How to Get Anything Done in Florida

[TheSystemIsBroken]

My question involves child support in the State of: MD and FL. The original order and CP are in MD, NCP is in FL. Maryland has assigned the case to Florida.

When the case was established two years ago, retroactive arrears were billed due to the amount being sent to the CP directly as agreed was less then the court computed, $80/month has been paid toward arrears since then, and according to the MD agent, the arrears have been paid and the wage witholding needs to be adjusted to the regular amount. They say Florida has to make this change, and certified copies of the change were sent to FL TWO months ago and FL has not changed their records or issued new orders to the employer.

Most of the time when calling MD the agent will not help because the case in FL and they say only FL can assist.

Have been calling FL for two months to get the order corrected and everytime you call the FL CS line and sit through all their prompts for the NCP parents, it disconnects you at the end instead of connecting to someone. Trying the CP option on the menu occassionally gets someone, sometimes it just disconnects as well. When you can get through to someone, they say the case is in MD and to call an MD agent! Additionally, FL says that they still show $600 due in arrears (!!) and that to dispute this amount, even though MD says it's $0, a statement showing all payments ever made to the account is needed from the Clerk of Court.

Been to the local FL CS office several times, and they will only take the info and say that another department handles correcting orders and they will "open a case to look into it" and that's as far as it goes.

Where to go from here? Would an attorney have any better luck getting it resolved? I just want to know the CORRECT balance and payments are being applied. I bet if a new order came in to increase withholding it would be processed in a week. At this point it feels like it would be easier to just move out of FL to get the case assigned back to MD or to a new state that would have the correct information. Is FL CS department really this incompetent?

[jmjens2]

Incompetent... yes...

I had problems with them too. They are VERY slow.

Keep calling and keep sending them the paperwork. The squeeky wheel gets the oil!