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Court Date July 7th- What should I expect?

schooltch6's picture
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Here is the background:

I got divorced 4 years ago and we had joint custody with me as residential custodian. He was required to see kids every other weekend Fri-Sun and I agreed on 300 of child support a month (much less than what was required because he told me he'd make the divorce a long drawn out process, but hed sign the papers right away if I agreed to a reduction in CS)

For the first year he did what he was supposed to

Second year began the on again off again visitation

Third year the "I cant afford child support" began and the visitation was only when it was convienant for him

Fourth year I got remarried, in November he stopped paying child support, in December he was only seeing kids maybe once a month.

In April he sent me a message on FB of all places saying "the kis don't look like me, you must have cheated, I want a DNA test and until you get one and pay for it I"m not seeing the kids"

I started court process for sole custody, we had a date last month which got continued to July 7th in order to give him time to get a lawyer if he wants to. (He won't, he hasn't held a job in months)

He actually saw kids last weekd for the first time in almost 3 months because his family came in town and he wanted to save face.

My question is, what can I expect in court? My papers say he could be held in contempt and sent to jail, is that a real possibility? What kind of outcome am I expecting? I live in Illinois.

Thanks for the advice!

herewegoagain's picture

The court order is visitation and not "required"...if he doesn't want to see them, he doesn't have to...it might be wrong, but if you decided to be the custodial parent, then that's part of the game...Now, as far as CS, he will be in major trouble if he stopped paying...As far as the DNA and sole custody....not sure why you are requesting sole custody instead of getting a DNA test done being that he doesn't see the kids anyway and as a custodial parent, you have 99% of the rights to determine anything related to the kids...