What To Do If The Child Moves In most divorce/legal modification/paternity cases, where a minor child is involved, there will be a parenting plan and child support order. In most of the parenting plans, there will be provisions for where the child resides at any given moment. While the parenting plan and the child support are two separate issues, there is a general rule that the child support is “based” on the parents following the parenting plan (i.e. the parent receiving the child support is the parent with whom the child resides the majority of the time). But what happens if the child moves (primarily) from one home to the other? Of course now the parents are not following the court orders and that, as a general rule, is not a good thing - this presupposes that parent who is owed the child support will try and collect it at a latter date. While there are equitable arguments that one should not pay child support if they are not following the parenting plan, it is always a good idea to change both the parenting plan and the child support as soon as possible if there is a change in primarily care. Unfortunately most parents are not aware of the hazards of not changing the parenting plan and child support order and if the obligor makes his/her payments directly to the other parent (vs. paying the Division Of Child Support) they may just stop the payments and not do anything else. It should be noted that the Division Of Child Support may also stop their collection activities if they receive confirmation of the change as well. But even if the payments are stopped, the court orders, especially the child support order, have not been changed and that could be a problem later should the obligee parent “decide” they want to enforce it. Should you find yourself in a situation where there has been a change, and no child support exchanged, I would recommend contacting a family law attorney to address not only the prospective situation (getting the parenting plan and child support order changed by agreement) and also to try and address what has/has not happened since the change. One possible way to address the non payment of child support (assuming the obligee parent is not receiving public assistance) is to have the obligee parent sign a document waving the back child support (back child support belongs to the obligee parent once it is past due and he/she can voluntarily give it up). __________________________________________________ This blog article is not intended to convey legal advice, but only address some of the general rules. Most legal issues, in family law cases, depend on the specific facts. Should you wish to discuss your particular situation with the Law Office of Thomas A. Chillquist, please call or email my office. I am a family law lawyer (divorce attorney) and I represent parties in family law, and divorce, matters in King and Pierce County, Washington, including Kent, Federal Way, Covington, Renton, SeaTac, Des Moines, Fife, Auburn, Seattle, Bellevue, Puyallup, Orting, Tacoma and Mercer Island. Copyright Thomas A. Chillquist
Posted on: Fri, 07 Jun 2013 20:41:52 +0000
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