When is it ok to ask for a mod?

[Ohiogal]

Thank you!

I too just LOVE insomnia. Why anyone needs to sleep for more than an hour or 2 a night is beyond me!

I love sleep too. Oh well. Might as well go start homemade cinnamon rolls to rising.

 

[GrowUp!]

thank you to all of you who have helped. And I apologize to those of you that I confused. I don't think it is fair that I have an imputed income that is LOWER than my capabilities. Having already contacted CSEA they had said they couldn't impute over because of the way the law is for them.

They are right. CSEA is bound by Administrative Law...so they are not allowed to deviate at all from the guidelines. They are not allowed to take any agreement reached between the parties, etc. When they modify the support, you will have 30 days to appeal it to the Court. That is your right and you should take advantage of that (since it won't -- or shouldn't -- cost you anything). File an appeal to the court with what you two agree to. The court is allowed to deviate.

Perhaps it is so they can collect an extra fee...

Anything to get more money to help balance Ohio's budget...and to collect that big Federal $$$$bag for collecting the most support.

 

[MrsK]

They are right. CSEA is bound by Administrative Law...so they are not allowed to deviate at all from the guidelines. They are not allowed to take any agreement reached between the parties, etc. When they modify the support, you will have 30 days to appeal it to the Court. That is your right and you should take advantage of that (since it won't -- or shouldn't -- cost you anything). File an appeal to the court with what you two agree to. The court is allowed to deviate.


Anything to get more money to help balance Ohio's budget...and to collect that big Federal $$$$bag for collecting the most support.

Is this just in Ohio? I know in my state CSE can deviate, I've watched it happen.

 

[ceara19]

Is this just in Ohio? I know in my state CSE can deviate, I've watched it happen.

ALL state CSE agencies are bound by Administrative Law. They really don't have the authority to deviate from the guidelines, without the agreement of ALL parties. It DOES happen though. It's VERY common in many states for CSE caseworkers to overstep their bounds and mislead (LIE) to the parties involved as to their actual limitations.

I had more then one agent from the Texas OAG come right out and tell me that if I didn't just sign the agreement that they had come up with, the judge would be ticked off at me for not cooperating and would approve the agreement whether I liked it or not. Their "agreement" would have forgiven TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars in arrears and lowered the monthly obligation from $1000 to $350 even though he earns 6 figures a year. After I stopped laughing, I told her to call me when she set the court date!

Needless to say, the case never made it to the inside of a courtroom. The OAG set up another "informal hearing", only this time, they had an actual ATTORNEY from the OAG there to mediate. I went in with a valid argument for an UPWARD deviation from the guidelines and explained that we could either leave things as is or we could make a date with the judge.

The problem is, most people that go through the state for child support can't afford an attorney and have no idea what their legal rights are. They honestly believe that the state is "protecting the best interests of the children" and they just assume that whatever the caseworker tells them is true.

That's why I advise ANYONE going through CSE to either hire a lawyer or learn the specific laws that apply to their case. BOTH parents should go in with an estimate of what the child support should be using the state guidelines. If what CSE comes up with doesn't look right, make the caseworker actually SHOW you how they came up with their figures. Odds are, they won't be able to because they just entered the numbers into a computer that spits out an amount and the agent doesn't have a clue how the support is figured. If they can't explain things to your satisfaction, DON'T SIGN THE AGREEMENT. Everyone, including parents using the state CSE agency, had the right for their case to be heard in COURT.

 

[MrsK]

ALL state CSE agencies are bound by Administrative Law. They really don't have the authority to deviate from the guidelines, without the agreement of ALL parties. It DOES happen though. It's VERY common in many states for CSE caseworkers to overstep their bounds and mislead (LIE) to the parties involved as to their actual limitations.

I had more then one agent from the Texas OAG come right out and tell me that if I didn't just sign the agreement that they had come up with, the judge would be ticked off at me for not cooperating and would approve the agreement whether I liked it or not. Their "agreement" would have forgiven TENS of THOUSANDS of dollars in arrears and lowered the monthly obligation from $1000 to $350 even though he earns 6 figures a year. After I stopped laughing, I told her to call me when she set the court date!

Needless to say, the case never made it to the inside of a courtroom. The OAG set up another "informal hearing", only this time, they had an actual ATTORNEY from the OAG there to mediate. I went in with a valid argument for an UPWARD deviation from the guidelines and explained that we could either leave things as is or we could make a date with the judge.

The problem is, most people that go through the state for child support can't afford an attorney and have no idea what their legal rights are. They honestly believe that the state is "protecting the best interests of the children" and they just assume that whatever the caseworker tells them is true.

That's why I advise ANYONE going through CSE to either hire a lawyer or learn the specific laws that apply to their case. BOTH parents should go in with an estimate of what the child support should be using the state guidelines. If what CSE comes up with doesn't look right, make the caseworker actually SHOW you how they came up with their figures. Odds are, they won't be able to because they just entered the numbers into a computer that spits out an amount and the agent doesn't have a clue how the support is figured. If they can't explain things to your satisfaction, DON'T SIGN THE AGREEMENT. Everyone, including parents using the state CSE agency, had the right for their case to be heard in COURT.

You can say that again...

When my husband went for his CSE date to set the amt of c/s (about 1.5 yrs ago, for his illegitimate kid born before we ever even dated) he didnt think he would need a lawyer b/c there are "guidelines" etc.

Well, they miscalculated how much insurance he was going to pay to add the kid and he had a bonus potential of $X. Instead of actually looking at how much bonus he had MADE for 2 yrs and taking that into acct, they just assigned an amt to his salary.

So he was looking over the paperwork while he was waiting for the order to be finalized & noticed these 2 mistakes....so he went to the hearing officer & told him he had put too little for insurance (about 1/2 of what he actually pays) and too much for bonus. The HO told him he could go sit down, because if he really wanted to correct it, he would put the right amt for insurance but put the entire BONUS POTENTIAL down as salary. Yeah, that wouldve been like $840 a month to the calculation, which wouldve jumped his order by like $100 a month.

So he sat down...but, that was blackmail mad: ), because they are supposed to use the CORRECT amt of insurance paid and the amt you actually make in bonus averaged for the last few years. He ended up not even making the bonus the next time around.

DH didnt think to ask for an appeal & get a lawyer....but we've already discussed it & the next time they go for a mod, he will be taking a lawyer b/c with his new job & insurance, etc, its more complicated than last time. He wont be taking ANY chances of getting screwed b/c there are a lot of new factors- Mom has a job now, the kid will be old enough to attend PreK so Mom cant claim daycare expenses, DH's new job is part salary & part OT, and the OT portion can be left out b/c he has a 2nd family to support (but you know both Mom & CSE will be trying to figure it in to make the support higher ), etc. There are quite a few ways that they could really try & screw him to make his support payment way too high, so there's no way in hell he wont go in unprepared.

Too bad he didnt know any better to ask for an appeal and to file a complaint about that HO, we found out later that a LOT of ppl in this particular parish get screwed by this guy, he's apparently infamous for trying to screw over dads.

I just cant believe stuff they get away with sometimes in my state....Dads who have the kid as much as Mom but dont get credit for parenting time (in fact, you have to ASK them to use the correct worksheet for parenting time, they use the one that assumes you have pretty much less than standard parenting time, which is absurd!), finding ways to make the support as high as possible (they want the biggest amt their 5% 'fee' will allow them to take!!), giving deviations for subsequent children but then making the NCP pay more than their share of medical expenses, and then the medical expenses wind up costing them more than the break they got...

Seems the only way to get a fair amt of support set is to go through the court, and leave CSE out of it. That's what I do with my ex.

 

[ceara19]

I never ASKED CSE to get involved. They were in the middle of this big campaign that focused on how failure to pay child support affects the children involved. They had also just started making a big deal out of the amount of child support that the state collected each year. The problem is the figures they release are LIES. Most of the money that they are "collecting" comes from parents that would pay their support faithfully whether the state got involved or not. They also include MILLIONS of dollars that they don't actually "collect". Anytime they can get a CP to "forgive" CS arrears, it gets added to the "collected" column, even though all they did was bully some CP that never though that the state would LIE and intentionally screw over the children by overstepping their authority.

My ex is so far in the hole, it affects the counties collection figures. When they realized that I CHOSE not to enforce the order, they just assumed that I wouldn't have a problem wiping out the arrears and lowering the monthly obligation since I wasn't receiving any money to begin with. They were WRONG! One caseworker got so frustrated becuase I refused to explain WHY I was fine with the CS going unpaid, yet I refused to forgive the debt and lower the CS. that she actually started screaming at me. She just kept asking, "WHY?" over and over. Everytime, I told her the same thing, "I don't have to JUSTIFY my decision."