Also, a lot of courts will not lower your child support payments. It’s either pay or jail even if you’re not working.
“Also, a lot of courts will not lower your child support payments. It’s either pay or jail even if you’re not working.”
I see. That must have killed quite a few men by now. Or inspired them to crime.
That isn’t really true except in rare circumstances. The key is to get in front of the Judge as soon as possible, becuase the changes are not retroactive. If you wait filing papers to change support, you do so at your own cost. The first place to go after the unemployment office is the court administrator in the county with the child support order to request a suspension or reduction.
The support will be changed to reflect the new income, and may use unemployment benefits as the income basis.
There are times when the court imputes income of at least minimum wage, especially if the obligor does not prove that he has tried to get a job with sufficient effort in good faith.
Having said that, there are lost of guys, and gals, paying more than they can afford, but they need to do the right things to protect themselves. They look and look for work, but do not find any, and they are sometimes accused of not looking hard enough.
The court also assumes that the most important expenditure is the child support, so the other things in live must suffer before the children do.
It is a difficult circumstance, added on to another hard time, though, no matter how you cut it.
Maybe if we give more money to bail out the banks that will help...yeah, that’s a good idea.