Child Support

child support
I don't know what jurisdiction you're dealing with--is it a Canadian province or a U.S. State?

If a state wants to collect federal money to finance social welfare programs (AFDC, etc.), it must establish child support guidelines in accordance with federal mandate. I don't know of any state that has turned down federal money, so child support laws are fairly uniform throughout the United States.

In my state, a child support obligor would never get away with quitting a job or getting fired (ploy, scam, or otherwise) because unemployment is not an issue.

Every noncustodial parent (obligor) is required to support his/her child to the best of his/her ability. Even if the obligor is unemployed, the obligor has earning capacity. The Court merely looks at the obligor's income history for the last 36 months and imputes income based upon the high 12. If the obligor has purposely "underemployed" himself to show less earnings, the Court still imputes income at the obligor's higher earning capacity because the obligor has demonstrated his earning capacity and could make more money if he/she wanted to.

The Court imputes income to the unemployed or underemployed obligor, refers to the child support guidelines, and orders the amount required by the guidelines. Child support is a right belonging to the child. Therefore, neither parent is allowed to negotiate away the child's right to receive the correct amount of child support required by the guidelines. Case closed. [At least that is the way it is in my state....I hope it works that way in the jurisdiction in which your case is pending!]

I live in Canada, but my sons father lives in Massachusettes where I'll be heading to go to court on the 30th. I left my ex alone all these years when it came to the child support because when I so much as mentioned child support, he used the system to make my life a living hell along with our sons life. At the time I was living in Mass, had my own business and was more than able to provide for my son on my own and it wasn't worth what the man would put me through to push the issue. Now that my son is 17, he no longer has the ability manipulate my life as he did in the past for more years than I care to remember, so I'm finally going to get what I'm entitled too. I just wish I hadn't let him off on all the back support I was owed the last time I was in court with him, because all these years of back support I could have gotten would have come in hand now that it's getting close to the time where my son will be going to college.

Massachusetts
Massachusetts Child Support Guidelines

H. ATTRIBUTION OF INCOME

If the court makes a determination that either or both parties is earning substantially less than he or she could through reasonable effort, the court may consider potential earning capacity rather than actual earnings. In making this determination, the court shall take into consideration the education, training, and past employment history of the party. These standards are intended to be applied where a finding has been made that the party is capable of working and is unemployed, working part-time or is working a job, trade, or profession other than that for which he/she has been trained.

******

Curious--if he was fired, how does he qualify for unemployment compensation? Generally, unemployment compensation is available only to those who find themselves unemployed due to no fault of their own. Talk to your attorney about issuing a subpoena duces tecum to the state unemployment agency to obtain copies of his application for unemployment benefits and other related documentation. Perhaps you will get lucky and find some very useful information . . . he is most likely required to state the reasons why he is no longer employed with the company where he worked for years.

http://www.uchelp.com/cgi-bin/ssm.pl?M=harassment&P=../law/ma/lawrie.htm

click on eligibility link and scroll through the guidelines:

A claimant who voluntarily takes a leave of absence for his own benefit and purposes, with an assurance of reinstatement at the end of the leave, is not available for work within the meaning of the Unemployment Compensation Law [and not eligible for benefits].

You appear to be suspicious about the circumstances surrounding your ex-husband's sudden unemployment (after many years at the same job) exactly two days after he is served support modification papers. IF your ex-husband and his friendly employer cooked up an unemployment scam to assist your ex to appear involuntarily unemployed for the purposes of the child support action and to allow your ex to draw unemployment compensation until the cs action is settled with the idea that he would return to work after this arranged "leave of absence," they could be in trouble for fraud....

Get a copy of your ex's application for unemployment compensation! It could be revealing....

Debra
You certainly are a breath of fresh air and I can't thank you enough for all you help. I've been watching your posts in other threads and I think you're a angel for being so helpful to people who are obviously in serious need of legal advice.

Bless you :-D

I know it's too late in the game to really do anything else at this point, but I was wondering how I would go about getting a copy of my ex's unemployment application?

The reason I suspect the fraud is because my ex's employer refused to comply with the court order I have in place now and instead of collecting and depositing the child support on my behalf, he has been cutting my ex a check in my name, who has been making the deposits for the last 4 years. I just found this out last year when my ex slipped and told me. Needless to say, I was beside myself that his employer gave him my personal account information and that my ex has been recieving a recipt with my account balance on it every time he makes a deposit.
My ex must be back to work since he has been making deposits for about a month now and of course he's adding extra to cover back support before we get into court, although he hasn't made a deposit since the 17th. He is keeping his employment status a secret from me and I can only assume that he thinks he's pulling one over on me. I wouldn't be surprised if he's working under the table and is planning on going to court and saying that he's unemployed.
I do believe that my ex suddenly becoming unemployed 2 days after he was served was a scam between him and his boss. What I think is that his boss agreed to lay him off until the court stuff was finished, but it took much longer than they thought for us to get a court date, so his employer then had his unemplyment cut off for refusal to work. My ex told me a few months back that his his boss did tell unemployment that he was refusing work, so he lost his unemployment. This is when I was absolutely convinced that it was all indeed a scam between him and his boss.

Thank you.
Thank you Montana. I need to do something with my time now that I'm retired. I don't consider participation in discussion groups as giving advice. I'm just flapping my wings and talking about subjects that I love to talk about. I consider it the exercise of my inalienable, fundamental right protected by the First Amendment to associate with people in a community (such as this one) for the purpose of sharing thoughts, ideas, and criticisms about the government! LOL

Actually, I keep very busy. I do considerable reading and writing on Constitutional issues--especially in the area of criminal procedure. But, a vast amount of my education and experience is in family law and boy--have I seen it ALL over the years! I could write volumes!

Next to my family and close friends--I love studying every intricate strand of the seamless web of law. It's nice to have a forum where these things can be discussed with people who share the same interests.

Looks like we posted at the same time, so in case you missed it, check out my last post. I've always been interested in law myself and have done research on family law since I invested in a computer 5 years ago. My interest in family law was simply to gather information to help protect my son and myself from my vindictive ex, but I find it all interesting and look forward to reading your posts. My first interest in law was and still is criminal law, but all areas of the law keep me interested.

You may see me a lot in the same threads you're in, since I find your posts so interesting, so you may be able to get me for stalking, lol :-D

It's great to have you here ;-)

subpoena


Let's see. You have an attorney and a court date scheduled for two months from now?

Your attorney can still issue a subpoena duces tecum to the unemployment agency.

Your attorney can also subpoena your ex-husband's employment records and payroll records from his employers [past and present].

Your attorney can issue a discovery demand for production of documents directly to your ex-husband, or his attorney if represented by counsel, for the production of his income tax returns for the last three years; for copies of his unemployment compensation records (including the application, et al.); for copies of his paychecks and paycheck stubs; for copies of his bank statements, etc. You can ask for the production of all documents that are relevant to the child support modification proceeding.

Because this case has been pending for months, and because your attorney ought to know this documentary information / evidence would be necessary to prepare your case and establish your son's right to an increase in child support, these documents should already be in your attorney's possession. Hmmmmm. Did your attorney drop the ball? When you pushed for a hearing date--your attorney got you one--but it seems to me that a hearing date could have been obtained LONG AGO. It just makes me wonder....

Is your attorney with the state child support enforcement unit (CSEU) or did you retain your attorney privately? The reason I am asking is because my state CSEU must provide a review of the support order--must obtain the obligor's financial information--and must provide modification services for FREE to anyone who requests their services every three years. They do their job quite well [because they do it everyday--they are experts] and I would always refer people to the CSEU if it has been at least three years since the last time the order was reviewed and modified. Why should people have to pay me when they can get excellent service for free?

There is still plenty of time to get this documentary evidence/information if you have two months before your hearing date. You just need to light a little fire under your lawyer's behind.

Actually, my court date is Wednesday.

The lawyer I have over there is a friend of the family and was the one who represented my in my custody case, but he's just doing a little paper work for me free of charge and won't be with me in court. I'm the one who did all the leg work and sent all the papers into the court. I was also very surprised that it took so long for me to get a court date and I was not happy with it at all. I called the court several times asking what the hold up was and all they told me was that they were backed up that long and it always took this much time. Then I called my lawyer who tried to get me a date one day when he was in probate on another case and the court couldn't locate my file. The court finally found my file a few days later, but it still took awhile for me to get a date. I know that it shouldn't have taken this long and I am going to ask the court to make the new order retroactive back to the date I filed. I don't know if they'll agree to that, but I'm going to try.

I also want to add that my ex doesn't have a lawyer either.

When I recieved the court date document from the court, it said I had to submit a financial statement to the court atleast 5 days before the court date, which I've done. I assume my ex recieved the same document and also must do the same.

Wow. I still can't believe all you have had to go through. I do agree though, you said in another post that either a man or a woman can do things like this. It isn't right, and the children are the only ones that suffer. I am glad Debra posted over here for you too! She is definitely a godsend!
Good luck in court today, I hope things go well for you!!!

I'm so happy. I just got back and I won double what I was getting before :-D

The judge was awesome and even set it up so my ex has to go into court every so often to report his wages, so my support will increase if his wages increase and I don't have to be there. The judge said they would call me on the phone on the court date just to get an agreement from me and I am thrilled. My ex also has to send me a copy of his pay stubs monthly, lol. This worked out even better than I thought :-D

Woohoo!

Oh yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

I'm giddy for you Montana!

Montana--

Congratulations on every thread in A2K. Hold your dominion.

Awwwww!!!!! Thanks guys :-D

This may be hard to believe, but in California unemployment benefit can be claimed by somebody that's been fired from his/her current job, and the previous employer is responsible for payment of benefits.

Double!!!!! WOW, that's great, Montana. No more ex-slouch heh? <smiles>