (sans a small wage she could possibly earn at a part-time job). I don't want my daughter to be made to feel like graduating from high school is going to automatically mean she has to go to work full-time. She plans to go to college! I don't really know what recourse I have but I have made personal sacrifices for 17 years for my daughter and I will continue to do so but having that child support just one more year would certainly make her graduation from high school and her transition into the college life (still living at home with me) a little easier on both of us. Please tell me what, if anything I can do? How can I tell him in a nice and intelligent way that 18 is not such a magic number? I know if I had a lawyer that this whole situation would probably be a simple phone call, but I don't even know where to turn right now.