Divorce is never a comfortable or easy subject to explain to children, neither are custody issues. Once the dust settles and arrangements have been accommodated as best they could be on both sides, the children should always have access to the non-custodial parent and the custodial parent should allow for that, without bitterness, whenever possible. It is not fair otherwise, for the emotional health of the children if you do not.
However, it can be hard to do so as time goes on, especially if the ex is no longer providing the child support that they agreed to proffer every month. But, someone has to be the adult and we will show you how you can pursue child support in hopes of keeping it as civilized as possible for the children’s sake.
During the Initial Divorce Settlement
During your divorce, your attorney or your family court appointed child support attorney, should have had writs filed seeking child support from your ex, if they were not going to provide it otherwise. Even if there was a prior agreement between the two of you, it is still wise to get an order issued that sets down the exact amount to be paid every month, as well as rights of either spouse to file for changes to it. By having everything in writing, if your ex bails and stops paying the payments, you have the proof you will need to pursue a claim through child support enforcement agencies.
During the divorce, once the financial records were filed, the family court would have done the child support calculations, estimated against current and future income of the non-custodial parent, as well as the established income level of your own means and declared what the monthly child support payment should be. If your ex should default, you can then take this writ to your child support attorney, who will then file a case with the Department of Revenue, the agency responsible for handling FL child support collection actions.
Ways of Collecting What is Due
The main thing to keep in mind is that you and your attorney will be doing everything that you can to give the collection agencies all the information they need to get what you are owed. It is then up to them to pursue every legal means necessary to collect those funds, though it has proven to be difficult to effectively collect, especially if your ex is going out of their way to make it impossible to track them down. You might be surprised to learn just how creative an ex-spouse can be to avoid making their monthly payments. The gamut has ranged from actively working outside of the state, so that their income is literally non-existent, to working under assumed names or creating a record of erratic employment. All of these factors can make it hard for the Department of Revenue to get you what you need, at least at a state level.
The first level of collection is to garnish their paychecks, if they have an employer of record. This means that they have the right to withhold your ex’s pay until the back support is caught up, for however long it takes. Of course, the common retaliation is to quit that employment, because no job mean no paycheck. The next level is financial liens against property owned, garnishing bank accounts and tax refunds, whatever way they can get the cash out of them. After that, the ex is looking at jail time, suspension of their driver’s license and the forced pledging of a bond that guarantees that the arrearage will be paid.
Article Source: Juanita Swindell – www.ezinearticles.com
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