How to Get Child Support Modification Without the Other Parent's Cooperation

My question involves child support in the State of: California

My new wife has been receiving CS from her ex-husband for almost 10 years without seeking any kind of modification. In this time period, her ex-husband has become full-partner in a large medical practice, so it's likely that his income has increased significantly. In the past year we got married, and ever since the ex-husband has been trying to push my wife to agree to dropping child support (either decreasing or ending) because he perceives my income (as the new spouse) to be commensurate with his.

Since I believe this issue will not go away until it is revisited in an official manner, I have instructed my wife not to respond to his badgering. Instead, we have properly served the ex-husband with FL-396 here in California. The 35-day response window has almost lapsed, and after reviewing FL-397 it seems that the employer has no real obligation to respond either (but we will serve the employer with FL-397 nonetheless).

Assuming that both the ex-husband and his employer refuse to respond respectively to FL-396 and FL-397, what is our next step? Is our only choice to incur the cost and time to open a court case and retain a lawyer? That seems really unfair since all we really want is to start with the I&E information to see if CS really changes that much before starting a whole modification case.

Almost seems like a gamble because I can almost infer from the ex-husband's impending refusal to produce I&E info that he is afraid the CS amount will go up, all the while his badgering to decrease CS remains incessant. Is there any relief to this situation short of incurring the expense of hiring a lawyer and/or having the court order him to produce the documents? What kind of teeth does the law have for someone who refuses to cooperate with FL-396 and FL-397???

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Quoting onehouseonespouse

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My question involves child support in the State of: California

My new wife has been receiving CS from her ex-husband for almost 10 years without seeking any kind of modification. In this time period, her ex-husband has become full-partner in a large medical practice, so it's likely that his income has increased significantly. In the past year we got married, and ever since the ex-husband has been trying to push my wife to agree to dropping child support (either decreasing or ending) because he perceives my income (as the new spouse) to be commensurate with his.

Since I believe this issue will not go away until it is revisited in an official manner, I have instructed my wife not to respond to his badgering. Instead, we have properly served the ex-husband with FL-396 here in California. The 35-day response window has almost lapsed, and after reviewing FL-397 it seems that the employer has no real obligation to respond either (but we will serve the employer with FL-397 nonetheless).

Assuming that both the ex-husband and his employer refuse to respond respectively to FL-396 and FL-397, what is our next step? Is our only choice to incur the cost and time to open a court case and retain a lawyer? That seems really unfair since all we really want is to start with the I&E information to see if CS really changes that much before starting a whole modification case.

Almost seems like a gamble because I can almost infer from the ex-husband's impending refusal to produce I&E info that he is afraid the CS amount will go up, all the while his badgering to decrease CS remains incessant. Is there any relief to this situation short of incurring the expense of hiring a lawyer and/or having the court order him to produce the documents? What kind of teeth does the law have for someone who refuses to cooperate with FL-396 and FL-397???

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Do you know that not even court EMPLOYEES know the form numbers of the forms? I'd love to help you, but quite frankly, I don't feel like trying to find out what the names of the forms are that you've stated.

So.... start over

Looks like they've tried to serve a demand for production of docs on the ex and are contemplating serving the employer with a request for income verification.

I'm not sure that the ex (or employer) is even required to comply unless and until an OSC for modification has been filed.

Fishing expedition and stepdad needs to back the hell off.

Thanks for clarifying EA1070a! You have the facts correct.

While our actions may seem like a fishing expedition to some, the ex-husband is the one who is constantly badgering my wife to sign a written agreement to halve the child support payments he is paying simply because her financial situation has changed (got remarried). If he is so interested in revisiting the child support issue, then why has he A) not complied with her request for production of his I&E, B) not requested her I&E, and/or C) filed an OSC for modification himself.

To further clarify, my wife is not complaining about the amount of child support she is receiving. If there is a change in circumstance that warrants lowering the guideline amount of support, then she is happy to go along with that too. But so far, all we have is the non-custodial parent making a lot of noise saying that he should be paying less CS without following through or cooperating with attempts to get concrete/objective I&E data.

My role as "the stepdad" is not to be conducting a fishing expedition, but to help my wife deal with this jerk of an ex-husband who is trying to strongarm her into "giving up" child support that her child deserves from him.

Just as an aside, the California Courts did away with OSC's years ago. What they use now are Requests for Hearings.

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Quoting onehouseonespouse

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Thanks for clarifying EA1070a! You have the facts correct.

While our actions may seem like a fishing expedition to some, the ex-husband is the one who is constantly badgering my wife to sign a written agreement to halve the child support payments he is paying simply because her financial situation has changed (got remarried). If he is so interested in revisiting the child support issue, then why has he A) not complied with her request for production of his I&E, B) not requested her I&E, and/or C) filed an OSC for modification himself.

To further clarify, my wife is not complaining about the amount of child support she is receiving. If there is a change in circumstance that warrants lowering the guideline amount of support, then she is happy to go along with that too. But so far, all we have is the non-custodial parent making a lot of noise saying that he should be paying less CS without following through or cooperating with attempts to get concrete/objective I&E data.

My role as "the stepdad" is not to be conducting a fishing expedition, but to help my wife deal with this jerk of an ex-husband who is trying to strongarm her into "giving up" child support that her child deserves from him.

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One way for wife to deal with the situation, is to not entertain it. Now by baiting the bear, you have just gone and made it worse.