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JCooksy · Jan 19, 2011, 03:34 PM

I am 26 years old and my father had a child support order to pay support for both me and my sister. Every time he got a job and the withholding order went through and the support started getting pulled from his paychecks he would quit his job, he did this numerous times to avoid paying his support, or sometimes he would just find a job that paid 'under the table' so there would be no record (so to speak) of his employment with the people. Last I had known he still had back support owed to us, although I do not know the amount owed at this time. Is there anyway that I, and maybe my sister, go after him for the back support he never paid and if I/We can go after him for it how am I(we) supposed to go about it and would WE receive the back support owed to us or would the State/Government get it?

JudyKayTee · Jan 19, 2011, 03:41 PM

The legal answer (unfortunately) is no. Your mother had the cause of action. Did she pursue him?

JCooksy · Jan 19, 2011, 04:08 PM

Many times until both me and my sister were no longer full time college students cause the order said payments were to stop at age 18 unless we were enrolled full time college students then he would have to pay until we were both 24. She got nowhere

JudyKayTee · Jan 19, 2011, 06:56 PM

What State? Why are you concerned that the Government would claim any back child support?

Does your mother have a Court order concerning this back support?

Fr_Chuck · Jan 19, 2011, 07:24 PM

If your mom or you received welfare while a dependent, the state may have a claim against him for repayment.

But you have no claim what so ever, depending on the statue of limitation, your mother can still go back after support

AK lawyer · Jan 19, 2011, 07:43 PM

Originally Posted by Fr_Chuck

...
But you have no claim what so ever, depending on the statue of limitation, your mother can still go back after support

Normally a statute of limitations doesn't affect how long one can collect on an old judgment, merely the maximum amount of time which may elapse before a lawsuit is filed.

True, the CS is not owed to the children but rather to the mother. I suppose it would be possible for the mother to assign the judgment to the children.

JudyKayTee · Jan 19, 2011, 07:57 PM

I'm reading that there was a support order that the mother didn't enforce.

ScottGem · Jan 19, 2011, 08:21 PM

The way I read this, if he did not pay all the support he was ordered to, then your mother can continue to pursue collections until the arrears are paid.

JCooksy · Jan 20, 2011, 01:29 AM

The state the order was issued in was Missouri. I read one person that had managed to do this (but it was in a different State and I know State laws differ) but the government took the back support they finally managed to get. Not any recent ones.

She tried to enforce it but as soon as they were divorced and everything he moved back home to Michigan so that made taking him to court a lot harder and when he DID work, CS was withheld and as soon as it started getting withheld he would quit

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JCooksy · Jan 20, 2011, 01:34 AM

What about in an instance where the child did not live nor receive much, if any, support from the mother but was instead raised by the maternal grandparents (since 6mos old) and received all support from them? The mother still had full custody though

ScottGem · Jan 20, 2011, 04:29 AM

Child Support is paid to the Custodial parent for the expenses involved in raising the child. So only the custodial parent is entitled to receive any support. As I said earlier, if there are arrears they are still owed and the custodial parent can pursue collection of those arrears.

Whether the child actually lived with the custodial parent could actually be a defense used by the NCP, but then support would go to whoever the child lived with.

If the custodial parent received government assistance, then the government could take some of all of the arrears as reimbursement.

So the bottom line is you can't do anything. Your mother can and should continue to pursue collection of the arrears. What she does with any money she receives is up to her.

P.S. If you have any follow-up info or questions, please use the Answer options at the bottom of the page, not the Comments. Comments have a different purpose.

AK lawyer · Jan 20, 2011, 02:05 PM

Originally Posted by JCooksy

What about in an instance where the child did not live nor receive much, if any, support from the mother but was instead raised by the maternal grandparents (since 6mos old) and received all support from them? The mother still had full custody though

Doesn't change anything. Assuming the grandparents never got a support order of their own, the father would have still been obligated to pay CS to the mom. She can collect it.