[Michaela.demelo]

In May of 2010, my parents and I drove to Georgia to see my oldest daughter Megan graduate from high school. My youngest daughter (15 years of age at the time) came back with us for the summer when we returned. During her vacation here, Melissa decided she wanted to move down here and live with me on a permanent basis. We spoke to my ex wife, and my ex wife agreed to let Melissa move down here.

She permitted our daughter to move down here even though she knew at the time that I was unemployed. She went to Johnson High School in Hall County, Georgia and withdrew Melissa and sent the transcripts here so that I could enroll our daughter at South Broward High School. She claimed she couldn't afford to pay any child support for Melissa, and then turned around and bought herself a new car as soon as Melissa was in school here.

In December of 2010, I received a letter from the Florida Department of Revenue via regular US Mail stating that my child support was in arrears and that they were planning to suspend my driver's license. In January, I called the Department of Revenue and was told that I needed to provide my local child support office with documentation that my daughter lived here to resolve the case. I went in person to the local office and presented them with documentation and was told they couldn't do anything.

I was informed that it doesn't matter where the child physically lives, they only enforce the court order. I contacted my ex wife and asked for her assistance in the matter. Two weeks later I received a response from my ex saying that she was working on it. After I received a second notice from the Florida Department of Revenue I contacted my ex wife again and was told that she felt I needed to continue paying her child support regardless of where our daughter lives.

I started looking for a lawyer to seek a modification to my child custody and support issues, but have been told they need to be dealt with in Georgia and can not be seen here in Florida. I've spent most of this month trying to secure legal assistance, but I've been confronted with fees that I can't afford or told that I make too much on unemployment to qualify for legal aid.

Today, without any previous notice of intent to do so, the Florida Department of Revenue placed a lien on my bank account and effectively cut me off from any source of income. In addition to that; all the bills (Phone, electric, internet etc) that I have paid since last Friday have now been returned for insufficient funds due to the lien on my account. I have no idea how long it will be before my utilities are cut off and I have no way of discussing this with anyone.

I have tried calling them and received a voice message system, which states that a letter of intent will be sent out by certified mail AFTER the account is frozen. I left my name and information, but have not received a call back from them. I called Child Support Enforcement and was told that I should mail documentation to the local office showing that my daughter lives here. When I argued that I had already brought that documentation to the local office in person and been turned away they said there was nothing more they could do.

[cdad]

You have to file in Georgia for a custody change. Then bring that paperwork to those seeking child support from you. They can only go by what the courts have ordered. That was your first mistake.

[Fr_Chuck]

It does not matter where the child lives, you were to go to court in the court that has the order, and file a modification to it.

So yes you owe every penny and there is nothing you can do about it, and you will keep owing it, till you hire an attorney and go back to GA court to get it changed.

[ScottGem]

:::sigh::: So naïve. There are dozens of threads here about children changing custodial parents. ALL of those threads state that the parents have to go to court to modify custody.

So you screwed up by not doing so. In addition the jurisdiction lies with GA. So this has to be filed in GA. And you will owe support right up until the time the court issues a modification.

Now, maybe you can get the mother to pay back. I don't know since she is under no legal obligation to.

[Michaela.demelo]

Unfortunately I was under the impression that "child" support had something to do with the actual child, rather than just being a method of justifying a blind and ignorant "brute squad" institution.

I, like many others apparently if there are so many threads about it, didn't know of these things until I encountered a problem.

Thank you all for confirming that the system is designed in a way that allows certain people to abuse the law for their own greed, even when it so obviously causes harm to the actual children involved.

[ScottGem]

Unfortunately I was under the impression that "child" support had something to do with the actual child, rather than just being a method of justifying a blind and ignorant "brute squad" institution.

I, like many others apparently if there are so many threads about it, didn't know of these things until I encountered a problem.

Thank you all for confirming that the system is designed in a way that allows certain people to abuse the law for their own greed, even when it so obviously causes harm to the actual children involved.

1) Child support Does have to do with actual child. What you missed is that, when the process involves the legal system you have to keep the legal system involved. That was your big mistake.

2) There are many threads asking about changes in custody, not many from people who changed custody without keeping the courts involved.

3) While I agree with that the system does, sometimes allow people to take advantage of it, I'm not so sure this is a full example of it. Yes, the mother seems to be taking advantage by not helping you get the court to change custody. Or she may be as ignorant of the law process as you seem to be.

But you need to stop blaming the process because a large part of this is your fault. The day you and the mother agreed to have your daughter move in with you, you should have have been contacting a lawyer or the court to notify them of the change in custody. Had you done so, you would not be in this situation. You had to be aware that custody and (more importantly) child support was originally ordered by a court so why would you assume you could just change things without informing the court?

In your situation its simply a matter of the law being enforced. The law is that when a court orders support that support has to be paid until the order ends or the court modifies the order.

Who were you paying support to? I suspect it was a state agency not direct. Did it never occur to you that you couldn't just stop paying that you had to inform someone why?

I'm sorry sir, but you made this bed, don't try blaming the system for your errors.