Motion to Confirm Child Support Arrearage

My question involves child support in the State of: Texas

I was served tonight. One states a petition to modify parent-child relationship and another is a motion to confirm c/s arrearage.

NCP owes over $70K in arrearages. I understand that due to change of circumstances he may want to lower his support payments, but this states he is trying to modify the arrearages. Is that correct?

My child receives SSDI which started approx 2 years ago, but the NCP has never paid CS prior to SSDI and has never asked for a modification.

How is it even possible that a NCP that owes that much will be able to walk into a court room?! Will the court entertain his petition? Can I counter sue for contempt or would that defeat the purpose? I'm not even sure what my purpose is. NCP has never visited his child, so visitation is not an issue. Not seeing the child was his decision, not mine. I tried contacting him several times throughout the years.

The reason I never filed for contempt is because I never had the money to do so. It's ironic that he can come up with the funds to retain an attorney and yet has never had money to pay CS.

Can somebody point me in the right direction? Do I need to retain an attorney myself? It seems like confirming C/S should be easy enough to do since there is a court order.

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Quoting lethalmermaid

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My question involves child support in the State of: Texas

I was served tonight. One states a petition to modify parent-child relationship and another is a motion to confirm c/s arrearage.

NCP owes over $70K in arrearages. I understand that due to change of circumstances he may want to lower his support payments, but this states he is trying to modify the arrearages. Is that correct?

My child receives SSDI which started approx 2 years ago, but the NCP has never paid CS prior to SSDI and has never asked for a modification.

How is it even possible that a NCP that owes that much will be able to walk into a court room?! Will the court entertain his petition? Can I counter sue for contempt or would that defeat the purpose? I'm not even sure what my purpose is. NCP has never visited his child, so visitation is not an issue. Not seeing the child was his decision, not mine. I tried contacting him several times throughout the years.

The reason I never filed for contempt is because I never had the money to do so. It's ironic that he can come up with the funds to retain an attorney and yet has never had money to pay CS.

Can somebody point me in the right direction? Do I need to retain an attorney myself? It seems like confirming C/S should be easy enough to do since there is a court order.

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If he is asking for a modification of current CS and the circumstances warrant it, yes, it can be modified even though he is in arrears.

If he is asking for a modification of the arrears only, he will most likely be denied. There is a federal law, called the Bradley Amendment which prohibits the retroactive modification of support arrearages.

Either way, you should ask that the court order some type of arrears payments in addition to the current support. The arrears payments might be very small, but that will depend on the facts of the case.

You might want to get a consult with a local attorney to see if filing for contempt at this time, would help or hinder your case.

Is your child recieving SS benfits due to your ex's disability?
If so, you can expect that ex will request that the SS benefits be credited to the current support.

Xena,

Thanks so much for responding to my post.
I fully expect that the c/s will be lowered due to his circumstances, and I have no issue with that. I have no idea what his cirumstances are, but I understand that he's on SSDI for a reason.
My son is receiving SS benefits, and I expect he will get credit, I have no issue with that either. My concern was that he tells the court he lost his job 7 years ago (I have no idea if he did) and the erase arrearages from that point forward.

He has also never provided health insurance. Would the court consider this when lowering his future c/s obligations?

Thank you for the name of the law - I'll read more about it.