[Myname45]

My ex and I have been divorced now for 13 years and he has not paid an extra cent in child support for my three children since 1996. My kids are now 24, 21 and 18 (2 still in school)
Can I take him back to court for back pay on unpaid child support for cost of living increases? I always thought that the child support was supposed to go up when his pay went up and I never got another dime because he went out of the country for 5 years and I was not able to "touch" him as far as child support payments.
Can you please let me know if my children and I are still entitled to take him back to court. I still have one in high school and one in college.
Also I was told by my ex husband that he is contesting my award of 50% of his retired military pay because he said he was FORCED to sign the divorce agreement. Will that fly in a court room?
Thank you for you time
C

[ScottGem]

You can take him back to court anytime you want to. Whether you win or not is another issue. Your attorney can give you a better idea of your chances then we can.

I think he would have to prove undue coercion to make that charge fly. Unless he can prove someone had a gun to his head I doubt it will fly.

[macksmom]

As Scott said, you can take him back to court, but then it is all up to a judge. He did nothing wrong in regards to your thinking child support should have been raised when he got a better paying job. Child support amounts cannot change without a court appearance and a new order being made. What you are thinking is most likely a re-evaluation. In Ohio, this can be done every 3 years to see if child support needs to be raised based on any change of income, but it could also hurt you and you could have ended up getting less.

At anyrate... he is responsible for paying any back child support, regardless of how old the child are right now.

As far as the "forcing" him to sign the divorce papers... that won't work in his favor. Bottomline, a judge asks, under oath, if all the paperwork is correct... he obviously answered "yes". So I wouldn't worry too much there.

[s_cianci]

It's unlikely you can sue him for back child support if he in fact paid the amounts specified in the court order in a timely fashion. You can sue him for back payments that are in arrears based on the weekly amount he was ordered to pay at the time. You may be able to seek to have the original order modified to reflect an increase for future payments if you can reasonably demonstrate that his financial circumstances have changed such that an increase is warranted. As for his contesting you receiving 50% of his military pension, that is his option. However, I doubt that his claim that he was "forced" to sign the divorce agreement will fly. If he found that provision questionable then he should not have signed, period, regardless of whether he felt he was under duress or not.

[Myname45]

Exact answer I was looking for because I was thinking the same thing, but needed to hear it from someone else... thanks!