I would love to just do that. Two problems though.

1. It has been accumulating since 2008 and the amount is over 49 thousand.
2. The case has been closed within the Department of child supports system so I cant pay on a closed account.

Apparently it is somehow open in the courts still, but they cannot figure out why. In 2008 I received a satisfaction of judgement which zeroed everything out within the courts. It was supposed to have been closed for good then. Somehow someone made a mistake and the numbers kept building again after that. As far as I can tell, they simply forgot to close the case.

I am having a consultation with a lawyer on tuesday. This is obviously over my head. It is so infuriating, should be so simple to fix. Its not like I am battling an ex over money, me and my wife are on the same team here on this. The government is so convoluted with all these different branches that are not allowed to communicate with each other.

Also, you peaked my curiosity with that last statement. Not saying this is the case here, but why would we have to pay back public assistance? I assume you mean things like food stamps. Do you mean a case where she was reveiving food stamps and not reporting the child support as income or something like that? Would the courts assume we were secretly acting split up so she could gain food stamps for us to share? Again, just curious.