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If the amount due is $5,000 or less, your former spouse must have owed it for more than a year for the law to apply. |
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If the amount due is more than $5,000, there is no minimum time period. |
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Your spouse's failure to pay must be willful. If he or she can show that circumstances made it difficult or impossible to pay, the law might not apply. |
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This law is rather new, but is gaining in popularity and publicity as the crackdown against deadbeat parents grows. It remains to be seen, however, whether it will be a cost-efficient way for parents to collect child support. |
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When You Think You're Paying Too Much |
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If you and your ex-spouse are on friendly terms and you have been laid off from your job or have had a reduction in your pay, the first person to talk to is your former spouse. If you're lucky, she or he will be willing to reduce the amount of child support for a period of time until you get back on your feet, or make a trade, such as less child support now, but more later. |
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If talking to your ex is not realistic and if a judge decided your case, you can appeal his or her decision, provided you do so within your state's time deadlines. Consult with an attorney who is knowledgeable about how the appeals courts have ruled in such cases. In some jurisdictions, the higher courts tend to defer to the lower court in child support matters, on the theory that the lower court judge had the opportunity to observe you and your spouse in court and may have reached a decision based on what he or she saw. Stated more directly, if the judge thought you were lying about your income, the appeals court might be inclined to go along with that judge's decision. |
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You can also return to court after a period of timeat least a yearif the situation has changed or if you were unable to prove something at trial that can be substantiated now. Peter testified that he could not afford the full percentage of child support because he suspected he was going to lose his job. The judge would not consider the possibility of Peter's losing his job as sufficient to warrant his paying a lower percentage of child support. Six months later, Peter did, in fact, lose his job. He went back to court and was able to get a reduction in his child support obligation. |
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