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Ack! I have court butterflies!

stepmasochist's picture

I'm so nervous. DH has court tomorrow to finalize the custody order. It's not that I'm worried so much that his having sole custody of the skids will change, it's some of the other things we want that are thrown in I'm worried about.

I won't go into details about all of them, but the big one is having BM sign away nearly $30k in child support arrears.

Now hold on a minute, I know that sounds crazy at first, but those arrears aren't justified.

I'll break it down:

DH was awarded custody of the children last summer. According to a statement issued this week from the attorney general's office the total amount of arrears as of Nov. 1 is close to $30k.

The total amount as of the week he got custody was less than $10k. For the past 18 months, his monthly charge plus interest and more has been added to that total. Anything added after he was awarded custody should be dismissed.

In the original support order, DH was ordered to pay an additional $50 a month with which BM was required to provide medical for the children. Medical was never provided for the children by BM under the guidelines of the order. Within the last two years she has put them on Medicaid, but not at any expense to herself. So for the last 58 months, DH has been charged approx. $3k for medical coverage they did not receive. Additionally, in 2007 DH paid close to $4k to cover the children under his employers insurance. I have a letter from his employer at the time stating this.

So far, we have deductions from the $10k of about $7k bringing the total of arrears to nearly $3k.

If DH were to seek child support from BM, the standard in our state is to award 30% of the non-custodial parent's income for three children. I called BM's employer and found out what a person starting in her position makes.

With that figure, if DH were to seek child support retroactively from the time he assumed custody BM would be in arrears to him for over $9k. That's 18 months at 6% interest.

That's a total for DH's arrears of at negative $6k

I believe if we were to take this up with the attorney general's office, BM would come out owing him $6k and additionally having to pay close to $500 a month thereafter. DH will agree not to ask for child support retroactively if she signs away the total. He will not agree to possibly requesting child support in the future, just that when he does so, he will not ask for back child support. We don't care about the child support at this time. I just need this whole arrearage thing go away. I really don't won't to have to go to the trouble of dealing with an attorney general hearing.

I outlined all of this in more detail in an email to our lawyer so he could relay that to BM's lawyer. Doesn't that sound logical??? I'm so nervous. We have court tomorrow afternoon. :O

Comments

JustAnotherSM's picture

Good luck to you and DH at court. Based on the details, it seems very logical to me that the arrearage should be erased. I hope that BM agrees and the judge finds in your favor.

stepmom2one's picture

I think this is a great idea. He doesn't owe the money anyway....he can go for support in a year or so. No big deal.

stepmasochist's picture

Ah, stupid meth heads. They're going to reschedule it because a druggie case is running longer than anticipated and tying up the court room. This is like the 3rd time they've rescheduled. I just want to get this over!