I have an ex spouse who I was paying child support. It took the courts over 3 months to approve to stop child support. Now my ex owes me $7k in back payments and refuses to give it back(obviously). I am in NY state, do I need a lawyer? I cannot go to small claims with it since the amount is larger than their limit. Amazing that the support collection bureau that I always paid said that they would not collect the back child support for me. I have the court decision about the end of child support with the retroactive date and the statemenet from SCU that she now owes me the amount. Any help is appreciated. Also after I get the judgement I get conflicting answers on how I can collect it. I have been told just apply the judgement to put a lien on her house. Can I do that?

Thanks

One of the gotchas of suing someone over money is how to collect. All the courts do is affirm that the loser has to pay the winner, but they do little or nothing to help collect.

One option is to put a lien on property. However, some jurisdictions exempt personal residences. Even if you can have a lien placed, that only means the debt must be satisfied before the property can be sold. And you will still be behind any other liens.

If she refuses to pay, your only recourse is a suit. But even if you win the suit, you may find difficulty in getting paid.

[QUOTE=baddjonez]I have an ex spouse who I was paying child support. It took the courts over 3 months to approve to stop child support. Now my ex owes me $7k in back payments and refuses to give it back(obviously). I am in NY state, do I need a lawyer? I cannot go to small claims with it since the amount is larger than their limit. Amazing that the support collection bureau that I always paid said that they would not collect the back child support for me. I have the court decision about the end of child support with the retroactive date and the statement from SCU that she now owes me the amount. Any help is appreciated. Also after I get the judgement I get conflicting answers on how I can collect it. I have been told just apply the judgement to put a lien on her house. Can I do that?



I see one thing right off the bat here - NYS's limit is $5,000. Are you better suing for $5,000 in Small Claims Court OR suing for $7,000 and probably having to pay more than $2,000 in legal fees and filing costs - ?

Am I correct that the Child Support Unit was collecting and turning it over to her? And were they served with the Order to Discontinue and KEPT collecting the money or is the $7,000 the amount between the Hearing and the Order to Discontinue?

Sure, once you get a Judgment you can collect by any legal means available to you - was there any provision or do you feel like going BACK to Court with the scenario and requesting that the overpayment be subtracted from the child support payments a little bit at a time? I've also seen this done -

Judy makes a good point that using small claims court to go after the full limit might be better than going through a full civil suit.