[tray25]

I am seeking legal advise on how to prevent my check from being deducted for child support for my son by two different states. Initially my ex and I went to court in Georgia, where the child support order was started 11 years ago. My ex moved to Michigan 5 years ago, but never had the order transferred. Because I experienced ongoing issues with her honoring my parenting time, I took her back to court in Michigan. In addition to addressing the parenting time issues, Michigan indicated that the child support should be transferred to their state. The Michigan Friend of the Court and my ex's attorney indicated they would contact Georgia to have the existing order transferred in October. A week later I was informed by my attorney that my ex applied for a change in domicile to move to Washington State. I do not believe she was happy with the ruling… I petitioned the request since it was not in the best interest of my son to move again, however she was allowed to move since her husband enlisted in the military with the conditions that she would follow our joint custody agreement and that she be responsible for all airline tickets for my parenting time. I thought it may be best to just have the child support transferred to Washington instead of Michigan since she moved a week later, but was told by Michigan FOC when we were at the hearing that they would have the order transferred from Georgia to Michigan and she can later transfer to Washington if desired. My ex moved to WA in Oct, but because of the delay with the Michigan FOC the child support order was not transferred from Georgia to Michigan before she moved and it is still being paid through the state of Georgia. Most recently I got a notification from Michigan, indicating that I owed back child support and a letter sent to my employer requesting they deduct child support. Michigan never contacted Georgia, to have the existing order transfer, nor contacted me prior to the letter I received this week saying I have an arrearage. Furthermore I don't understand why they are trying to implement the order now since the judge allowed her to move to Washington in October. I went to the Georgia FOC and explained what was happening and they told me that Michigan FOC should have not have sent the deduction order to my employer for child support without officially notifying Georgia to make the request to transfer the child support. I do not know what to do and am concerned that both Michgian and Georgia will be garnishing my check for child support. I cannot afford to have multiple deductions since I am married with additional children by my wife. Every time I contact Michigan FOC I am unable to get anyone – they never pick up their phone and their message says to send complaints in writing. I have left multiple messages and faxed the information to them to validate that I was told in court that Michigan FOC would have the existing Georgia order transferred. I also sent them the payment log I received from Georgia FOC showing all my child support payments are current and still being paid through the state of Georgia. However I have not received any follow up from Michigan or anything indicating they will remove the arrearage or contact the state of Georgia. In addition, since my ex is no longer residing in Michigan, I am not sure why they are pursuing this knowing she has moved to Washington. What can I do to have this matter rectified? It seems like Michigan is so unprofessional and I do not understand how they can just trump an existing order especially since my ex no longer resides in Michigan and the ruling to have the order transferred occurred on week before she moved. This is a mess and what bothers me most is that my ex is still continuing not to honor my parenting time schedule. I did not see my son for the Christmas break as court ordered because she did not want to purchase the ticket and I don't know how to have this enforced or her held in contempt since she has been living in Washington for the last 2 months, but the child support order is being transferred to MI where the child custody agreement was opened.

[this8384]

Where are you currently residing? That might be part of the issue. For example, my husband got divorced in County A; he moved to County B, his ex-wife moved to County C but the child support case remains in County A.

I'm not sure who's dropping the ball here; where are you currently sending the support checks to? Georgia, Michigan or Washington? Do you send them in or is it automatically deducted from your payroll? It's also possible that Georgia never forwarded your payments to Michigan, which is why you're receiving notices from Michigan.

[Fr_Chuck]

The newest order from the state where the child is living will normally be the valid one.

You inform the other court or courts that there is a new court order and that thiers are now void. You may want to have your attorney notify the other courts, (in writing with copies of the new order) not by phone.

[this8384]

You inform the other court or courts that there is a new court order and that thiers are now void. You may want to have your attorney notify the other courts, (in writing with copies of the new order) not by phone.

Good idea; child support agencies will tend to believe an attorney over someone on the street.

[cdad]

If the child custody agreement is in the hands of Mich courts then that's where you would file the contempt. Or depending on residency requirements you may be able to get jurisdiction in your home state. Normally the courts have held that the " home state " the one that started it is the one that retains jurisdiction. Right now from what you have said that state would be Mich. But neither of you live in Mich so you might be able to transfer the case elsewhere. You need to ask your lawyer about it.

[cadillac59]

this8384 asked the question that really matters: Where does the OP reside?

If the OP resides in GA, GA has continuing exclusive jurisdiction over child support and Michigan never had it and cannot modify the existing order unless the parties had filed a written consent in the GA case allowing Michigan to pick up jurisdiction(it can enforce the GA order, however, but there's no double-dipping). But that's about it. There's no such thing as "transferring" support orders incidentally. You simple take one state's support order and register it in another state. No big deal. But you have to do that yourself. It doesn't happen automatically.

I'd like to know what state issued the initial child custody order as well because something sounds odd about it as well.

[cadillac59]

One other thing I wanted to mention. A child support order from one state is enforceable in every state in the country DIRECTLY--you don't even have to register it in the state you are enforcing it in! I can take, for example, a California child support order, mail it to an employer in Michigan, or Georgia or any other state and the employer has to honor it even if I never go into a local court to have it registered. The wage assignment forms that we use are the same ones used in all 50 states.
Modification of a state's child support orders is another matter altogether and is governed by the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act (UIFSA). Every state in the union has this same law and has had it for 10 years. It's not the easiest reading but anyone interested in questions like the one raised by the OP should take a look at it.