Restructuring Child Support Payments

Due to an increasingly tough economy, and high unemployment rates, you may be among those struggling to make ends meet.  In recent studies, 40% of divorce attorneys polled stated that they have seen a significant increase in the number of clients seeking to having their child support obligations reduced.  Many people don't even know that this is possible, but it may be a solution for you if you are falling behind. 

To be clear, you can restructure your past due payments, but you still have to pay them!  Still, you may be able to actually lower current and future payments, at least until you have your financial feet on the ground. 

You will have to fill out a request (or have your attorney to fill it out for you), which is then filed with the family court judge.   The determination is at the sole discretion of the judge as to whether or not you get the requested adjustment.  A few factors that will be taken into consideration include:

Your job status.  

• Have you lost your job through no fault of your own?
• Have  you taken a significant cut in pay since the original orders were put in place?
• Or did you voluntarily quit a job?  This will not be viewed favorably!

Your lifestyle.

• If you are spending freely on luxuries such as travel, jewelry, cars or other bling, you aren't going to get much sympathy from the judge.

If you are legitimately struggling to make the payments, and are at risk of defaulting, then you are at risk of losing drivers licenses in some states, which would make it even more difficult to keep a good job!  So as frustrating as it seems to go through this process, it might be in the best interest of the child (the court's ultimate criterion) to look into it.

But ultimately, you have a responsibility to at least contribute to the support of your child(ren).  So dig deep to make sure you really are doing everything you can to take care of them before you go down this road.