I have a friend whose wife filed child abandonment charges against him after 6 years. The wife said she didn't want child support initially after the divorce and would not allow her children to see him. Almost 6 years later she filed abandonment charges. He has gone to jail been released on bond and attended each court date and paid her child support since the charges were filed and the prosecutor keeps continuing the case. He has been to court 4 times in the past six months, paid his support and they still will not close the case. Does this seem normal and any suggestions for getting some resolution to his case?

I do not see how he can abandone a child that he does not have custody over. I could be that since this is 2nd or 3rd hand info that some details did not reach you, something is missing from this situation

The individual state law has a lot to do, but for her to file, she would have had to file in court, get a custody order and then get a child support order,

So was he aware she had done all of that, but just believed she was not going to ask for him to pay

This doesn't make sense. In a few states, Abandonment is a term used when a parent does not support their child (ANY question on law needs to include your general locale as laws vary by area). Otherwise it may be used as grounds for something else. But not a charge in itself.

I suspect your friend is not telling you the correct story or you have misunderstood parts of it. There is NO way he would go to jail unless he ignored a court order.

The state is Georgia and he initially went for failure to appear in court for the abandonment charge. That in itself is another issue. I know the case well because I am the person who paid for his bond. In the final decree for their divorce, the wife was awarded custody AND child support which he never paid because she refused it when he tried to pay it so he says. Whatever the truth may be with whether he tried to pay, or whether she refused it, she did wait 6 years to file abandonment charges. That is what he is charged with. Now mind you, he is admittedly no saint and did not pay until now, but he is paying now and they keep continuing the case. This has been going on for 6 months.

Yes GA is one of the few states that calls failure to support, abandonment. So the fact that he had a support order he didn't pay on is why he was jailed. If she didn't want support then why did she apply for it? If she did refuse it, he could have paid it through the state instead of letting the arrears build up.

Are you sure she knew where he was? That could be why she waited to file abandonment. Or she may not have known what to do.

If they keep continuing the case, some reason must be given. Have you gone with him to talk to the prosecutor?

Yes, she knew where he was and saw him two months before she filed the charges. Yes, he could have done all those things, but didn't. I have no idea why? It would have saved a lot of trouble. I have been each time to court with him, but never have spoken to the prosecutor, but this is getting to be a bit much. What do you recommend that I say to him?

Ok, this is the situation as I see it. He was ordered to pay support and didn't. This means he built up a large amount of arrears. He needs to not only pay the support he owes but the arrears. So he needs to ask the prosecutor how much he has to pay per month (assuming he can't pay the arrears in a lump sum) and ask why he has to keep showing up in court.

The case is NOT going be closed until he pays all that he owes, past and future. But he shouldn't have to keep going to court every few months.

That is pretty much what I thought. I called the prosecutor today and he said that the case would not be closed until they were sure that he was going to continue paying. Personally, I need the case dismissed because I am on the bond and have some personal things that I need to take care of and being on that bond is holding me back. I explained that to the prosecutor and he mentioned something called an O.R. Bond? Does that sound familiar? And how would I go about getting one of those?

Could be Own Recognizance. The fact that he has shown up for all the hearings could allow the court to release the bond. Does he have an attorney? If not, talk to the clerk of the court to see if the judge will do that.

Yes that is what it is. I actually called back to the prosecutor's office and he said that I would need to hire an attorney and get them to file a motion to have myself released from the bond or that I could fill out the paper work myself if I could find it? That sounded crazy to me as I am not an attorney... I think that I like your idea better. Unfortunately my friend does not have an attorney. This situation would have probably been resolved by now if he had one...