child support

[MLPLOVER]

I live in Pinellas county Florida and just recently my husbands exwife call wanting child support again after 15years.So we agreed to start paying it again and a little more than he was ordered to pay.My questions is can she legally keep calling and threating to put him in jail for back support if it is not there when she wants it there? We send it in every week like clock work and she thinks she can call and always harasse us about it. thank you very much for any help you can give to us.

 

[morning_angel]

You don't say what the circumstances are regarding an order for support, so it's a little difficult to offer advice/opinions regarding the support. Is there a standing court order for support? Why hasn't he paid in 15 years? Are there arrears? Is your husband paying her the support through domestic relations now?

If she is harrassing you, tell her to stop. It is a difficult situation, if you cannot change your phone number. You can tell her to stop calling and pursue it through the phone company as harrassement, but then you are faced with the possibility of her not calling if there is an emergency regarding the child, also.

If he is paying his support through domestic relations, it takes them a good week (longer if there's a holiday!) to process the payment and send it to her. If he is not, maybe you should tell her that if she doesn't stop calling you about it, you will start sending it through the court. Make sure she knows how long that will hold it up for her! Our EX (aw, how cute, I wish I could remember at what point exactly she became <i>our</i> EX) kept pressing about the support until we had it put through the court and now when she calls here crying the blues about not getting the check fast enough, I tell her, well, <i>YOU'RE</i> the one who didn't like getting it directly from us...

Good Luck!

 

[MLPLOVER]

thank you morning_angel and yes there was a court order for the support we were paying it from the begining and then she started calling years ago about if my husband wanted to see their child then she didn't want it anymore. she didn't want him around my husband or me so we stopped paying it which we know was wrong and she stopped calling.Then out of the blue she found our number and started calling so as i said before agreed to pay it agaian and a little more than he was ordered to so it would go to the back support. What I was needing to know was can she have him put in jail if it is showing that he is tring and paying a little extra every week? And I am already checking into changing our number and getting it unlisted. As far as if something happening to his son she won't call him because she said he has been there this long that he doesn't need to know anyway is the way she looks at. So my husband just figured if he pays it she will just leave him alone. Thank you for anything you can help me with again.

 

[morning_angel]

Well, you may want to consult with an attorney, because in essence, he is in contempt of court for not paying the support, even though she said she didn't want it. If that was the case, she should have had the order for support terminated. Since it was not terminated, he has acrued arrears for 15 years of not paying. HOWEVER, I seem to have read something about a statute of limitations on how long it can be collected or something, I'm not sure if it's applicable in your case though. You would really need to seek counsel to answer that question. As for jail, no, it's not likely that they would jail him for not paying, since she did not pursue him for the support, and since he is paying now. If I were you, I wouldn't wait around to find out, though. I would contact the court and find out what arrearages had accrued, tell them what happened (they don't care much about he said/she said, but it's worth telling them anyway) and that he will be paying again. It's likely to trigger a court date for him, but even then, they will just set up a payment schedule, so long as he adhears to it, he won't have any trouble.

If you contact the court, and find that the arrears figure is an unbelievable sum, you may want to offer her a lesser lump sum payment to "cancel" the arrears (if you can manage it.) A lot of CP's would rather take the lump sum than get a dribble of money every week. Do EVERYTHING through the court, though. Don't take her word on ANYTHING. If you end up in court over the matter, the judge can also order a lesser amount be accepted for the arrears. Here is some information on your support laws: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0061/titl0061.htm
You may want to particularly read section 61.14.

Have you considered having your husband tell here that he is insistant upon exercising his visitation rights? That might be a worthwhile venture, considering what happend 15 years ago...

Good Luck!

 

[LegalBeagle]

Good answers from Morning_Angel..

I will add that FL does not have a Statute of Limitation on collection of CS.

 

[morning_angel]

Good answers from Morning_Angel..