Child Support and Deadbeat Dads
March 11th, 2009If you’re court-ordered to pay child support and you don’t, what happens? I get that question a lot from potential clients who call and wants a way out of child support. If they have a legitimate reason for paying lower child support, I will help them and take them as a client. Many people however, just simply don’t want to pay child support. It is against my conscience and better judgment to take those clients – and I don’t.
So if you don’t pay child support for a little while, either the other parent will bring a Contempt action against you and force you to pay child support or if you’re paying to the Department of Revenue directly, they will file an action against you. Your child support will still accrue and you will be in arrears. If after several contempt actions, you still do not pay, they can garnish your wages. If you somehow get a job under the table or leave the state to avoid child support, the court has the power to issue an arrest warrant for your arrest. It is a crime to avoid payment of child support.
Case in point, recently 2 of Massachusett’s most wanted for failure to pay child support was found. One owed $200,000 and the other owed close to $189,00. What awaits them now? They will get convicted and go to prison AND they will have to pay the child support plus interest.
[2 of Mass. child support’s ’10 Most Wanted’ found]
[Lagos arraigned in child support case]
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Not to defend deadbeat dads or anything, but the bottom line is that if a dad doesn’t want to pay child support then (most of the time) he’ll get away with it.
You’re right. Sometimes it’s very hard to collect but you have to be persistent.
Be persistent should be the first advice. Never assume that the child support enforcement agency is ever going to do anything about your case – aside from watch the arrears pile up & provide documentation. If you want enforcement, not just collection, you should enforce the order as much on your own as possible. As the recipient of the crap end of the stick, custodial parents not receiving child support ARE THEIR OWN ADVOCATE. Most deadbeats take advantage of that. I believe, if after a certain time period, the states would pick up the child support bill that the deadbeat isn’t paying (without waiting for the struggling custodial parent to end up on TANF) MAYBE enforcement would be a bit more of a concern for the authorities.
MAYBE the children of these cases wouldn’t be suffering across the country.
What about the Dads that want to pay their child support, but are still denied their right to drive. I have been going through a nightmare of child support issues that never end. They
took my drivers license, even though I was making payments when I could. To me, this is one of the stupidest things I can imagine doing to help somebody make their payments. I have completely covered the arrears on my case, but they still will not reinstate my license without a lump sum payment, because of the 4500.00 dollars in interest I supposedly owe. Now, I am going to get fined or jail time, since I got caught driving on a suspended license, again. I kept telling the child support enforcement that I had to drive to be able to make my payments, but they say that is not
their problem. I also have been involved in a double jeapardy thing with the two agencies handling my case. I paid one state the lump sum payment to reinstate my license, but the other state said I have to pay them one, too. Why am I being punished twice for the same case. One state says that I do not owe the interest to the other state, but the other state keeps sending me the bills and I am legally obligated to pay it. It makes me not have any respect for the system of laws in the United
States, since I am a criminal for trying to do the right thing. I have been calling everybody I can think of to find a way out of this matter, but nobody seems to care if an innocent man is condemned to a life of misery.
THese laws are pathetic. So if a dad does not pay you have to file contempt “a couple of times”. That is crazy. The court system, Department of Revenue and everyone else involved are pathetic and need to be completely revamped. Contempt these days mean nothing, believe me I have witnessed this tragedy time and time again. Lawyers and judges (who are ex-lawyers themselves) make it so that the only way anything gets done is through other lawyers costing the innocent victim thousands. The only people who make out on the deal are the lawyers.
What about us dads who try to work within the system? Try to get a legitimate reduction in child support due to losing your job and and you will told that a court date is 6 months to a year away. Miss a payment and go to jail within 2 weeks, with the judge telling you to ask your parents for a loan.
What a great state Massachusetts is, making dads pay till age 23!
Michael, if you miss one payment, you will not be going to jail. That simply does not happen. If you cannot pay and you ask the court for a modification, they will not send you to jail during the pendency of the modification.
My husband is about 12 payments behind (that’s 24 weeks worth) This year he has only pd me 4 payments. He says business is slow, which i believe. But he also has a new wife & 2 new kids. she doesn’t work! So all his money is going to supporting a new house, 2 cars, 2 more kids & a lazy wife that doesn’t work. ugh. I don’t want to garnish wages. Should I just push for a payment plan?
If I have a court ordered child support and the DOR has been taking payments out of his check and he leaves that job to hide from payment will the MASS. DOR still pay the court ordered amount?
No. Either you or the DOR has to track him down to pay.
My father was and still is a deadbeat Dad. He moved to FLA to avoid support payments and has or had a lein on his home from Mass DOR. I know this only because the loser had the audacity to ask me to lie to DOR for him and help him get it removed. Fat chance! But my question is, is there any way that I can find out what the status of this lien is? This news came as quite a surprise to my 1/2 siblings and they are concerned for their mother who has been taking care of this ailing deadbeat for years now. I know he never could come up with the money to pay it off on his own because he has been collecting disabilty thru the VA for years. BTW I am 47 and my mother had been deceased for 13 years, so this should be a warning to all you people who don’t want to support your kids. MA DOR can wait forever!
Thank you for your time.
SG
“they will not send you to jail during the pendency of the modification” Of course not. They wait until the hearing, deny your modification and jail you right then. That way they don’t have to come looking for you.
I have a friend who is owed about $60k in child support by her ex. Over the years he has worked under the table almost exclusively (some of it legal some of it in “sales”, if you get my drift), occasionally with a small portion paid as part-time wages by his unscrupulous employer. He has since remarried, is currently paying a mortgage, drives an expensive Harley, takes vacations, and flaunts his money in front of the kids in order to make his ex-wife look bad. He keeps all of his possessions in the new wife’s name so as to hide his income. She was unable to work for many years thanks to two of her kids being mentally challenged. He keeps filing for unemployment extensions and gets them, which the state garnishes. I have to assume that this pitiful version of “not” avoiding his payments is the only reason that they haven’t held him in contempt, taken his license, etc. I guess my question is, is there *any* way of dragging him into the light? The DOR has been next to useless, and one judge even LOWERED his payments when she went to court to address his lack of payment. All he had to do was cry that he wasn’t earning that much any more, show his “part-time” stubs, and laugh in her face as they walked out of court. The guy is a total scumbag, to the point that she was once in a shelter with her three kids while he was helping to blow through his new wife’s $1m trust fund (that’s no typo), and it seems that no matter what happens he manages to avoid any penalties and keep her reliant on his whims. It’s sickening, and I’m hoping to find a practical way for her to regain a little control in her life. Any recommendations would be helpful!!!
My husband is ordered to pay child support in Mass and he and I reside in NH. His ex is a welfare and SSDI Guru and knows how to work the system. Her 19 year old son, who is overweight, unmotivated, refuses to get a drivers license or a job and lives with mom. She has gotten caught stealing cable from her neighbors….Now, because of this child’s lack of desire is considered not emancipated, my husband is required to continue child support. Ex has even had son go through 8 hrs of psycho eval that we paid for. At the court hearing, he was miraculously cured. My husbad lost his job in May, and has not paid child support in some time…so we got the threat of his license revocation (the most idiotic thing a State can do). That’s right, take his license away so he cannot look for a job….He just got served today for his contempt hearing….he has tried several times to be heard by the actual judge, but keeps getting brushed off and deals with the mediator. I feel that some good men get taken for a ride in the State of Mass. In NH, a child is automatically emancipated at 18 and unless the custodial parent brings action against the other parent, child support ceases. I am a mother of my own two children and think NH is more in line with the times….Mass just seems to encourage young people to be lazy!!!
My brother went to court with $1800 and the ex wife had a lawyer with her this time and said they wanted $3000 or nothing. They would not let him call anyone to get more money and would not even hear him, they jailed him for 60 days. And he has to pay her lawyer expenses on top of it all. My brother loves his girls and is not a dead beat dad, he does as much as he can for them. His ex is re-married, has a new car her husband has a new truck, they own a house and they post on Facebook that they are going out partying at least twice a week! My brother is self employed and struggling like everyone else to pay his obligations. He lives at a friends or on my couch and does the best he can. After 60 days of jail, he came home yesterday & is a mess, he has no money, lost his business rental space and just wants to die. All over money, not enough money for the ex. I am a mother of 4 who did have a dead beat ex who didnt care about his kids and never paid anything, so I know what its like, but his ex is not hurting at all by what I can see and there should be some other punishment in this econmy rather than wasting time in the hell hole jail cell with murders, rapists, etc. I want $3,000 not $1,800, give me a break! It’s all about money. My nieces were a wreck while their father was in jail and now we dont know how he is going to catch up. He only owes twelve thousand dollars. Massachusetts needs to evaluate each case & give people a break. 60 days in jail, what did that accomplish?
If you look at 2006 census data, about 80% of single house holds with kids are females. This means the court system is VERY BIASED on giving custody. Even if every case was done individually, it should be about, statistically 60/40.
Now, that being said, dads are given VISITATION. Well, that is what you give criminals.
Dads that do not pay are hounded. In ohio, it is 30 days in jail for being 3 months behind. It is almost automatic. You then lost your job. WAIT. When you get out of jail, you got 30 days to catch up. In PA, if you take a lesser job, your child support does not GO DOWN.
In Ohio, child support is about 40% of the dads income, taken directly from pay checks.
Personally, I have come to the conclusion, that if you are behind in child support, bank robbery might be an option. Because, you are going to be poor and starving for years. It cost $60 a day to jail you, and in Ohio, and they are closing jails.
PERSONALLY, i suggest making the marriage work, divorce sucks, and make an effort.