Crediting Money Sent to Child Toward a Support Arrearage

My question involves child support in the State of: Louisiana. I reside in Louisiana and the NCP is an officer in the military, currently stationed in North Carolina. About 2 1/2 years ago, I put the NCP on child support for my then 5 yr old son. He's missed two payments in all that time and has been placed in arrears as a result. He was just made aware of the arrears recently. Last summer, he sent my son some money in addition to his regular child support payment. He now wants to have this money credited to his arrears and is threatening to sue me if I don't agree. Can he do that?

There are more details to this and to why I possibly wouldn't agree to applying the money. I just thought I'd find out if he has any legal standing first. Thanks in advance to anyone that takes the time to read this post.

I doubt it.

But let say he had a chance to do it that way. He would have to put on the "Check/Money Order" in the memo reference his case number, or stating it Child Support money. Then and only then he might have a very small chance of having it applied to Arrears. But the proper way would have been to send it to Child support agency and have them disperse it to you, in order for him to get applied toward arrears.

I'm curious as to why you're not willing to forgive those two payments Mom, given as Dad has sent money last summer too.

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Quoting Lawrence084

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I doubt it.

But let say he had a chance to do it that way. He would have to put on the "Check/Money Order" in the memo reference his case number, or stating it Child Support money. Then and only then he might have a very small chance of having it applied to Arrears. But the proper way would have been to send it to Child support agency and have them disperse it to you, in order for him to get applied toward arrears.

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Thanks for answering. He actually wired the money to me so there was no memo line for him to note its purpose.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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I'm curious as to why you're not willing to forgive those two payments Mom, given as Dad has sent money last summer too.

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The main reason I'm not willing to forgive the payments is because he sent me a check for CS a couple of years ago, which bounced after I deposited it. I'd already withdrawn the money to pay the daycare so it caused a negative balance in my account. I tried to recover it when I filed for child support and they said they had no authority over that issue. He still refuses to pay the debt.

Oh.

So this is more about spite than anything else.

Gotcha.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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Oh.

So this is more about spite than anything else.

Gotcha.

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Was there any legal advice and/or an expert opinion in this post? If so, I missed it. Maybe I'm unfamiliar with the terms of this forum. I thought it was for you to offer a relevant opinion, not condescension.

Oh that came for free!

Yes, dad has standing to request the payment be credited against his arrears.

But honestly - after only two missed payments? The court is likely to think you're being petty if you're trying to hold this against him.

Laurence is more or less accurate but not entirely. The court can absolutely view Dad's payment as child support even without any sort of memo being written on a check/MO, specially if you didn't bother to do anything in court about the bounced check at the time. It's called "tit for tat".

See? You got your correct answer.

The observation was gratis. I'm generous that way.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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Oh that came for free!

Yes, dad has standing to request the payment be credited against his arrears.

But honestly - after only two missed payments? The court is likely to think you're being petty if you're trying to hold this against him.

Laurence is more or less accurate but not entirely. The court can absolutely view Dad's payment as child support even without any sort of memo being written on a check/MO, specially if you didn't bother to do anything in court about the bounced check at the time. It's called "tit for tat".

See? You got your correct answer.

The observation was gratis. I'm generous that way.

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I have no problem ignoring your "observation" as long as it comes with constructive advice. As my question is concerning "arrears" and not regular child support, I'm not sure that it was so constructive. Aren't those considered differently under CS laws? As far as me being considered petty, I'm sure that won't be the case. The extra money he sent was for football equipment to be purchased, as he insisted that my son play that particular sport. It was not earmarked for child support/arrears. Through research, I've found out that's possibly going considered to be a gift.

Yes, it's possible it will be considered a gift.

However with regards to missed payments - and yes, his prior financial contributions can be considered - making a big deal about only two can and has been seen as petty in court.

But you don't have to take my word for it.

Let Dad file whatever it is he wants to file. The judge will take care of it all in court.

That's really the only option you have.

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Quoting Dogmatique

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Yes, it's possible it will be considered a gift.

However with regards to missed payments - and yes, his prior financial contributions can be considered - making a big deal about only two can and has been seen as petty in court.

But you don't have to take my word for it.

Let Dad file whatever it is he wants to file. The judge will take care of it all in court.

That's really the only option you have.

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I appreciate the advice. I'm not making a big deal of anything. This is actually going on between the NCP and CSE. I honestly never filed to have the arrears paid, BUT I'm not going to refuse them. You can consider it petty or whatever you like, but you know nothing of my situation. There are many factors that can attributed to why I won't simply forgive the payments. I didn't list them because a.) They weren't necessary to have my question answered, b.) I didn't think people would want to read bitching and moaning, and c.) I don't have anything to prove to you.

Additionally, if "making a big deal out of two payments" is petty on my behalf, shouldn't it be considered petty of him too? Or did that not occur to you?