Speedoflife
New member
I'm looking for help on the process of bringing a child support case back to court for reassessment.
My ex and I both live in MN and have 50/50 custody of our 2 children. Our divorce decree states that no child support will be paid by either parent.
After our divorce was final, he applied and was approved for public assistance and I was ordered by our county to pay child support. The original amount the county requested was completely unreasonable and would have left me with almost nothing. The child support notification papers had the option to request a hearing so I submitted my income and expenses and went to court, it was lowered but I also have keep medical insurance for them through my employer and pay 97% of their out of pocket medical costs.
At that time he was living in income based housing paying $350/month for rent and low utilities. He was not forced to move but chose to combine households with his girlfriend and her 2 kids to a huge non-subsidized rental house which have significantly increased his bills. I have a text from him claiming that his monthly bills total $2700/month so he can't help pay for training our daughters emotional support dog (she has severe depression and mild to moderate anxiety) that he agreed to pay 50% of all costs for and hasn't so far. The bills he is claiming total more than I bring home in a month.
He does not have a typical job, he works for "cash". He does not own a business (to my knowledge) but does construction/odd jobs. I'm pretty sure he lies about the amount of money he actually makes so that he can keep his assistance and child support but I have no way of proving it. He also lies constantly, hence the reason for our divorce.
My child support is deducted by my employer and after I've paid my bills and purchased food and necessities, I have almost nothing left over. I've been struggling the past 3 years since I've been paying support to be able to buy clothes for myself and kids and can almost never do anything fun with my kids that costs money because I can't afford it. Yet he purchased my son a computer for his birthday this year and has promised my daughter a laptop her hers. Yes, I'm aware I sound a bit bitter here. I purchase their school supplies every year and purchase most of their clothing (though I didn't keep the receipts like I'm sure I should have). He has purchased some clothing (I assume, or maybe he got them for free) but they usually don't fit the kids properly and are not in very good shape (have clothes or are pretty worn), so most of the clothes I buy usually end up getting left at their dad's house and I end up having to buy more because the clothes they come back wearing are ridiculous.
I can't afford to hire a lawyer for advice on this topic so I'm hoping anyone who has had experience with bringing their case back to court might be able to offer some advice on the process and anything I might be able to do on my own to make a case to adjust child support. I'm worried that it will backfire because he will lie about his income. A friend suggested that I report him to our county's welfare fraud department. I really don't want to get him in trouble, I just want what is fair and to be able to provide my kids with what they need.
My ex and I both live in MN and have 50/50 custody of our 2 children. Our divorce decree states that no child support will be paid by either parent.
After our divorce was final, he applied and was approved for public assistance and I was ordered by our county to pay child support. The original amount the county requested was completely unreasonable and would have left me with almost nothing. The child support notification papers had the option to request a hearing so I submitted my income and expenses and went to court, it was lowered but I also have keep medical insurance for them through my employer and pay 97% of their out of pocket medical costs.
At that time he was living in income based housing paying $350/month for rent and low utilities. He was not forced to move but chose to combine households with his girlfriend and her 2 kids to a huge non-subsidized rental house which have significantly increased his bills. I have a text from him claiming that his monthly bills total $2700/month so he can't help pay for training our daughters emotional support dog (she has severe depression and mild to moderate anxiety) that he agreed to pay 50% of all costs for and hasn't so far. The bills he is claiming total more than I bring home in a month.
He does not have a typical job, he works for "cash". He does not own a business (to my knowledge) but does construction/odd jobs. I'm pretty sure he lies about the amount of money he actually makes so that he can keep his assistance and child support but I have no way of proving it. He also lies constantly, hence the reason for our divorce.
My child support is deducted by my employer and after I've paid my bills and purchased food and necessities, I have almost nothing left over. I've been struggling the past 3 years since I've been paying support to be able to buy clothes for myself and kids and can almost never do anything fun with my kids that costs money because I can't afford it. Yet he purchased my son a computer for his birthday this year and has promised my daughter a laptop her hers. Yes, I'm aware I sound a bit bitter here. I purchase their school supplies every year and purchase most of their clothing (though I didn't keep the receipts like I'm sure I should have). He has purchased some clothing (I assume, or maybe he got them for free) but they usually don't fit the kids properly and are not in very good shape (have clothes or are pretty worn), so most of the clothes I buy usually end up getting left at their dad's house and I end up having to buy more because the clothes they come back wearing are ridiculous.
I can't afford to hire a lawyer for advice on this topic so I'm hoping anyone who has had experience with bringing their case back to court might be able to offer some advice on the process and anything I might be able to do on my own to make a case to adjust child support. I'm worried that it will backfire because he will lie about his income. A friend suggested that I report him to our county's welfare fraud department. I really don't want to get him in trouble, I just want what is fair and to be able to provide my kids with what they need.