How to Proceed with Child Support Arrears

My question involves child support in the State of: Illinois


I am deciding if I need to retain the services of an Attorney. My child’s father has not paid child support since 2006 when he left the state and violated the court order for child support.
I found out he was back in Illinois earlier this year and was told he planned on contacting me, so I put off going to the States Attorney.
The amount was set very low - $51 per week – when she was first born and was never changed.
He now lives back in Illinois and he had a lawyer has contact me to try an settle the back child support with a one time lump sum payment for less than the arrears, " to make things right".
The new weekly amount going forward will be $200 due to his net income being $1000/week ( per his attorney ).
The amount in arrears is just over $20,000 based on the original order. So do I get an attorney and fight for a retroactive change in the amount court ordered since he fled the state and was held in contempt ?
I am guessing since he hired a lawyer , he is worried about having to pay more for the past years.
Does anyone have any advice or personal experience they can offer?

Someone can correct me if I am wrong. But I do not beleive I am you already had an order you can not file for retro pay. You can file today and you will get the new court ordered amount FROM today but not from before today. My Ex fled, his new soon to be exwife found me. Sent me proofs of his income. I went to CS enforcment and I was told that even with the proof of his past income up till March I may not get a court order based on that as his employment might yet have changed. He could have made 40,000 the last 3 years and that wont change what he was supposed to pay those last 3 years.

Correct, Jess. Retro support changes are actually barred by statute in most (if not all) States. The new amount would be active only since the new date of filing.