Does Alimony Cancel Out Child Support

My question involves child support in the State of: Florida, I was married for 20 years, 3 kids, wife had her parental rights terminated in another state. We reconciled then moved. Now divorcing she is refusing to pay support because she has no rights and stating that if she wanted she could demand alimony from me due to the length of the marriage and she barely worked. Just wondering of this is true. Have had a couple different consultations with different family law attorneys and no consistent answers. My concern is that I can barely afford rent and I can survive without support but it just doesn't seem right. If I would have to pay her alimony we would not be able to make ends meet.o

Please clarify:

Were her rights and obligations truly terminated? If so, was there an outstanding amount of child support she owed?

She destroyed the paperwork before she took off this time. I did have a copy and it stated she had voluntarily had all of her parental rights terminated due to neglect. It did not state anything about support. When it first happened she was giving me support but there was no court order.

Then it would appear that she does not owe child support at all.

With that in mind, read this: Florida alimony

She does fall into the "long term marriage" category, but my response might change if you can give a rough timeline.

You first broke up when?

How long did the break last?

Some more details without getting to specific. Approx 7 years at we split and her parental rights were terminated we were split up for approx one year then reconciled. We moved to another state for a "fresh start" didn't work. Now separated and she is gone again. So basically 20 year marriage of which one was spent apart. Three kids all teenagers. I have not yet filed anything in court due to the cost and also if I have to start paying her while she gives me no support for kids I don't know how I would feed them.

This is why I'm not so sure that her rights and obligations have been terminated.

There's a big difference between her signing over custody, and actually having her rights terminated. If it's the first, then you can file for child support. But if it's the last, she's no longer the parent of the kids.

I was hoping that she spent a few years living elsewhere since that could be used as evidence that she doesn't need alimony. That's still an angle you can use, but I strongly suggest you beg or borrow enough for at least an initial consultation with an attorney.

If in fact her rights have been terminated, she doesn't have children to pay support on. You do however, have a wife that may have a claim to alimony so taking what you said as being 100% true (and I'll do that because someone made a finding of neglect), she would be correct.

So just to be clear about what you have said. Since her parental rights were terminated not by me but by the state they in effect released her from all obligation regarding the kids and then have not provided any support to me. Also she could file for divorce and receive alimony from me while not being required to support her 3 kids at all. Somehow that just seems backwards but I guess the law can not plan for everything. I am attempting to save the money for a retainer for a lawyer and have had a consultation but have not received any specific answers to this question. I am told that it will be very expensive because the rights were termed in one state but then we moved to another.

Once somebody's parental rights are terminated, they are terminated, no matter where other state they may go.

Some states do provide for post-termination support orders, but when people choose not to identify the state involved there's no way to investigate the laws of the unknown state.

I am sorry the rights were terminated in MA I had filed for divorce but we ended up in counseling and giving it another try and petition was allowed to expire. There was never an order for support because we had an informal agreement at that time. We have lived in FL for five years which I believe is what is making this so confuse sing for the several lawyers I have consulted.