Child Support

[frogger]

My husband has a final dissolution of Child Support Order in Florida. Ex-wife and children live in New York. He has had no contact with his children for 12 years. After receiving final order from Florida, wife filed with New York and they are now deducting $344.00 bi-weekly from his paycheck. Can they do this???

 

[usdeeper]

So the divorce was final in Florida ? When ?

The wife moved to New York 12 years ago ?

Since then, he has paid CS ?. Why did he stop ? How old are the children ?

Was he served anything from the courts or did the money just start disappearing ?

 

[frogger]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by usdeeper:
So the divorce was final in Florida ? When ?

The wife moved to New York 12 years ago ?

Since then, he has paid CS ?. Why did he stop ? How old are the children ?

Was he served anything from the courts or did the money just start disappearing ?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
The divorce was final in 1988. His wife has always lived in New York. He paid child support until March of 2000 when he was granted the final dissolution order. The children are 18 and 19. One is still in high school but will be 19 when he graduates. The judge ordered his medical records to determine if there was a medical reason for him being behind in school prior to granting the final order. The only notification was by mail. We contacted the comptroller for the state of Florida as that is who he works for, they said they would only honor the order from Florida. Three weeks later they started deducting $344.00 from his paycheck. We contacted Florida Dept of Revenue because they were deducting $105.00 bi-weekly for back child support. They have since discontinued this which was supposedly $17,000.00, but now the information from New York does not show this arrears, so the FL Dept of Revenue said there are no arrears????? We are very confused and do not have a lot of money to spend on a lawyer. The wife was going represented by FL Dept of Revenue and asked that the child support continue at the last hearing in Florida and the judge said no and signed a final order of dissolution. We just need to know how to approach this and if two different states can impose different laws. There is a custody agreement that was issued by New York several years ago that grant them joint custody, but the mother has not let my husband have any contact with the children, not even when his mother died in 1996. Please help us with this dilema. Is this not double jeopardy?? The state we live in says no more support and now the state she lives in and works for has managed to get a higher support than previously granted by Florida. C O N F U S I N G!!!!

 

[usdeeper]

So who is taking the money from his paycheck ? You need to find out and then send them the Court Order stating no further payments.

It sounds like she filed more papers in NY... but you should have been informed about these procedings.

What complicates this is that NY has jurisdiction in this case. Not Florida. All she could do in FL is file to enforce. So, she filed something in NY and managed to get a judge to order new support.. did he know about the final order from FL ??..

Two things to do.. find out who is taking the payments out of your check and send them your court order.

Find out what has been filed in NY and get all the papers associated with the case.

Was the final divorce in Florida ?.. was there any further filing in any state between that divorce filing in Florida and this recent action ?

 

[frogger]

The divorce was final in Florida. The income execution for support enforcement is from Support COllection Unit, Poughkeepsie, NY 12601-3200. There was a copy of the final order mailed but do not know if this was received by the appropriate person as we were never actually served with the exception of US Mail. I guess we basically want to know if it is probable to hire a lawyer and fight this. Is my husband governed by the laws of Florida or by the laws of New York. Would we be wasting money if we hired a lawyer??? In the final dissolution order the last paragraph reads "The Court retains full and complete jurisdiction this cause of action and the parties." If Florida cannot do this, why did the judge put that paragraph in the order?

 

[usdeeper]

Wow.. what a mess. Two states are involved and that makes it even worse. So, final order in FL. Ex wife files in NY and gets a new order and then prompted gets a collection agency involved.

No, it would not be wasting money to see an attorney. I suggest you call a few and see what they can do. You can generally get a few minutes consultation free.

NY courts may say that FL had no jurisdiction to change things since the child has been in NY for so long... but NY would have had to take jurisdiction and that requires a set procedure and you should have been notified.

Other than talking to an attorney in FL and then maybe one in NY I am not sure what else to suggest. I am bemused that you recieved nothing more than a notice from NY that it had all been decided...