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Posts Tagged ‘Child Care’

Getting seriously screwed in child support?

April 3rd, 2010 3 comments

My roommate was divorced from his wife a year and a half ago. She left the state with his two children, without telling him, before the official divorce. So he remained in Pennsylvania and started the divorce all the way in Colorado. The only way he could go to the court hearing, was by phone. The day of the court hearing, their phone lines were shot out by a hunter. So he ‘didn’t appear to court’, so the judge agreed to everything …which was to pay exactly 60 of his net.This leaves him with 300 dollars a month to support himself. She refuses to tell him where exactly she is living, or even a phone number to call the kids. According to the documents he has to pay so much because she is claiming she needs child care. But we know she keeps quitting her job and now just works for Avon…obviously doesn’t need that. If he could prove that, which he sorta can, it would drop from 900-1000 a month to around 530. The problem is, he obviously can’t pay a lawyer to revisit this as he is now well below the poverty line. He would normally make 25,000 a year. Instead he gets 7800.
She doesn’t provide him with any of the documents the law requires her to do, such as address, school and medical records, ect and so forth. Not to mention she doesn’t send him appropriate tax records, as ordered. She has full custody, and he can only visit with 30 days written notice to have SUPERVISED visits. There is no reason for this…I know the both of them very well and she is just being spiteful. He hasn’t seen his kids and it’s been several years since he’s seen them. She’s claiming she works full time, but she doesn’t, he even has the records to prove it.

Now the question, what can one do in this situation? It’s obviously outrageous and should be re-looked at, especially the court orders she is breaking. Is he doomed to starve to death, pay thousands of dollars to children and never see them? Is there someone he can report this too? What can be done?

Contact the agency that he pays child support too, ask if they know of any local contacts that he can utilize at a low cost. Tell him to set up an app’t with a court employee who deals with custody issues. This is ridiculous! If he can contact the courthouse where the hearing was, they might let him reschedule the original hearing if he has proof as to why he was unable to call. There are options out there, he needs to be very pro-active and resourceful. I don’t understand why a father would go years without seeing their child(ren) and not do anything about it.