Modification of Child Support With Older Teens

My question involves child support in the State of: New York

I have a son 19 and daughter 17 from my first marriage. We split up almost 18 years ago when I was pregnant with our daughter and our son was 1 years old. We had a very bad break up as he was cheating. A few years later he filed for divorce. We went to family court to establish visitations and child support. At that time he was ordered to pay $150 a week.

That number has not changed for all of these years as I never took him to court to modify. He was threatening and violent and I had an order of protection on him at the time. The less I dealt with him the better.

Now that my kids are older I want to know if I can go back and modify or sue him for any arrears. My son just recently decided to stop going to college which I pay for and told me he wants to join the Military and study while he is in. Once he leaves I am afraid he will personally cut it down the support to $300 a month.

I feel my X husband should continue to pay the $600 he is paying a month until our daughter turns 21 and even goes into college as well since this amount has not changed over the years and It was my right to do so.

We are both remarried to other people and my current H has helped me over the years with my kids but I feel that their dad should pay what he is supposed to. Meanwhile my XH wife would be happy to see him not give his kids a dime.

Is there a statute of limitations when it comes to child support here? Am I beating a dead beat horse? lol

Thanks in advance for your responses!

You're expecting the court to punish Dad because you didn't bother to get a mod before now?

You're not getting a retroactive mod. If he's actually in arrears, you can do something with that. Otherwise? You don't get a second bite at the apple.

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Quoting jnel921

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Is there a statute of limitations when it comes to child support here? Am I beating a dead beat horse?

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Maybe, maybe not for NY. If one child becomes emancipated for child support purposes then normally child support would be recalculated for the other child...and that isn't normally 1/2.

Get a consult with a local attorney.

Was there a per child breakdown or just a flat figure?

Bottom line is, he can't unilaterally decide to go against a court order and only pay 1/2 of the amount because one child is emancipated. It would require a modification, otherwise he would begin to accrue arrears. How long before your daughter turns 18? File for a modification now if you believe his income has increased since the time of the order and go from there. It may turn out that he may owe more than the $600 he has been paying for two if the order was set into place 16 or 17 years ago.

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I feel my X husband should continue to pay the $600 he is paying a month until our daughter turns 21 and even goes into college as well since this amount has not changed over the years and It was my right to do so.

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^^^ This.

Mom isn't looking for reasonable or fair. Mom is looking for a way to get Dad to pay for her inaction.

Thank you all. I do realize my part in failing to force him to do the right thing via the court. I have always wanted to however he always had a sob story and I really cant stand him.

BTW, Dogmatic...its not about my inaction. As a dad I would think any man would want to provide more for his kids. Unfortunately I bred with a bad example of a man. I have always worked, had a car and kept a roof over our heads. He only cared about himself.

The child support order that was put into place was based off an apprentice job at a plumbing company he had way back when. Since then he of course made more money. He even worked a union job at the railroad until he was fired for threatening his wife who worked there as well. After that he had no job for about 6 months but still sent the $150.

I know it seems like I have just woken now about this. I just realize that $300 will not help at all with our daughter. She turns 18 in September. Talking to my X husband about this is not an option as he is emotionally disturbed.

Can I go to court for my daughter at least?

I can understand where you're coming from but the only recourse I can see is trying to modify now (don't wait too long) - at least that way, your daughter's support may be covered.

College support isn't a guarantee, but there's no harm in trying.

Will they look at what he was paying prior or will it count from now going forward with his current salary. He is married also, so I am not sure if they take our spouses income into consideration.

Thanks again all.

Spouse's income is not considered.

Any increase or decrease will go back to the day of filing.