Child Custody And Divorce: Free Legal Advice
Child Custody And Divorce: Free Legal Advice
Child Custody And Divorce: Free Legal Advice
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The principal thing that you should do, if you find yourself behind in support payments, is PAY. But you should know that HOW you pay can make a real difference: do it right, and you won't go to jail. Do it wrong, and you'll be just another number, another resident over there at the "crossbar hotel", the county jail.
You have shown yourself to be a total idiot. It's the fact that you were (that's past tense, so pay attention here) a total idiot that got you into this situation. Now you have to show everyone that you are no longer a total idiot, you are in fact a changed man, you have seen the light, you are going to meet your responsibilities to your child or children.
Yeah, right. Don't forget this: Nobody, and I mean nobody, is going to believe you. Talking about it just won't cut it. They, the people in the system, from the judge, the caseworker, the arresting officer, the boss at the job you just lost because you're going to jail, everyone, right down to the bailiff, has heard it all before. If you SHOW THEM, however, you have a chance. If you actually are SENDING MONEY, then the odds that someone will interfere with you are close to zero.
Well, that's not really true. You have to be SENDING MONEY that is MORE than the weekly payment required, and you have to NOT MISS a payment. Those capital letters in those sentences just above are important, and I hope you understand that this is very, very important stuff. This one scenario, the one you are about to read, will keep you out of jail. Nothing else will do, except writing a check for the entire balance. Assuming that you can't write such a check, let's take the scenario apart, step by step.
1. You have to send money every week. That's EVERY WEEK, and preferably, on the same day of the week. If you get paid on Friday, send it Friday. The payment will always show up at Friend Of The Court on the same day, if you always mail it the same day. You mail on Friday, it shows up on Monday. You mail again on Friday, it shows up on Monday again. This predictability will save your butt, so don't vary the mailing date. Same day. Every week. Oh, and if you get paid every two weeks? Or even worse, twice a month, on the first and fifteenth of the month? You will mail EVERY FRIDAY, and you have to divide up your check to make it work. Every Friday, whether or not you got paid that week, got it? I hope so.
2. You have to pay MORE THAN THE WEEKLY AMOUNT every week. If your support is one hundred dollars a week, you will pay one hundred and fifteen. If your support is sixty dollars a week, you will pay seventy five. You will pay fifteen dollars each week over the regular support amount, not less, and not more. Why not more? Because you positively cannot afford any deviation, and you are going to pay this amount without fail, even if you are not working, you will BORROW the money if you have to. Fifteen bucks, plus the regular support. It's not so tough. Make it work. Without fail.
3. If you get extra money, save it. Really save it, give it to your mother or your best friend, but save that money. You are going to need it in the case of a layoff, in case any of a dozen things go wrong. If you're laid off because you're a truck driver, and General Motors goes on strike, you will still pay EVERY Friday, with the money you set aside, got that? You should have six weeks of payments set aside, six weeks of support plus fifteen, before you move to the next step, the "frosting on the cake" stage. Save the money.
4. After about twelve weeks, if you are still working, if you are still saving money, and you have six weeks of payments (support plus fifteen) set aside, you take the "genius" step. The "frosting on the cake" step. You raise the amount that you pay each week by five bucks. Five. That's all. You are now paying support plus twenty bucks each week, BUT THAT AMOUNT IS NOT CHANGEABLE, do not deviate. You may NOT drop back to fifteen in hard times. Once you take that step it's permanent, but that step makes you just about "arrest-proof". From this stage forward, you will NOT get arrested, and you are ready to write to your caseworker, the man whose name you never wanted to hear. That's all right, because he didn't want to hear your name, either. Why are you going to write to your caseworker? To ask him to cancel the warrant, of course. That warrant with your name on it. Most likely, the caseworker will cancel the warrant, or, at least, withdraw the warrant from the LEIN system, and put the warrant in his own desk drawer, in case he needs it later (because you went back to being an idiot). Since you're not going to do that, the case is effectively over, and you have stayed out of jail. Your arrearage will be paid in no time at all, because you are reducing it by twenty bucks each week. Every week.
To understand why you are not going to jail, you have to understand the role of the caseworker. He has several hundred, if not several thousand files that he is supposed to supervise. The only way that he can do that is with the aid of a computer, and, sure enough, the computer controls what the caseworker does from day to day. The caseworker can, and does, query that computer regularly, and issues the command "give me the ten names with the highest arrearage in child support". Ten names are spit out, and the caseworker can examine each file, on computer, separately. The caseworker has to type up each warrent request individually, so the caseworker doesn't want to waste his time and effort. The caseworker then has to make an appointment with the judge, and go obtain the judge's signature on the warrant, and then go over to the police agency, and deliver the warrant to the police agency, usually a sheriff's department for that particular county. At that point, the warrant is entered into the LEIN (Law Enforcement Information System), the police computer, and, if you get stopped for a traffic violation, you're headed for jail. You will sit in the jail until the judge calls for you, usually the next business day. At that point, the judge examines your record, lectures you about responsibility, and sends you away for thirty or sixty days for contempt of court. This whole process is somewhat disagreeable, especially if you are the one in the box being sent away to the jail. Unfortunately, this process is just about the only one that will actually work with some people, the only thing that will get some idiots to actually follow the court order and pay their child support. Since it works, that's the process that will be followed.
But nobody wants you to go to jail. If the caseworker brings up ten files (and he can only ask for ten. If he is dumb enough to ask for all of the people with an arrearage, he will likely be overwhelmed with files, literally dozens or hundreds of them) and nine of those guys are non-payers but one guy WHAT IS THIS? This fellow is paying the last ten weeks, and paying extra, and the check shows up every Tuesday? We should do all of that pain-in-the-ass paperwork, and go see the judge, for a guy that's paying? Nope. We'll set that one aside, and go to work on these non-paying idiots, the other nine of them.
Obviously, you should see that your name is on that file.
Good luck with it.