I was told by an attorney that I could file for back child support even though my daughter is 19. And I was also told that my daughter can sue her father for non payment of child support now that she is an adult.

This is a legal board - you cannot file for "back support" anywhere that I know. You can requested that support which was ordered but not paid be paid now.

If your daughter is emancipated you are not entitled to child support - nor is she.

Please tell me what State you are in, where an Attorney gave you this advice.

We take pride in our answers here. What someone told you is not necessarily correct.

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Originally Posted by nanlovsbri

I was told by an attorney that I could file for back child support even though my daughter is 19. And I was also told that my daughter can sue her father for non payment of child support now that she is an adult.

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Please don't post your question in an old thread. It only confuses things. You should start a new thread instead.

Perhaps you misunderstood the attorney. I am not aware of any place where an adult child can sue her father for child support. Child support is for the custodial parent, not the child.

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Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

... you cannot file for "back support" anywhere that I know. ...

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We had a question here a few months ago. It appeared that you can in Tennessee, as I recall.

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Originally Posted by JudyKayTee

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We take pride in our answers here. What someone told you is not necessarily correct.

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Agreed.

I moved this post to its own thread since it was posted to a thread from 2009. Its not clear whether the OP was answering the thread or asking a question.

However, since the information provided in this post goes against the law in most places I felt we needed to get this clarified.

I do know some US states allow a petition for back support. Some to birth others for a specified window of time. But the general rules is support starts when the petition was first filed.

I also don't know of anywhere that allows a child to sue for back support or even to collect on arrears. Support is paid to the mother for the care of the child. Its not paid to the child.

So, nanlovsbri, please respond and tell us where this was so we can double check the correct laws.

Please come back with more info, I will assume that you must have already had a child support order in place, and he never paid, in which case, you can go back to have that order enforced.

Assuming she is in college then you could get payment for her now, and a few areas I understand may allow for a short back period at times.

But I know of no where that allows her to collect, unless the custodial parent has died and she is collecting it though or from the estate

Go back to the attorney who told you you could file for back support and have him file the case for you.