Debate?

I posted this debate in another community that I am involved in and received some great feedback. I think that it would be fun to talk about it here and see what others think!

My question is... What do you think after a divorce should the husband be responsible for paying- in terms of child support?  What do you think the child support should be determined on?

Our situation as an example- My husband has two children from a previous marriage and he is currently required to pay a total of 1200/month with child support and health care costs included. Currently he brings home 3200/month. We have one son together. They based his CS on the fact that when they were married he brought in 78% of the income and she brought in 22% of the income. So he is required to pay 78% of child care costs, medical bills, and any other misc. stuff on top of the CS. She works two days a week at Party City for 5 hours at a time. I personally think he was screwed.  According to the child support enforcement website for Colorado he should be paying 627/month plus healthcare costs.

We have a lawyer currently looking at our situation. We obtained them in April and they have tried to get his ex to setup a mediation with my husband. She refused and continued to push the date out. About a month ago our lawyer called and advised us to fill out this form and send it the child support enforcement agency. This could take 3-6 months. All the while we had a retainer of 2500 in the beginning with only 425.00 and NOTHING was done. I don't understand why they didn't have us complete this form at the beginning before taking all of our money (my husbands grandma's money).

I personally think things should be more 50/50. I want to add that his ex lives in a beautiful 400,000 house and drives an Audi. No big deal but she isn't hurting for money. We are struggling financially and nobody seems to want to help. Oh, and I work full time as a quality assurance specialist! I don't want anyone to think I am not pitching in. My frusteration is, if we were to pay all of the bills we have 50/50 my money would technically be going to pay for some of the child support.

What do you think?

Original Post by r4eboxer:

Original Post by hannahriedel:

Original Post by r4eboxer:

I didn't see in your original post if the award was before or after the two of you were married and had your child together. Have you filed a modification to child support after your son was born? The child support should be calculated based on who brought in what percentage of the money, BUT circumstances change and therefore the support can be adjusted. I would put some REAL pressure on this attorney you have hired. How long has it been since you hired them and what have they done? Mediation can be ordered by a judge. She will have no choice but to go to mediation and if she doesn't she should have serious repercussions. Contempt of Court being one. If a modification has been done have you appealed to the Circuit court or state court level? If you have and the award is still the same. I'm sorry to say that this amount IS his share and those children should be taken care of by him. Is he paying alimony too, has no bearing on the child support I'm just curious.

 The award was before we were married and had a child. I met him a year after his divorce. The freaking lawyer hasn't done a darn thing. Just took our money. We had a 2500 retainer and have had them since April. There is now 425.00 left and they told us to send in this form and wait the 3-6 months to see. I went online and there is a request to modify child support form that I think the lawyers should have completed but I don't think they did. I am considering doing it myself and paying the filing fee. We haven't appealed anyone and I am not sure how to do that. The lawyer basically told us that nothing could be done because the ex refused to set a date for mediation. What is so frusterating is that my husband and  I don't know legal jargon and it seems the lawyer was BS'ing us. Who knows!!!

Yes your being BS'd. It is a simple modification form and you can fill it out yourself. You don't need an attorney. Fire that attorney and try to get your money back. Good gracious, file an expedited modification for temporary relief. You should get a hearing within 30 days and you'll get a reduced amount of child support. temporarily, then you will be given a hearing date to get all the other facts admitted. Ask that the judge ORDER mediation at the temp. relief hearing. The fact that your husband has a new family AND another child will reduce that award quite a bit. I don't know where you are but the caseload of the Family Court will dictate the time frame of the expedited temp relief. Call the family court phone number and ask what the wait is for expedited relief. Go today and file it. You can fill out a paupers affidavit for the filing fees but I doubt you will qualify.

edit: you will be filing Pro Se, meaning without an attorney

 Quick question. Will we have to get a financial statement from her before we can proceed with the motion? I have the steps for completing a motion from the Colorado Judicial website. I don't know if they are asking us to get that or that she will have to complete one after we get our hearing.

Here she will have to file her financial statement with her answer. You will need to serve her with the modification/motion. I suggest using the sheriff if available, it costs more (like 15.00) but is much more reliable than cert. mail. So it just depends on how your state handles the financial statement. We just had legislation change that required the financial statement to be filed by the petitioner upon filing and the respondent upon answering. Before the change they had until the hearing or day of the hearing to file it. Call the family court they will tell you. That's what they do, answer questions ;). It should be her responsibility to get the financial statement and all supporting documents.