Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
In representing people who are injured, we occasionally represent people who are unable to continue to work and therefore pay their child support. The court requires a petition to modify filed in the court system for child support to be reduced or eliminated based on a change in circumstances such as an injury that prevents work.
The Department of Human Resources (DHR) has a child support enforcement unit that calculates child support due and owing including interest. The law is that the court can impose jail time for (and only for) willfully failing to pay child support. That means that the person has to be able to pay child support and not pay it before they can be sentenced to time in jail.
Parents who are to receive child support but do not and depend on child support need their child support paid on time. Not surprisingly, in a large number of child support cases there are both trust and anger issues. A person who claims to be unable to pay child support is likely to be viewed by the other parent with suspicion.
Remember that agreements between parents concerning child support, visitation or custody that are not ratified by the court are not binding on the court even if in writing. That is not to say that a written agreement by the parties wouldn’t be honored by the court but it might very well not be. If a person has to reduce their child support because of a lost job and it looks like there will be missed payments of child support, the court should be officially notified that you are asking for a reduction.
People who have minor children and receive social security disability (SSDI) generally are entitled to have half of the amount they receive paid to their children who are 18 or have yet to graduate from high school. Parents who are disabled and only receive SSI will not have a benefit available to minor children. Some people receive both SSDI and SSI in combination to make up a minimum monthly benefit amount if they did not work enough to receive some SSDI. Any portion of a parent’s income that is SSI may not be considered as income for determining the amount of child support that a parent pays under our mandatory rules for determining child support (Ala. R. Jud. Admin. 32(B)(2). For the lawyers that occasionally read my column see Adams v. Adams (Ala.Civ.App.) released 3/21/2014.
Buckle up and drive safely.
