child support reduction

[Becki C.]

state: tennessee

ncp dad in tn. or anyone who may have any advice:
i noticed you replied to another post abut a child support reduction and i was wondering if you might know anything abut this:

my husband's ex (who pays support weekly but is $20,000.00 in arrears) told my husband she wants to get her child support amount reduced. she currently pays $93/week for 2 kids; however, she has since had another child she managed to keep custody of. she does get $442 a month for the child she has with her. she makes substantially less than my husband per year. will the court entertain a reduction on her behalf even though she is so far in arrears? it seems that would be defeating the purpose of ever getting her arrears settled. in other words, do you have to be current on your child support before the court will listen to a reduction request or are your financial circumstances the only determining factor? the child support is handled in juvenile court here.

 

[weenor]

The other child will have a little effect on child support for hubby's kids. Furthermore the arrearage cannot be reduced unless your hubby agrees to it, so she's out of luck there. Her current obligation could be reduced if the court finds that that her income has been significantly reduced.

 

[Becki C.]

her income has been the same (or increased) over the last 3 years because she has actually gone from sales clerk to assistant manager at the same place of employment. we were just concerned that since tennessee now takes the ncp's income into account as well as the cp's income that she could ride that to a successful attempt in getting a reduction.

does the incomes shares law in tennessee not apply to child support reductions? if i understand you correctly, she can only get a rate reduction if she can prove her income has taken a significant downfall, not just because my husband makes more money than she does, nor because she now has another child that lives with her. when they initally got divorced and child support was set (in 1995) the incomes shares law was not in effect so we were just pondering if she could indeed win a situation like that.

thanks for your help.

 

[weenor]

She can certainly try, but there still has to be a pretty significant change for a judge to even bother. A change in the law may do it, I would check with a local lawyer in your area to see what's been happening. Again, though the arrearage would not be affected. She owes what she owes. I got the impression that the children were in their teens so even if she got the current support reduced, she will not save that much overall.

 

[Becki C.]

we just got done paying nearly $3000.00 to our last attorney and he has since dropped all family law cases. he says they are too much trouble. another attorney is always around the corner. if it gets dire, i'll have to break down and call one. but you are correct about theages of the kids. one child is 13 yrs. old and the other is 15 yrs. old. it won't save bio mom much in the long run,(as you said "she owes what she owes". but mostly everything she does is purely out of spite. she called the kids last night to tell them that their half-sibling is starting kindergarden in a Catholic private school that costs $396 per month; however, in the same breath she tells them how she has to "work all the time just to pay daddy his child support" and that she "had to apply for food stamps" feed their younger half-sibling because the judge ordered her "to pay $409 in monthly child support". she tells them she "misses them" but refuses to show up for the supervised visitations because they are supervised (and have been for 10 years or more) and because she doesn't agree with where the judge ordered the supervised visits! it's amazing what some parents will do to their kids in order to take final parting jabs at the other parent. i guess whether it be now or 25 years from now, we'll get the money one way or another. even if it's $409 a month or $1 a month, she'll have to pay something. thank god that money isn't critical to our survival like it is for alot of parents. god bless those parents. those are the ones i worry for. thanks for your help.